Galley Cabinet/ Interior Cabinet

First off, I updated yesterdays post, so check it.

I finished off the galley cabinet tonight. It was fairly straightforward. I first removed all the clamps and weight, and checked the strength of the bond (pretty dang strong). I then cut two pieces of masonite to fit as doors (I made them 25" long so they'd overlap by an inch in the middle.) Luckily I forgot to put glue on the spar holding the top rails, because after an unsuccessful attempt to bend the masonite sheets to go into the rails, I realized I would have to remove the top rail and reinstall it over the sliding doors. I had to readjust it once more after the doors were in, because one side was too narrow, making the doors stick when they slid to that side. They're now slicker than snot on a doorknob.

Here thay are closed. the little metal finger hole cups were salvaged from the original tent trailer.

I began building the wardrobe inside the cabin. I installed a very simple drawer in the center which will work well for holding toiletries or my netbook if we want to watch a movie on a rainy day. This photo also shows one of the cooler slides in the cabin.

Total Costs to date:

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Prev Total: 547.22

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1 sheet of 1/2" plywood - $20

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TOTAL $567.22

Ext Skin / Counter / Cooler Drawer

Ok, here's the updated post..

The exterior skin went on fairly easily. I did it in three pieces, one on top, one on the curve, and one on the front. this was because I had to use the sheets sideways instead of lengthwise, owing to the fact that with the side walls mounted outside the floor, the camper pod is now 49.5" wide

I installed the counter, which was a 16" deep, pre-laminated shelf. the shelf was 96" long, so I'll use the other half of it for a bookshelf at home.

I also installed the rails that the sliding cabinet doors will go into. These were aluminum U-channel from Home Depot. They came in 8' lengths, which was perfect, I just cut them in half and installed 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. I drilled and countersunk one screw in each end of each rail, and used a hell of a lot of glue along their lengths to hold them in. I used a combination of Gorilla Glue (Dwayne had an old half-dried-out bottle) and Weldbond. Both products advertise that they can bond metal and wood, but just to be sure I used both.

I installed the cooler drawer using the slides I got in the surplus section at princess auto. They were originally from some kind of metal toolbox or something, so they had little tabs meant to clip them into metal. I cut those off with the angle grinder to lower their profile. Also the slides were too long for the space they went into, so I had to cut holes in the lower bulkhead and push them about 2" into the cabin. This shouldn't be an issue, they're only about 1/4" high, so they should go under the mattress with no problems, even after I build a cover for them (mainly to keep draughts (or drafts if you prefer American spelling) out. Regardless of all the modifying I had to do to make those slides work, I'm completely satisfied with them because they're very heavy duty, and will have absolutely no problem taking the weight of a fully stocked cooler.

Total Costs to date:

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Last total: $502.22

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(2) Drawer Sliders - $18.00

(2) U-molding - $10.00

(1) 16"x96" Shelf- $17.00

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Subt: $45

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TOTAL: $547.22

Door Skin Solved / Mattress

OK, the door skin crisis has been averted. I used a new sheet of masonite and started driving in the screws from the bottom of the door (which, as it turns out, is square). Once I got the sheet screwed down almost up to the hinge, I marked the hinge's position on top of the masonite, then used the router attachment on my dremel (actually it's a mastercraft brand rotary tool) to make the cut.

I also scored a foam mattress! Courtesy of Dwayne and Richard. It's actually two mattresses, but they are each only 3" thick so I think I'll use both of them. I suspect that they are from an old tent trailer. They each are about 4'x6', so they are around 6" shorter than the cabin floor. I don't think this is much of an issue though, I'll either find a bit of scrap foam to fill in the space or just use a few extra pillows.

Total costs to date:

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Previous total: $502.22

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(1) Sheet of masonite - $10.00

(2) 3" Foam mattresses - FREE

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Subt: $10.00

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TOTAL: $512.22

Insulating / Hatch Skin

Well, this project is starting to tire me out. I've been working on it well past midnight every night.

