Ed Brown's Coastbilt Trailer

I’ve spent the last couple days working on the interior cabinets.  My wife Barbara has been collecting stuff for the trailer. Linens, kitchen gear, etc.  It’s starting to take up space, so I decided to get the cabinets usable.  After sanding, restaining, and two coats of satin polyurethane the cabinets look like this:

Here are the kitchen upper cabinets.  Note the light colored areas on the right side.  That’s where I didn’t sand enough.  This picture makes it look worse than it is, but what happened is that the original varnish, which is in horrible shape, had penetrated into the wood.  When I sanded it I thought I had removed it all, but if there’s even a little left then the wood doesn’t take the stain.  Repairing that would be tricky, because sanding will affect the properly-stained area around it.  I haven’t decided what I will do about that, if anything.  Mostly just sand a little deeper everywhere else.
The warm color for the frame and dark stain for the doors and drawer fronts was the original, although none of the original can be used without stripping and re-staining.

Here is the left side.  I can’t get a single good picture- the cabinets are too long and the space is small.

I’ve been trying to learn to work with veneer. I have big plans for future work, but this is my first real attempt.

This is the medicine cabinet, which for some reason is just outside the bathroom. Here’s what it looked like with the door removed and sanded. Not bad.

But I like this better:

 

This is birch veneer- ironed on, stained, and two coats of polyurethane.

I’ve been working on doors for the last several days.  I don’t have locks yet.  I’ve disassembled them, and the locksmith made a key for the front lock.  I’ve sandblasted and painted the handles and inside lock parts.  They are now almond.  The front outside handle looks excellent, and the locks themselves are fine.  But the rear lock was not working.  I’ve ordered a replacement cylinder from Vintage Trailer Supply, and when I get that I’ll take it to the locksmith, and then in a few days I should have front and rear locks keyed alike.  Yea!

The outside was pretty ugly, and the entire inside had been painted brick red- door, window frame, and lock.  Like this:

I pulled off the inner skin, which was quarter inch ply.  I put some polyiso insulation where there was a space internally.  I cut some birch ply to the approximate size, and marked for gluing.

Then I spread on the wood glue, put in two brads at the corners, and routed the outside shape and the window opening.  Then clamped them together.

This photo is a demonstration of the woodworker’s lament- you can never have enough clamps. I also sandblasted and repainted the inner trim and the hinges. The trim was that brick red, and it’s now almond. I would replace it with wood, but wood would be thicker and might hit the screen door. I did the hinges in an aluminum-filled paint that’s supposed to be good rust preventative.  I don’t like it- too glittery.  I wish I had stayed with the Alumathane I’ve been using elsewhere. I had already disassembled and repainted the windows.

I drilled out all the screw holes, glued in dowels, and re-drilled. I don’t have photos of the doors, but I did it for doors also.Using the iron-on method with special heat-curing veneer glue I put birch veneer on the exposed edge of the door.  I sanded and put a coat of epoxy on the door edges, then two coats of polyurethane.  I sanded the door frame and filled the exposed edge of the frame with a putty of epoxy and microballoons, to give a fairly flat surface.

 

 

Then I sanded it all smooth. I put walnut veneer on the exposed edges of the frame.  I haven’t cleaned the frame veneer yet- just rough-cut with a saw. Then I put everything back together, although I haven’t yet trimmed for the locks. At this stage the doors look like this: 

Today was a big day.  I now have all the side panels on and all the windows.

First the right rear. Here’s with all the insulation and the lower wiring.At this point I realize I had no more inline connectors.  I bought more locally.  These are marine grade but don’t have the adhesive heat shrink.  Fortunately I had some, so I added at the back.

The actual connection of course has the dielectric grease, so they should be safely water-tight.  And of course there should never be any water there anyway. Here’s with the right rear panels complete.

