Bantam #7760 project

I just bought Bantam T3-C #7760 a few weeks ago off a Craigslist ad close to my home in NE Ohio.It is in good condition and my main purpose is to have a durable trailer to use for camping and hunting trips and for some light utility stuff.I bought it off the original owners son which was brought brand new back in 1948.This trailer has last seen the pavement in 1995 and has been in a shed for the last 17 years.

Overall when we pulled it out of the shed it was in good shape,,, there was a few larger holes in the floor that will have to be fixed but overall I was very pleased what I saw.The trailer had all original equipment including the tires and also included wooden stake sides that his father had made back in the day.


My first look at my Bantam buried in a shed


After pulling it out and getting ready to tow her home....added some air to the tires and away we went.It was only about a 1 1/2 hr drive home and we stopped to check the hubs a few times but she towed and made the trip just fine.

Now that I got her home my main purpose is to have a nice durable trailer to pull behind my jeep when we go on hunting/camping trips and for general use.My intent is to make the trailer useable and to stay within a tight budget doing all the work myself if at all possible.I will add that I have never done any kind of body work and this is a fly by the seat of my pants kinda project.Hopefully with the help of the forum it will come out half way decent.


My trailer before the disassembly.

I have a friend that has a sandblaster and for a 30 pack of Natural light and a 5th of Maddog I was able to convince him to let me use his sandblaster and strip the old paint off.

His sandblaster worked ok but we did have some faulty equipment issues and ended up running out of daylight before we were able to blast the entire trailer.

Once back to my place I decided to take the leaf springs,axle and mounts off and blast them with a wheelabrator shot blaster to clean them up.The shot blaster did a great job on them and I took them home and sprayed them with primer that I got from Tractor Supply co... Majic truck,trailer and implement red oxide primer.


I wasn't happy with the sandblasting outcome so I decided to get a wire wheel and hand grinder and hit the entire body and completely get all the paint off of the trailer.

This was a little time consuming but it took off all the old paint and exposed any pitting that the trailer has.

The sides are completely done and I will be doing the bottom within the next few days as soon as I buy another wire wheel,,,, wore the first one out.When it's completely stripped of paint I believe my next step will be filling in the pitting with body filler and sanding it down before coating the tub with primer.

More to come as I progress with this project.

The lens was cracked when I disassembled it where the screw went through the glass.i was able to superglue the cracked piece and u cannot see the crack when it is reassembled.The body and lens cap have some pitting that was revealed once I sandblasted it but those will fill in with body filler and sanded down.Hopefully I get the light rewired and working,all the hardware was there,,, bulbs,springs etc.

Wheelabrators are pretty cool; I used to run one when I lived in IL.  The trailer is looking good!

Just a little update...decided to paint the underside and inside bed with a product called Chasis Saver.You can apply this self leveling paint directly to rust and it totally seals it.Never seen a paint/coating quite like this.It dries to a very hard yet flexile finish and im quite confident this trailer will never see rust again where this paint was applied.I got one coat on the underside and all the underside hardware and inside the tub.The second coat is going on today.








Also got my C shackles, U bolts, and other underside hardware from ron Fitzgerald.

Set yourself a goal...

Just got applying the Monstaliner apocalypse orange bedliner to the outside of the trailer....have to wait for it to cure before I put the new tires and painted wheels on it and to flip it back over.In the meantime I need to get the taillight painted and put back together.

Still have to get the tail light back together and paint the wheels to better match the jeep.

Looks nice, great work.  Nice JK as well.