New Summer Project - 18' Trailer

[Maize]

Things are slowly moving forward with the trailer. Not real worried about it as I won't really get started on this until after the sled is finished up.

I did get the aluminum sheeting ordered up. I decided to skin the whole thing. I ordered 14 sheets of 5' X 10' aluminum sheeting with black on one side and white on the other.

I also ordered up the 1" x 1" X 24' for the frame work.

I also bought a truck bed liner gun off ebay for $18.96 shipped to my house. I will be applying SEM Pro-Tex liner to the plywood sheeting.

I did get the axles back from Advanced Blasting so they are ready for primer.

[Maize]

I didn't get a whole lot done on the trailer this weekend.

I did haul both sleds to the car show on Saturday in it...MAN, that is heavy to lift even with no snow on it. What was R-N-R trailers thinking when they made that thing?

Anyway...that will all be remedied shortly.

As stated, had the car show on Saturday, so that pretty much blew the day.

Today I had to tear out the old sink and faucet in the kitchen and install a new sink, faucet, drains and garbage disposal.

Then I had to put a new light and ceiling fan in the bedroom..so today was pretty close to being shot.

Last week, I got the 30" X 44" access door from the guy on ebay. I tore it all down and got the frame to Cool Concepts for powdercoating.

I got that back this weekend and did manage to at least get the outside frame back together.

I just have to finish up a customers tunnel extension and edge coolers and it be all good to go on the trailer, full-tilt.

Here is the door before I tore it all down:



Here is the door with the outer skin torn off. It was a white. bumpy fiberglass. I will just cut a piece of .030" that we are using for the skin and put on the door so it will match the outside of the trailer.



It was epoxied to the steel frame so I had to chisel it off with a wood chisel. Here is what is left of the door skin:



Here are the outer frames and inner frames back from Cool Concepts:



Here is the outer frame complete. I have to wait and do the inner frame when the door panel is skinned.

It has a really nice lock, not only the level locks, but it also has a dead bolt. $142 shipped to the house.

[Maize]

Things are starting to line to start work on the trailer.

I just have to finish up a customer's sled this weekend, then it is full tilt on the trailer.

I got the proof of the wrap back yesterday. I REALLY the look Gail from Stratford Sign came up with.



She is going to have the back door done early this next week.

[Maize]

I just got the back door proof in....

The only changes I am having her make is that the solid blue lettering needs a little pop.

[Maize]

I had them make a small tweek to the wrap. I had them put a little white around the lettering to make is stand out a little more.

Probably about a month out to get the wrap in hand.

Here is the final proof that goes to print:

[Maize]

It is a little steamy out, but I have strarted the major tear down.

I just need to finish up getting the top off, but all the hard tear off is done.

I should have more pictures this evening....if I don't sweat to death. LOL

Here is pulling the skin off





I had to torch off the bolts holding the 6 handles on. They were rusted so badly there was no other way. Since that section is being replaced it didn't matter if the aluminum was shot.





Here is some more of the sheeting coming off





Here is where I left it yesterday and where I will be picking up today.



I will be rolling the remainder of the sheeting off and laying out the cuts for the front and rear doors.

I was going to widen this trailer to make is 101", instead of the advertised 99".

My old 2 place is 101" wide outside to outside. If you lift up the cover, this trailer measures 100.5" inside to inside. When you take into account that the metal is about 1/8" wide on the old trailer, that is only about 1/4" difference.

I am going to be doing something like raising up the framing for the top.

[Maize]

It was a bit steamy today. I was going to take off work tomorrow, but it is still supposed to be as hot.

Here is the teardown and ready to start cutting up the frame work. Maybe tomorrow after work after it cools off a bit.

[Maize]

I got the Raptor truck bed liner today.

I had ebay bucks left over for 26.58, so total cost shipped to my house came to $191.42. They were $109 each including shipping. I got two kits to make sure I have it plenty thick.

One kit covers 125ft/sq.

I am also covering the axles with this stuff. I won't need a barrier between the aluminum frame and the steel axle perch this way.

[Maize]

The new frame of the top will be welded to the outside of the new edge rail so the entire width of the floor will be available.

This weekend we should have a ton more done on it.

Here is the current state:

Here is the old edge rails


Here is the new edge rail


Here is the frame cut apart


[im]http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/8660/side4r.jpg[/img]

[Maize]

Got a TON of structural work done today.

I didn't want to spend all time building a killer top, and then find out something was wrong with the frame. It is afterall a 1997 trailer and was totalled by an insurance company.

We put the straps on it and hoisted the whole thing in the air so we could get a good and inspect everything. Overall, it looked pretty good with a couple of stress cracks in the front.

The front V is made of VERY thin (a smidge bigger than a 1/16th of an inch. Once you get to the structural frame it was made of 3/16".

We ground down the ends of the rails so we could put another 1/8" 3" X 3" piece under the front V. We tied that into the center piece and reinforced that section. Tomorrow, we are ripping up the front of the deck so we put another 3" x 3" section cross way.

We are then starting on the top.

We also figured out where and how the fuel tank is going to be mounted and how we are mounting it.

Here is the trailer in the air for inspection:



[img]http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2456/steve2u.jpg]/img]

Here the edges are clamped to the side and ready to weld into the cross members:



Here are the edge rails welded to the cross members:



Here is the biggest boo-boo we found. The main support beam ties into the front cross member of the trailer is severly cracked due to thin wall construction. This is were we beefed up the front:



Here is the cross members we welded in:





More updates tomorrow after more work....