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Lil' Spen - Preserv-O-Mod

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Dave Pete View Drop Down
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    Posted: 01 Oct. 2016 at 1:27pm
Smile The time has come. After recent thoughts of cleaning up the place and consolidating projects, selling this Spen trailer... I decided to see just what I had. Now I'm deep into it. And it ain't the first time I've been in deep.

We picked up this little baby in Eagle River, Alaska, back in about 2011 or so. Yeah, it had been militarized. But it's a civilian trailer! Never should have seen OD Green and a White Star. But, that's just what people do - they make do. And somebody put quite a bit of effort into this girl to make it look just right in the parades, I suppose.



For one thing, it had really ugly and non-period wheels and tires. For another thing, the tongue had been drastically modified and in a weird way - I'll explain that in more detail later - as I pulled the tongue off yesterday and got me a good lesson!



Of course the canvas top and bows were made to resemble a military version trailer style.





And check out this "add-on" tailgate latch hardware. Yeah, there was reason for a prior owner to be proud.



But I could tell Lil' Spen felt awkward - like an impostor. Never having done actual military service, this was just not the right garb. Something had to be done. 

For those who may not know, this is what Lil' Spen may have looked like from the factory.



So we loaded ALL of our possessions (house-hold furnishings, clothing, Lil' Willy, and now Lil' Spen, an electric log splitter, etc.) into our 20' covered cargo trailer for the 2400 mile trip home to Wyoming, in the winter Shocked. But first we removed the improper coupler/landing leg, wheels and tires (to better fit the trailer loading), the canvas top and home-made bows, and left them in Alaska.

Once home, I located some miss-matched wheels for free (one a Chevy truck 15" and the other I think like a foreign car 14" wheel), and only had to air up one of them, every time I had to re-position it anywhere in the yard!

The son-in-law fixed me up with a Ford five hole axle and three wheels (just in case) so I could transfer over hubs and install Jeep style wheels, removing the need to carry a spare tire.



You see, back in the day, Spen provided hubs with the same wheel pattern as the tow vehicle, for just that reason, no trailer spare needed.

But recently I discovered these hubs won't work. So at least for now, I'll be using Chevy six hole (6 on 5.5) instead of the Jeep (5 on 5.5). But that detail is all to come in a subsequent post.

This trailer will not be restored right now. I'll be doing more of a preservation. Some of the metal is in pretty tough shape and I "don't do welding". BUT - I might just get me some tools one of these days when other stuff slows down, and take me a class, and if so, this might just shift into a repair job and restoration project.

In the meantime, I'm coining a new term, because my stuff ALWAYS includes at least a little modification, so this is Lil' Spen's Preserv-o-mod threadEmbarrassed

I didn't want to sell anybody a "can of worms" so in my early sale plan days, I got into the unit to discover what I had and what I could justify sending on the the next guy. What I discovered pushed me into the desire to keep the trailer, do some preservation work, make it functional and usable, and save my time and efforts for trying to finish up my Truck Camper Rest-o-mod this winter.


It was shortly after I found this trailer that I discovered who is jpet. What a great job he did on his Shadow project. There were also several others online doing Spen work, and I learned a lot in those first months. Now I'll see if I can do something good too.

The trailer is as old as the 40's and maybe as new as the 60"s? But it's titled as a 1963 Home built.

Here's hoping you enjoy the ride along!Wink




Edited by Dave Pete - 02 Oct. 2016 at 9:17pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote binthere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Oct. 2016 at 9:41pm
I see you let no grass grow under your feet Dave!!  Looks better shape than the Sterling trailer I got this spring. Plenty of patina, and will stay that way. I know that will be a gem when your done!
chuck
1953 CJ3B "a fistfull of dollars"
1949 willys jeepster "a few dollars more"
and a few other retirement toys




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Thanks Chuck. Congrats on your own old trailer score! Was sure sorry to hear of your engine woes, but - I guess you can look at it as just having an opportunity to spend more quality time with your Jeep. Geek

Anybody who's read my stuff knows this thread will contain a lot of pictures. And that I can be quite verbose. I'll try to keep verbosity under control, while still being free with detailed pics.

So here I had this trailer, with six lug hub flanges. Wanted five, right! The son-in-law had the aforementioned axle and five wheels. I took three, he sold the other two. The wheels included good passenger car rubber (just old).

