1955 Benroy - Rebuild (08/20/2013 - Painted! Now reassembly)

[KCStudly]

Yes, it looks great!

Some simple line graphics like the originals will be the pizzaz and the red fenders and wheels will just tie in, not jump out.

On those hub caps, which I think are a great choice, If you had asked me I would have called them "dog dish" not "baby moon". Baby moon's have more of a semi-spherical shape. But no matter, they look good!

[TRP]

That looks great, love the ribbed trim rings and the Merc caps. the taillights really look good too. I was thinking of going with with those or 39 Chevy taillights but the mounts were concerning me, looks like you've got that worked out good.

Can you tell me how tall your tires are ? I've got 205/70r 15 on chrome smoothies and they don't quite fill out the fenders either, they are 26½" tall. I also love your fenders, mine just have the rounded edge, they're flat across the top not rounded like yours.

I decided to go with these '40 Willys taillights on my galley hatch I'll be running small1¼" round clearance lights on the fenders and the tear shaped marker lights on the side of the tear body.

Your rebuild looks great, looking forward to seeing it completed.

Richard

Hey Richard,

Thanks for the kind words. Aside from the tail lights, and the Merc parts, that's all original 1955 Benroy metal. I feel pretty lucky to have picked up mostly all my parts in one stop.

My new skins are exactly 27 1/8" tall. I'm still on the fence. But I think they may be a tad to large, but maybe I'm still getting used to the new size compared to what was on there. I was going for a look similar to the "Orange Pop" tear drop from "Vacations in a Can".



Regarding the mounts for the tail lights: I was looking at the same Chevrolet tails you mentioned. My biggest concern there was mounting those. The 37 Ford lights were simple, yet still provided some head scratching as the screw holes are two different sizes and the rear screw holes are at a funky angle. What you see is my second attempt at a bracket. I think I'm close on the final design. My plan is to 'box in' or 'wrap' that simple metal bracket with some of the original skins / aluminum from the trailer. I'll take the aluminum and fabricate some sort of 'sleeve' which will completely cover the ugly bracket I 'fabricated' with a framing hammer and a vice. I hope to be able to bend the old 040 well enough to 'soften' the hard lines of the home made bracket and make it look more original. I was thinking an airfoil shape may look good, we'll see. That's the plan anyway.

Your plan for your running lights should work out well. Be careful mixing different styles, you kind of want them all to work well together. I'm always amazed at all the lighting requirements for different states. Here in CA we don't need running lights on the sides if the trailer is under 13'.

I'll keep an eye out for your build thread.

Dano -- Thanks! Are you around today? Once I get the chores done, I may try my hand at a second attempt at the hatch.

KCStudly -- You are probably right. The final paint will be exactly as the originals were done. My hope is that they tie it all in. Oh, yeah - I guess the Mercs are 'dog dishes' not moons. I started out looking for moons and in the end, settled on these. I picked them up from "Wheel Vintiques" in Fresno. Found 'em on the interwebs. I really wish the stock wheels had the 'hubcap' nubs on the inside and not the outside. The inner mounted moons/dishes look sooooo much nicer (in my opinion). I'm just not partial to that thick lip that the exterior 'nub' wheels require. I may still pick up a set of the smoothies and have the centers painted red, just so I can run that smaller/cleaner looking moon.

Steve -- If you're still tuned in - I went with the 215/75. If they had the 205 I would have gone that route. Let me know what you decide.

Thanks all for your comments,
T

[dano]

Ted , I plan to be home all day.
Dan

[TRP]

I picked up a piece of 3/4 marine grade plywood today and tried to make the hatch ribs like the rest of you guys made 'em. I just couldn't' get 'em right. I tried and tried. Just didn't get 'em the way I wanted them. They were nowhere near as strong as the laminated ones I had created earlier.

I called up ole' Dan'o and he came over and had a look at the pile of saw dust and scraps that I had created. He and I agreed that my original wasn't too far gone to salvage. So, I gave it a whirl.

Below is what I ended up with:



The right side is really close, but not exact. I'm not sure if this one will be the 'final' hatch, but I think we can make it work.

Thanks for letting me share my progress.
T

[Kim Armstrong]

Ted,
Does Kim have any pics of her Benroy on this forum or other?
I looked at her profile but there was no gallery link.
Thx.

Who's Kim?

T

Kim Armstrong. She commented in Mike's KR thread and I thought you had mentioned her having a very original BR. Maybe I got her confused with someone else?

I'm Kim Armstrong. A guy. Was looking for the size of the radius on the side walls at the bottom, front and back. Thanks

[dano]

Trp,
It was good to meet ya yesterday. Your trailer is looking great. Even better in person. I thought you were done for the day. Wow, looks like the hatch skinned up nice.

Dano

[TRP]

Ted,
Does Kim have any pics of her Benroy on this forum or other?
I looked at her profile but there was no gallery link.
Thx.

Who's Kim?

T

Kim Armstrong. She commented in Mike's KR thread and I thought you had mentioned her having a very original BR. Maybe I got her confused with someone else?

