Upgrades to the Wee Trailer

The wee trailer has served me well for over two years no matter what I threw at it, and despite a lot of abuse it just kept going. However it was due for a bit of maintenance, so I decided to fix several issues at once. As you can see in the pic above(the trailer is upside down in that shot) the license plate is utterly mangled from getting caught every time I tip the trailer on end to store it. And this is after the original bracket broke off. Also the tail lights were moved to the fenders after those brackets broke, but they point to far up and aren’t easy for other drivers to see. So While I was greasing & adjusting the wheel bearings I decided to fix those once and for all.

As the house is eating most of my money, I decided to see if I could do this with only stuff I had around. So I dug out a now extra bed frame, and cut a piece off to serve as the new tail light bracket. I tacked it to the bottom of the fender.

Then I finished off the welds. After grinding the welds down I added a few more tacks to fill any low spots and ground that smooth, continuing until it looked decently smooth.

 

 

To save myself a lot of effort, I cut the bed frame so I could use the existing hole as places to bolt the tail light. On one side this meant another hole was on the edge of the cut, leaving this small cutout.

 

 

I wanted to cap the visible end of the bracket to make everything cleaner, so on this side I added a tab to the triangular filler piece.

 

 

 

This is the filler fitted into place, don’t take this image as a sign that I am an amazing fabricator, I was surprised as hell that I managed to get it to fit this well.

 

 

Then welded the cap in place. Once it was welded in I hammered over the tab and welded that in.

 

 

 

 

And fully welded.

 

 

 

 

One bracket built, compared to the unmodified fender.

 

 

 

 

Once the brackets were attached, I cut the fender out behind the bracket so I can reach the bolt on the lights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also welded the seams on the fenders for strength, and to allow me to grind them smoother. Also barely visible in this shot is that I smoothed the corners.

 

 

Fender with a coat of zinc primer. I didn’t worry about getting everything perfect as they are going to live a hard life anyway. Also I was planning to use the hammered metal spray paint, which covers a lot of sins.

 

 

I also wanted to build a sturdier license plate bracket, hunting around I found these brackets from a dead garage door opener. The curved one turned out to be perfect.

 

 

The completed bracket.

 

 

 

 

 

Installed on the trailer, and painted with hammered metal paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the finished, re-assembled trailer. At some time soon I’ll need to replace the decking, at that point I’ll repaint the main frame. I also ground the rust off the rims and shot them with some leftover graphite paint from Box’s wheels.

 

The Wee Trailer

The Wee Trailer

This isn’t going to be very thoughtful or informative, but there are lots of pictures, so that’s something. I bought this trailer when I was moving out of a household I shared with some friends. Most of my stuff was going into storage about 45 minutes away, so I figured anything to reduce the number of trips I needed would be a big help. So I bought a little 3’x4′ trailer that holds about 850 lbs. Harbor freight sells them little trailers for under $200, and it turned out to be some of the best money I ever spent. So here is a series entitled “Stuff on the Wee Trailer.”

A Student’s desk, hutch top for desk, small dresser & leather ottoman. Bonus: Box has two leather wingback chairs in him.

A Dresser, Ikea desk, TV stand, & night table. Bonus: Box has a couch & computer chair in him.

A Dresser

An Antique Buffet.

An Ikea Desk, bookcase, file cabinet, 1953 White Sewing machine stand, & oak office chair

An Antique Steamer Trunk & two Schwinn Bicycles.

The roof rocket sculpture from my old Patchworks artcar

A Tool cabinet, Air Compressor & Floor Jack.

Two sets of Snow Tires

Three 1963 Mercury Comet Doors.

Two 20gallon totes, pop-up shade awning, 2 folding chairs, hammock & a fully loaded rocket box(strapped to a pallet so I could offset it over the back edge.

The “new” motor & transmission for the Wagon.

And that is just what I remembered to photograph.

 

New toys for the wagon!

This weekend I was able to pick up this pile of new bits for the wagon. Bright & early Sunday morning I dug the xB & my little utility trailer out of the snow and headed to CT. There I met up with a gentleman who was rebuilding his wife’s 1966 Mustang and was upgrading it to a newer Thunderbird 3.8 V6 & 5-speed. I was able to buy the original 200ci six, C4 transmission, driveshaft and a box of parts & accessories for only $250.

In addition to not having a bad valve, the motor has only 77K miles on it, and allows me to in the same package get a 60 amp alternator(instead of my 30amp generator), automatic choke, and a carb that isn’t leaking gasoline. It does need an exhaust manifold as these are prone to cracking, however the one on my old motor is good. Also the distributor bushings are worn so it slowly goes out of tune. I’ll be trying my distributor, and if that doesn’t work a remanufactured replacement is only $50.

I’m planning to stab the motor in as soon as possible, but the transmission is going to have to wait until at least the spring as going from the 2-speed Fordomatic in the wagon the 3-speed C4 requires a bit more adapting (new driveshaft, transmission crossmember and custom linkage).

 

Not sure when I’m going to get a chance to swap the motors, so until then everything is sitting wrapped in a tarp on the trailer. This is the joy of trying to get stuff done on a car in New England without a garage. You never know when your work area is going to be under several inches of snow.