Starting to Rebuild

Things have slowed down a little bit with Lucy.  Swim practice and soccer started so we are running kids around a lot more. This being said, we have made some good progress.  I took the frame over to my uncle's house to get a hitch receiver welded on.  While I was there, he reinforced every weld on the frame.  Lucy is stronger than ever.

Once I got the frame back home I prepped the frame for painting.  I used the Por15 system.  It took most of the day to complete.  The degreasing went quickly but the metal etching took a while and was difficult to wash all the way off.  I had to use a rag to wipe off residue before I could paint. Por15 is awesome stuff.  It paints on super easy and leaves a smooth finish.  One downside is that if it is not removed right away, it sticks to skin for a while.  It took me over a week to wash off everything I got on myself.

You may have noticed the red rims in the picture above.  I ended up getting my neighbors son to clean them up and paint them.  He did an awesome job and he only had them for 26 hours.  The tires were removed, they were stripped, primed, painted and top coated.  After I got them back I had new tires put on them.  They look awesome now.

 

Once I got her back in the garage, it was time to start on the floor.  I took a lot of measurements off of Lucy before I took her apart.  This is a very important step if you are doing a rebuild. If you have the space, you should keep all of the parts you remove.  Unfortunately I don't have the space.  Anyway, I am putting her back about the same as before.  I am adding a slightly different framing structure below the plywood.  I am using pine 2x4's for support that I rip to the correct thickness.  The floor is simple 1/2" sanded plywood.  I will add some kind of coating to the underside next.  I was all set to use bed liner material, but now I am not so sure.  More research to be done.

Cheers!

Where's Lucy?

We have spent the last few weeks stripping Lucy to the frame.  It is a little sad to have to take all of her original wood out but there was so little left that was any good, I decided to just start over completely. It is also a little hard to call her Lucy since all of her personality is now at the dump.

Before tearing the sides down, I hung up new plywood and traced the old wall. I am using 1/2" OSB for the outer layer of the camper wall.  Luckily I had some help hanging the boards.

After that, it was a simple matter of removing the rest of the wooden structure.  Once it was all down, I used a wire wheel on a grinder to remove all the paint and rust from the frame.  Make sure to wear safety glasses and a mask if you do this.  Grinding on the frame puts off a lot of dust.  Tomorrow I am taking the trailer frame to my uncle's house.  We are going to strengthen the frame in a few spots, fix a few cracked welds and add a hitch receiver to the back so we will be able to mount a bike rack.

 Cheers!