Today I kept going on the hatch. Dwayne and I skinned the inside. The hatch isn't square, because the roof beam that holds the hinge isn't square, and I thought that it wouldn't cause much of a problem if I just adjusted the hatch to fit the roof beam. Wrong. I definately should have squared up the beam. The inner skin isn't flush with the hinge edge, which isn't a big deal since that'll be covered with a bit of trim anyway. However, when we tried to skin the outside of the door it was a bit disastrous. I'll have to start with a fresh sheet tomorrow. I'll attach it first at the bottom of the hatch, which is square, and work my way to the top (which is around 1/2" out), and then trim the top to fit along the hinge. Too bad I didn't fix that before it was too late.

After skinning the inside of the hatch, I finished off all the insulation. I managed to do the whole trailer using the partial sheets of polystyrene that Dwayne had lying around, and didn't even have to break into one of his full sheets. If you look closely, you'll see there's a wire dangling down near the tongue. Dwayne suggested that, even though I don't plan on wiring up any 12V electrical, it might be a good idea to run wires through the walls anyway, just in case I feel like hooking something up later. It only took about 10 minutes to run some wires along the frame, and it's nice to know that I have the option. I marked several spots on the inside where I could drill through the ceiling and get at the harness, just guessing at likely spots where I might want lights, fans, plugs etc. later.

The curves had fairly big gaps in the insulation, because I didn't feel like mitering the polystyrene to fit precisely. Luckily I planned for this and bought a can of spray-in foam insulation. I filled in all the gaps with it, and dang, is that ever messy stuff. I'll be scrubbing my hands for quite awhile trying to get rid of it.

After that came the failed attempt at skinning the outside of the door. No pictures necessary, just picture two rather wiry gentlemen trying to wrestle a sheet of hardboard into a shape and position that is not physically possible. I just hope I can manage to bodge something useable without too much fuss. ugh.

On the bright side, I'm very happy with how fast this project has been moving. I can't believe it was only about 2 weeks ago that Dwayne and I were dragging that ragged old tent trailer out of the bush.

Costs to date:

Last Total: $483.53

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(1) Sheet of masonite - $10

Polystyrene insulation - FREE (Dwayne's stash)

(1) Can of spray foam insulation - $8.49

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Subt: $18.49

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TOTAL: $502.22

Discussion topics

Good Day Loyal Readers,

Now that I've got the comments enabled, here's a discussion topic for you all. I'm looking for some suggestions for a few up-coming bits of this trailer. I know I could just order the bits from the sites I'm linking here, but I'm looking for suggestions as to where I might source these parts locally (and preferably used/salvaged). I've asked the local RV dealers about these items. They can order in windows of any size for me (pricey), and the door latches they didn't know if they could get.

First, I'm looking for some door latches like this, or this. Since the doors will simply be the 3/4" ply pieces that I cut out, I need something that will mount well to them. You'll notice the handles pictured are the same kind most hardware stores sell for garage doors.

The inside latches, however, are very tricky to find, surprisingly. I like how they screw onto the inside face of the door, rather than mounting in a hole in the door, as is common in modern campers. I've seen these inside latches used in tractors, truck caps, and old campers, but have had no luck tracking any down that I can use in the teardrop.

Also, if any of you know where I might be able to find a set of handles like the ones pictured (or even 3 T-handles) that are all keyed the same, that would be very handy.

Second thing is windows. I'm looking for small windows that will mount in the doors (preferably), and that can either slide or crank open to let air flow through. the doors are 30" wide by 36"tall, so anything going there would have to be well inside those dimensions. Here are some examples: Slider, Crank, Flip-up boat window, maybe an old ext. cab truck window, who knows?

Any suggestions gratefully accepted, including different parts that might do the same job.

Cheers

Rear Hatch

Today I started the hatch door. To begin I traced out the rear curve on a paper template, which I used to make the first beam out of 1/2" plywood. I then used the first beam as a template for all the others. I cut 7 beams.

I then clamped all 7 together and sanded the edges so that they were even.

This is the frame. I doubled up the plywood on the outside beams, so they are 1" thick.

