From Wreck to Uluru....Aussie adventure trailer

[Billyfj7312ht]

So, now that the underside steel is free of rust and sealed from the elements I thought I would use some expanding foam to fill all the cavities where the floor meets the body so it’s harder for mud/dirt and water to pool in all the creases. This is not something I would do to a car but after applying a few coats of fibreglass cloth and resin to the foam which is keyed in to the 2pac primer I’m thinking it should help with rust management and I’ve folded the fibre matting over into the wheel arches so there’s no small gaps.

Had a couple of applications to fill all the cavities. Then I shaped it all being careful to make sure it all tapered the right way for water to escape and left some weep holes so water could escape between ribs etc.

Then applied quite a few coats fibreglass ready for raptor Ute liner top coat.

I bought a couple of 40 litre water tanks and checked them for fitment while the body was off.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Final coat of raptor Ute liner for underneath the tub. Ready to flip over and install body rubbers and bolt to chassis.

Light sand/ rust converter, primer and black 2pac to the chassis for final time.

Sat the body on and checked a couple of sizes for the forward fibreglass kitchen and storage area.

Playing about with the idea of using a left over aluminium front bar triple loop off my car build as a stone deflector.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Some decisions and measurements were made to accommodate all the requirements of my build. The hardest decisions were the things no one will notice. Existing elements that can’t be changed like chassis mount towers, body rubber heights, chassis cross member height that the kitchen box sits on, in relation to body, in relation to bed height, fridge height and underside of roof.
The drawer height under the fridge that has to double extend and store the cooker and fit a sink.
I’m also hoping to line the body horizontal profiles up with the front kitchen doors.

I used my old rubber body rubbers between top of chassis towers and underside of body and 2” washers then turned up some harder bottom mounts out of a slug of HDPE I had from a previous project. They were a tight fit under the tower cup alleviating any sideways movement as the original bolt holes were a bit elongated.

Used some 4mm hardwood bracing ply to roll the front edge, this will be fibreglassed when finished, then 1.5mm aluminium laminated over face and to underside to stop stones damaging the finish.
Had to wet the ply and only glued and screwed the middle 2 ribs for now. I’ll let it dry overnight and hopefully pull the edges in tomorrow with 21/2” long screws, once the screw pulls the ply closer to the sides I’ll alternate with a smaller screw and pull the ply in until it pulls up against the glued sides.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Yeah, shoulda waited till the 3mm marine ply was in stock, the 4mm bracing ply was a PIA on the final curve from the middle ribs to the outside of the box. I’ve used the marine ply before and it’s heaps more pliable. It didn’t help that it had to match the roof camber and the front roll. Got it in the end but had to ditch the long screw idea and ended up making a wooden profile I could roll to match the different curves depending on the angle that the sash clamp was pulling from.
I soaked the ply again, then lay a wet towel over the ply while I pulled it all hard up to the side profile, glued and screwed it in place.
I think I’ll get onto some strips of fibreglass cloth and resin to hold the joints, ribs, internals and externals before cutting the doors or moving it around too much as it’s all under a lot of pressure and would hate it to spring some joints while I’m working on it.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Fibreglassing for days.
Had to relieve the tension in the ply with a few cuts as the pressure created a small bump and didn’t flow as good as I wanted. Once it was cut I glued and screwed another 3mm strip behind, pulling the face ply behind the natural arc allowing me to fill the face with body filler. I also filled another hollow before putting fibreglass cloth on and fibreglassing.

First coat.

Fitted the top to keep it all square. This is also the bed bottom where my feet go.

Fitted feet to bottom that sit on the chassis towers to lift it to correct height and strengthen and distribute the weight.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Cut the access doors and fibreglassed the internal corners, ribs, floor and some of the rear wall then ran out of hardener.
Purchased 2 old doors off marketplace, chopped the top of them and hung them so I could clean up the garage and give the space back to my wife for a while. Towed it back into yard and covered it in a tarp. I’m storing the kitchen box on downstairs veranda under cover so I can keep working on it between other projects around the house.

 

[Billyfj7312ht]

Still nibbling away between life.
I’ve fibreglassed 90% now with just the doors, end panels and one more coat to rounded face left. To keep in the theme of repurposing as much as possible I found one large aluminium composite panel left over from my boat ceiling build so rather than buy some aluminium as a stone guard to protect the fibreglass I used that for underbody protection. I also had I tin of rubberised underbody protection from 5 years ago so sprayed the underside and the rear partition between the tub and kitchen box. It’s not seen but hey more protection can’t hurt.

I fibreglassed a 50mm strip right round the composite and the feet plates again to seal it all

The strip panel in the middle is to make sure there’s no sag in the base as it was about 5mm off the chassis cross member when it sits on the body mount rubbers and chassis.