Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Well the template is now finished. Now for the real work in rebuilding the 1946 KIT. You can follow the progress by clicking on the bar.

Nice start! I'll be following this as I do for all your projects.

What type of hardboard are you using for the template? 1/4-inch? Tempered both sides?

It's interesting to see the frame is much narrower than the body.

I see you ain't gonna be needing store-bought honey for a while.....

Andrew

I see your using the other door plan Gage...Bigger door than normal..

I think your excited now to get to the gettn it back together part..

Lookn Good Gage

Classic Finn

Well Gage it looks like you have your work cut out for you,
I just wish I lived a little (a lot ) closer to you so I could give you a hand

I will be keeping an eye on your progress.

Take care.
The Sin City Teardropper.
Ken F.
( www.VegasTeardrop.com )

Gage,

Looks good! Keep it up! So I get it... people buy the old beat up vintage trailers just the paper work. It looks like the only thing you will use from the old trailer, is the ice box, and the tube frame. Er, uh and the tail lights.

Way to go Gage,

I like the fact that your getting two parts of teardrop history back on the road. Even if you don't end up useing alot of the old pieces, it gives us a look at how everything was put together back then and how its evolved today. The frame is a lot lighter than most today, maybe why it failed, but it just shows how much we overbuild.
Your sister is lucky to have you do all this work for her.
I can't wait to see the finished teardrop.

Going to try and answer some of the questions that have come up.

aggie79 wrote:What type of hardboard are you using for the template? 1/4-inch? Tempered both sides?

3/16" Tempered (I call it masonite). It's very easy to cut and file.

angib wrote:It's interesting to see the frame is much narrower than the body.
I see you ain't gonna be needing store-bought honey for a while.....
Andrew

Yep the frame width suprised me when I pulled the floor. It's only 36" wide and 1 3/8 x 1/8 wall pipe. One of the reasons I'm going with 3/4 marine grade ply.And it would of been good not to have to buy store honey. But the nest were wasp nest. They don't give honey, just pain.

Classic Finn wrote:I see your using the other door plan Gage...Bigger door than normal..
I think your excited now to get to the gettn it back together part..
Lookn Good Gage
Classic Finn

Bigger is better. Boy is 8' a challenge. Not really excited yet. Still a lot of work to do before I start putting it together.

Ken Fincher wrote:Well Gage it looks like you have your work cut out for you,

cuyeda wrote:Gage,
Looks good! Keep it up! So I get it... people buy the old beat up vintage trailers just the paper work. It looks like the only thing you will use from the old trailer, is the ice box, and the tube frame. Er, uh and the tail lights.

Problem is with this KIT, there's no paper on it. But I'm working on that problem. About the only thing that's going to be original is the frame. The ice box is from a TT and is to big and the lights are ugly. The stove is original but I'm not going to use it.

madprinter wrote:Way to go Gage,

I like the fact that your getting two parts of teardrop history back on the road. Even if you don't end up useing alot of the old pieces, it gives us a look at how everything was put together back then and how its evolved today. The frame is a lot lighter than most today, maybe why it failed, but it just shows how much we overbuild.
Your sister is lucky to have you do all this work for her.
I can't wait to see the finished teardrop.

Thank you but I'm only getting one back on the road. The other KIT that you see on that flatbed trailer is going to another board member (and he is watching what I do and taking notes). As far as the frame fatigue. You have to remember that the frame is over 60 years old. Heck, I've seen car frames fatigue in less time. It all depends on how they are used and abused. I think part of the reason that the frame cracked was most likely because the axle was to stiff which forced all movement to the frame and body. But yes, many teardrops built today in the garage are over built. But I'm not going to tell them that. It only causes for name calling.

Hey Gage,
Great photo documentation of the restoration! The condition and the process is very reminiscent of the restoration of my 46 about 5 years ago. The frame is very interesting. Of 10 or 12 examples of early Kits I have only seen C channel frames. The characteristic Kit tubular tongue has sometimes been welded and sometimes bolted to the channel iron. The tubular frame is of the same design with the diagonal cross bracing. Kits are notorius for all being a little different based on parts and materials available at the time. Keep up the good work and we hope to see it this summer.

Jerome

Well after being off the KIT rebuild for some 3 months because of different reasons it's time to get back on it. So today I finished trimming the right side. Tomorrow I'll get the insulation and start applying the roof ply. I figure there is only about 40 more hours of wook to do and it'll be ready to use.

I am glad to see you are back working on your sisters teardrop.

Jeremy

Wow! that looks really good!

Alot of care going into that build!

Great job Gage! Good to see another of the oldies saved.

Gage,

Good to see you are back to the Kit. It is another fine example of your well thought out planning and high quality work using a minimal amount of tools. Thanks for sharing.

Gage your weed eater is out of string...