I tested all the external lights, and they work. Note that this meets the modern requirements.  It has the three ID lights across the top, and the marker lights front and back because it’s over 80 inches wide. I have the side reflectors but haven’t put them on yet. I haven’t seen at night.  Will be interesting to see how bright it all is. Here’s with the center panels off and the lower insulation on.
No wiring here. The center hole is for the lower refrigerator vent.  The lower right is for the heater.  Next is with the lower center panel on and the upper insulation and wiring.
Here we have the upper panel on. I haven’t cut the upper vent hole in the skin panel yet, but as you can see the hole is in the wall and insulation. When I bought the trailer there was an electric refrigerator, and a lower vent but no upper.  A bit strange. I’m going to use the old vent as the new upper vent.  There’s advantage in being able to access the rear of the refrigerator around the controls and to clean that area, but the upper seems less important to me.

There are six wires going into the hole on the upper left in that picture:

• Bedroom lights and USB charger
• Bathroom lights
• Kitchen lights and USB charger
• Water pump
• Living room lights
• Dedicated charger in living room.  That’s in case somebody wants to use something that draws more than a couple amps.

Each of the USB chargers is actually two USB ports and a cigarette lighter receptacle.  All the wires are 14 gauge marine wire, so voltage drop should be very small.  The distribution panel and controls with be just inside the rear door, where there’s a closet.
Here’s with that upper panel on. I’ve removed the front door so I can work on it. The lower refrigerator vent is in, as you can see, but I haven’t cut the upper vent hole or the holes for the heater.  Which would be just left of the door.
And the front window on.

Next I will probably work on doors.

 

 

 

 

Just two pictures today.  I’ve been working on windows. I take them apart, clean the parts, polish the exterior surfaces, and assemble with new stainless steel screws, new neoprene weatherstripping, and new bronze screen.

There is a problem with the window latch retainers (that’s what I call them.  I have no idea what the manufacturer called them.  They were made of aluminum.  Given the date they were made, probably some grade with very little alloy.  They are quite fragile.  

The two on the left are the originals.  As you can see, the far left one broke at the screw hole.  Somebody put a big dollop of epoxy on it, which does nothing.  The second one had a standard fatigue failure at the bend. That’s common.  So I needed two replacements, but I made five.  I used the aluminum available at my local hardware store, which is almost certainly 6061-T6.  That’s an excellent all-purpose aluminum and should hold up a lot better than the originals did. Mine are not as nicely made as the originals, but I’m not ashamed. The tools I had were a drill, tin snips, file, multi-tool, and high speed rotary tool.

I put on all the left side windows.

I ran out of weatherstripping at the last window.  So I have another half hour or so to complete the last one. I also disassembled the external storage access door, which goes in the right rear.  I replaced all the wood and I’m halfway through painting it.  I polished all the aluminum pieces, and it two days (including time for paint to dry) I should be able to install that. Otherwise it’s side panels- I still have four more to complete on the right side.

This is going to be a long post. I appear to have lost a post from several days ago.  By “lost” I’m pretty sure it was actually “failed to save and publish”.  Basically I’ve been completing the side panels. First the lower center left.  The last post shows that ready for the panel.  Note that on the side panel screws where there isn’t any butyl tape I’ve been putting some silicon on the screw before I torque it.  Like this:

 

 

Then I did the left rear, upper and lower.  Then the right front, upper and lower. Then the left front, upper and lower. 

Every panel of course has the polyiso insulation.  For the side I haven’t been using a lot of aluminum tape.  I don’t think the roof needed as much as I used, but the sides really shouldn’t.  But I have been using it as an aid to retaining the wires.  Most of the panels have at least a few wires running through them.  Here, for example, is the right front.  That wire is for the right front marker light.

 

Note the connectors. Each corner panel (eight total) and the rear lower panel has at least one light.  To be able to remove the panel if necessary there have to be connectors. Underneath the tape on the lower right are a couple of three-way crimp connectors.  So that blue wire comes from the front of the trailer and continues up the right. Here’s the upper right front.

