Rucio's Winter Makeover

[Carol H]

Jen, its looking GOOD! You go girl!
When your finished can I borrow your Dad and Uncle - I only have a few things I would like to change on the trailer

[jen b]

Carol, I think he'd fire me if I did that!

I frequently call and start conversations with "hey Dad, I have another idea!" and it usually involves some ridiculous amount of work but we also usually make it happen.

The other day I said, "hey Dad, I have an really good idea! You know how the floor space is really small? Well, what if we made a slideout! Wouldn't that be awesome?" and he just kind of ignored me.

[jen b]

Originally Posted by h.mike

Jen: Do you recall which HF soda blaster you used? Also did it require a separate compressor? Kind of basic questions but I really like the idea of soda blasting. thanks Mike

Sorry, missed this earlier! I don't entirely recall, but it was the model in the neighborhood of a hundred dollars? And it does require an air compressor. You have to do some assembly out of the box but it's not too bad.

[jen b]

More photos....

1 what the rear used-to-be-a-flange is looking like

2 the top, not yet Bondo-ed

3 interior

4 exterior


I am pretty happy about the de-flangification. I realized that the two outer hulls are held together with about a 3-inch strip of fiberglass cloth-n-resin from the inside, which certainly is strong enough. But now we've made it a whole fiberglass sandwich by adding the 6-inch strip to the outside.

Getting closer to being ready for paint, maybe another month or so.

[Pat B Ohio]

WOW! Every time I look here there is another cool mod. Do you think I could deflange my Uhaul? That would open up my paint options......
We bow to you Lady of the Grinder.

[jen b]

Pat, thusly with my bopping you on the head with my Lady of the Grinder Bondo Wand, you may proceed...

It really is not difficult as long as you're feeling confident with the fiberglass patching methods.

It's a reasonable guess to say that the UHaul probably has a pretty similar interior binding-together of the outer hulls, so I don't see why it would not work. Like we're going to have with the Burro, you'd end up with a faint remaining ridgeline, but to me that's no big deal. It's more than worth having the additional rainproofing and structural stability.

Thanks to Donna for planting the idea in my head!

[DannyH]

Lookin good. That last image reminds me of a cow trailer paint job. I can't wait to see the finished silver/grey.

[rabbit]

Wonderful foto-documentation, Jen! I'd rather do the documentation than do the doing of, that's for certain. Don't envy you the glass work. Maybe the five yrs. I spent in the "itching game" when younger put me off it permanently. But believe me, I DO understand, as does every fiberglass and body shop mechanic.

jack

[jen b]

jack, since my day job involves sitting at a desk pushing emails and ideas around, this is terrific fun for me despite the dust and mess. I'm having a ball, but I can see how it would get a bit old if I had to do this all the time on other people's stuff.

Another thing I have decided: NO MORE ADHESIVE PRODUCTS! No more than strictly necessary, anyway. After many hours with the heat gun and scraper and scraping and sanding sticky residue, I would shake my fist at 3M if only I could lift it.

[ThomasE]

Looks a whole lot nicer without that flange. All these fiberglass trailers should come that way, without any vertical flange, belly band etc... Guess it's too much work for the manufacturers to remove and finish.

[P. Raz]

Quite the project. Like Jim, I envy the space. With the windows out, door off, ect. have you given any thought to lifting the shell off the frame, sliding the frame out from under and painting it. The shell will never be any lighter. Raz

[cpaharley2008]

And do not forget to Soda blast...Heck, you will have a new camper by then.

[jen b]

I'm ready to soda blast EVERYTHING.

p raz, about a year ago right after I got the trailer I had a new floor put in, and at that point they de-rusted and painted the frame (oh, and welded that craked bit...). It is not exactly an elegant frame but we'll give the visible parts a fresh coat of paint this spring.

Thomas E, I think you got bingo on that. It's going to involve significantly more labor to trim and cover the outside hull seam than it would to just stick that plastic trim on it. I am pretty sure the flange's function in terms of why it's still there is cost efficiency.

[jen b]

The new door latch, the one I've gotten to replace the old L-400, has a new door inset and it's looking good. My dad totally resculpted the latch inset that had fit the oblong, horizontally oriented L-400, now to fit the squarish Fastec. It was a a lot of work involving sticking vinyl supports inside the door and cutting out chunks of the door to rearrange.