Project Continues

The trailer project continued this weekend with considerable progress made with the frame. With Jade still in the shop, it was only a mild consolation that we were working on a motorcycle project. We took advantage of the great weather to do as much work on the frame as possible. Andy and I spent the day Saturday sanding. We did not spare attention to detail as even the bolts that hold the tire rims were sanded and painted.

Our plan is to extend the axle so the tires will be on the outside of the frame. This will afford us more real estate on the decking for two motorcycles and simplify the job should we have a flat on the road. We each cleaned one end of the wheel shaft of grease and grime, then sanded, primed and set aside for later.

Sunday found us sanding the rest of the bottom of the frame. Currently we have the frame upside down to work on the bottom first. The frame is in great shape. We found only surface rust and nothing serious that would compromise the strength of the metal. It was a labor intensive effort. Thankfully, Sunday was not as hot as Saturday so our flesh was spared a repeat of the scorching it took on Saturday. This does not mean we didn’t run into a bit of trouble. Andy had a blade break while cutting metal and shaving off bits of old bolts etc. The blade gouged a chunk out of his knee, and you can see him wearing his home made tourniquet in some of the photos. Then I sanded off a bit of knuckle flesh on my index finger. Not too bad, and it seems the heat of the rotating blade cauterized it a bit too. We were both more careful afterward. Andy took a break, had a few hot dogs on his makeshift grill and was good to go.









When it was decided that the sanding was the best it would get, we even had some daylight left to begin the priming. We ran out of paint before we ran out of sunlight. That was OK as we were tired and called it a day. Andy will pick up more primer on Monday and finish the job. Then we will proceed with the top coat before we flip it over to work on the top. We also need to consider decking. Metal has skyrocketed in price, so we were contemplating the composite material they use for decks these days. It’s durable and lasts forever. However, someone at work suggested this warps and sags. I’ll have to investigate this further. If anyone has ideas for decking, feedback is welcomed.