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01-03-2021, 10:05 PM
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#1
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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My ground up rebuild on my 1975 Ventura
So this past year got a steal of a deal on my trailer but it did need a lot of work. I like fixing old things so why not tackle a 2 year project.
The frame was broken and kind of repaired at one time, but it need a better repair. Some of the fiberglass was rotted away at the door but not to bad I thought. Inside had some water damage from the window leaks, so out came the whole interior and split the trailer from the frame.
Bought a welder and started the repair on the frame. Filled all the holes with weld, Replaced the whole front section and put a new hitch on. Installed new mounts for the body so I don't have to drill the frame. Added some new supports and ran out of time with weather. Ill add some pics of the progress.
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01-03-2021, 10:07 PM
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#2
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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Just some more pictures of the progress.
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04-01-2021, 05:21 PM
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#3
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Member
Name: Vanessa
Trailer: Ventura 73’
British Columbia
Posts: 34
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Admiring your reinforcement of the door! I attempted to smooth ours out with fibre bondo but it still cracked.. so once it warms up I'll be glassing around the door too.
Looks good!
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05-20-2021, 06:28 PM
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#4
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by murffie
Admiring your reinforcement of the door! I attempted to smooth ours out with fibre bondo but it still cracked.. so once it warms up I'll be glassing around the door too.
Looks good!
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yah the door repair has been the biggest and most time invested so far. I am using all top quality stuff from my boating store in town so it is expensive but I am deep into it so why not. Using epoxy with glass beads mixed in for filler as that is what they suggested at the boat shop
Almost warm enough to start again.
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07-28-2021, 07:40 PM
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#5
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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quick little update. Got the frame totally done and under the body. Used Interlux paint for the bottom and whole thing when ready. Had to remove and weld in new mounts for the axle and move it forward a bit. Upgraded axle to a trailing wheel. Slow and steady wins right. Just working on glassing the inside of the body now where it had broken through, and will add more glass where I plan to use the newly welded on bracket for mounting.
And I put some one sided sticky foam that is used for truck canopies on the frame to sit in between the frame and the body.
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03-15-2022, 06:06 PM
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#6
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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Just a update on the trailer. Got it into another garage for the winter and finally got some work done on it. Mounted it back on the trailer and added about 10 new tie down points on the frame for the mounting. I am doing a belly band delete so pictures of that will come. I split the body to redo the roof and cleaned off all the gelcoat or what ever it was the used at factory and put 2 new layers of glass and epoxy resin. Will try to post pictures of that too. While apart I replaced all the wood in the middle of the body as the old stuff was kind of rotten.
Got the door about 90% done. Had to build whole new door from scratch and decided to add a window in the door and new modern latch. Decided against putting the old furnace back in and will go with a diesel heater. Going to be closing all the holes for the fridge and furnace this summer and going with a 12 volt fridge inside and probably solar system eventually. So here are some pictures of the work I have done.
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03-15-2022, 06:19 PM
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#7
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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Don't know why the pictures always turn when I upload but if someone can let me know I can fix it later.
Oh yah, so I built an exact frame for the door so I could build the door to fix exactly. Was a huge benefit but did take a long time. The door build as of now is like 20 hours. The one picture of the window screw is from after I got it out. I used a die grinder with a cut wheel and cut the screw down and than just punched it out. Worked great as I broke a lot of the screws.
Just a quick google and found out how to fix the pictures.
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03-15-2022, 08:06 PM
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#8
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Member
Name: Vanessa
Trailer: Ventura 73’
British Columbia
Posts: 34
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Looking good! Ours is under a tarp currently.
I'm jealous of your roof work. Our previous owner glassed 2x6 (cut to the curve of the roof) to the ceiling. I couldn't bring myself to pry them off without damaging the roof.
We ended up buying a custom door which is yet to go on. As soon as snow melts!
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08-16-2022, 06:41 PM
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#9
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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A little update so far this summer. With life happening this trailer gets as much time as I can but it has been a long process. As I have been going, I decided to redo all the wood on the inside so that's been a lot of work. I have replaced all the window frames on the inside and started to tie in all the new framing. Building the truss's 1 at a time now and have a few left to do. Have the new window protector for the front window done and getting paint now.
Have 3 coats of paint on the whole trailer and will be doing the last coat this week. Will be going with a 12 volt fridge/freezer and a diesel heater for the trailer so I decided to plug up the big holes from the fridge and furnace. Won't be done this year but will be sealed for outside storage.
Also did the belly band delete. Wanted the trailer sealed as possible. Oh and also on every window, the door frame and vent frame applied new fiberglass strips 2 inched wide to strengthen the openings.
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03-30-2023, 07:01 PM
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#10
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Junior Member
Name: Bruce
Trailer: Ventura
British Columbia
Posts: 5
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question bout framing . how did you do with recreating the Ceiling/roof arch ?
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04-08-2023, 09:45 AM
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#11
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ventura
question bout framing . how did you do with recreating the Ceiling/roof arch ?
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Turns out I didn't take a picture of the jig I built. But what I did was take and old truss out and lay it on a 2x4 and trace the arch. Cut that out and covered the arch with poly so the resin wouldn't stick when curing. To build the new trusses I cut strips from a 2x4 to a thickness of half the total thickness of the final truss. Took 2 of the strips and tried wood glue for the first ones but didn't like it so used thickened epoxy for the rest of them. Glued them up 1 at a time and took my time trimming them to fit. I replaced all the studs throughout the trailer so did that first so the truss could sit perfect.