But when I tried to fit the newer hub to the old Spen spindles, nothing doing. For one thing, the newer was 1" spindle nuts and the older was 3/4", and the older style hub and spindle were longer than the newer. The bearings were different too of course.

Here's the spindle and some measurements.











Armed with info, I went shopping.

The local tire stores wanted too much for used wheels (the needed six hole) and WAY too much for new. And the tire stores were balking at the "sell by safety date" on the tires. Seems my perfectly good condition tires (from my eventual close inspection) with deep tread had DOT date "353" making them born in the 35th week of 1993! (One tire tech said March 5th - so I tried to keep the eye roll in check). But the main thing was the last "3". More than TWO decades old and they can't even be more than one, you know? Some said "can't even mount them for you" others said "can't sell older than 10".

The junk yard had a pair of rims that matched my one usable one - your know, three for a spare -  for $15 a piece. Now we're talking!

But first I wanted to stop by the trailer parts house and see what they could tell me on some replacement hubs. Keep the five hole wagon spokes for now and get Jeep rims eventually, before spending more on six hole today. Long story short, their computer was down, the guy couldn't read the small print on the bearing, he told me taller (laying flat) outer bearing was obsolete, and maybe the computer would be up by tomorrow. He could sell me an axle in the right track width. Comes with the springs (probably a single leaf per side), and you just weld the spring perches onto the trailer frame. I thought, well why don't I just buy a new frame and box with it too. You know, get one of those small ATV trailers with the drop gate ramp, hang a sign on it that says "Spen Wannabe" and maybe get me a Wrangler to pull it. Pinch

That's when I decided to sell it to somebody who might have some Spen parts available, or who had the drive to work the project, now that there were some problematic matters.

But when I nailed down the hard to read numbers I got these...

Seal 6283 (modern version National 6283S)
Inner Bearing National 15112 and the cap 15250X (cone 15112 comes with at least two cap numbers on Google)
Outer Bearing Timken (also National) 09074. Hmmm - forgot to write down the cap number.



And they were all still available! Not in stock necessarily, but available. I kept the current bearings, and bought two new seals for $10 a piece.

Check out the new seal against the old. The outer rim ridge is worn down completely. It's a different type seal than I've ever seen. Seals on both surfaces instead of being pressed into the hub. 





Here's how the seal fits the outer surface.





And how it fits the inner surface.





I found you can install either way. Hub slips on just as easy whether you put it in the hub first, or stick it on the spindle. Here's a straight down view of it installed. See how the seal jags out like that?



And isn't that hub profile cool?



And I even think a person could make a template and have a machine shop drill that flange for 5 on 5.5", new lug bolts, Jeep wheels. Have to break out the graph paper and see if it's possible.



The Chevy six hole wheel offset is less negative than original wheels, but even so, the tires stay under the fender, and gives the little trailer a fairly nice looking stance.



With a dependable bearing repack, new seals, tire/wheel combos that actually hold air, I now had not only a rolling unit, but confidence that whatever else needed doing could be done.

I pulled Ruth's little yellow angel (her Jeep Cherokee) out of it's proper place in the garage, and put Lil' Spen there instead.



You know you have a good woman when her first comment to such an action is to say "that's cute".  Thumbs Up

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With the little trailer in the garage, while the wind stirred up the dirt outside, I set about removing everything that "didn't look like Spen", starting with all the extra tie-down hooks, and these tailgate latch accouterments. Off came the lights and brackets, the license plate, the mud flaps...



Eventually creating two piles that look similar to these.

Note in this first pic, the two different sizes of what really must be homemade add-on taillight brackets... (yeah I know, I couldn't find my 3/8" deep socket for awhile until I figured it must be with the fasteners and stuff)



And this period (meaning build pretty heavy) license plate mount - it says DUO LAMP on the forward facing surface. The lights are more recent plastic replacements, which may work just fine, but while serviceable, may get some extra replacement touches (I have a set of original CJ3B style lights that might find a home here). Also, this trailer in Wyoming is licensed as a "light trailer" and so has a small size license plate - so I'll adapt regarding the plate bracket.



Also to come off was the tongue.



Below you can see the eight bolts that need to come off. Four at the box front edge, and four at the rear of the U-Channel steel where the tongue attaches to the box framing.



And note between those two mounting bolt locations, the difference between one style of U-Channel, and the other style.

Here are some closer looks.









WD-40 and some muscle.





Now these two holes were interesting. What are they for? They are covered by the fish-plate support that is welded onto the other side. They are actually the original holes for the rearward mounts.



