I got a little carried away with the welding over the week, I thought the 11 gauge sheet steel would handle the welding heat a little better, but running 6-8 inch welds along the length of the frame at a shot seriously warped the sheets on the fender. I set the side panel in place to see if I bent the angle iron in the process. Thankfully not, but I didn't want to start from scratch on the messed up fender so I tried heating up the metal to see if I could reverse the depression. I clamped some angle iron over the depressed spot, which was almost the full length of the top panel and got my torch out. You can see the transverse lines across the fender where I clamped the angle iron. I heated the sheet metal; hot, but not cherry red, and let things cool. I released the clamps and was surprised to have gotten the dip out of 70 percent of the panel length. I tried reheating the center and hammering the dip out of the remaining length and as you can see by the dents, not a good call!
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| Driver Side Fender Top Panel - Post Heating |
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| Front Fender Panel Drivers Side - Post Heating |
I decided to grind and round the edges to see if the fender would be acceptable, not bad, but not good enough!
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| Blue area is the remaining depression, Approx 1/4 inch. |
I decided to go the Bondo route to salvage the fender. The fenders are going to be covered with bed liner so imperfections are not a big issue, but I didn't want water ponding on the fender top so Bondo it is.
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| Depression filled and sanded |
I took A LOT more care on the passenger side fender and decided to put some stitch welds in place vs. just using tack welds to hold things in place.
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| Stitch welds on underside of fender |
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| Stitch welds seen on the top side |
All I can say is this fender came out much better. I don't know if the stitch welds helped due to a reduction in the sheet metal clear span by 1-/2 inches or the fact that I only laid 2-3 inch long welds let the fender completely cool before starting again. The second fender welding took some time, but a lot less time than destressing the sheet metal and Bondo.
What messy job grinding all that weld, look at the amount of grinding debris / dust on the floor and trailer bed just from fender construction. I am glad to be done with welding for a while!
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| Passenger Side Fender Edges Welded and Rounded |
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| Fender s Ready for Bed Liner Finish |
I purchased Hurculiner Bed Liner to cover the fenders. I like Hurculiner as it has a deeper texture with more rubber crumbles to offer more skid resistance and it also cover imperfection better. The fender will be used as steps to access the roof rack for loading kayaks and bicycles so I want traction. Hurculiner have kits for a 6 foot pickup truck beds which cost $70 +/- or an smaller quart size which is to be used in conjunction with the 6 ft kit to cover an 8 ft pickup truck bed. The quart only cost $21 and is enough to apply 2 coats to the underside and top side of my fenders.
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| Finished Fender and Rear Step |
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| Completed Fenders |
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| Herculiner on Underside of Fenders |
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| Fenders With Wheels On |
Now I can finally get on with the Cab Build. Before I mount the side walls, I have to outline the curved sections on to plywood so I can make a template for the curved ribs. I feel the curves are too tight in the bottom front and rear to try and wrap the 1/8 inch plywood around spars, so I decided to make ribs instead. The hatch was always planned on being constructed out of plywood ribs so I would have continuous framing from the hinge to the bottom of the hatch.
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| Outline of Back Hatch Area - I kept the 3/8" piece I cut out for the hatch seal to outline the proper rib depth. |
After cutting the hatch outside profile, I used the palm router again to trace a 1-1/2" interior offset to form the shape of the rib. I only routed 1/4 inch into the plywood and finished the cut with the jigsaw tracing the router line. I performed this same process on all the different rib shapes to develop my templates.
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| Hatch Rib |
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| Bottom Rear Radius Rib |
The photo below is the upper front 2 ft radius area that will receive cross spars to support the roof, I decided to trace this profile to use these radius pieces as blocking between the spar pieces. I will cut out chunks of this piece to fit between the spars and should save a lot of sanding when installing the outer roof skin. I only need to make two of these pieces.
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| Spar Blocking for 2 ft. Radius Area |
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| Rib Templates |
Over the course of the week, I will try to get all the ribs cut from 3/4 inch plywood I purchased this weekend. I will use most of the scrap plywood that came as a result of making a 5x9 ft trailer. All the pieces being cut moving forward will be done in my basement with a ban saw to eliminate the blade drift issue I get with the jigsaw.
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| Galley Back Panel Temporarily Propped into Place |
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| Another Angle of Galley Back Panel Propped into Place |
The drivers side side panel is permanently installed and I forgot to take a picture of the butyl rubber seal I installed before setting the panel on the trailer frame (I will take a photo when I set the other side) This rubber will seal the interface of the plywood and the frame to hopefully keep the plywood edge from moisture infiltration and potential dry rot. I also used these triple coated deck screws to mount the side panel to the sub-floor of the trailer (mounted to the side of the sub-floor). It has been screwed every 6 inches along the length which should be sufficient.
I am glad to be done with the metal work for a while and can focus on the cab. The cabinet and galley layout I did is only a preliminary design and I need to work thru the details before I move much further. I will keep you posted.
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