Resurrecting Big Bertha... or, 'How I spent $30,000 on a $2,000 trailer...'

[Panama Red]

Oooohhh, sorry, didn't realize y'all were in Minnesota. Those three week summers get to be a bear, huh? My job sent me to Sheboygan WI at the end of January one year. Florida boys got no business in Wisconsin anywhere from the end of August to the beginning of June. I had ice on the car window that never melted. Couldn't get it to melt. Found out why y'all all have ice scrapers, and we don't. When I have ice on my window, I go outside and squirt it with the hose, and it melts the ice off the window, and I drive away. First winter I spent up north, I went outside, squirted my window with the hose, and then had to scrape a double layer of ice off my window... Made sense, right after I did it.

And here I was whining last night that I was crawling around under the trailer in 50 degree weather.

I hope the floor jack idea saves somebody's shoulders. I'm not dreading the last six feet of belly pan like I was... I literally got to the point I couldn't press the drill anymore. I'm thinking of cutting a piece of plywood to about six inches smaller than the sheet of aluminum, and using my other floor jack to hold that in place while I drill the last two pieces. Man, my next belly pan is going to be a snap...

Hopefully starting the wraps tomorrow. Pictures as I get em...

-Red

[Panama Red]

First wrap back on was the first one I removed... Still have to strip the black paint off the banana wrap and finish up the corner.

Ok, wrap has been the hardest thing so far. On the Panama Red Longneck Scale of Difficulty, with one longneck being as easy as beating the University of Florida in football ( my Gators lost another one... smh) and ten longnecks being as hard as beating FSU, replacing the side wrap rates an 8.5 Longnecks... And to top it all off, my brother in law and my dad drank all my Coroni on Thanksgiving, and reloaded the barn fridge with Bud. Spoot! You get what you get, and you don't pitch a fit...

See y'all tomorrow...

-Red

[Panama Red]

One more picture, just because I'm relaxing and watching some awesome football... Forgot to mention, THE BELLY PAN IS DONE!!! That upward drill press idea worked incredible. Wish I'd have thought of that a LOT sooner. -Red

[dbj216]

Mr. Red,

Great Idea on the "upward drill press." I'm going to steal your idea without shame. My shoulder thanks you!

David

[Panama Red]

Dude, I've been drilling rivet holes like crazy since thinking of this! I'm looking for new places to put rivets... Actually, I'm just drilling the rivet holes for the front belly pan, and now the side wraps, but it's so much easier now. Hope it helps you!

Installed my first banana skin today. That thing was a bit tricky, but went on fairly well. Cut the metal for the side wrap from in front of the wheel well to the door, and have it all in place with Clecos right now. It's starting to look right now. It always looked so torn apart without the side wraps. I told my dad that after tomorrow, we cam prop the wheels up in the wheel well and pretend we're camping while partaking of our end of the day beer. Hoping the axles make it in early next week... I ought to have the side wraps finished and gas lines run by then. Hoping for a pre Christmas test run to a nearby campground.

No pictures today. Too dark when I finished up today, and theictures always suck when it's dark... So, I'll put one up of my other baby. Weather has been awesome for riding, but she's sitting in the barn while I grind on the Alumaturd...

-Red

[Panama Red]

It's been a pretty productive past few days... SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) asked me Monday as I left for work if I'd like some help that afternoon working on the LoveStream. Well, there's a no brainer. A hot blonde to hand you rivets and drill bits and find where you left the cleco pliers so you don't have to crawl out from under the trailer every two minutes... Hmmmm, I'm thinking, "Yes!" So, the most awesome wife in the world has been helping me with the curb side wrap. Go ahead, envy me!

The first piece of side wrap I put in, curb side back section, I didn't pre bend, thinking it would form around the outriggers fairly easy... Wrong. So, I bought a ten foot stick of six inch PVC, and with an extra set of hands, we just roll the aluminum sheet around the pipe. Puts in a pretty good curve. Made the rest of the wrap install a LOT smoother!

Banana wraps, which I really thought would be fairly simple, weren't! The front one went easier than the rear, but both we're a slight pain in the butt...

Using TremPro 635 for sealant on the body to wrap seam. I really like this stuff, but if you thought Vulkem gets on everything, you ain't seen nothin'. Just go ahead and stick a gob in your hair before you start, and save yourself the surprise.

Pictures were after dark. With only an hour and a half of daylight in the afternoon when I get home, I'm finishing up after dark every day. Hoping to finish up with all the wrap by Saturday, and install the trim.

