…to re-assembling the trailer of course! One big obstacle that was in the back of our minds was where to re-assemble it. You may be wondering why – when there is a shop in the background of many of the tear down pictures – we were working on it outside. Both overhead doors at my shop, the garage door at my house, and the garage doors at Jeanne’s house are too low to get the trailer inside. The weather was good when we tore it apart but we knew that by the time we were ready to start putting things back together, we wouldn’t be so lucky. I came up with several plans that involved tarps, plastic sheeting, various scraps of lumber, 500,000 BTU space heaters, Native American sun dances, and moving to a warmer climate. All of which were greeted with skepticism from Jeanne. During all of this it hadn’t escaped our notice that my next-door neighbor Greg had a really nice shop building with nice big roll-up doors. He of course had it filled up with his own stuff but we wondered “What would it take to get him to let us use some space for a month or so? Money? Cookies? A year of washing his truck? I decided to throw caution to the wind and just ask him. He said “No problem – I’ll just clear out some space and you can go for it. That’s what neighbors are for.” Yay!!! Thanks a bunch Greg! We are going to owe you big time! If all goes as planned – we will roll the frame next door this coming Saturday and start putting the trailer back together. We are totally jazzed at the prospect! Here’s what we’ve been doing to get ready: We replaced most of the plywood decking on the frame. It really wasn’t in too bad a shape, but it smelled terrible and had some minor soft spots so we figured the time and relatively small cost to replace it was probably a good idea.
This isn’t the best picture, but it shows the plywood decking we replaced.
This shows the only portion of the original plywood we left, and the new caulking around the wheel well and seams.
Some previous owner had hacked up the floor in the doorway and installed a goofy step that neither fit nor worked correctly. We had to re-do the floor and structure in this area.
Originally there was really no structure or framing to attach the bottom lip of the rear siding to which explained why it was all bent to heck. We re-designed the rear to accommodate a solid anchoring point to eliminate that original design flaw.
Next we primed and painted the decking except where the flooring will be.
I made all new Cherry top bows and top trim.
One of several batches of Cherry plywood being stained and finished for the interior. It’s amazing how much plywood a trailer this small takes. I can only imagine on a bigger trailer!
There are a few more framing pieces for the roof and front and back windows I still need to make, but we are almost ready! We can’t wait to begin the process of putting things back together. That’s when you really start to see the reward for all your hard work. It’s going to be fun! Stay tuned……
Oh and in case you hadn't noticed...I (Jeanne) had been blog hogging so this post it from Steve :)
No comments:
Post a Comment