4eyes craptastic trailer resto-mod

[4eyes]

Well, I might as well share the latest project that has been eating-up my time. :

I bought this little trailer 2 decades ago, when we had a Jeep Wrangler. Anyone who is used to a pickup, knows what a pain it is to try to haul stuff in a Jeep. So the trailer was used and abused for eight years until the plywood bed rotted out. I replaced the bed with 1/8" aluminium. Yes it was expensive, but I didn't want to have to replace it again. And all you guys in The Dirty know, that anything left outside either rusts or rots.
The aluminium was too slick, so I used Duplicolor truck-bed coating to give it some texture. When I do that again I will use Herculiner, the Duplicolor isn't as durable. I painted the frame with Delstar enamel (white) to cover the red factory paint that was starting to rust. As you can see in the pics, the white is peeling off and mildewing. So I decided to go with oil based tractor/impliment paint for this paintjob.

The supplies

Since we now have a full sized truck instead of the Wrangler, backing this trailer has been an exercise in frustration. The trailer will jacknife faster than you can catch it with the trucks steering due to the larger steering radius.
I decided to take this oppurtunity to lenghten the tongue.

The old Craftsman 110 MIG welder still works!

But like most guys I'm a little worried about "insufficient penetration", so I had my neighbor use his stick welder for a few rosette welds, and a couple of beads on the bottom.

After welding I cleaned everything up with a flapper-wheel on my angle grinder and wiped it down with laquer thinner. Then brushed on a coat of primer.

As well as lenghtening the tongue, I also moved to pivot/mounting point for the tongue back to the center of the trailer, over the axle, which should add strength.

As you can see I moved the mount/pivot back one crossmember to the center. I will have to weld some angle so it is supported out to the front, where the diagonal braces meet.
I also have some 1 3/4" angle to weld on the front and back, to support the tie-down holes.
Front:

Rear:

Well, that is where I'm at. I have one coat of primer on the tongue. I'm very pleased with this brand, it went on thick, covered well, and flows out well to prevent brush marks.
I just hope it dries/cures well. It was almost 70deg yesterday, and they are calling for single digits night after next.

 

[tWistedWheelz]

Any new work on it? Any plans for this to haul bikes to or from Barber's 2011?

 

[Swapmeet Louie]

Haha... I have the same "folding" H.F. trailer. I welded it up solid and then built a 8x10 deck for it. It hauled every thing I owned from Cali to Boise. Still use it for hauling our dirt bikes.

 

[Redbird]

Since we now have a full sized truck instead of the Wrangler, backing this trailer has been an exercise in frustration. The trailer will jacknife faster than you can catch it...

Vouch! Short wheelbase trailers suck!
In our work fleet we have mostly 53' trailers, a few 48', and one 32'. After pulling around 53 footers for a while, I'll occasionally get stuck with the 32'. That thing will make you look like an amature in a heartbeat!

 

[4eyes]

Any new work on it? Any plans for this to haul bikes to or from Barber's 2011?

No, and YES!
It's still under snow/ice. The reason I'm fixing it up is for a run to Barber.


Louie the plan is to weld up all the bolted together pieces and put the aluminium back on and Herculiner the shit outa it.
I have moved twice with this little bastard (as well as my buds 16'), and it has passed the test of time well enough to warrant some attention.

The primer on the tongue has cured, and due to the slow cure time has a nice gloss. ; ) Of course I'll have to sand it before topcoating, but it looks nice in the garage.

 

[4eyes]

I guess it's about time I get around to updating this thread. :-[

Lessons learned: If your the anal retentive type and/or are used to automotive paint, this primer/paint will drive you NUTS. If you brush it on thin, it streaks. If you brush it on thick enough to get a smooth finish, it sags and runs. :
When wet sanding the primer, use no finer than 240 grit and lots of water with a little Dawn dish-washing soap mixed in. This primer has the sanding characteristics of bubble gum.
The less than ideal drying conditions could have something to do with that.

But before that I did some MIG welding. I welded on angle iron supports at the front and back to support the tie down points.

I also welded two pieces of angle and a piece of flat stock to form an extension on the channel that the tongue fits into as it pivots.

