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Eric H · 12-03-2011, 08:15 PM

Well I figure I'll start my own thread to keep motivated on my Safari!
I have yet to decide what exact type of concession trailer it will be, but I think something easy so I don't have to modify the outside.... Today was a second round of demolition. I have to say, the aluminum skin on these trailers is so nice and gives them a real feel of quality craftsmanship, but the insides (at least during these years) are junk. I know weight is an issue, but it just feels cheap....nothing a trip to the dump can't get rid of!

Eric H · 12-03-2011, 08:18 PM

Here are all the insides!!!

Inland RV Center, In · 12-03-2011, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric H

Here are all the insides!!!

Make sure the suspension system is OK and that it will handle the new pay load.

Andy

Eric H · 12-04-2011, 12:04 AM

Good call on that! She needs new axles for sure! I figure it will be easiest to put them on after taking out the floor and as much weight as possible!
Cheers,!
Eric

Frank's Trailer Works · 12-04-2011, 06:35 AM

Eric, I have been around a few years now and have seen many many projects just like yours. Please take this advice and do not be offended... STOP, do not go much further until you contact the health board, zoning, and who ever regulates food service in your area. They are going to have many standards you will need to build to. It has happened many times with these concession projects that someone says " I have yet to decide what exact type of concession trailer it will be, but I think something easy so I don't have to modify the outside" What is going to happen is you are going to hit walls you never anticipated and out of frustration you will just abandoned the project. I, and many have seen this over and over. Go in with a proper plan and there will not be any walls to run up against. There are standards and regulations about concession trailers in every State. Get to know what they are and work toward those standards instead of having to change everything you have done so far. I say none of these things to dissuade you or discourage your ideas, instead I am trying to help guide you to the right road you need to take.
I worked closely with a fella a few years ago who wanted to open a burger trailer in Michigan. He was thousands of dollars into it when he found out he could not even vend from it in his county. I think he had about $20k in when he just walked away.

Eric H · 12-04-2011, 08:07 AM

Hey Frank
I couldn't agree more with you. I actually have already done just what you suggested. I have in my hands the "Food Establishment Guidelines" packet and a "Mobile Food Establishment Plan Review Packet".
My family owns a catering business and we have a commercial, health inspected kitchen in one of our buildings and I certainly know how tough the health department can be! That kitchen will actually be used as the commissary.
I actually helped run our catering business for a number of years in my 20s and have helped open several restaurants for friends who I've always encouraged to get the guidelines and stick to them. So I think this is sound advice.
I'm actually looking at this trailer as a muli-purpose unit. I'm not going to be personally running the business, my sister who runs the catering business will be using it some, along with some friends who have a BBQ place.
At the moment I'm working on the trailer just to get it to a base level, but I'm most likely going to go whole hog with a hood and fryers (that's why I'm gutting it, to make the frame stronger:-).

I appreciate the heads up. If you discourage anyone you give that same advice to I think you would be doing them a favor!

Best,
Eric

Quote:

Originally Posted by 62overlander

Eric, I have been around a few years now and have seen many many projects just like yours. Please take this advice and do not be offended... STOP, do not go much further until you contact the health board, zoning, and who ever regulates food service in your area. They are going to have many standards you will need to build to. It has happened many times with these concession projects that someone says " I have yet to decide what exact type of concession trailer it will be, but I think something easy so I don't have to modify the outside" What is going to happen is you are going to hit walls you never anticipated and out of frustration you will just abandoned the project. I, and many have seen this over and over. Go in with a proper plan and there will not be any walls to run up against. There are standards and regulations about concession trailers in every State. Get to know what they are and work toward those standards instead of having to change everything you have done so far. I say none of these things to dissuade you or discourage your ideas, instead I am trying to help guide you to the right road you need to take.
I worked closely with a fella a few years ago who wanted to open a burger trailer in Michigan. He was thousands of dollars into it when he found out he could not even vend from it in his county. I think he had about $20k in when he just walked away.

Eric H · 12-04-2011, 09:41 AM

Here are the extra large, adult monkey bars I built to get to the top of the AS...
It will be getting some plywood for the platform on top.

Oh, one more bonus we found...if the old speakers work in your AS, just run some speaker wire from a stereo and splice it in to all the speakers at the source and viola! you have music to work to!