Here on the passenger side "box edge mounting location" you can see in the top bracket, an unused hole has a counter sink to it. That was upside down on the driver side.

 


And underneath the bracket were four holes, not the original two holes. Why? The whole point of the tongue modification was to extend the tongue length. A common thing to make trailers easier to maneuver, at least while backing. So while keeping the rear mounts stationary, a widening of the a-frame point was required, moving the front of the box mounts outboard in the process.


So here's my conclusion. A previous owner dropped the tongue and cut the top plate off at the coupler end. Then they added the "desired additional length" to the rear in the form of standard U-Channel stock (1.5" x 3"), as compared to the original U-Channel tongue steel (2" x 3") that is closer in style and profile to regular car/truck frame steel. Then they went willy-nilly cutting and shaping and forcing and bending, ending up with what looks a little "wacko" IMO.


The kids came over Saturday for a late season cook-out and so the grand-boys could pick Gma's Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins before the coming freeze this week. The son-in-law is a metal guy, so he took the tongue with him to "work some metal magic".



I measured the original steel, fully expecting a 48" or so length. (Original trailer length according to the "marketing ad" is 105 inches. The full outside box length (with tailgate tabs, etc.) is 76", leaving a tongue sticking forward of the box (with coupler) 29". So that's my target. See the lesser than expected length here? I expected about 48". 




And now it was time for painting prep.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 63owner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Oct. 2016 at 1:49pm
Great info Dave. I picked up a heavily modified Spen a couple of months ago. The PO welded some plate steel that runs from the box to the frame on the rear sides near the tailgate (between the fender rear and the back of the box).
How was the box originally attached in the rear?
Looks like you'll have a really nice trailer when you get it done.
1948 CJ2A
1963 CJ3B
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Originally posted by 63owner 63owner wrote:

I picked up a heavily modified Spen a couple of months ago. The PO welded some plate steel that runs from the box to the frame on the rear sides near the tailgate (between the fender rear and the back of the box).
How was the box originally attached in the rear?


I'll post some pics today that will show several areas where the box is welded to the frame. How about that? No bolts for box to frame? That would have been nice. But you'll see where each under side edge (sides) have four welds (box to frame) and the exterior sides have welds (at least in back) also from box to frame, just forward of the rear most stake pocket metal hat channel (the portions that are not acting as stake pockets, because these are the lower box width areas). {What did he just say?}

Lots of pictures today, not so much narrative. Basically no scraping or surface prep yet, just starting point stuff and some past paint color evidence. I'll add comments ahead of the picture where something should be said.

Under carriage, from the rear. Note the prevalent silver paint under here. And the strengthened steel add-ons above each spring perch.









This is some metal junk up in that frame. Haven't looked too close yet.

[DIVthe

This is a tube, feels like plastic fastened to something (likely for past light wiring). Needs a closer look too.





Back on top, here is one of the more protected areas for original paint (under the flare, above the fender).









And back around front, under the tongue mount top bracket on the front box and frame edge.



The paint evidence were these colors, starting with the original dark rich blue discovered by numerous other Spen Trailer owners.

Blue, Red, Yellow, Silver, Black, White, Reddish Brown, OD Green - with some evidence of two white coats at different times, and a second close to OD Green in there as well.

I looked in the Restoration - Preservation "How To" book and found you can sand blast for a restoration, but can't for a preservation. Scraping, sanding, etc. is okay for a preservation, but no sand blasting. Who makes these rules?

I thought "Damn, this is gonna take some work. If I had only done a restoration!" But my choice has been made. Let's get to work.

Edited by Dave Pete - 04 Oct. 2016 at 1:28pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dave Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Oct. 2016 at 12:44pm
And 63owner - here are a couple more shots of the welds you asked about.

This is the right rear corner.



And one from underneath. Like I said, each side underneath has four welds like this. Two of the four are between cross members 2 and 3.



Once I started scraping it became evident I'd want to remove the fenders after all. Part of that whole thing Chuck (binthere) saw coming - that is to say, he seemed to know what I meant when I said "deep into it".

And really, the fenders needed to come off not just for proper paint prep, but perhaps more importantly for the proper shaping. See how distorted they got over the years?





And that meant removing these bolts. I only broke about half of them.





Before snow flies I'll have to get this thing finished prepped, and sprayed before moving it back outside and getting dear wife's car back in. But I did pick up the paint the other day, so that's moving forward. 

