"Asp! Very dangerous! You go first....!"

Last Thursday night I brought the frame home so I could work on it as I had spare time over the weekend.  Friday evening found me and my son working on removing rust, dirt and the remnants of some sort of undercoating using a rotary wire brush.  We made much more progress on Saturday morning including a semi-major discovery.

Saturday was a nice day for outdoor work

As far as the frame goes, it seems to be in fairly good shape.  There are three of the laterals that need to be replaced (the originals had rusted through and came loose with the floor) and I still need to flip it over to remove the grunge from the underside.  This undercoating that I'm encountering is somewhat unevenly applied and is a real bear to remove.  While some of it flakes off easily, the rest of it is still well-adhered and requires careful scraping prior to vigorous application of the wire brush.  From the photo above, you can see the home-brew LP tank brackets and the tongue jack have been removed.  The existing jack was almost too short to lift the hitch off the ball as it was not to mention it was welded to some angle that was welded over the LP tank angle iron....  I will be replacing the jack with one that has a greater extension which will in turn  be welded in the proper place.  Soooo......after all the welds had been carefully cut I began to remove remaining weld and the rust which had formed under the brackets.  Then this appeared......

Wait!  Are those numbers??  Let's clean carefully here.....

So it's really a 1960.....!

According to the title and the registration with a "replacement" VIN (proviso for a damaged or missing stamp or tag), it had been registered as a 1961.  I'm wondering if it is worth it to get things straightened out.  Not to worry, the existing title, registration and the "replacement" tag (just barely visible on inner surface of the right-hand tongue tubing in the uppermost photo) all match but it'd be neat to get the model year and VIN straightened out......if an agreement can be reached on that second to last digit.  It's like an archeological dig!

No doubt about it, Rocky......

...I gotta get myself a new safety chain!