For extra credit, play "Find the Longneck in Red's Pictures". Just how many can you find?

-Red

[Panama Red]

So, today was just like every other day, except my wife has taken ownership of the Cleco pliers. She is now officially "Queen of the Clecos"! I can not believe how much she's getting into this now. I don't have to get up and down to find rivets/Clecos/drill bits/caulk gun, I just ask, and it's in my hand! So, today after I got the street side rear wrap pinned in place with a few Clecos, I started drilling holes, and she'd stuff the Cleco in. Went really quick.

So, back street side wrap in today, front coming on Saturday.

Stripped the black paint off the battery box cover and installed that.... Just lots of little stuff this afternoon.

Waiting on my axles still. Plenty to do before they get here...

-Red

[HiHoAgRV]

Amazing progress and work!

[Panama Red]

Thanks Vernon, or Sarah... or Mac...
It's amazing how much faster it goes with an extra set of hands helping out. My father has helped tremendously, but getting my wife involved has just been awesome. Its fun to see how excited she gets over popping cleco's in... stands back with her hands on her hips, admiring her handiwork. Good stuff! We knocked out that rear wrap from first stroke of the marker on aluminum to finishing up the waste water drain enclosure in two hours. Doing the one on the other side took six hours working by myself.

Only downer for the day is, (and you can see the stain on the concrete in the picture) while I was wallowing around trying to finish up the drain area, I spilled the coffee can with an inch of mineral spirits in it that we were using to clean TremPro 635 off of the cleco's, and soaked the side of my pants with it. Thirty minutes later... I found out why you don't want to sit around in pants soaked with mineral spirits. Let's just say that I have a couple areas of my body that got very irritated. Man, that crap burns like fire after a little bit.

Can't do anything this afternoon. Back on it Saturday am...

-Red

[Aerowood]

Originally Posted by Panama Red

For extra credit, play "Find the Longneck in Red's Pictures". Just how many can you find?

-Red

It's not as important how many are in your pictures but how many are setting in front of me.

Nice job on all of your repairs. High Temp today might make 10 degrees

[Panama Red]

I'm guessing there are five sitting in front of you, and another trip to the corner store in your near future...

My wife's family is from Michigan, and we went up there a couple years ago... might have been last year, maybe three years ago... I lose track of time...
Anyhoo, the high for the day was 2. I asked where was the number in front of the 2.Two is not a temperature. There has to be a number in front of it, prefferably a 6 or a 7. A 5 will do, as long as it is replaced by a 6 or a 7 by noon. 2 is unacceptable as a temperature...
I've probably already told that story in here somewhere. Sorry, what do you expect from a guy that can't remember what year he drove to Michigan?

So, you got ten degrees today, but wait for summer... man, summer in Colorado would be awesome. Can't wait to start snowbirdin'... Summer in Michigan, winter in Florida, head out west when I get the itch. Or is it get the itch when I head out west?

Wait, I have an idea for you guys in the cooler areas of the country... Soak your pants with mineral spirits. You'll have a warm feeling for a couple of days.

-Red

[angle]

Big sweatpants for awhile? Lol. Just love this thread. We both do...

[Panama Red]

You know you live in the sticks when FedEx takes your delivery of TremPro 635 back to Jacksonville because they can't find your house... I hope the guy driving the truck today has a little better success. It's not like I don't order something EVERY STINKING WEEK and have it delivered here. I'm thinking the driver ran out of time and used "can't find the address" as an excuse...

On a positive note, if you live anywhere near Gainesville Fl, Florida Fasteners out on Waldo Rd carries a HUGE supply of rivets, even the big head jobs used on the belly pan. And, they're just up the road from ABC Supply that carries the aluminum I bought for my belly pan. Great service from both stores.

Today starts the final piece of wrap, street side front. Doing it in two sections instead of one. I have to, my aluminum is only ten feet long. Will make the cut out for the fridge a little easier to line up also.

Pictures coming this afternoon...

-Red

[Minno]

Currently -9 here this morning. That's 9 degrees BELOW 0. +2 is higher than we will get today. AND we're going to hunt our Christmas tree and cut it on a tree farm this afternoon. We've learned life goes on no matter what the temperature. However, we don't work on Little Girl in this weather. It's too cold even for us Minnesotans!
Enjoy your weather. Occasionally we envy you Southerners. But we like our white Christmas's.