Here we have the three-way crimp connectors with a wire going over the roof to the left side lights, the connectors so the panel can be removed, and a white wire.  That will bring power from the wall sconce light just inside the front door, which will be connected to the main panel (which isn’t there yet but will be off to the left in this picture), and runs to the other front lights. Also I like the idea of dielectric grease wherever there’s an open electrical connection.  I found this stuff in my local hardware store. It pushes the grease down into the socket, as you can just see in the terminals and the bulb socket.  I’ve done that for each of the connections and each of the bulbs.

 

Here’s the left front with insulation on.

I didn’t get photos of the center upper with insulation and without the panel, but that has be far the most electrical connections.  Something like eight or nine lights, the thermostat, water pump wire, and two USB/cigarette lighter socket charging stations.  Here we are with all the left side panels in place.

This side still needs windows, and some work at the bottom.  For some reason which I can’t understand, a previous owner put dozens of nails in at random locations near the bottom. In some cases I can easily hide them.  This is the bottom right front.

In three places there was a nail hole within about a quarter-inch of a standard structural screw. I bought some aluminum circles off the web, and with some butyl tape they don’t really attract attention.  In one place there’s an “extra” hole, but it’s almost in line with the others. Put in a screw and it looks normal.

In some places there are over a dozen extra holes in random locations.  For those I’ll get a four inch wide panel and double over the existing holes.  Done right it should look fine.

I’ve made some nice progress in the last few days.  First I completed the trailer lights in back. The originally had round Bargman lights right and left with a licence plate light in the center.  There was a lot of corrosion around the lights, and when I was handling one of them the electrical parts just fell apart. So I went with the modern lights I could get locally.  So this is what they looked like:

Not beautiful.  Note also that the license plate light is integral with the left taillight, so there was a hole in the center.  So I needed some aluminum sheet to cover the holes.

 

To get these in place with a lot of disassembly I slit below the wire holes. For the left one I had to actually make the center part removable.

And heres what it looks like when completed.

Next I worked on the central floor beam.  This runs from front to back.  I attached all the clips to the floor. The last three feet or so slant up, so I waited to assemble that in place.  Here are some photos.
The I did the framing on the left, in the kitchen. There is a hole at the bottom for the water heater, and another above it for the water inlet.  

I made a shelf so the water heater sits at the right level.

 I needed to cut a hole in the wall between the kitchen cabinet and the bathroom.  The water tank will sit just over the wheel well.  You can see it in the background of the picture above. The water tank, heater, pump, and accumulator will take up almost all of the cabinet. While I was working in this area I added some reinforcement to the cabinet.  Like the one on the right side, it was assembled using those corrugated fasteners, which had rusted badly.

I also replaced the faucet. Once I put in the wheel well and the water tank I’ll never again have this good access. I like Moen faucets and that’s what they had locally.

With new hoses of course. Then I attached the wheel well.  I had to be a bit clever with the attachments.  The inside attachment is just like the right.  The right side exterior and angle clips, but for the left side that doesn’t work. For the left side I used straps.

Also there were a few screw holes that were getting loose.  I drilled those out with a brad point bit and glued in dowel pins.

Then later cut the dowels flush. The joint between the center lower exterior panel and the front wasn’t at a 2×2, so I added another vertical to give the joint support.

Then all was ready for the insulation.

That’s all for now. The next step will be to clean and polish the exterior aluminum panel (this is the largest one on the trailer by far) and put it on. From now on, when I attach an exterior panel it should be for the last time.  Well, last time for this rebuild.

Since the last post I’ve completed the frame-to-trailer-sidewall reassembly.  All the rotten structural wood is gone.  There’s a little bad wood on the ceiling still, but really it’s now all reassembly and appearance. No more demolition and repair.

First I made sure the frame was solidly strapped to the supports.  Those look like this now.

Then I redid the left sidewall-to-frame-and-floor attachment.  Now the frame attachment looks like this:

Nicely aligned.  Before the sidewalls were too wide by a half inch.

