The biggest problems: It's a spread rivet base so the entire hitch was missing along with the thin part of the base on the outboard edge of the spread rivet. The awning door was missing. The wheels and axle were missing. Once I stripped the model, I could see the casting was probably the roughest Canteen I'd ever seen. The pressure must have been low when this one was cast. I have highlighted some of the rougher areas on the photos.
Those nicks and dips in the head board are not from play wear, it was cast that way. Little pits and divots are all over the place as well as bumps of extra metal and flash. The replacement awning door is a Steve Flowers casting. The arms for the awning door were completely filled in with flash and the the two pins upon which it pivots were too large. Even with the flash cleaned off the arms, I could never get it to work correctly. I ended up losing both of the pivot points (on the awning) for the hinges. I had little choice but to permanently fix the door in the open position.
I used a little short cut I've used before to fix/replace the trailer hitch. I've a few damaged & boat-less trailers for the #9 boat (the uprights get broken off) and I steal the hitch from those. I start by removing metal from the top of the hitch to make it thinner. Then I taper the portion with the tow eye to the shape of the original canteen hitch. Next, cut the hitch off at the correct length to fit in the notch of the damaged base and stick out the correct distance. You have to file the spread rived down smooth with the stop for the base and then you have to add a new piece of metal (or plastic) on the inner edge of the spread rivet mount to act as a new depth stop for the base. The new hitch can be glued down on that old spread rivet mount and that also fills in the notch in the base. If you install the base and glue down the replacement hitch at the same time, this will also glue the base into position.
Wheels and axle came from the spare parts bin. The wheels I used were split from being on a rusty axle and I thought they would be good enough for this model with all of its other issues. The paint work came out pretty good, but the casting flaws make it look like the paint job is blotchy with some trash in the paint here and there. No trash in the paint, just a really rough casting.
The following are more random shots of the casting and the more you look at the photos the more problems spots you can find.