Eric H · 12-11-2011, 12:00 AM

More work on the Safari... The floor is almost up...
When I bought her the PO had just had the rear of the main joists fixed by someone she knew...well it was a I suspected...a crappy job. The sister beam was welded onto a mostly rusted beam! (pic below) I'll be firing up the plasma cutter! It will be easy to fix now that the floor is up though!

I used a jack to jack the shell up off of the frame to slide some small 1X2 pieces in to support the shell and keep it lifted off the frame (so it didn't bend the flange around the edge). It looks like every single bolt that holds the shell to the frame will need to be replaced as they are all rusted out. I'm hoping we won't have another earthquake that could rock the shell off the frame

!!!

Frank's Trailer Works · 12-11-2011, 06:24 AM

In the last photo I see the belly pan is still in place. You are going to have to remove that to replace those rusted out bolts you mentioned. There is no way around it, though many have tried. When ripping out the floor, have you made a template from the original floor or are you saving it as you go to copy later?

Roadrunner · 12-11-2011, 06:41 AM

Eric looks like you are making good progress. Do you plan on replacing the entire floor?

Bob

Eric H · 12-30-2011, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roadrunner

Eric looks like you are making good progress. Do you plan on replacing the entire floor?

Bob

Yep! Will be replacing it all...I have the original floor to make templates out of, so that's a plus! Have the plasma cutter and mig welder ready, the work continues tomorrow, with pictures!

Eric H · 12-31-2011, 05:24 PM

Well, we had a very productive last day of the year. Pulled up the rest of the floor, removed the entire belly pan, got her up on blocks and started grinding. I'll post plenty more pics tomorrow of the MASSIVE amounts of rust and holes in the large plates where the axles attach. Kinda scary actually.... Bought some heavy gauge wire for the mig!
We all agreed that welding is preferred over drilling out rivets and cleaning out old pink stuff! Lots of welding tomorrow!
It really seems that we can get to to the trailer while still keeping the shell "on" but have supported the shell from the ground in places since some of the outriggers just fell off. Having a blast!

Eric H · 12-31-2011, 05:27 PM

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!

Frank's Trailer Works · 01-01-2012, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric H

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!

Same to you!!!! Nice to see the boy in the mix. Very nice touch! You said there is a massive plate at the axles. Do you mean the hanging plate that the axles bolt to?

Eric H · 01-01-2012, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 62overlander

Same to you!!!! Nice to see the boy in the mix. Very nice touch! You said there is a massive plate at the axles. Do you mean the hanging plate that the axles bolt to?

Yep, that's our intern! He's getting most if the grinding job.

Yes, I do mean the plate that the axle bolts to... Have some thick steel to fix that thing. We'll have to put new pins in for the shock mounts as well. The curb side of the trailer is fine, so at least we have a template, it also makes me think it was parked for a long time with the street side near the ocean.... It was VA Beach originally.

Frank's Trailer Works · 01-01-2012, 08:06 AM

That will do it!!!

Eric H · 01-01-2012, 05:27 PM

A second full day on the trailer... grinding off lots of large rust areas... We ended up blocking the outriggers and skin in some places since the outriggers are so rusted that many of them just want to fall off!
I called Out Of Doors Mart about the difference between the $9 and $26 outriggers and they said that it's just a different supplier...no more $9 ones left...looks like I'll be making my own!

We dropped the axles, hopefully the junk yard will give me some cash for the steel, MAN those things are heavy.

The only worry I have is that skin sitting on the old outriggers, but everything else is fun now that the dirt and insulation is gone!

Eric H · 02-10-2012, 08:00 PM

Okay, just typed up an entire update and Air Forums just refresed or something and it all went away…gerrrr. Anyway, I’ll keep it short.

Worked on the frame, replaced entire areas with bad rust, including basically remaking the entire rear C channel, stripped and sanded the tail lights.

My design concept is a mirror shine aluminum with brass accents, not blue, so the tail lights will be brass plated with black around the lights. Some of the patches may be a gold anodized aluminum etc. Going for a steampunk look.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, jut not wanting to re-type the entire update…

Eric H · 02-14-2012, 08:34 PM

Frame repair still going on. I'm basically rebuilding the C channel and beefing it up. So long rust.

marzboy · 02-16-2012, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric H

Frame repair still going on. I'm basically rebuilding the C channel and beefing it up. So long rust.

Wow that brings back some memories! In fact I was looking at my Lincoln welder and wondering if I was ever going to use it again! I had some channel fabricated to be slightly smaller and fit in the existing channel to create a box. Then I welded into place, pretty simple. Lookin good!