I completed the framing on the right side.  The hole about in the center of the picture is at the bottom of the refrigerator cabinet section.  That hole will allow a dometic access/cooling hatch.  The square hole just left of the front door is for the new furnace.  I still need to make the holes through the skin for those.  That will come later.

I’ve been using a lot of clips made from aluminum angle.  I hate the original corrugated fasteners, but where they were holding well I’ve left them.  Where needed I’ve added a clip. Like this.

In front of the right wheel well I didn’t like the wood. The bolt hole was enlarged at the top and the wood was soft.  So I let in a new piece of douglas fir and backed up with an overlap.

There were some metal plates used on the main cabinet.  This is on the right side of the trailer interior, between the two doors.

 

Originally the cabinet was put together with hundreds of nails and a bunch of those corrugated fasteners. Now I know the tiniest bit about real woodworking. I hate having metal plates to hold the cabinet together, but I don’t have skills and equipment to rebuild it efficiently, and I don’t have time to rebuild it inefficiently.  So I just moved those to the inside. Here’s what the inside behind those plates looked like before.

Actually the whole cabinet was starting to come apart, since I pulled it away from the floor.  So pulled the sides together

and I added more backing plates and corner reinforcement. Adds

I mentioned before that I had a local welder make me new wheel wells out of 1/8″ aluminum.  A bit pricey, but strong and should last for the next millenium. They look like this:

 

 

 

I had to remove a little material from the corners where the axle attaches. There are three clips on the inside (long one in the middle and two small on the ends), and three on the outside.

There’s a clip at the top attaching the wheel well to the vertical 2×2, and another at the left side.  At the right I trimmed the floor beams back about 3/4 inch farther than I should have, so I added a section of aluminum angle to support that side clip properly. This is all very solid now.  After this I put the insulation on this section of the right side, but I forgot to take a picture. I’ll do that later. I put the skin panel back on temporarily. The cutout in the skin matches the cutout in the wheel well, and I can enlarge both if I feel it necessary.

This picture shows the cutouts around the axle attachment.

 

 

From the inside there’s space around the well.  This picture is looking down from inside the cabinet.

Later I’ll close that up with a epoxy coated exterior plywood and caulk it so it’s water tight. Note that the aluminum of the wheel well, even at the cutouts, is below the floor.  So no spray from the wheels can hit the floor directly.

I finished mounting the floor to the body. Next step was to check the floor flatness.  I set up a laser level at the front, and checked at each of the other three supports.

 

 

Ideally all three would be exactly the same height, but there’s about an eighth of an inch off flat.  That’s very good, and since the frame is a little bit flexible that will cause no problems.  The left side was the same.

Now I was ready to re-mate the body and frame, but I realized I should do the floor beams first.  I could fabricate those later, but it would mean I was doing a bunch of assembly on my back under the trailer.

There are three longitudinal beams, each 2×3. One is mounted to the outside of each of the frame channels, and one runs down the center. Each has the same shape. There’s a straight section in front. 15 feet two inches for the outer ones, and one inch longer in the center. Then an angled sections a bit under three feet. First, I can’t find 2×3’s locally.  I was able to find good quality douglas fir 1×3’s, but only 14 feet long. So I made the long beams sections by gluing 1×3’s, with doubled sections.

Now the original beams were mounted by fairly large wood screws coming from above through the floor.  There are several reasons I don’t like that, but many of the screws were in places I can’t get to.  So I had to do it differently. So I made a number of mounting clips from aluminum angle and mounted those to the beams.

Sorry.  I framed that picture poorly.  The three beams are exactly the same length, but there are some 2×2’s on the ground that make the center one look about double the length of the others.

Then I slid those between the trailer and the body.  I jacked up the body enough to get the current supports out, and jacked the frame up to meet it. I was able install the bolts in the  front left support and the right rear support.  Here is the trailer with frame and body back together, sitting on a couple of supports.