While I was working on the hatch frame, Dwayne started insulating the roof with polystyrene insulation. He had some 1" thick sheets of it left over from when he insulated his garage. Once I finished the hatch frame, he helped me test fit it and its hinge. It sits very nicely in the rear opening, and moves well too. It binds very slightly at the bottom corners when closing, but I should be able to solve that fairly easily with the sander.

Ella tried out the cabin. I think she approves.

Costs to date:

Last Total: $462.54

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(1) Sheet of 1/2" ply - $20.99

2x2's - FREE (I ran out, so Dwayne donated a few 2x4's which we ripped to 2x2)

polystyrene insulation - FREE (also from Dwayne's stash)

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Subt: $20.99

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TOTAL: $483.53

I also noticed that so far there has been very little scrap accumulating from this project. Most of it has come from the hatch. I had to space the beams out about 1" from one another on the sheet of plywood, so there are a lot of crescent-shaped bits of plywood scrap. Still, there is probably less than half a trash bin of total scrap so far. I think this is a testament to just how economical the design really is.

Comments Enabled/Email Posting.

Hi Loyal Readers,

I figured out how to enable comments on the blog, so you can now leave comments at the bottom of the page, or click where it says "comments" to leave them.
I also discovered that I can email posts from my Blackberry (and thus, straight from the jobsite). So you'll now be kept more up-to-date than ever before.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Doors, More Framing, Headliner

I started off the day by marking and cutting out the doors. As you can see, I kept the same rounded profile as the generic benroy plans from the first post of this blog. The curve on the door is a 19"radius, the same as the front curve on the roof.

I'll answer the question before you ask it: Why yes, that is me cutting into a plywood wall using an angle grinder. I wanted something that would cut a narrow, linear hole to start the jigsaw blade. I'll be using the same pieces of plywood I cut out as the actual doors, so I didn't want any big round gouges in them to leak. The cutoff wheel on the angle grinder worked very well, despite making a lot of smoke.

Next on the docket was framing the roof vent I picked up this afternoon at Canadian Tire. This was fairly straightforward.

The plywood walls were warped a bit, and not sitting plum at the front. They also weren't as stiff as I would have liked, so I put in some diagonal braces. I had to give myself a refresher trigonometry lesson to get the angles right, but they fit like a glove. They also brought the whole thing back to plum, and made it stiff as hell.

I carried on with the remainder of the roof beams, and added a couple along the centreline running fore-aft.

As darkness fell, I enlisted the help of Nathan (Dwayne's son) and his friend. The extra hands were helpful jamming the masonite headliner into position. As it turned out, the top of the roof was about 47 15/16" rather than a full 48, so it was a very snug fit, and the masonite held itself up. screwing it to the roof beams proved to be a pain in the rectum, as the screws don't seem to have quite as broad a head on them as the masonite would prefer. Regardless, I got it in before Wayner called to invite me to go find a brand spanking new geocache with him.

Sorry about the poor quality photos of the headliner. It was dark, the camera flash wasn't cooperating, and I was in a hurry to go geocaching.

Tomorrow I plan to lay a good thick bead of glue between all the roof braces and the headliner, because the screws could potentially wear through the sheet.

The 4x8 sheet just happened to go all the way to the back of the cabin. Handy. It's almost like I'd planned it that way.

Costs to date:

Last Total: $376.50

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(4) 2x2's - $4.54

(1) Sheet of Masonite - $10

Roof Vent - $54.50

Screws - $17.00 (this is about how many I'll use by the end of the project. I'm adding them in here so I don't forget)

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Subt: $86.04

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TOTAL: $462.54

The Camper Begins

This Friday I got started on the camper pod! Exciting. Read on...

I started building the floor after being let off work early. My friend Wayne came and helped out for awhile. We glued and screwed 2x2 joists under the 3/4" plywood floor. I used the handy countersink bit above to drill the pilot holes. As you can see above, the glue was Weldbond (which I've never used before, but I hear it's pretty decent) and the screws are 1-1/4" deck screws.

