What weighs less than a duck?

Waterproofing in progress...hide the women and children...

...or at least keep the kids away from the tar!

Half way done....

....one coat later.  And even better, none of it on me!

Before the sealant has had time set up firm, it is time to install the flashing and brackets to the stepdown.  I'm confident from how the flashing was imbedding into the tar that this will minimize the risk of roadspray injection through the joints. 

Careful fitting will pay dividends

Too bad this won't really be seen when everything's finished

I wonder how long it will take for the sealant to cure to work on the installing the wheelwells?  I wrestled the floor up higher (three $60,000 "sawhorses" + three empty 5-gallon buckets = 42 inches off the floor) to give me just enough room to begin the Battle of the Wheelwells.  Saturday would be a good day to get them put in place and anchored.

This process is being very carefully supervised.....

....Bella the Basset Hound!

Eleven Bolt Day is coming!

Happy Birthday to Scotty!

It's been one year since I traveled out to Vernal and bought the trailer and what a year it's been!  The Scotty has been completely reduced to individual trailer molecules and is now, one day at a time, undergoing it's metamorphosis.  I picked up the freshly-painted wheelwells last night and will install them as soon as I have the underside of the floor waterproofed.  Also, the soon-to-be-installed floor vent looks "grate"!  :-)

Roger does good work - hopefully I can install them as artfully!

All I can say is "Wow!" - the photo doesn't do it justice

It's moving along slowly but as another 1960 Scotty owner put it:  "It's not the destination".  To celebrate this special occasion, the propane tank ring which I ordered three months ago arrived on the doorstep today!

It won't take much to get this installed - probably on Saturday.

I don't have any idea what our trailer's real birthday is but to me, it's Happy 54th Birthday!

One bite at a time....

I guess I'll deal with these bone spurs one way or another but let me tell you, it kind of puts a cramp in my style to have this anchor strapped my foot.  I can get around OK but simple things like kneeling or driving the car are a bit more arduous.  And that electrical thingie they use during physical therapy is something I'd rather do without so it had better be worth the discomfort.

High-fashion footwear it ain't!

My friend Lance came over last night and helped me move the floor over onto the $60,000 sawhorses.  These crates are the perfect size so I'm glad I held onto them after their intended use was finished.  One more would be nice, both as a sawhorse but also if I had the use of what was enclosed in it at work.

Imported from Hackett's Cove, Nova Scotia...

...from this building right here on the shore of St. Margaret's bay

Before I proceed any further I needed to cut a slot between the floor and the rim joist.  This will ease the installation of the wheelwells when Roger is done painting them.  I will have to drill out the lower row of rivets and replace them with 1/2" washer-head lath screws.  The mandril end of those rivets will be at an interference fit with the floor unless I drill holes and slots for clearance when the wheelwells are installed.  Since the rivets are there to hold the flanges to the wheelwells (secured with flashing adhesive) and since there are two rows of rivets, replacing the lower row with screws will help secure the wheelwell to the floor while replicating the functionality of the rivets.  Anyway I look at it, there will be extra labor involved but this option seems to be the simplest.  I wish those flanges could have been attached with the spotwelder but when all is said and done, it won't really matter. Just one of those hurdles that all good projects seem to encounter.

Widening the joint between the rim joist and the floor

Test fitting with a scrap of flange material

Moving the floor off the frame and over onto the crates prior to this morning's painting adventure. 

Made sure things were positioned just right first before eating pie!

Ready, set, paint!

3/4 of a gallon of enamel later...doesn't look half bad!

If you look closely, you'll noticed I've removed the stepdown brackets in order to more completely apply the waterproofing compound and then reinstall them when the tar is done setting up.  I will also be installing angle flashing to protect the joints of the stepdown from road spray injection.  With that in mind, I will be installing the wheelwells after waterproofing compound is applied and then the flanges will be sealed to the floor.  This way, if the flange material should warp with heat or cold, the integrity of the waterproofing will not be compromised creating the potential for a leak in the floor.

Is it a safe week to park the car in the driveway...or am I tempting fate?

A-riveting we will go....