I'm Kim Armstrong. A guy. Was looking for the size of the radius on the side walls at the bottom, front and back. Thanks

Ah! Okay. I saw the question a few posts back. Let me figure it out tonight and I'll get back to you this evening. I can tell you now that they are the same, front and back. I used the rear valance pieces to reinforce the front corners.

I'll post some details tonight.

T

[TRP]

Trp,
It was good to meet ya yesterday. Your trailer is looking great. Even better in person. I thought you were done for the day. Wow, looks like the hatch skinned up nice.

Dano

Hey Dan,

It was great to meet you and Mindy. Thanks for coming by and talking me off the ledge. Those ribs I cut out of the plywood were making me nuts. I couldn't get 'em like I wanted and I was really disappointing by the strength. I could snap 'em with hardly any effort, yet the 50+ year old originals were as tough as nails. I think I made the right decision to use the bows I had.

Thanks for the kind words on the trailer. Slowly but surely we'll get 'er done. When you guys left, I thought I was done too, but the hatch kept calling me back. I couldn't stand that I had spent all day in the garage (after mowing the lawns and doing my daily chores) and didn't have anything to show for it. so I HAD to take one last crack at fixing the hatch. After you left I refit that center rib and managed to get it to square up nicely. With that done, I trimmed the top about 3/16ths of an inch to make room for the hinge. In retrospect, I should have gone the full 1/4". Maybe more? We'll see. I still have that wonky curve issue, where the right side doesn't quite line up like I'd hope. It's so close. We'll see how it plays out. I wound up calling it a day around 7:45pm. Just as my wife and kids got home from the in-laws.

I think tonight I'll pull out one of the original doors and see what it's going to take to get the doors on this thing. 4 weeks until Treasure Island! Anyone know if we got the okay to camp overnight?

T

[TRP]

Can someone tell me what the radius is on the lower part of the side walls front and back? Thanks

Hey Kim.

Best I can measure is 5.5".

Hope this helps,
Ted

[Kim Armstrong]

Thanks TRP, That must have been a pain to wrap around on the back. I may increase that a little. I'm doing a repo of a benroy but wanted the round corners instead of square ones that alot of people do.

[TRP]

Thanks TRP, That must have been a pain to wrap around on the back. I may increase that a little. I'm doing a repo of a benroy but wanted the round corners instead of square ones that alot of people do.

Hey Kim,

The lower corners (front and rear) are not wrapped with the wood. The front and rear lower edges are simply wrapped with the aluminum.

Have fun with your build. It goes a lot quicker than you'd think.

Ted

[Kim Armstrong]

Thanks for the info. Keep the pictures coming. Really enjoy watching your build.

[TRP]

How do you get scratches out of aluminum?

Got a lot done today. Got the top and side aluminum installed. Scratched it pretty good in a few places. I just put the trim pieces on the trailer by hand (no screws or nails) until I can get them cleaned and polished up. They are really dented up in the front lower corners. I will work on cleaning them up during the week.











Thanks,
Ted

[TRP]

Thanks TRP, That must have been a pain to wrap around on the back. I may increase that a little. I'm doing a repo of a benroy but wanted the round corners instead of square ones that alot of people do.

I wanted to revisit the topic of the topic of the front and lower corners. As I said earlier, You don't wrap the 1/8th ply around the lower corners. I fabricated a bunch of formers and worked on wrapping the aluminum around the front of the trailer. I think it worked out well. If you want to talk about a pain, wrapping the front upper interior roof bend - that required patience and some screws. I think I went through 2 1/8th birch ply sheets before I got it right. (Hat tip to Dano for the tip on the suggestion for the screws). Once the glue dried, I took the screws out and filled the holes. You can hardly tell they were there.

A few photos (as seen above) where I wanted to highlight the lower front corners/edges.


I had a few 'oops' moments with the rest aluminum, but I'm pretty happy for a first timer.

This week I'm going to focus on getting the trim cleaned up and mounted properly.

Thanks for letting me share,
Ted

[TRP]

Made some good progress last night. I managed to get the new rear apron and the galley counter cut and test fit. They look snazzy. I wish I had taken a few photos. Maybe tonight.

Pretty soon, it's going to be time for the hatch! This realization caused me to look at my existing 'slam latch'. I'm sure it will work well, as it's a proven design, but that lower right hatch corner has me scratching my head a bit. It wants to creep out a 1/4" or so. I'd like to keep it tucked up nice. The hatch is very rigid (even without the internal skin on it, but I feel like the rigors of the road will cause it to flap like grandmas triceps. I see some people are using those 'draw latches' on the corners. They look like they work really well to tighten up those corners. For my design, they just aren't the right solution. I'd like to keep the exterior of the trailer looking as stock as possible.

With respect to addressing the corner issues - Has anybody tried one of those two position galley lid latches?:


Looks like it works like the old garage door handles used to work. Seems like it would close as securely as a slam latch does. This would alleviate the issue of a hard bump allowing the galley hatch to pop open (does that really happen!?). It would help to pull the corners in line with the edges of the trailer. On paper, it makes sense. I question my logic because you don't see a lot of them 'in the wild'. There must be a reason.

So, I ask ye experienced lot - what are the pros and cons of using this type of latch system over the basic slam latch systems?

Thanks for your time and consideration to this question,
Ted