1985 Cadet Restoration Project

Sunday,

January 28, 2007, 8:00am

Our restoration project begins in the snow. We bought the fiberglass 1985 Cadet trailer in Ohio and returned to Chattanooga. The 2006 Honda Element towed the Cadet very well. This is a small and cozy trailer for two people and looks like it has been well used in the past 22 years. Buying this trailer is as much about the pleasures of restoration as it is the joy of camping.

I have been told that about 100 of the fiberglass shells were imported to Canada from Poland, put on frames and finished. This model is still being produced in Poland and sold throughout Europe and Asia.


Back at home the Cadet sits in the sun in our driveway. The shell is pretty rough and complete restoration of the fiberglass will be required. The overall length is approximately 13 feet, but I have not yet actually measured it bow to stearn. We have a shop with an 8-foot rollup door and plenty of floor space, so that's where most of the work will probably be done.



The interior is constructed in a simple and straight-forward manner. While today's small trailers may have fiberglass cabinets and storage, the Cadet has wood product cabinet work, which will be simple to remove for restoration, rebuilding or replacement. The Coleman icebox is damaged and will be replaced. There is a two-burner propane cooktop. The sink has a pump faucet as well as a faucet for an external water source. The pump faucet is fed from a water tank in the storage box. Both the icebox and the sink appear to drain directly beneath the trailer rather than into a gray water tank.



The front dinette is conventional. In one of the seats is a 110v breaker box with a 3-prong cord which is fed through an opening in the shell to shore power. One 12v light is mounted above the front dinette and another above the rear dinette.



The storage cabinet is of conventional design and inside the door is a large label detailing the manufacturing of the trailer.



At 5'11" I can fit across the rear dinette bed. The rear window is marked as an emergency exit. The front and rear windows are hinged at the top and open outward and are secured with toggles; these and the two smaller side windows are of plexiglas. Front and rear have mesh velcro'd in place as bug guards.



I think the most challenging work will be repair or replacement of the front window, which leaks...there was snow on the front table when I first saw the trailer. The top left corner is heavily caulked and looks like the plexiglas is bent. A fellow fiberglass trailer enthusiast in England, Andrew, told me that these windows are still standard on Predom trailer sold today. (Predom, and Freedom, are two of the names for European models.) I am glad to know this, but wonder how I am going to get a replacement from the UK if it is needed.

If you are interested in small fiberglass travel trailers you should visit http://www.fiberglassrv.com

February 6, 2007

I moved the Cadet indoors; having a shop with an 8-foot rollup door is convenient, as is the 10-foot ceiling height.
The pop-top provides more than 6 feet of headroom. The tongue storage box contained a small fresh water tank and a small propane tank. Since it is not water-tight and had several holes I removed the box and contents and will look for a replacement.

I removed from the interior everything that was not screwed in or fixed in place. The Coleman ice box was damaged so that was removed as well.

Inside the rear right bench I pulled up the original wood-grain vinyl and found the plywood subfloor to be damp and funky. The source of the leak is probably the right tailight which was full of green slime when I removed it.

The rear benches are installed with flathead brass screws which stripped when I tried to remove them, so I'll have to drill them out.
Front to back view.



I removed the front window and fittings. The window is plexiglas and the right top corner is bent and a lot of caulk was used to fix the leak. This will be a big job to repair.

There are corner handles, front and back, which make moving this lightweight trailer very simple. It is easier to move it by hand than it is to back it with the Element. Just stop in the general location, unhitch and move by hand.

When I went to the County Clerk's office to register and get the tags they were puzzle over what this trailer really is. The Ohio registration said nothing much more than "Cadet", but in the lengthy books listing all the known vehicle and trailer types and manufacturers there was more than one type of Cadet. After about half an hour I received the new temporary title and Nashville will have to figure it out. The information label inside the cabinet door indicates the manufacturer was "Nical Property Management, Inc." and the type as "Taurus Cadet". In 2008 the registration renewal fee should be about $14.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Most of the interior has been removed, as well as the pop-top, so I can move around pretty freely inside.

The photos above show the view to the rear (on the left) and the view to the front (on the right). The foam-backed fabric has been pulled out, leaving lots of crumbling foam still attached to the walls. A wire brush removes this easily and I'll do this when everything is out.

I removed the propane tubing and the shore power connection. The cabinetry is very flimsy and I'll rebuild all of it using more substanial framing and 1/4 inch plywood.

The standing cabinet inside the door is attached to the door frame with four screws that need to be drill out. Everything in the interior was attached very permanently. I'm not touching the wiring harness until I can see all of it and sketch it on paper.

I have discovered the widest assortment of screws I have ever seen and most of them have not wanted to be removed, especially the brass flat heads which tend to strip when I turn the screw driver.

When I removed the from window I found lots of verticle cracking in the fiberglass above the opening, and my suspicions are confirmed. A previous owner failed to secure the window and drove down the road with the window banging, resulting in the severe damage to the window, which I cannot fix, and the cracking.















This is a grimy part of the job. The plywood floor needs to come up once I get the cabinet out and I'm sure there are interesting things underneath. Grimy, yes, but this week I had a happy surprise. Pulling the fabric out of the cabinet I found on the wall a label from the factory in Poland!











The model is N-126d, which is still being manufactured in Poland. Does the 3525 means that this is trailer number 3525? I emailed the factory in Poland and attached a jpeg of our trailer and am hoping for a reply.


You can visit the factory website at:
www.mini-caravan.com

February 25, 2007

I am down to the plywood floor and all cabinetry has been pulled out. Lots of dead ladybugs everywhere. When I removed the front overhead cabinet I discovered a 1985 Canadian 5-cents coin, which I hope was put there as a momento by the person who assembled the trailer in 1985 in Ontario. Next step is to begin scraping the foam residue from walls and ceiling.