Kay

[GAStreamin]

Originally Posted by Minno

Currently -9 here this morning. That's 9 degrees BELOW 0. +2 is higher than we will get today. AND we're going to hunt our Christmas tree and cut it on a tree farm this afternoon. We've learned life goes on no matter what the temperature. However, we don't work on Little Girl in this weather. It's too cold even for us Minnesotans! Enjoy your weather. Occasionally we envy you Southerners. But we like our white Christmas's. Kay

Kay,
I just can't believe it!!!! It is truly hard for me to imagine how cold that really is. It is so warm here in South GA. In fact, it is raining here today. I wonder if it will be raining where Red is today. We are 2 hours north of Gainesville FL. I am still hoping to make a trek up to Minnesota. That would be something. This southern girl has never gone that far north. I have been far west and overseas, but not as far north as Minnesota.

[Minno]

It doesn't last long usually. By next Wednesday our lows will be above 0 again. It's colder here than where we grew up in western Michigan. We moved here from 5 years in California ( 32 years ago). I thought that first winter we were all going to die of pneumonia. But we lived and learned to love it here. International Falls on the Canadian border (known in Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons as Frostbite Falls) is huge on outdoor hockey! It's much colder there. And our Canadian friends endure even colder temps. Gotta come to northern Minnesota: it's Gods country, for sure, you betcha!

Kay

[Panama Red]

Yeah, it was a sweat day today. Dang Kay, -9 should be grounds for closing the state or something... I lived on a mountain top in Italy for a year, because Uncle Sam made me, not that I was complaining, and it would cover the barracks in snow. We had a snow tunnel coming out of the chow hall. My Fiat was actually buried for a month or two. But it NEVER got to -9. Good googly moogly that's cold.

Hey GAStreamin, no rain down here today, just really muggy... Florida, meh. Great work on your Stream by the way! Way to jump in there and kick it in the butt!!!

Today, my rivet wench was sick. So, the street side front had to get done without her... Holy smokes it's a lot harder when your helper stays home. Started out the day with the tv antennae. The pictures tell the story, but let me add, there were no rivets holding it on, just a LOT of vulkem, and silicone, and some white stuff that seemed to have flowed when they applied it.... But NO RIVETS??? What the heck? No wonder this thing leaked. So, I removed it, and tucked the cable back into the body, and made two patches for the holes.

War of the AlumaTurd
Chapter Three: Fight or Flight

The staccato clack of Clecos on concrete was only drowned out by the constant ringing of rivet pins as they struck the hard slab. Time was no more. There was only the man and his rivet gun. He had been here before, lying on his back, covered in filth, dirt, sweat, TremPro 635... At first glance, you wouldn't have recognized the form under the trailer as human. Maybe a dog whose fur had been eaten away by the mange, but not a man. Yet he lay there, cordless drill in one hand, Cleco pliers in the other, a look of grim determination on his face, a hint of the madness that had destroyed his mind glinting from his eyes. His aluminum grey eyes. They had once been blue, and his hair red, but neither of those colors existed in his world any longer. His hair was a matted black and gray mess, and his eyes, well, they had changed. They say a man can only take so much before he snaps, and the endless stretch of aluminum had taken its toll, had exacted a physical, as well as mental, price from the man. He now wore a constant snarl, with various sized rivets clenched between his teeth. And his forearms, God how they burned. He had lost all feeling in his fingers days, maybe years, ago, yet he did not slow his pace... Drill hole, inset Cleco, drill hole, insert Cleco, drill hole. It was a constant drumming in his once sharp mind. Drill hole, insert Cleco. And when all the holes had finally been drilled, when all the Clecos had finally been installed, if that day were ever possible, there was a voice, a whining, brittle voice, deep in his aching head, that whispered to him, reminding him that the Clecos had to be removed, that the rivets, those damned rivets, had to take their place. Time was no more simply because the man could no longer remember a "before", and there appeared to be no "after". There was only the aluminum, and it gave no mercy...


So, anyways, I got the street side front wrap done today... Booger of a job by yourself. Really missed my helper. When the smoke clears, there were spent casings everywhere and a bucket of rivet pins, and I hurt all over. In the words of Mick Jagger, "What a drag it is getting old..."

Pictures in the next post, they're all on my phone.

-Red

[Panama Red]

And, the photos...

[GAStreamin]

Great pics! I also appreciate the tip on where to get the aluminum. I might have to make a run down there, not too far, and get the aluminum and rivets I will need when it comes time to put bellypan back on and add new banana wrap. I haven't caught back up on your thread yet, but apparently you backed up and punted.

[Panama Red]

Call them before you drive down. Sometimes they have to order it from the warehouse. I bought seven sheets, and have one left over, but I didn't re-skin the fresh water tank belly skin.