Crappy Old Trailer Rebuild...

[ruffgeezer]

Spurred on by @mat_the_cat's camping trailer post, I thought I'd fill you in on how I came to be custodian of this crappy little plywood box...

 

I got a call from a friend back in Essex, he'd bought a house that had had a trailer left stuffed down the side of it, did I want it, it was free!

 

Handily I'd been offered a reasonable fare to deliver an older couple to a family wedding in the Southern arse of Cambridgeshire, at the time I was running this rather lovely looking, but horribly shitty Xantia Exclusive;

 

 

It went well enough but always seemed to have some bloody thing wrong with it! I should have kept the scruffy 1.9td I had before it if I'm honest, but I digress, we were collecting shit trailers from Harold Hill...

 

We arrived mid afternoon and it became immediately obvious that my friend had done his usual trick of no preparation whatsoever, the trailer still sat up the side of his house, no lights apparent, a flat, perished tyre and full of all the crap he'd never got around to taking to the dump. A good start it was not.

 

We took of in search of an open tyre shop, one which held the 155/80-12 we required, and luckily a partworn was bought for just a tenner. We shouldn't have stopped for the cup of tea.

 

On our return back to fit the wheel, we thought we should stop off and buy a trailer board, but as it turned out, 3.55pm on a Sunday is just too late to be let into Halfords in Romford, so we were stuck, a trip home in the dark with an unlit trailer...

 

Well as luck would have it, we found the remains of the trailer's original lights, the indicators worked, and with a bit of bodgery, we managed to coax one sidelight and both brakelights into life, we could make it back now.

 

What followed was a very rattly journey, one that involved turning up at an outdoor wedding reception with something that looked like it had been towed out of a hedge, but as bad as it looked, it was still attached when we got home that evening, a bonus of sorts.

 

 

Now my friend Stu told me he'd replaced the side panels with some scaffold boards he found in a skip, all I have to say about that is I don't want to go on any scaffolding he's been building! Here it is behind the Vitara I'd bought as a winter ride, way back in 2010, the "scaffold boards" are in fact soggy plywood that wasn't quite big enough for the job...

 

 

At some point, I tore it down to the bare chassis and replaced all the floor with proper scaffold boards kindly donated by my Father-in-Law, those pictures have escaped, so imagine a naked shit trailer surrounded by saw dust, mouldy plywood and butchered scaffold boards, the sides I relented, would have to wait.

 

The trailer had taken to living at my parent's house as they had a driveway big enough to hide it on, and during this time, it gained some interesting mud guards courtesy of my dad:

 

 

The problem with this was they weighed about as much as what was left of the side panels, and they flapped about enormously every time the trailer went out, I also invested in a more legal light solution, but apparently not a number plate!

 

Incidentaly, this was the second large cement mixed that has been in the trailer, the first one was directly responsible for the floor needing replacement!

 

Stay tuned for the trailer's strip down and build up, if of course, you can stay awake!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Interestingly, I unloaded my new old petrol cement mixer from my ancient timber trailer earlier. It fits down the side of the house a treat, but is really tired. I've been toying with the idea of getting a replacement built, with similar spec, but taller sides and drop down tailboard, and reuse suspension and hitch setup. Interested to see what you've done with yours.

[ruffgeezer]

Once again there appears to be a pictoral gap in the story...

 

It was on the return journey from delivering the cement mixer to my father in laws house, about half a mile away that the trailer again disgraced itself, I had to stop twice when heading home to collect parts that had fallen off...

It was beyond the time that I did something about the great soggy mess.

 

I remembered some time ago, when bidding on my custom "shit within 20 miles and under £150" search that I'd bought a lot of wood, well two lots actually, with a total outlay of about £11. Amongst this was nearly enough 6x2 to rebody the trailer with something a little more purposeful than the previous effort.

 

Yes I'd said nearly enough hadn't I? Well a chance conversation with the neighbour to the garage I work out provided a source of more timber, with the only downside being a crossed line in communication, I'd wanted the 6x2 cut to 62" long with a 45deg cut across the end... You can see from the following picture where exactly that went wrong!

 

 

I had an attempt at joining some of the now too short beams to make up for the missing length, but sadly the lenght warped across the joint, and didn't end up having as much strength as I'd have hoped:

 

 

Putting that drama to one side for a moment, I thought I would start work on a new tailgate, you will see here a reoccuring theme here, as it too is made out of old shit I found in my garage.

The frame for the tailgate shown here was made from a broken "Smartboard" that I bought by mistake as a lot of two in an auction, having looked at a grainy picture the size of a postage stamp, I'd assumed they were just plain white boards...oops! Not only were they not, I couldn't get them both in Trev the C15, so I had to tie one to the roof instead!

I ended up dismantling both boards, and keeping the whiteboard element of one, along with a lot of metal brackets, beams and caps, the whiteboard still lives on the wall of the garage to this day.

Anyway I digress again, I had a pair of steel beams with enough lenght to make a tailgate frame if I cut carefully.