Above is what the underside of the floor looks like.

Wayne and I traced and cut the walls that same afternoon. We used a compass made of a piece of the 2x2. I drove a screw through at one end so that about 1/8" of its point was sticking out, then drilled pencil-sized holes at 19" and 48" from the point. The front curve is the 19" radius and the back curve is 48" radius at the top and 19" radius at the bottom so that it meets the vertical rear nicely.

The two photos above were shot on Saturday back at Heavy Pedal. It was raining, so I brought the whole project there so that I could have a dry place to work on it. Not quite soon enough apparently, because the sheet of 1/2" ply that was on the top of the stack the previous night when the rain began had started to delaminate on one end. I'll use that sheet for cupboards in the galley, as only about 5 or 6 inches of it are ruined.

In the two photos above, the walls are clamped together because I had just taken the belt sander to the curves to even and smooth them out. I bought the sander and a 5 amp jigsaw with a laser at Canadian Tire on sale. They were both about 50% off. It turned out to be cheaper than renting them for the long weekend.

Next step was to fit the walls. I fit them to the sides of the floor to maximize both interior space and overall strength. They were glued and screwed in the same fashion as the floor, except that about every second screw was longer. Dwayne found some longer deck screws and invited me to use them just to be sure the walls were anchored guten'tight (like a German virgin) to the floor. I then installed two spars across the top to steady the works. I didn't put any more in yet, because I wanted to keep as much space clear as possible while I decided on the measurements for the cupboards in the galley.

After taking a short break to go for a nice drive (see below), I installed the lower bulkhead. I became a yardstick for this step, using my own length to determine the amount of galley space I could have. I laid on the floor and stretched out to see how far aft I would need to go with the bulkhead.

The one feature I really wanted to have in the galley is a drawer for a cooler to sit on under the counter, so that the cooler can be pulled out and opened, then re-stowed easily. Since I'm very tall, this was a challenge to incorporate into the plan (see above paragraph about the lower bulkhead). Luckily Dwayne and Tasha were nice enough to donate this great antique Coleman cooler to the cause. It's narrower and taller than most coolers, so it fit the bill perfectly. Plus it dates nearly back to the heyday of this type of camper, so I think it's a great addition.

Costs to date:

Last Total: $260

(I'm not counting the box sides since they have nothing to do with the camper)

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(3) 3/4" plywood sheets - $89.97

(6) 2x2's - $13.62

(1) Weldbond Glue - $10.41

(1/2lb) Deck Screws - $ 2.50

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Subt: $116.50

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TOTAL: 376.50

Bonus

This is what kept me from the trailer all afternoon. I don't regret it one bit. Dwayne and I were feeling a bit mischievous with all the rain coming down, so we figured it was a fine time to fire up the Eagle and take 'er down to the clay pits for some muddin'

Want to see more? Click here for more photos of us and the Eagle

:-0

Day Off (-ish)

Well, I think this is the first day since the project started that I haven't done any actual work on it. I did, however, go pick up most of the lumber that will become the camper pod. This consisted of 4lbs of deck screws, some Weldbond glue (I was going to use Gorilla Glue, and still might, but I'll have to go to Canadian Tire or Home Depot for it), some 3/4" Plywood, some 1/2" plywood, some 2x4's which I had ripped to 2x2's, and some sheets of 1/8" masonite.

Yes, I'm going old-school and using masonite to make the curved roof just like they did back in the 30's-50's. Now I know what you're going to say: "That's a dumb idea, that s***'ll rot out so fast it'd make your head spin." Well, no worries, this was well thought out...

1. Plywood contains glues that are water soluble (to varying extents, based on the quality of the plywood). Masonite is just wood fibers that are formed into sheets by applying huge amounts of pressure. This causes the natural resins in the wood to bind it together with properties similar to solid wood. This leads me to believe that masonite would weather fairly well.

2. Since plywood bends along the short side, rather than the long, using 1/8" plywood would mean that a great deal of it would go to waste. I can bend the masonite sheets lengthwise, so there will be very little waste.