Mom's coming for several weeks/months very soon and that will curtail a lot of work. And today I should really finish up some wood-working on a bedroom closet shelf project.

And there's the whole green house thing - the high winds with the storm the other night had me and Ruth out there in the dark with a screw gun doing damage control. So there's a modification I need to do for each panel before the next wind storm (man - that was a doosie).

Plus I'm trying to get that snow-plow project up and running too. http://www.thecj2apage.com/forums/snow-plow-is-this-for-a-cj3b_topic36911.html 
But the good news is, after playing with that a little more yesterday, I got me a good surprise! Enough of a surprise to say that whole deal will be another project to post in the days to come. I'll start a new thread on it.

Maybe I'll even get back to scraping some on Lil' Spen today. That whole process is ALSO coming right along. But it may be a few days before I get back here. When I do, the scraping will be done and the spraying will get started.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 63owner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Oct. 2016 at 3:04pm
Thanks for the pics Dave. I'm curious about why they would have bolted it in the front but then welded the rear.
1948 CJ2A
1963 CJ3B
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dave Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Oct. 2016 at 5:40pm
Originally posted by 63owner 63owner wrote:

Thanks for the pics Dave. I'm curious about why they would have bolted it in the front but then welded the rear.


The front isn't bolted. The bolts up front that I've posted are to hold on the tongue.

The box and frame (other than the tongue) are all welded together (the first unibodies?)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dave Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct. 2016 at 2:04pm
A few days ago the son-in-law sent me these two photos.





Now to rebuild the portions that had been cut out to bend the tongue into it's "magic bullet" shape.

Because my Spen is missing the original coupler, landing leg, wheels and hub-caps, and because I took the liberty to "modify" this Spen, I decided to make it easier on me and bought this coupler from eTrailer.com


Back in the 90's I had a small homebuilt off-road trailer we pulled behind our '71 Blazer. It was too cool, and used a Bulldog collar-lock hitch. Really liked it. This isn't a Bulldog, but had pretty good reviews. I also bought a tongue jack, chains, and a few other parts for the job that got me free shipping. I am really impressed with eTrailer and their fast effective shipping and customer service regarding the shipping (email updates, etc.)

I'll drill this and bolt it onto the Spen tongue frames, in the event somebody in the future tries to do a restore. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dave Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jan. 2017 at 11:42pm
Yeah. Some of this metal is pretty bad. Thus the preservation instead of a restoration. Stop the rust and get some paint on that will adhere.



But I got the fenders off and the scraping done.



I went deeper on the scraping than originally intended. That was a lot of work too.



Then I hit some particular places with the rust reformer/converter stuff.



And had Ruth help me get it tipped back on its front.



I didn't scrape the bottom, except in a few places. But I ran a wire brush over it and knocked off all the loose. Then reformed that too. The other glossy non-black areas are a brush on converter. Both by Rustoleum. It said that would turn black when dry. You can see the still wet whitish areas in some shots.







Then today I sprayed some rattle-can blue in areas that will be covered once the fenders are installed.



Maybe you can tell I also spent some time hammering those fenders back into a round shape.

Next I'll install the fenders with new hardware. Then it's time to open the gallon can of blue and try my hand at the HPLV sprayer.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 63owner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jan. 2017 at 1:21pm
I'm really enjoying watching your progress Dave. Keep those pics and updates coming.
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I'm glad you're enjoying it Bob.

It was time to get the fenders back on. I had bought new zinc plated hardware. That stuff doesn't accept paint well. I did a quick research on etching; acid was the solution.

There's lots of acid types. I didn't want anything too drastic; didn't want to have it boil and splash me, send off fumes that would make me sick or otherwise unable to continue living. Didn't want to run over to the store for a can of etching primer. It was almost time for breakfast for crying out loud! So I pulled the white vinegar off the shelf that was labeled "contaminated" from a previous project and soaked the hardware in a pool of it for about 30 minutes. We'll see how well that performed.

Here it is after a hot water bath.



Once I got the fenders bolted back on and stuff aligned and tightened, I gave each spot a shot of metal primer.





Then draped more tarps and prepped to spray paint.

Years ago I bought a Craftsman HVLP suction sprayer for about $60. I used it once on the exterior of a cast-iron tub we refinished and installed in the master suite. Sandblasted and sprayed that tub under a poly-dome I built over it with PVC pipe right there in the room! Wild days. But it was a quart of heavier enamel paint that I didn't take effort to strain and it shot "splurts" every so often. Been afraid of that gun ever since. Seriously, I just haven't had the spray need to try it again.

