Here you can see here the previous owner cut off the ends of the rotten stringers and added the cross piece between both frames. The cross piece is removed. With the floor completely removed, it was easy to see the work that needed to be done to the frame. Some rust removal for sure, some straightening of bent supports, and some welding type of repairs. I noticed when pulling Otis to the shop that the trailer appeared to “bounce” or rock forward and backward. Once I got to this stage of the teardown, I realized why. The frame had two serious stress cracks in the wimpy c-channel where they were welded/attached to the front L-channel cross member support. It’s apparent that the weight of the body puts a lot of stress in this area. I would eventually repair this with an extra plate of steel in these areas. I would also weld some brackets in the areas of the leafspring eye supports the width of the c-channel, in a sense, boxing in those 4 areas. There were also ...
Time to construct the sidewall framing. I put together the aluminum siding so that I could use it as a template. When I compared both sides of the assembled aluminum siding, I noticed that the sides didn’t match. Since I wanted to make two identical frames (the perimeter), I knew I would need to fudge the aluminum siding on one side to fit the frame when that time came. Drivers side This is the inside of the passenger side skinned with 1/8” birch. I used a polyuerathane construction adhesive to glue the birch plywood to the frame. I used bricks as weights to keep pressure on the frame against the birch until the adhesive dried. Passenger side frame. I used exterior type 3 wood glue and pocket hole screws for the joints. The frames are made of 3/4” marine grade plywood. I copied the original frames for the most part. I did add some bonus pieces in select areas for strength or where a hole might be drilled or a fixture attached.
With the sides up and fastened to the floor, I added the front and rear cross pieces to connect them. After the front and rear cross bracing was installed, I adhered the interior birch paneling to them. In this photo, you can see the cutout for the original (well, original to me, but not original to the trailer) refrigerator venting. Since I need to match the cutout in the original aluminum siding which I am planning to reuse, I figured I would add a nice aluminum compartment door, whether it was functional or not. Since I couldn’t put a new gas operating fridge back in (I couldn’t find one small enough to fit the area safely) I decided on a nice 12volt/120volt unit which doesn’t need exterior venting. Also, on a random note, you can see how nice the use of a Kreg pocket hole screw jig is when building the trailer. I added the necessary support blanks within the framing for the future solid screw anchoring of exterior light fixtures and other random vents, etc. These wer...
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