3. The masonite sheets cost me about $10 each. 1/8" birch plywood would have cost around $30 per sheet (and don't forget, as above, I would have needed more of them).

4. I priced out some epoxy boat-hull paint/sealant. It goes for $55/quart. Yes, this is pretty pricey, but it's the stuff that people use to seal the hulls of super-light kayaks and surfboards they build out of bloody balsa and foam. I'm confident it'll do just what I need it to.

5. If it was good enough for the old timers who started the original teardrop trailer craze, it's good enough for me.

6. If my roof starts to leak or rot out, I can easily tear it off and build a new one next season if necessary.

I'm sure some of you still think I'm being silly using "inferior materials" but that's the joy of building things yourself. You get to ignore what everyone else wants and do your own thing.

Also, I've started corresponding with Vintek RV Parts. They specialize in parts for teardrop trailers. I'll be buying a galley hinge, a set of door/hatch latches keyed alike, and a set of 21x14" windows from them.

Once I get all of the supplies I've mentioned above (including lumber, hardware, boat paint, and RV parts) the total bill for the trailer will be somewhere in the $850 range. I'll add it more precisely as I build, since I'm not going to count any extra bits that I don't end up using. There are still a few things I'll need that aren't on this list, like insulation, paint for inside the cabin and galley, some kind of a countertop, cabinet hinges, knobs, etc. I'm still confident that I'll be able to stick with the $1000 budget, but it's not my top priority. My top priority is creating a decent quality mini-RV that I'll be able to enjoy a lot of use of.

Now hopefully I can get into the wood shop to drop off this load of lumber, and get to work on it.

Box Sides

Yesterday and today I slapped together the box sides for the trailer. I started by building the sides themselves at home. The photo above is the first one test fitted. I couldn't find any neighbours to borrow a power saw from, so I used my trusty Stanley FatMax handsaw, which cuts very quickly and easily (and also has a 90/45 degree beveled handle so it can be used as a square).

I then went to Heavy Pedal Ranch while everyone was away at school/work and started cutting and welding on the pieces of box beam for the stake pockets. I initially welded just the two sides of each, but Dwayne came home and suggested I weld across the top to keep moisture out from between the pieces, so they wouldn't start to rust out as quickly. As you can see, my welding doesn't suck quite as bad is it did.

After work today, the base Wood Hobby Club decided to have an open house in conjunction with the reopening of the auto club. I used this opportunity to buy a membership and rip the bottom ends of the stakes to they'd fit in the pockets, since the box beam wasn't big enough to accept a full 2x4. I unscrewed all the planks, ripped the 2x4's with the bandsaw, and reassembled the pieces. The vice-prez of the wood club happened to have some exterior wood treatment, and gave me some to treat the cut ends of the planks, so they should stay nice and rot-free for a good long while.

After this photo was taken I also painted the stake pockets and a few spots that I cleaned up with the grinder where I cut off bits of the original frame.

I'm not sure what colour I want to paint the wood bits yet. I'm thinking maybe forest green? Send me your suggestions. What do you think would look good over the silver frame? Possibly just some clear varnish?

And once again I've gone and lost the reciept. Here's my close estimation..

Last total: $260

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2 10 foot 2x4's - $2.50 ea

6 8 foot 1x6's - $3.00 ea

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Subt: $23

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Total: $283 (though I'm not sure if this lumber really counts since it's not actually part of the camper)

And a bonus for those of you who really have nothing better to look at...

This was my Sunday project. My headlights were very badly faded, and this was irritating me to no end, so I picked up a 3M Headlight Lens Restoration Kit from Canadian Tire, and it worked wonders. One of the guys at work noticed and thought I had installed brand new headlights. This picture doesn't actually show the full effect of the kit. After I did the drivers side light the first time, it was still a bit cloudy. I reread the instructions and saw where it stressed the importance of rough sanding until seeing an even frosted look over the whole lens, which I hadn't done. I redid the light before moving on to the second one and it looked brand new. I wish I had remembered to take another photo. If any of you really want one, I can snap another pic later.