But I got it back out and once again tried to understand those "early days" foreign provided instructions in the 5 point font, and gave it a try-see with my new gallon of Diamond Vogel Finium paint.

For a humorous (but very lengthy) read on that stuff, check out this link.

It wouldn't pick up. So I put the strained paint back in the can and washed (it's water base) everything up good and put straight water in the cup and tried again.

This time the system picked up the fluid and sprayed it there in the laundry sink. It gave me the opportunity to adjust the screws and settings and get the feel for all that. But, it had a timed interruption in the spray. Spray, stop, spray, stop, spray, stop. Like a disc was turning inside and as regular as a heart beat, it would begin and end spray. Weird. I'd noticed according to the diagram a small washer was missing. That's probably it.

So I went over to HF and laid down $14 plus tax for this little gravity feed unit.

The instructions (and the top online review) says you HAVE to clean the gun before use. I did. There's a white silicon gunk all over inside behind the spray tip. Oh, and you better buy the thin wrench too like it says because if you don't, your water pump pliers are gonna bugger the visuals a little. And it ain't just any wrench either, it's a specialty. (See how they get you?) I don't know why they would feel the need to use silicon solids for an anti-corrosive or testing material (like it says), instead of, say - an oil based grease that rinses out easy with mineral spirits. And don't believe the instructions when they say mineral spirits will clean out silicon. It won't. If it's silicon, you have to scrape. Period. I find Naptha is the best solvent to help scrape silicon (learned that on my camper project). By the way, let me say again - "DON"T USE SILICON".

Anyway, once the unit was de-contaminated, I set to work on the water spray testing in the laundry sink again. This time I got a good solid test and was able to play with the adjustments. Thereafter I used paint. And right there in the garage, I sprayed the underside of Lil Spen, with the glare of the overhead lights on my lenses, one hand on the sprayer, the other holding a trouble light pointed at the project, so I could see. I used the respirator and my safety goggles (which at the required distance I can't see out of any better than my bifocals, but at least I had side protection).

It's kind of a unique experience spray painting by touch, let me tell you!





Now it's time to move Ruth's car "Smiley" back out into the cold and get the trailer placed for the remaining paint!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 48willys Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jan. 2017 at 1:30pm
Nice job on the Spen and the Travel Queen.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dave Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan. 2017 at 7:06pm
Thank you David.

So I got the trailer down off its nose, I mean me and Ruth. That was after a full clean out and emptying of the two stall side of the garage - my new paint booth. Poor Smiley (Ruth's car) and Lil' Willy both had to spend the night outside and from the look of things, will have to camp out for another couple nights anyway. Neither one looks worse for wear and in fact, both have kind of a rosey glow in their headlights. I think the fresh air, or the brisk wind, has been good for them. 'Course it might of also been something about the sunrise, who knows.

I noticed two things right off the bat. I got the fenders on backwards. Whoops! So I got that fixed.

Also, it became apparent quite quickly I hadn't yet scraped the inside of the box, except for the floor. Dang! So there was THAT extra work yesterday. I remembered the weather had turned and we got Smiley back in the garage back ago before I started in on Lil' Willy's plow project, and that whole elective surgery thing. Anyway, all scraped nice now. Great patina, if'n you know what I mean.

Next was the remaining spray on rust reformer/converter stuff, and then the brush on. All done now. Ready for blue tomorrow. Some of the brush on is still wet you'll note.

Notice the holes in the bottom rear fenders. Four small where there was mud flaps attached. And two in a horizontal line right, three in a vertical left. Driver's side tail light? Right side small size license plate?








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So back to the trailer tongue u-channels. If you scroll back a short distance to the 10/13/16 post, you'll see where the son-in-law has the frame channels on his welding bench. Before and after shots of when he cut the horizontal support plates out and straightened the channels.

In those shots you'll see all the holes and wedge cut outs to fill and repair. Lots of work. But the son-in-law gets it. This isn't about completing as fast as possible. Not about easy replacement with new materials. This is about saving the old, reusing and salvaging - keeping its character. It's kind of like barn wood.

Here it is after he filled the holes and cutouts and after I scraped and otherwise prepped them for paint.





He said it took a lot of banging into shape. Look close at the fills and grinds.