I made eight frame supports.  Four I threw away.  Two are supporting the frame, at the rear spring attach on each side.  I kept two more. Partly because I may want to support the front of the frame, and partly to use them as a place to tight the tarp ropes. They are big enough to be a decent weight.

The other right side supports fit just fine, but there’s a problem on the left. I took for granted that the width was constant.  I made the floor sections all 92 inches wide, and kept them centered.  Front, rear, and right side all fit great.  But on the left side the trailer appears to be slightly wasp wasted. In the center it’s about half an inch too wide.

Annoying.  It means I have to

• remove the bolts between the body and the lower 2×2 and pivot the 2×2 out of the way.
• remove the 2 inch #10 screws that come up from below and tie the wall to the floor
• find a way to slide the wall in about a half inch over about ten or twelve feet.
• reattach the wall to the floor.
• reattach the body to the lower 2×2
• Plug the existing support holes.  I do that by gluing in wooden dowel pins.

Then I can drill new holes and complete the mounting. I should be able to get this all done tomorrow.

I’ve been working on three different things, depending on the weather. I took all hardware off the drawers and cabinets.  The existing hardware all matches, but I don’t like it much.  It’s old mild steel that ironically was original finished in “antique”.  The kind that’s just a slightly dark varnish. So here’s the hardware.

The middle one in the second picture is the door catch, which grabs the one on the left. It’s very positive- you have to squeeze the top and bottom to release it.  So I soaked the catches in denatured alchohol and scrubbed off the black, then sandblasted everything so it looks like this:

Then I primed and painted.  Just a rattle spray can, but hopefully it will last for a while. I used “metallic antique brass”, which I think will look a lot better with the wood.  Looks nice I think, but I’ll leave alone for a few days to let the paint really harden.  Won’t be actually using this for at least a week.

All the cabinet doors and drawer fronts were stained dark.  Look like this:

So I’m sanding those down to bare wood.  Have a lot more to do, but they look like this after sanding.

I have to sand every square inch of wood. I’ve probably done a third of what I have to do.

And I’m working on the framing.  I have a local welder building me new wheel wells from 1/8 inch aluminum.  Going to be strong and light.  These one of the old wheel wells I cut out:
An ugly combination of plywood, a strip of galvanized steel, and nails.  LOTS of nails. Just designed to leak and rot. The wood in the wheel well was rotting on both sides. The wood on the right side of the trailer, once the well was cut out, was a little water damaged but not much.  I drilled a number of holes into the lowest 2×2 and put in about a cup of ethylene glycol using a plastic syringe.  

The left side was worse. The bottom 2×2 and one vertical was rotten. Also, I’ve gotten the water heater, water inlet, and furnace.  I need to tweak the framing as necessary to support those.  So on the left I removed the bottom 2×2, sistered a section of the 2×2 under the window, and rearranged the supports a bit.  Sorry these pictures are so poor. On the left side I’m up against the fence.  I left just enough room to walk around the trailer.

The new wood at the top of the picture is glued (gorilla glue) to the existing 2×2 that runs under the windows.  The water heater will go at the bottom right of this picture, to the right of the wheel well. Once I cut the hole for that I’ll put in whatever framing is necessary. Also I’m running out of those angle clips (just cut from a 1×1 aluminum extruded angle). I need to make another couple dozen, and when I do I’ll add some here.  Probably do that tomorrow. I need to do a similar rebuild on the right side.  That’s on the agenda for the next non-rainy day, .

After dodging more rain, most of yesterday was clear.  So I got the last floor section out, and the last few feet of frame channel wire brushed.

And painted.  Looks like this after two coats of Alumathane.

And that completes the frame work except for the very front.  I’m going to have a new hitch welded on and possibly some other work, so I’ve left the very front foot or so alone. I need to mount the rear floor section, but that’s easy. Higher priority is to get the wheel wells redone.  I’ve asked the guy who rewelded the frame to make me some new aluminum wheel wells.