 

[4eyes]

You have probably noticed that I welded most of the joints where the trailer was bolted together, that should make for a more sturdy assembly.
After dressing up my welds with a flapper wheel on my angle grinder, I brushed on two coats of primer. I ended up using two cans of primer and two cans of paint, with about a quarter can of paint left over for future touch-ups.

It's amazing how much primer/paint it takes to cover all the inside/outside/upside-down nooks and crannies.

 

[4eyes]

It was reasuring how much good steel was under all that surface rust. It cleaned up pretty good after welding, and with the thick primer, smoothed out nicely.
After a cursory wet sanding, I wiped it down with a damp paper shop-towel, and brushed on two coats of "Oliver Green" paint.

When it had cured, about a week with several thunderstorms and two hailstorms. : I fitted the 1/8" aluminum top. I used two pieces which had to be trimmed to size and fitted together. The reason for this is price. I was able to use two pieces off of the metal shops "scrap pile" which was leftover pieces cut from a large sheet for another job. That saved me about half the cost of a 4'X8' sheet, because aluminum doesn't come in that nominal size. It would have to be cut from a larger sheet.

At the seam where these pieces meet, I reinforced it with a 1/8"X2"X2" aluminum angle. I mounted the top using a bunch of 1/4" aluminum rivets. Then rolled two coats of Herculiner over the assembly, after scuffing the surface with a 3M scuff pad mounted on a jitterbug sander, and wiping down with two coats of acetone.

 

[4eyes]

While Herculinering (is that a word?) the top, I also did the bottom of the fenders to protect them from rock chips and dings.

Lesson learned: Use THICK gloves when messing with this stuff, It is very tacky. I used the ones labeled for use for stripping/refinishing. Also don't just mask the edges with tape. Mask every surface that you don't want Herculined, the stuff drips, strings, sticks to everything, and generally makes a hell-of-a-mess.
But it dries tough, and it isn't THAT hard to wet sand off the surfaces I didn't want it on in the first place. ;D

The finished product turned out pretty good, just don't look to close at the paint finish. :-[
The perfectionist in me wants me to wet sand and clear-coat it, the old lazy fart in me says, "It's just a damn trailer! You'll beat the shit outa it anyway, so it's good enough." ;D

Next up, mounting the fenders and wiring the lights.

 

[4eyes]

I added a few accessories Thursday, to facilitate hauling the bike to the State Police station for a VIN confirmation form to get it titled. Everything worked well, and I think looks good too.

 

[4eyes]

WOW


I didn't realize that it had been this long since updating this thread.

I used the trailer around town for a couple of years, picking the bike up whenever it got "temperamental".
BUT I wanted to use it to tow my two bikes to Barber, and I figured the little wheel and tire set would not handle 8-10 hours of 4 lane interstate.

Plus I had these 5 wheels (restored) and tires (new) of my old Jensen Healey roadster tube frame project that needed a purpose and I thought they would look nice.
So I bought some stub axels and hubs from Tractor Supply, welded the stubs onto a piece of square tubing and used bigger U-bolts to mount it to the frame. The hubs had the right bolt circle, but the center post was too big in diameter. I paid a local machine shop to turn down the hubs :-[ a few thousandths (.020) IIRC and mounted the wheel tire combo with some bearing buddies.

 

[4eyes]

It became immediately obvious that the existing fenders would not be wide enough to cover the new tires.

But it worked well enough to pick up Jonathans new-to-him SV650.

What some of you know is that we got his SV on one of the days between my lowside that broke my wrist, and the day I went to surgery to have it fixed.

The drama and expense from the broken wrist precluded working on the trailer for awhile, and to tell the truth I kinda forgot about it.

THEN we started to prepare for Barber. (last minute of course) And I remembered that I had to widen the fenders before the trailer would be safe with a full load. :

So the morning before we had to leave, I bought a new fender to cut in half, and pulled the old ones to cut off center.
First I had to evict some squatters.

Then welded the two together.

I got them bolted back on and started smearing Bondo before dark, but we loaded the trailer after a few rounds of smearing and sanding so we wouldn't get into the wet paint.

2:30 a.m. the morning we were to leave for Barber, I started applying paint with a brush and it was still tacky when we left a few hours later at daybreak.

 

[4eyes]

The trailer worked flawlessly on the way to Kiley's and back.

And the paint job looked a lot better than it had a right to. ;D