Hello,
I wanted to start documenting this process here. This site and its members have already been invaluable to me and I have learned a lot. I wanted to share my project with you as its progresses and I hope to help others who want to do something similar. I also am hoping that our "local" experts here chime in and offer their wisdom and help me too
So here's the start........
About 3 years ago my in-laws came across (kinda by fluke) a guy who was selling the
surfside. They have also been interested in
Fiberglass RV's and have owned a
boler and now 3 or 4 different bigfoots. We all pretty much spend most of our summers camping as we enjoy being outside. My father-in-law and I have worked on vehicles and home Renos together often and thought that "restoring" a
fiberglass trailer would be a really fun little project.
So we bought it with the intention of having a neat little project to work on. It was basically just a shell. It had a makeshift bed out of plywood and a bad
paint job... but to me, it was a great blank slate.
At home after picking it up
Now not long after we bought it and drove it home, my wife and I had our baby boy. Finding some extra time to devote to the trailer become a challenge so progress was a bit slow at first.
One of the first things we did was an inspection of the frame and
axle. It was fairly apparent to me that the torsion
axle was the original and was completely shot. It had almost no suspension travel at all in it, and as I would be towing this with my new baby on board, safety is paramount.
We pulled the
fiberglass tub off of the frame, found a good deal on a leaf spring
axle with
brakes, bought some 3500lb leaf springs, and remove all of the surface rust from the frame. I thought it would be a good idea to reinforce the frame toward the front where the "kink" is as I read that was a weak point. I made some "fish eye" plates and welded them to the frame in the appropriate spot. We also had a spare fresh water tank laying around, not sure of the size but it was too big, and I thought this would be the best time to incorporate it into the frame. I got some angle and flat stock and welded some supports right behind the axle to accommodate the fresh water tank.
We put the tub back on the frame and secured it with new lag bolts. also decided one day to pull out the
jalousie windows. The cranks were not allowing the
windows to close fully, and the screens were not in good shape.
I bought new cranks from a vintage trailer supply and began replacing them, the screens, and polishing the frame to make them shine.
New on the left - Old on the right. Not a huge improvement but looks better close up.
Now at this point, life got in the way.... I know it happens. There was always a reason to not work on the trailer. It sat outside in a carport at my in-laws, and in my downtime, I would do things like plan out the
electrical system, even draw schematics and source supplies I would want and use. Mostly the weather and crazy temperatures we were experiencing made it difficult. We also had a summer that was plagued with mosquitoes and made being outside for 5 minutes unbearable. (Fort Langly BC, by the way. We are very close to the Fraser River)
About 2 weeks ago, a friend asked me how the project was coming and I felt bad that there had been very little progress. I think this motivated me. I am not usually the type to leave projects incomplete. I have had enough and decided to bring the trailer home, so I can get it done!
I live in a townhome with a tandem garage. The garage door is almost 7' tall. I read online that if you get some dollies or smaller wheels, this trailer will fit. I knew that since we put in a leaf spring axle it was sitting taller and that the freshwater tank below also made it have lower clearance than normal.
One night I towed it home and I was determined. My plan was to remove the axle and drop the trailer down onto some appliance dollies. Once I was as low as I thought I could make it I began to slowly move it into the garage. I got about 2 feet in then realized that it wasn't going to happen. The dollies were on the water tank and that was making it still too tall. Thankfully due to my bracket design, removing the tank was not that hard. This brought the trailer down another 3 inches or so which was exactly what I needed.
Now I could not stand to look at the condition of the interior walls. The PO had painted some of the ensolite and removed large sections as well. It was also very stained and looked to have some surface mold growing as well. I thought about ripping it all out and replacing it but after much research, it seemed better to try and save what I could. Most of the missing pieces would be hidden in the closet or cabinets. I found a "closed cell foam" from amazon and used some 3M spray adhesive to attach it to the walls. Scrubbing the old black residue from the fiberglass was a huge pain. A lot of time and patience.
Once all of the ensolite and amazon foam was in place, I went about trying to find a good seam tape. Seemed like some people just use chalk. I actually like the look of having the seam visible so I decided against it. I read that someone had some success with a "linen tape" from Lee valley. So off I went and gave it a try. I used some spare ensolite to test adhesion. I tried a hot glue gun but found it did not stick all that well. I then tried more of the 3M spray adhesive and it worked great! I taped off the areas of the wall that i did not want glue on and off I went.
This is updated to date now as of writing this. 10/18/22. I am looking forward to some rapid progress on the trailer now that it is in my garage. I can work right beside all of my tools in a temperature-controlled environment.
The next step will be
painting the interior walls!