A canned ham in foam: Built

[GPW]

NICE Paint job !!!

[dales133]

Paint looks awsum, very period for that body style.
This is a work of art for sure

[NMMarauder]

Very good painting work. It looks like you know that special painting trick for masking on rough canvas surface.

I'm not sure if it is the same trick. Do you mean the one where you paint past the line with your first color, then put your tape on the line and paint up against the edge with that color to try to get the paint to seal the edge. Then you paint over that color with your second color? I'm not sure I explained that well. I tried that and it worked pretty well but it takes time for that first color to dry before you can put your second color on.

In the end, I worked the edge of the tape down really well with my thumbnail and it worked just as well. I did buy "FrogTape" painters tape because I heard it really did make a cleaner edge. So maybe that helped. I still had to use an artist's brush to touch up a couple of bleed spots but it really wasn't too bad. If my surface was even rougher, I'm sure this wouldn't have worked as well and I would have had to use the 'trick' above.

[OP827]

Very good painting work. It looks like you know that special painting trick for masking on rough canvas surface.

I'm not sure if it is the same trick. Do you mean the one where you paint past the line with your first color, then put your tape on the line and paint up against the edge with that color to try to get the paint to seal the edge. Then you paint over that color with your second color? I'm not sure I explained that well. I tried that and it worked pretty well but it takes time for that first color to dry before you can put your second color on.

- yes this is it. I read about this some time ago.

In the end, I worked the edge of the tape down really well with my thumbnail and it worked just as well. I did buy "FrogTape" painters tape because I heard it really did make a cleaner edge. So maybe that helped. I still had to use an artist's brush to touch up a couple of bleed spots but it really wasn't too bad. If my surface was even rougher, I'm sure this wouldn't have worked as well and I would have had to use the 'trick' above.

- Interesting, maybe, but usually it is quite challenging to do a good masking on a rough surface. You did a high quality work and it shows style.

[wagondude]

Very nice paint job. I cant wait to se what you do inside.

[NMMarauder]

More progress....

I installed the tail and clearance lights and ran all the wires inside the the flexible conduit which is attached to the frame up to the tongue. I either used crimp connectors or solder with heat shrink tubing for all connections with the exception of a couple of terminal blocks. Since all my lights are LED, it is unlikely that they will fail in the lifetime of the trailer but I still wanted to make it easy to replace one of the fixtures if needed, thus the terminal blocks are there to make it easy to change out a fixture. Shown below is the terminal block that connects the tail and side marker light with the rest of the wiring. This bock will be under the bed platform so I didn't worry about trying to hide it since the bed will hide it. I'll unhook it when I need to canvas that section of the wall.



I also slid the trailer out of my garage and put the wheels on. Here it is with its tow vehicle. Now that it is out in the sunlight, I can see that I will need to go a bit darker with the blue if I want to get a better match with the truck.



It's not actually hitched to the truck at this point because I was measuring what size drop hitch I will need to purchase since my TV sits fairly high. I did take it for a spin around the block and the truck doesn't even know it is back there. I wouldn't expect it to since my best guess on the current weight of the trailer is 680 lbs. Of course it is just a shell at this point so it will get heavier as I finish the interior.



I still need to paint the black stripe on the rear of the trailer. I didn't paint it initially because I wanted to see what it looked like with and without and I like it much better with. I also really like the tail lights. I need to get an evening shot because they look very good when they are on. They have this cool center ring of light. If you look closely you can see the 2 receiver hitches that I welded to the frame on the rear of the trailer. My thought was to use those to mount a tire rack, bike rack or even bumper. Not sure what I want to do with them yet but they are there and ready for use.

One more shot of it sitting beside the house.



At this point I could camp in it. It is like having a hard sided tent on wheels with a door and windows. I don't know if my trailer counts as a "Tiny" travel trailer. I guess compared to the monsters on the road today it is pretty small but I don't know if I qualify for "Tiny".

[ghcoe]

Looks awesome.....

[KCStudly]

+1, looks really awesome! You really nailed the paint theme and it goes well with the black wheels and hub caps, too.

[daveesl77]

That is just a really, really nice looking trailer. Wow! I've told a number of people about your build and now they need to see how well this turned out. I've been following your build since the beginning and have learned a lot from you and your craftsmanship.

dave

[GPW]

“ It is like having a hard sided tent on wheels with a door and windows “ ... EXACTLY !!!!

“ and the truck doesn't even know it is back there. “ ... That’s the whole idea ...

JMHO . I think it looks SUPER !!!

[Fred Trout]

That really looks great & the paint job is impressive. Very nice work !!

Those kerfs appear to be pretty handy for tucking the wiring away as well as making the turns - a win win !!

[OP827]

Wow, that trailer turned out really cool! Sooo, you'll be glueing canvas inside too?

[Ned B]

That's one handsome trailer!! unless you're going for an exact match, I'd leave the paint as is. It is 'in the family' and looks great!

[NMMarauder]

... Sooo, you'll be glueing canvas inside too?

I have enough left over canvas, glue and paint so it would be the thrifty option. I looked at the big box stores for some sort of thin panel that I could use but nothing caught my eye. The walls already have canvas so it would provide continuity if the ceiling did too. If anyone has better ideas, I'm all ears.

[NMMarauder]

That's one handsome trailer!! unless you're going for an exact match, I'd leave the paint as is. It is 'in the family' and looks great!

Thank you for saying that. I knew I couldn't get an exact match unless I was willing to have it sprayed with the same automotive paint. It came down to 2 Behr colors; Electric Blue and Planetarium. The electric blue looked nicer on its own than the darker planetarium so I decided to go with it. The nice thing about using a good quality exterior latex paint is I could grab a brush and roller and change the whole paint scheme in a day.