 

Here is the result of chopping about a broken whiteboard until it fits on a trailer found down the side of a house:

 

With the cuts made, my father in law took the frame to work and buzzed it together with the welder, he made an outstanding job of it I must say, so work moved on to finding some hinges, which in this case I salvaged off of our old garden gate, the tailgate can be removed by opening it, and sliding it off of the hinges to one side.

 

 

Skipping ahead again, I wanted a fairly sturdy, but light skin to the tailgate, and luckily at work we have a pile of aluminium offcuts, one of which had just enough in it to be used as the panel for the tailgate. I measured the size of the frame, took of 1/4" around each edge and marked out the panel, I cut the aluminium with a plasma cutter which gives a reasonable cut on old ali, along with a lot of noise!

 

 

The only new parts I've had to buy so far are the anti-luce catches to hold the tailgate shut, these were bought from ebay for about 8 quid and came complete with the brackets to fit over them, an afternoon of pillar drill action saw them and the panel trial fitted to the frame, the coach bolts I found in a tub in my garage, I think they came on some shelves I bought from an auction!

 

 

As far as the fabrication goes, that's about up to date, the trailer is still at my father in laws, waiting for me to bring it back and finish the timber properly (I've 3 new lengths to replace the incorrectly cut ones) and the tailgate is in pieces again:

 

 

I hope you guys aren't too bored reading all this!

[Dave_Q]

Not bored at all, I think trailers are relevant to many peoples interests and based on the prices for a semi functioning one, fixing up an old shonker could easily be me in the future.

[mat_the_cat]

Same here! And it makes me feel less weird posting my thread up...

[DVee8]

I like a little trailer trash.

 

I have a couple of photos of my crappy trailer rebuild if anyone would like to see them?(don't want to thread crash).

[ruffgeezer]

i don't mind if you thread crash, perhaps we could make this a hold all thread for the crap trailers of auto shite?

[DVee8]

Ok then I bought this trailer Easter 14 from a bloke that lives along from my inlaws.

 

I took lots of photos but photobucket seem to have ditched them for me.

 

From what i can find. The tops were covered in red carpet and the sides in bathroom lino type stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

My oldest boy and I stripped the carpets,cleaned and hovered the trailer.

 

We removed the lights and reflectors and cleaned them.

 

We removed the brackets and hooks,sanded them and repainted them.

 

Removed the wheels,sanded them back and repainted,repainted the wheel arches,and the frame black.

 

Greased the axel and both hubs,checked the bearings all seemed fine.

 

We repaired and filled any area's that needed repair.

 

The I re-stained the trailer.

 

 

 

 

 

We gave it a newish grey top then filled it with crap and stashed it at my mothers place.

 

The problem i have with it,is the height of the tow bar on the car compaired to the height of the trailer.The tow bar could use a drop down block to level things out.

[eddyramrod]

Oh I do like Trailer Tales!  I've done the same kind of thing myself, but sadly, no photos are available.

[Stanky]

I've got a festering old trailer that I picked up locally for £20, one tyre had come off the rim and the spare didn't hold air so it was dragged back to Stanky towers late one night, I've managed to get it legal again with lights, wheels and stuff and it does get used from time to time - It needs to have all the wood re-done and will put some pics up in due course when I do.

 

They are alarmingly expensive in good shape, which is why I jumped at the chance when one came up for £20!

[ruffgeezer]

I want to know what pcd my wheels are, ideally to go up an inch in size to 13" for cheaper tyres.

[eddyramrod]

They look like mk1 Escort wheels from here.  Have you got an old 13" Ford wheel about you to try on the studs?

[ruffgeezer]

Did Mk1 escorts come on 12" steelies? Can I sell them for OMG scenetax!

[eddyramrod]

They did, but unless you can find someone doing a factory-resto on an 1100L or a van, those wheels would have been the first things slung over the nearest hedge.  Everyone wanted dartboards....

[mat_the_cat]

Are the dartboards worth anything? I have two, on an old caravan of all things!

[eddyramrod]

They might well be, to a Cortina owner, but the RS 4-spoke seems to be the wheel of choice for the OSF brigade, if they can't convince themselves Minilites will work.  It might be worth holding onto them while the fashion cycle turns, they should come back in sooner or later.

[ruffgeezer]

Splashed a bit more paint about on the frame and had a quick pre-assemble to make sure it all still fits together:

 

 

[eddyramrod]

I bought a pair of tyres yesterday to use on Hyacinth.  They'll have to be swopped off the wheels they came on, which are 13" Fiesta van steels.  Any good to you?  I'll keep them until collection can be arranged, if so.  You could even have them with 165/70 tyres on.

[ruffgeezer]

Ooo, I'll have a measure up of the trailer wheels, but I must confess I don't think they are 4x108 PCD

[ruffgeezer]

Final paint put on the tailgate, I've just to attach the reflective triangles, then this part is finished;

 

 

Still toying with either trailer board or permenant lights under the body...

[colnerov]

 Hi, The PCD looks like 4x4" so you're looking for wheels from Mini, Minor, Viva, Imp and Reliant Regal. All in a variety from 10" to 15".

 

 Colin

[ruffgeezer]

Thanks for that, I'll see what I can dig up!