the Sandlot a Bantam T3C resto-mod (1 Viewer)

[half k cruiser]

I recently purchased this little gem on a craigslist deal not far from my house. Knowing nothing about trailers and wanting something to haul the families gear in on trips, I gladly dropped the $380. I originally thought it was a M100 but after a bit more investigation found out that its actually a Bantam T3C civilian trailer manufactured in 1947.

Assembling the help ...

Right away I was impressed with how light the setup was. My oldest daughter thinks its great to stand in while I pull her around the yard. Since it already needs some work, I think I will go ahead and give it a refresh to bring it up to the times as well as my families needs.

 

[half k cruiser]

So what's wrong with it ? These two pics explain it best. For starters the floor is smoked, which I was aware of before purchase. No big deal there. What I didn't realize, until I got it home, is that this 3.5'' pipe isn't the factory draw bar !! In fact the PO, or one of the PO's ( after all its 70 years old ) torched through the factory C-channel in order to install it.

It was a super hack job and I didn't feel like it was safe to use it for what I had in mind. So, since the floor needs to come out anyway, I will have perfect access in order to fix it.

 

[half k cruiser]

In order to remove the bed you first have to remove the sides. In order to remove the sides, you first have to remove a pair of fenders that were bolted on 7 decades ago. It sounds a lot worse then it was. In fact the worst thing was stripping one of the reverse thread lugs on the DS hub. That accounted for 1 hour of a 1.5 hour job.

The side panels are in great shape, as are the fenders and the tailgate has only the slightest warp keeping it from sitting flush. With the fenders and tires off you can now get at the spot welds that hold the bed on. Its a lot of work with a grinder and hammer and chisel but I was able to separate it.

 

[half k cruiser]

The bed is actually nicely done, but it is built out of 16g metal which causes many of these trailers to sag and warp the floors over time. This will be one of the areas that I'm going to modify. It is tightly fit over the exterior frame of the trailer with a few small tack welds on the two center beams. With the bed off you can easily remove it with a crowbar.

no way I'm going to re-create that masterpiece, I will just have to find another way.

 

[half k cruiser]

From this angle you can truly appreciate the farmer mentality that "modified" the original design.

That piece of pipe must weigh close to 100lbs. I should be able to reinforce the box structure plus build a new draw bar and still stay lighter than what was in there. The next thing that needs to be done is cut out the damaged cross bars and replace them. I may add an additional one directly over the axle for extra strength.

 

[the gimpey one]

Gong to have it sand blasted?

 

[half k cruiser]

Gong to have it sand blasted?

There's a good chance I will at least have the sides blasted as there's more layers of paint then I want to deal with. The frame shouldn't be too hard to go at with a wire wheel then POR-15.

 

[love2fly]

If it was me I would just go and get some new steel cross sections to replace what that crazy PO did. Not that hard if you have a welder. Also the draw area looks good to were it too could be put back to original but if you look around some of the guys here have come up with some pretty cool hitches that look real good. The floor will make a grate template for the new one. Looking real good glad you are saving the old gal. I agree that with all that paint it worth the blasting and as is the frame.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

 

[half k cruiser]

If it was me I would just go and get some new steel cross sections to replace what that crazy PO did. Not that hard if you have a welder. Also the draw area looks good to were it too could be put back to original but if you look around some of the guys here have come up with some pretty cool hitches that look real good. The floor will make a grate template for the new one. Looking real good glad you are saving the old gal. I agree that with all that paint it worth the blasting and as is the frame.

I'm picking up an order of c-channel for it this afternoon. My plan is to take care of those chopped up braces first thing, then come up with the rest of the plan !

 

[love2fly]

Good move.

 

[half k cruiser]

So yesterday I got two of the three factory braces cut and removed.

Here it is with the rearmost and an additional brace tacked over the axle.

A mockup of what the draw hitch could look like. I think i'm actually going to install about a 2 foot section of 2.5'' towards the nose then make a sliding hitch off of that. I have enough c-channel left that I could probably redo that factory triangle in much stronger steel and make the ends terminate more cleanly into the square tube.

 

[love2fly]

If you do a search on the web as in " making a trailer hitch for a M416" there are some pretty good ideas.

Also you can still find SOME parts that will fit a TC3 trailer from the M416 sites.
15-Frame, D&L Bensinger LLC

Trailer Parts

Thia is a good one
https://www.amazon.com/Tow-Ready-63...8&qid=1509551246&sr=8-5&keywords=lunette+ring

 

[half k cruiser]

If you do a search on the web as in " making a trailer hitch for a M416" there are some pretty good ideas.

Also you can still find SOME parts that will fit a TC3 trailer from the M416 sites.
15-Frame, D&L Bensinger LLC

Trailer Parts

Thia is a good one
https://www.amazon.com/Tow-Ready-63...8&qid=1509551246&sr=8-5&keywords=lunette+ring

Hey buddy, those links were helpful. I think that is the style of lunette I'm going to go with. Not sure if I will pin it or weld and put a solid pin through. I have a friend who's getting me a price on a custom made floor for it.

 

[love2fly]

I saw a trailer with that same lunette put into a receiver on the trailer and was removable to use a 2" ball hitch if needed. It also rotated at the receiver but not sure how he did it, cant find the site, but was a good bit of inventing. Best of both worlds.

 

[half k cruiser]

I finished cutting out all of the original cross members and laying in new channel for the box today. The inside of the frame took its first hit from the wire wheel in preparation for POR-15. I also found some shock bolts that I think will work to fab the upper mounting brackets.

 

[half k cruiser]

I had a little extra time and c-channel so new draw bars got fabbed up tonight. It turns out that a 20ft stick of channel is enough to replace the 3 factory supports, add an additional over the axle, and make two draw bars. That's $36 well spent.

Here's the pile of stuff that got chopped off. Minus the draw bar.

I did some calculations. I've removed close to 90lbs of metal including the old draw bar and cross bars. 3x3.5 channel x 20 ft = 70lbs. So even though the c-channel is much heavier gauge then the original box channel I'm still in at 20lbs lighter then when I purchased it.

 

[half k cruiser]

More progress on the trailer. My helper and I finalized the length of the draw bars last night and got the appropriate angles cut in. As you can see conditions are tight in the shop. At least we were warm.

I picked up a section of 2.5'' receiver and welded it in place with 1/4'' plate over the top.

Here it is with some 2'' square that I will use for the sliding tongue. I'm not sure how long I will make the actual tongue yet as I need to research what others have done. However, I have over 40'' of available tube behind the hitch pin hole.

Even more exciting, I have a buddy who works at a fabrication shop and he sent me this photo of the new floor he made me.

 

[love2fly]

Now your cooking.........your not wasting any time. I would consider not making the draw to long, puts a lot of stress on the system when off road.
looks good.

 

[half k cruiser]

Well this is exciting. I went and picked the floor up from my buddy this morning. The fit of this part As @love2fly knows, is critical. It essentially floats on top of the box like a hat. I have been holding off on burning in my crossbeams just in case I needed to shorten or widen the box. Well it fit perfect on the first try. So now I have a 14g floating floor with factory breaks at the ends.

Then I pulled the drawbar and began putting POR-15 on all of the areas that will be hard to reach once the floor is on.