DIY Vintage Trailer Paint: Adding Some Sunshine to Myrtle

Hello!

I've been planning to paint the door of Myrtle since I got her home. The door will need to be rebuilt since it's damaged at the bottom, but until then I wanted to do something about the rust showing through.

As a disclaimer, I don't know what I'm doing. I have done research, I rely on the Tin Can Tourist and Vintage Holiday Rambler groups, and I pull my knowledge to work from my house renovations and crafting endeavors. So, when it came to painting the door, I pulled from my years of experience painting various items. The door is metal. There's rust. The first thing I did was scrap off any loose paint/rust. Then I sanded down the front and back of the door. Since I didn't want to remove the door from the trailer, I taped off around the door, on the window and on the door knob. I used heavy duty contractor paper around the door to keep the extra spray from getting on the trailer. The paint conditions were pretty amazing yesterday after 5:00 pm. No wind, 60 degrees and no humidity.

Next it was time to prime. Since this trailer will be going down the road and exposed to the elements, I went with Rust-Oleum's Automobile Primer.

In hindsight, I wish I would have primed the entire door because it makes it easier to get a smooth cohesive look with the top coat (see my bumper paint below), but I just did anywhere that looked like it was rusting or just starting to wear.

After I was done with my door, I noticed my bumper was in pretty rough shape. I thought I would just do a quick sand job, paint over it and be done.

Then all the paint came off! I think the previous owners may have just used a interior latex paint without any sort of primer, so it flaked right off. I went over the entire thing with a scrapper and ended up getting almost all of the paint off the bumper.

After scraping the loose paint off, I went back through and sanded everything (especially any paint that wasn't flaking). I also added a piece of contractor paper to keep the spray paint from getting on my trailer.

Since the entire bumper was worn, I gave it one solid coat of primer. I'm glad I painted the entire bumper, because the top coat color went on nice and even.

I decided to go with a nice bright yellow if I was going to be redoing the entire bumper. I used Valspar Outdoor spray paint. It's meant to be outdoors all the time. I've had pretty good luck with all my Rust-Oleum and Valspar spray paint projects in my yard. After a couple of winters, nothing is showing wear yet (even paint on plastics), so I'm pretty sure this one will work out pretty good as well. Ideally, an automobile paint would have been better or an enamel. However, they don't have the same color selection as other types of spray paint, so I took my chances with the outdoor spray paint. However, when it comes time to paint the entire trailer, I will be using a good quality automobile paint.

Okay, back to the door. Since I didn't prime the entire door, I had blotches of dark primer showing through as I painted. I ended up using 3 cans of spray paint on the front door and only about a half of one on the bumper. Lesson learned. (Note..the white paint on the door window is from the previous owner's DIY paint job. I'll be getting that off next)

On the back of the door, I decided to do something fun. I used a black chalkboard paint. The chalkboard paint covered extremely well. I only used 1 and a 1/4 can to get the entire door painted.

Also do you see the random white on the window seal? Also the previous owner's DIY paint job. They painted the black seal with white latex paint. A large chunk of the white paint came off just with painters tape. So I'll be finishing up the job and there will be no white when I'm done.

Ideally I would have liked a lighter yellow (this one is pretty bright for my tastes) but it works for now and adds some uniqueness to our vintage trailer. It's made me wanted to tape off that random piece of metal on the side and paint it white so it matches.

Myrtle the Aluminum Turtle

Hello!

I have finally decided what to name our trailer. I put the question out to my readers on my Facebook page and got tons of great ideas. I liked Ethel, Blue Betty, and many of the others. But after brainstorming about it and changing my mind 100 times, I decided to pick something completely different. The 63 Rambler is now officially named Myrtle.