Since spot welding the new flanges onto the wheelwells ended up a bust, I went to Plan B:  Pop-riveting.  The only drawback here is the need to drill reliefs for the mandril end of the rivets wherever the tail end of the rivet will be flush with the wood frame or walls.  Oh well, let's see what happens here....

Starting with the curbside fender on the inside edge

Clamping so the holes all line up to minimize any puckering along the edge

Same wheelwell, different view

Looks like I'm on the right track!

A couple of beads of flashing sealant and nine rivets later

Leading and trailing edges complete

A tire's-eye view

Lather-rinse-repeat

The outer side - this will be cut to match the relief in the wall later

Reversed for comparison - showing the soon-to-be trimmed relief

It's time to load these up along with the floor register and take them over to Roger's place for a fresh coat of paint.  Soon it will be time to install the wheelwells into the floor followed by some waterproofing action!

Setbacks are a part of life

I spent some time yesterday preparing for spotwelding the new flanges onto the wheelwells.  This included glass bead blasting the metal first followed by trimming away of the old damaged edges.  That done, the necessary new metal was purchased and trimmed to rough length.  Everything was in order but....

They are looking better already!

....upon jigging the new flange material to the wheelwell, the spotwelder would not pass current.  It baffled the fabricators who were making sure things were setup properly - their only thought they could offer was the age and dissimilarities in the materials.   We welded a couple of pieces of scrap together so the unit was functioning as it should.  I guess I will begin drilling the 'wells and the flanges tomorrow prior to riveting...  Frustrating!

Recently I came into posession of an old floor register that is about the same size of the in-floor heaters installed in many small trailers like the Scotty.  I'm thinking I will install it in the floor right inside the door to minimize the amount of dirt tracked into the trailer while at the same providing an combustion air source besides opening the windows.  This register has a working mech so it can be closed off.  A baffle will go under the floor to keep road spray and dust from entering the trailer.  My goal is to keep it less than two inches deep so it will not be visible from the outside.  The wheelwells and the register will be be painted black with the last of the paint from the trailer frame.

The grill without the register mech prior to bead blasting.

On a side note:  I have been suffering from pain in my right foot for about six months.  An X-ray today revealed I have bone spurs under my heel. Two of the causes of bone spurs is being overweight, vigorous exercise and it occurs to middle-aged guys like me.  Funny, I had been losing weight in my boot camp class....

Last summer.....maybe it was the yellow shorts?

Setbacks happen; I get to deal with them.  What else would I do?  Now where's my pop-riveter?  Then again, I do know some guys out at the airport who have pneumatic rivet guns and Clecos....

Wheel well wonderings

After several days of snow and a day of rain, this morning we were back to snow.....until this afternoon!  I think I will go home a little early....

Can you blame me??

It's time to deal with the wheelwells.  In removing them from the trailer floor a year ago, I noted that the liberal use of staples was the preferred method of installation.  A lot of staples.  There was also some damage to the mounting flanges, most notably to the streetside well where the sidewall of the trailer had sagged due to the broken frame extension.  I have been trying to figure out how to either repair and utilize the wheelwells or to build new ones out of wood.  Then, at 5:35 this morning while in the shower, the solution came to me....trim off the damaged flanges and then replace them with 2" angle flashing.  I have access to a sheet metal spot welder and so it's time to get to work!

They look a little scaley....and unloved.

Typical flange damage

More of the same

Did I happen to mention the staples?

Note the rot at the radius of the flange

The next step will be to media blast the wheelwells to remove the scale and some corrosion and a little rust.  After that, I will trim off the flanges and straighten any imperfections.  I'll probably also close off the outboard side of the wheelwells after removing some of the contour outline damage and then reopen them after the sides of the trailer go up to match the profile.  Paint, install, waterproof.  It's all coming together...

Spring is in the air....somewhere...and so is the moon!

"No trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers...to the development of such qualities as patience..."

It's been a wet week....on Thursday and Friday lots of badly-needed snow was laid down however on Friday, it began to rain on and off which continued until late Saturday night.  Overall, it was warmer but the dampness has made it a challenge to achieve much progress this weekend.  That and the fact that the home improvement box store is 20 minutes away.  Our local hardware store (a mile down the road) has lots of stuff but not necessarily all the items this not-so-little project requires.  Today started out good with help from some friends (thanks James and Aaron) to flip the floor over but then between the weather and some errors in my thinking created a somewhat frustrating afternoon.  However at the end of the day, progress was made, just not in as many leaps and bounds as I'd prefer.  Not many photos this week but we're getting there....

