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.
The havoc has begun...
We got the frame cut apart so we can spread it wider.
The trailer width is like 100.75", not quite 101".
The top actually set on the inside of the edge so it took about another 3" off the inside of the trialer.
We made new 3/8" side plates and then welded them to the old side plates. This is doing two things..first is beefing the sides up and giving up something to weld the new frame to...second, is making the side looks a lot nicer.
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
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:
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:
We started on the center frame. That is all mocked up. The interior height will be 57" on this trailer.
This week we will be gettin the rear door done up.
I am thinking a little bling with some electric door actuators from and rear with remotes. We will see what comes down the road.
Here is today's progress:
We got the rear door all mocked up and tack welded.
It started to rain so we called it for the day.
Here is the rear door ready for the hinges. We will see what the weather tomorrow brings. If it isn't raining, we should get the hinges finished up and then we can start on the front door.
Here is what we got done today:
We couldn't work on the traler yesterday as it stormed all day, and into last night.
We did clean the shop out enough today to work, just in case.
We got the hinge mounted and ready to roll. It will open and close smoothly. We still do all the finish welding and put the torsion bar in the upper part of the door next to the hinge.
Here is the rear ready for the finish welding:
Here you can see the gap we left for the seal. There is a block in the bottom of the door and there will a piece of anlge under the rear lift part.
This keep the door from crushing the seal not only on the sides, but also across the back under the bottom.
We kind of mocked up how the front door will be made. Tomorrow we start on that. This might take a couple of days as we made a jig for the bends.
