My Second Belly Band Thread

[thrifty bill]

Seems like if you flatten out the bulges and seal it from the outside, then the remaining clips shouldn't be a problem? Removing them is more work. (More of a question than a statement of fact for sure).

Belly band is on my list of projects this winter, so I am constantly looking for tips and advice! I'm in the "collect knowledge" phase. Windows come first regardless. Waiting for the butyl tape to show up.

[John in Michigan]

thrifty bill, I tend to agree that its not critical to remove the plates. Having said that I removed all but 1 or 2 of the 44 or so plates. Here's what I found:

- quite a few plates had deteriorated to just rusty granules and powder
- the easiest way to extract the intact plates was to use the dremel cut off wheel to cut the plate in half horizontally, then extract the halves with suitable pliers

My 4500 actually has a thick, sturdy fiberglass backing band and thick outer body. I was able to flatten out the center band area by first using a dremel reinforced cut off wheel (about 1" diam.) to remove the large bumps, then going around the entire band several times with a random orbital sander with 60 grit. I attached a shop vac with HEPA filter to contain 99% of the debris.

I filled to remaining gap with bondo glass, then finished off with bondo filler. Finally painted the center band with matching auto paint.

You can view pics in my Trillium 4500 journal link below.

[John in Michigan]

I will add that because I live a subdivision with 1/4 to 1/3 acre lots, and vegetable gardens within a few feet of the work area, using a flap disk or grinder was NOT an option. I had to employ an environmentally safe approach.

[thrifty bill]

Just started today on my belly band. A couple of surprises. First, none of the rivets were attached. Instead, a prior owner at some point had used standard slotted screws to reattach the band, along with a lot of caulk. I'll be cleaning this for a while. I counted the screws, 56 of them.

Removing the standard screws was a PITA, as they all were pretty rusty and not willing to come out. But I got them all out.

The second surprise was on the metal plates. So far, every plate was doubled up, two plates back to back. I wasn't expecting that. The plates were very thin.

I've got some tyvex suits on the way, so I won't get carried away on sanding until the supplies arrive. And I've got the Townsend campout next week (with the Escape 19). So I expect progress to begin in earnest the week after that.

Some prior owner also siliconed on electric tape above the band. Like I mentioned, I'll be scraping for a while. Lots of humps too, I would say at least half the plates, the belly band has a noticeable hump. The inside bandage is quite noticeable as it is kind of humped out towards the outside of the trailer. So I will need to be careful on the grinding.

Finishing plan right now is to cover the band area with 2 inch wide automotive body side moulding. Should look similar to the old band material.

If anyone is interested, I'll be using about 32 feet of body moulding on my 1300.

First picture shows the overall length:

Trillium belly band length by wrk101, on Flickr


But then deduct for the area on the door with no band, roughly 8 inches. So 31 feet 9 inches. Then you have practice cuts and waste.

[Jerry in Brooklyn]

Where did you get the belly band from? is there a size/order number?

thanks
jerry

[Mel P]

I clipped a small piece from my band and brought it into the local trailer supply store. They matched it and I bought a roll. Thankfully my band is not yet leaking...it was just old and shrunk.

[thrifty bill]

I got my band from another forum member that had extra left over. Its just typical 2 inch wide band with self adhesive strips on the back. I had planned to buy some on eBay.

The key words are "body side molding", thats what it is called in the automotive world. Lots of YouTubes out there showing the installation tricks.

[Jerry in Brooklyn]

Thanks I’ll give that a try

Jerry

[David Tilston]

So, just to summarize some things that I posted in other threads recently:
I used fibreglass and resin for the fill, but I used regular Bondo for the surface finish. This was to get a nice smooth surface.
I don’t see any problems with using the long strand Bondo instead of fibreglass and resin.


I think the finest grade of sandpaper was 100 grit, maybe 150 grit, (actually 400 grit). I also used a sandable primer, (that is what you see in the picture above) I never put a finish layer on it. I was selling it and I figured that the person who bought it would want to choose the final colour. Though I think the beige primer looked good.

I sanded the belly band flat, (it still had a bit of a bulge after I ground it nearly flat). I used a random orbital 1/3 sheet sander for this. Then I just started with regular, non-fibreglass, Bondo. Lay it down fast because it dries quickly. Then sand it with the autobody sander:

till it is flat, or you go through the Bondo. Repeat. I think that I went over the whole thing about three times. Bondo is almost transparent, just before you go through it. I ran good masking tape along the top and bottom of the belly band, where the bend up from the body of the trailer met the bend down to the flat surface on the belly band. Very intentionally this ridge was not damaged during the grinding part of this process. Then I used a beige sandable primer, (that I got at Canadian Tire). This brand, but they don't seem to have beige any more:

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/d...9968p.html#srp
More sanding with the autobody sander, with 150 grit, (maybe 180 grit? Actually 400 grit) sandpaper. The results are in the picture above. If I had done an actual paint layer, I probably would have gone nuts with the 3000 grit wet sandpaper, but I liked how it turned out. There was a bidding war on that trailer, I got $500 above asking. I priced it too low.