After a great deal of scraping the chippy paint off and a nice little scrub with the wire brush, I got them sprayed with the rust reformer/converter.



And incidentally, one leg is about 3/4" longer than the other (from the factory - that's after cutting off the extra pieces that were welded on sometime in past). We decided to get them back onto the trailer before a final fitting to the hitch attachment - whether welded or bolted. 

Now I'll hang those in the paint booth and get some blue on them too, along with the trailer today.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dave Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jan. 2017 at 1:22pm
The first thing to do then was to take lessons learned from painting the underside and prep a better area for the main spraying.

I moved the two cars out of the two stall - as I had said, clearing that space of everything else that moved fairly easily, draped tarps between that and the taller single stall (housing the truck camper under restore) and over the opening into the side shop. I placed shop lights on the floor around the perimeter for more light on the subject. Lastly, I placed drop cloths beneath and added a couple of fans as well as opening doors at two locations for the outside wind to pass through and ventilate the area.



Then I sprayed. It all went very well. I still think my adjustments are improper, or perhaps the equipment isn't up to the task, because the spray flowed too little and too slow. Toward the end I think it was doing better, but it was still feeling slower than what I'm used to with a spray can, although I was getting a much bigger fan pattern and that has to be considered.

All in all it did go well, and too slow is better than too much! I had no runs, and no fear of runs. The cheapy HF sprayer has some plastic parts and other minor things that make me think I want to get online, locate the missing washer small part for the higher quality Craftsman sprayer and give it another try.

This has all been a practice for spraying the off white for my camper project. I have enough confidence now, so I am feeling much better about that job. You'll see some of it in these next pictures.

Also, the Finium "off-the-shelf" at Diamond Vogel was a semi-gloss base, basically sold for buildings. When I get the off white for the camper I'll buy their special order gloss base. The semi-gloss on Lil' Spen looks okay, but I now believe the gloss would have looked better. But - that's just called experience.





These pictures were after cleanup. Boy that over-spray dust on the floor is fine! Even with all the prep the cleanup was a big job.

Also sprayed the tongue channels.



Then after drying to the touch, I got wheels back on and Lil' Spen parked back under Lil' Queeny's cab over. Able once again to get the other cars back in out of that dang wind!



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dave Pete Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jan. 2017 at 1:10pm
So here's with the tongue channels installed.



And note how the inboard holes were used, as opposed to the outboard holes which were drilled when the earlier tongue modification was done (see early pictures in this thread if you don't remember how buggered that was).



And here's an example of the two sides mounted to the undercarriage.



You might notice I'm using zinc plated hardware, un-etched and un-painted, as opposed to how I treated the hardware for the fender mounts (etched and painted). There's two possible reasons for that. One - the first (on the fenders) was part of the original "restoration" concept, while the latter is the first parts of my upcoming "modifications", which are going to include additional zinc bling. And Two - I had my fun with the etching and painting and now I can move beyond that. I'm not exactly sure which reason is the case.

Now you may remember in a past post, the one side of the tongue frame was longer than the other side (by about 3/4"). So I installed these frame rails in both positions, finding the slightly shorter discrepancy in this configuration. Even so, there was just under 3/4" to trim for a proper fitting to my new coupler.

Note the scribe marks for trimming on both pieces.



And of course, this was all considered after careful measurements and positioning of the rails themselves in proper relationship to the trailer box and mounts.



A more significant fitting matter was the fact that the trailer frame and the couple A-shapes were not exactly the same angle! And using the outward bolt holes on the front wall of the trailer box would simply have worsened the angle. So there was trimming needed here too.

Here's the coupler, clamped into place for detailed measurement and scribing. And I measured from an exact spot on the coupler, to both the front corners of the box, as well as the pivot points on the spring perches. This places the ball exactly the correct spacing to the axle axis so the trailer will track correctly.



Notice the angle between the coupler, and the tongue framing. Here's a close-up.



After scribing and cutting off the excess material, I measured and removed the appropriate material from the bottoms of the rails, resulting in this.



You can see where I touched up with a file. Then I repositioned the coupler, planned and marked for the four mounting bolt locations, then drilled. 



I also measured and cut to length four spacers, from some schedule 40 pipe stock, that will be placed between the coupler walls, and the channel walls to prevent collapsing the channel and allow for a tight fastening. 

Then I got some primer on the bare metal areas and set that all aside for additional paint touch-up.
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