Myrtle. You probably are thinking...what in the heck? Well there's a story behind that name. My grandmother's name was Myrtle. My husband and I have always thought that a child's middle name should mean something. My daughter is named after his great aunt and mother. My son is named after my grandfather and my husband's grandfather. When we were pregnant with my daughter, my grandmother told my mom that under NO circumstances was she to allowed to let me name a child after her. My grandmother didn't like her name, and she didn't want to pass it along to her great-grandchildren. I haven't considered her name for my children because of this request (she didn't have a middle name I could use instead).

However, for a cool retro travel trailer, I think Myrtle will do just fine. In fact, as you can imagine, she was often associated with "Myrtle Turtle." I think that almost makes sense as well since the trailer is like a little turtle with it's aluminium shell. I thought about using green in the color scheme, but I think I'll stick with red as my accent color.

So, right now I have done some work to add personality into the trailer. Keeping in mind I tried to keep the changes to a minimum, since I'll be doing a more full restoration this fall. (Window restoration, new seals and refinishing the interior walls)

The first thing I did was pull out all the cushions. I thought I might reuse them but it was pretty clear these were the original cushions, and they were pretty darn gross. I decided it was worth the cost of new foam and fabric not to have to sleep on a cess pool of other people's bodily fluids. (Yeah...I took it there) I have a cost saving idea for new foam, which I'll share once we get to that step. After pulling all the cushions out, I disinfected everything so we had a nice clean start.

After all those housekeeping items, it was time to paint. I primed everything that was original to the trailer. I know, I know. There has to be some vintage trailer purest out there that is shaking his/her fists at me. The problem was there was only a few original items that remained. Those few items didn't match the new pine tongue and groove. I decided one of the two needed to get painted, and I decided not to paint the tongue and groove because 1) there is a ton of it, 2) it's unfinished and 3) would use gallons of paint.

I used a new primer for this project..the high end Valspar Primer (meant for glossy surfaces). The original birch has a very shiny finish. I didn't sand the surface, so I really hope that the primer does what it claims to do. I did two coats of primer and three/four coats of Olympic One in a custom bright white mix. The original birch was interesting because a yellow-ish hue kept showing through the paint. After the six coats of paint, I decided I would live with the little yellow coming through.

As a reminder, here's what she looked like before I started my work...

And here she is after bit of paint...

So, she's starting to look a bit brighter. Now it was time to add in some color. I took the scratched up old knobs and gave them a new life with some Valspar spray paint in Nautical.

My final update is adding curtains. I search and searched for fabric to fit into my color scheme (Aqua, Yellow and Red(?)). I finally found a Moda fabric that was a bit vintage and a bit modern. I made curtains for each of the windows and under the sink. The final step was making straps for each curtain and curtain rods out of wooden dowels. I really love how they look in the trailer.

Our next steps involves new foam, new upholstery and new flooring. Then it just might be time to take Myrtle on the road. 

DIY Driveway Sign

Hello!

I took a quick break from the fun of the vintage trailer (which does now have a name and some other fun changes...post to come soon) to do a project I've been meaning to complete for a while. We have a random pipe that sticks out from the light post on our property. I have tried to figure out what it was for, but haven't been able to think of anything except to hold a sign. 

Since there isn't a good way to remove the pipe, and since I now have a fun Christmas sign for it, I decided I just needed to embrace it and make a driveway sign. 

Since this was a simple project, I used materials I already had (all except the $2.00 I spent on the hardware). Using my Kreg Jig, I secured different scrap wood together to make a larger surface. I painted the entire board one color so the different pieces would blend together.

I decided to try my hand at free painting the flower border. I found some different inspirations online and tried to paint and sketch the flowers by myself. They aren't perfect, but they work well when you add in many colors and different styles. Just don't look too close. 

After I was done painting the flowers, I used my tried and true method of printing off letter and transferring it over with carbon paper. The entire thing got cleaned up with an eraser and a final clear coat to seal the wood.

The final step was to drill some holes for the brackets the helpful Lowe's associate helped me find. I'm really happy with my $2.00 project!