I've been a lurker for a while, I planned on building a teardrop some day, but I had the opportunity to get a water damaged teardrop last fall. It was homemade, lovingly, but not watertight. It's been through at least 3 owners, the previous owner had planned on getting to this but life got in the way. So now it's my problem! I'm very budget conscious, or I would probably have bought or built brand-new.
My first plan is to do some significant disassembly. I need to get the teardrop off the trailer, as both sides and a bit of floor have to be replaced. My current plan is to have wood frames for the doors and supporting a roof rack, otherwise covering everything in foam. I haven't fully decided on how to do siding an waterproofing. I previously built two foamie kayaks, so I'm leaning towards that. They're watertight and I have a source of 10 oz canvas and gallons of exterior grade primer.
My major questions are:
The trailer: I don't know trailers at all, but I do know this one doesn't have electronic brakes and doesn't look very high quality. It seems to have worked fine, so I don't want to replace it, but should I take it to a professional and pay out the nose to have them do whatever they recommend? Can I just clean and paint the trailer and repack the bearings and be fine? Should I do anything?
Is there anything you recommend I add while I have the walls off?
The tongue both had the old electrical system in it and I'm planning on fully replacing it. Is there a good resource for options for replacing the tongue box? A plastic tote? Can I drill out and bolt a holder to the tongue without compromising it?
Looking forward to this process and thank you for all the resources this community has made already!
Here's an album of the photos I took before putting the camper away for storage!
https://imgur.com/a/i9758BP