The Deck

The trailer now has a deck! As soon as the paint was dry to the touch I went back out and installed the deck. I used 6 1/4" carriage bolts with washers, one on each corner and two along the centre line (through the beam that the tongue is bolted into). These were the only decent locations to bolt to, since most of the widthwise crossmembers are about 1/4" below the level of the deck, and I didn't feel like sticking shims in. I'm fairly confident that the 6 bolts will hold the deck on just fine.

So there's phase one finished. It went from a rotten old tent trailer that no one thought was any good, to a pretty dang nice looking light utility trailer in 5 days. I started working on it at about 2PM on Sunday, and during the week it was solely evenings, so this could easily be done in a weekend if you had the tools and parts at hand. And it only cost me...

Total Cost:

Last total: $172

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5/8" Pressure Treated Plywood Sheet: $55

Hardware: ~$4

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Subt: $59

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Total: $231

With taxes that comes to around..

$260

I just checked kijiji and ebrandon, and there are homemade trailers on there that look like scrap bits thrown together by a poorly-trained ape, which are selling for almost twice that.

like this

Paint

Laura and I propped the trailer up against the pole for the laundry line to make it easier to get under it to paint. I gave it a quick once-over with the wire brush on the drill to get rid of chipped paint and other crud stuck to the frame before we carried on with the paint. I'm not too worried about getting a really nice finish on the trailer, so I didn't go too overboard with the prep work. I masked off the wheels, lights, and the wires going to the taillights, because I think they'd look silly painted silver.

We then laid down another coat of primer (over the coat that was already covering the visible parts of the trailer), then two coats of silver-ish, semi-glossy paint, getting it right up into all the nooks and crannies in the undercarriage. It should now match my car somewhat. Not that I planned it that way, it was just the best colour that princess auto had to offer.

Total Costs:

Last total: $143

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4 Cans of spray paint: $6/ea

Masking tape: $5

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Subt: $29

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TOTAL: $172

More Wiring

Yesterday I went into town and picked up more supplies for the trailer. I got some wire loom (1/4 and 1/2") and some wire holders with rubber grommets. Most of the night was spent looming the wire, and bolting it into place. It was a fairly straightforward job.

I started at the front marker lights and worked my way back to the taillights, then up the tongue to the plug.

When we installed the lights, we left about a foot extra on each wire, so there's a lot of room to make slpices later, if the wire starts to wear. This excess was just folded over itself and bunched up in the wire loom, then taped to keep it from coming apart.

After looming all the wire, I was almost sad that the trailer would soon have a deck hiding all that nice looking wiring.

Here's a sneak peek at what the trailer will look like with the deck on. I picked up the lumber today for the deck and the rail sides. The deck is 5/8" pressure treated plywood. The rails will be made using the 2x4 and 1x6 pressure treated planks.

Next Step: Paint

Costs To Date: (not including wood, because it's not installed yet and thus the fat lady has not yet sung about that part of the project)

Prev Total: $125

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1/4" Loom - $5

1/2" Loom - $7

Wire Clamps - $6

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Subt: $18

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TOTAL: $143

Lights/Fenders

Back again, with a vengeance. This work was done on Monday and Tuesday night.

I went to Princess Auto and picked up some fenders, and a full trailer lighting kit that included tail/brake/signal lights, and two marker lights. I also got heatshrink, solder wire, and silicon grease for making the connections.

The fenders that I originally picked up didn't match. One was bent more steeply than the other, and had a sharper curve on the sides. I returned that one on tuesday and now they match quite well. They had to be spaced out about an inch from the frame of the trailer, so Dwayne and I welded some 1" square tubing in as a spacer. The fenders are each held on with 4 grade 8 hex bolts. They're very sturdy. I can walk on them and they don't budge.

We also started hooking up the lights. Above are the marker lights that came with the kit. All the lights in the kit are leds and are submersible (the diodes are moulded into clear plastic). Being a redneck, I couldn't resist buying two more sets of yellow marker lights, even through none at all are required by law for a trailer of this size.