I did take pictures of the install so Ill add those. Again 1 at time and it turned out great. When I did it 1 at a time I could use left over epoxy like a caulking to add more strength to the already installed trusses.
Almost ready to bring it home now and start on the interior. Got all the insulation in and will post more pictures when I get it home.
The 2 wood pieces on the outside of the truss I would use to put pressure on the truss to hold it and the middle piece would put the arch back in the roof. The wood ones I would screw together every time to put the pressure perfect and unscrew when I was done. Worked great.
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04-08-2023, 11:02 AM
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#12
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Junior Member
Name: Bruce
Trailer: Ventura
British Columbia
Posts: 5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TacomaJax
Turns out I didn't take a picture of the jig I built. But what I did was take and old truss out and lay it on a 2x4 and trace the arch. Cut that out and covered the arch with poly so the resin wouldn't stick when curing. To build the new trusses I cut strips from a 2x4 to a thickness of half the total thickness of the final truss. Took 2 of the strips and tried wood glue for the first ones but didn't like it so used thickened epoxy for the rest of them. Glued them up 1 at a time and took my time trimming them to fit. I replaced all the studs throughout the trailer so did that first so the truss could sit perfect.
I did take pictures of the install so Ill add those. Again 1 at time and it turned out great. When I did it 1 at a time I could use left over epoxy like a caulking to add more strength to the already installed trusses.
Almost ready to bring it home now and start on the interior. Got all the insulation in and will post more pictures when I get it home.
The 2 wood pieces on the outside of the truss I would use to put pressure on the truss to hold it and the middle piece would put the arch back in the roof. The wood ones I would screw together every time to put the pressure perfect and unscrew when I was done. Worked great.
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Well Jaxs this is fantastic !! I now have your experience to learn from , and someone to share my trials and errors with . I will get some pics on the site this weekend . those new pics of yours are worth thousands of words and indeed your description is invaluable . Kind regards from Bruce in Victoria BC
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08-21-2023, 04:53 PM
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#13
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Junior Member
Name: Meg
Trailer: Monarch Ventura
ON
Posts: 7
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How do you attach the wood frame to the shell?
I feel silly asking this but it seems like everyone already knows this and doesn't mention it. How do you attach the wooden frame and trusses to the fibreglass shell? Is there a specific product folks recommend? Thanks!
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08-21-2023, 09:02 PM
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#14
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Senior Member
Name: Dave W
Trailer: Trillium 4500 - 1976, 1978, 1979, 1300 - 1977, and a 1973
Alberta
Posts: 6,926
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Megjarvis
I feel silly asking this but it seems like everyone already knows this and doesn't mention it. How do you attach the wooden frame and trusses to the fibreglass shell? Is there a specific product folks recommend? Thanks!
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The same polyester resin that is used in the fibreglass. I would use glass around some of the wood frame to really secure it to the shell, but I have never worked on anything other than Trilliums, which use glassed in wood blocks to attach stuff to the shell like the front shelves. Otherwise they have wood around the inside of the windows and some plywood, in the floor, sandwiched between the outer shell and the fibreglass top layer of the floor.
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10-04-2023, 03:39 PM
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#15
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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2023 update
So did get some work done on the trailer this summer. Between work and life I wasn't able to get the time to completely finish. Next year should be the year. This has turned into a big rebuild, and I have decided I would never do it again lol. Here are some pictures of the stuff I got done this summer.
Other stuff I finished but no picture, finally got the brakes hooked up and they work just need to be adjusted. Installed hitch box to hold all the jacks. Got to test the wiring for the lights inside and the new outside light. All good. Had to take all the windows out, just the glass sections and silicone around all the corners. The seal that I found was a little smaller and they leaked. Now the whole trailer is sealed great. Install shore power and water hook ups on the driver side, need to finish the inside to hook up to tank and faucet.
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10-04-2023, 03:40 PM
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#16
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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More pictures.
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01-26-2024, 10:57 AM
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#17
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Junior Member
Trailer: 1974 Ventura
Edmonton, AB
Posts: 19
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Hi Chris. Looks good and looks like you might be camping in it this summer.
I'm curious about the axle you used. I'm going to replace mine as well as I'm sure there is no spring left in it. Did a little looking online and found this Flexride brand. Wondering if that was what you had used.
I'm in Edmonton too so maybe we could meet up sometime and talk Ventura renos.
Thanks,
Larry
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01-28-2024, 02:39 PM
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#18
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Junior Member
Name: Chris
Trailer: Ventura
Edmonton
Posts: 15
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Hey Larry,
For the axle, you being in Edmonton works good. I took the old axle to Alberta spring and they measured it up. I had to modify the specs a bit for mounting a bit different. They sent the measurements to city spring so you could probably just go straight to them. Custom built to order and was about $750 ish with brakes. I went 2500lb axle and it is a torsion axle. I removed all the old mounting hardware and welded in a new piece of tubbing. There's a picture early on in the tread you can see it. The picture has my lawnmower in it.
Yes hopefully this year I will be camping in it. Maybe do a meet up or find one of the site meet ups. Would be cool to see all the other rebuilds out there.
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01-30-2024, 09:17 AM
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#19
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Junior Member
Trailer: 1974 Ventura
Edmonton, AB
Posts: 19
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Thanks Chris. It probably is the Flexride as that is what I found on the City Spring website.
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