Yeah, there's not much room to maneuver but it beats getting rained on!

Picking up where I left off with getting the floor of the step-down assembled, a fat bead of adhesive and clamping the floor in place got the process underway.  I expected the timbers to bow when using them to apply pressure to the edges so some shims were placed strategically to keep the pressure even.  If I was building this in my dad's shop (where practically every tool known to man resides) my methods might be different but in my garage, I'm a little more "challenged".  This was only an intermediate step but I wanted to make sure things were secure prior to the next.
 

I still might cap the corners with the white angle material.

Now this is where the twenty-minute dilemma comes in:  I have six of one style of angle, four of another yet plenty of screws.  I also have a short memory at times when remembering where the floor support straps are located under the floor.  Needless to say, there are few extra screw holes which will need to be sealed up - at least they don't go all the way through to the interior of the step down.  I just have to console myself knowing there are no assembly instructions or part fabrication documentation to support this endeavor other than the photos and .  My mantra of "Patience - good things come to those who wait" often comes into play when I feel frustrated.

Now, that doesn't look all bad, does it?

Some may wonder why there are so many angle brackets securing the floor when 1) the original design had none and B) there are two hefty 1-1/2" x 1/4" straps running under the floor section.  Let's just say someone is a little heftier than he was 34 years ago today!

I miss my dad...I would like to think he'd approve this project.

Actually I want to make sure the Scotty will last another 50+ years when I'm done so all the flooring is 3/4" instead of the original 1/2" with a little extra support here and there.  Since the floor in the back doesn't seam over a frame member, I've secured the joint underneath to keep the joint pulled closed and tight.  I don't have a biscuit tool but joining plywood in that way seems risky to me.  This method was easy, inexpensive, and required no special tools.

The 2-inch-plus gap on each side is for the frame members.

The next major step will involve painting the underside of the floor to seal it and then coating it with waterproofing compound.  Before that, I need to be come a expert on sheet metal repairs!  The wheelwells need to be cleaned up (including removing a multitude of staples), some minor fatigue cracks repaired, followed by using up the last of the paint left from when the frame was painted.  Once they are assembled into the floor, then the waterproofing can commence followed by a then and now photo to see where things stand compared to this time last year.  Good things DO come to those who wait!

Oh, for an insulated garage door!

It was a cold Saturday but I figured I should make the most of it......it's time to cut in the stepdown.  For the uninitiated, when John Serro developed the Sportsman-series of Scotty Trailers, he wanted to make it so the the trailer could be parked in a standard garage of the time (read late 1950's).  The overall height of the Scotty Sportsman is only 6-foot 4-inches.....which would make for a trailer that would be impossible for an adult to stand up inside unless the floor was lowered somehow.  Serro did this by creating a portion of the floor that is roughly eight inches lower than the rest of the floor.  In looking at the trailer a year ago, I found I could just barely stand up inside and at 5'-8" tall, that works.  For me, the trailer is a place to sleep and get dressed....I do the rest of my camping outside!

With that said, here we go...!

Wood inside, snow outside

Not enough room to build this from below sooooo.....

.....this 12-year-old needs to earn his keep and up comes the floor!

A bit of judicious jack action to straighten a crooked floor strap

The smaller ribs are now trimmed and glued, floor's back down, time to saw!

First cut....

Second cut....

Third cut reveals half of the stepdown.

Fourth cut and there it is!

There's always that worry that I'm off by an inch in the wrong direction...

...but with all the times I've measured over and over, it pays off in the end!

I think I made some serious progress today.

The floor of the stepdown is only resting on the straps right now.  The next step will be to lift the floor out for one last time to secure the floor to the walls of the stepdown and fasten some angle stiffeners to each corner of the stepdown.  The floor will then be ready for a nice layer or two of waterproofing compound followed by being set back in place.  I think I should be looking for those eleven new bolts to anchor the floor back to the frame.