As you probably guessed, all electriacl connections were twisted together, then soldered, covered in silicon grease to prevent corrosion, and heatshrink tubing was placed over top I also ran full ground wires back to the plug, as I'm not a believer in the "It'll ground through the hitch" theory, regardless of my apparent inability to keep my chains from dragging. I did split the ground at each light and ran one wire directly to the frame though, so each light is grounded to both the frame and the wiring harness. What can I say, with all the electrical gremlins I've been having the last few months with the VW, I can't be too cautious. Tow vehicle electrical systems (and trailer brakes) always seem to fail when you're going 100km/h around the side of a mountain at 2 am. In my limited experience.

Total Costs To Date:

I couldn't find the reciept, so I used the princess auto website to get prices.

Trailer - $27 (bottle of rum)

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Trailer lighting kit - $50 (on sale)

2 Marker Lights - $10 Each

Heatshrink - $10

Silicon Grease - $6-ish

Solder Wire - $12

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Subtotal - $98

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TOTAL $125

The Project Begins

I showed the fellas at work the plans for a trailer similar to the one I'll build (I say similar, because I'll be designing as I go. Dangerous I know, but also adventurous), and one of my co-workers could not fathom me completing this project for under $1000. I considered that a challenge. I bought this trailer for one bottle of rum. I'd say I'm off to a good start. (also, for anyone still reading, those are my new wheel covers. Snazzy, yes?

This was (many years ago) a tent trailer. It looked pretty mangy on the outside, but underneath, the frame, axles, spindles, wheels etc. were all mint. Lights were pooched, but that was no surprise.

Inside, there were still some salvageable bits of furniture, hardware, an icebox, and some electrical components. While gutting it, we stripped away anything that looked like it could be useful. This is a common practise around my cousin's place (known henceforth as "Heavy Pedal Ranch").

This is what the gutted shell looked like. The plywood floor, unsurprisingly was rotten and of no use to us.

Here's Dwayne getting philosophical about removing the upper shell.

Once the gutting was finished, the bolts holding the floor and sheet metal shell on were removed with a cutoff wheel on the angle grinder.

Once the floor and sheet metal were removed, we were left with a frame approx 7.5' x 8'. To simplify construction of my utility/camper trailer design, I wanted the trailer to measure 4' x 8'. Since these are the dimensions of a standard sheet of plywood, this size of trailer would allow me to build a simple design with as little waste as possible. As tempting as it was to make things more roomy, I stuck to the 4'X8' plan, as I knew it would save a lot of money over the whole project.

So off came the ends of the horizontal beams and this is what was left. As you can see, the trailer at this stage doesn't have much substance to it.

Next, we did a little maintenance to the leveling jacks. Two of them had come apart, and all four desperately needed some lube. I had originally planned on just using a standard trailer frame to start this project, but now I'm rather glad I didn't. Not only did this frame come with corner jacks that'll really steady the camper, It also came with a bunch of decent camper hardware, and even better, the tongue can be modded to turn this into a tilt-deck trailer (which I intend to do).

The rigidity it had before had come from the entire structure of the tent camper, so without all the furniture and sheet metal holding it steady, the frame was like a big floppy noodle. Some bracing was in order.So, to make matters simple, I took the bits I had cut off the ends of the horizontal beams and welded them into the corners of the frame for oblique bracing.

I then took some 1" square tubing that Dwayne had sitting around and welded in two more horizontal beams, giving the trailer a total of 5. The plan was originally to use pieces of beam that had come off with the sheet metal, which were similar to the rest of the trailer's structure, but Dwayne wanted to keep them to make a rear bumper for the '38 chev pickup he's restoring.

Laura showed up and helped me weld in the crossbeams.

She started to get the hang of the mig welder rather quickly.

But she still hasn't gotten used to the slag falling on her arms.

She was very proud of this bead in particular.

Here's the frame at the end of the day. We started painting it the Heavy Pedal standard issue primer grey. I'll post some more photos when I've finished painting. I may even wait until I do the lights later this week.