Today I will cover in this part of the motorcycle cargo trailer built the continuation of the floor assembly that I started in part 2. So here we go.
Here I glued together quarter round wood trim to make half round pieces. Lots and lots of pieces for the ribbed floor. This will give the floor more strength along with a good look once finished.
All the pieces at this point are already fiber glassed on one side.
Here I checked that the fiberglass cloth is the right size for the floor panel. Again at this point I did not realize that the best way to fiber glass this panel with the half round ribs was to lay down individual strips instead of one big panel of glass. It was harder to lay the big piece down without gaps and bubbles cropping up. Individual smaller strips would be much easier to get the same result.
Once all of the panels have been fiber glassed on both sides and cured over night I could move on to the next step of the construction.
Recessed floor boxes are assembled and held together with painter tape until the resin/putty is dry. The inside of the boxes have all their joints glassed with this putty mixture to make smooth strong joints.
The floor is bonded to the recessed floor boxes with the epoxy putty mixture. I used anything that was heavy I could find in the shop to hold it in place. The floor at this point looks almost complete. Looks great!
This photo shows the various parts that are in the assembly of the floor and trailer. It shows how the floor is mounted to the frame with the steel spacer, wood mount, frame rail and fiberglass floor. A very strong and simple mount that works great. I would locktite all of the bolts once the body is permanently mounted to the frame.
In these next series of photos I will show you how the fenders for the trailer are made. A six inch block of foam was made up from three layers of two inch thick foam panels that are glued together use glue made for foam.
A wooden template of the fender is set on the foam to check size for the next steps.
Nails are shoved through the wood and into the foam to hold the template in place while the foam is cut on the hot wire table.
The first cut of the block using the hot wire table looks great because of the template. Nice an smooth and the perfect shape.
The foam for one of the fenders is cut and the scrap pieces will be saved for other components that will be needed in the trailer.
Both fenders are sanded smooth and edges are rounded at this point. This will make glassing them an easy task.
Side marker light housing for the trailer are marked out next on one of the scrap pieces foam from the fender cuts.
The center openings of the light housing foam is cut out using the hot knife once again and a 90 degree guide to keep things lined up right.
The four foam pieces are complete cut out now and the top outer edges have been rounded over using sand paper. Sanding foam takes a very light touch so it is easy to get the shape you need quickly.
Each housing is then glassed with three layers of cloth and resin to enclose the opening completely and left to cure over night.
The housings are cut down to only two inches high and the openings are cut out so the side marker light can be installed.
The foam inside the housings are removed as it was only needed to get the shape I wanted for the housings. Additional fiber glass is added to the housing at this point to make the housing stiffer and stronger to mount the side marker lights.
A rubber mount for the light is slipped into the housing. A nice tight fit that locked into the housing perfectly.
The light is slide into the rubber rig and the assembly is complete at this point. With the light in place it locks the assembly together for a weather tight seal.
So that's all I have for you today in this part of the motorcycle cargo build. I hope you've enjoyed this portion of the build as much as I have had creating it. In the next part of the build I will cover the rear light assembly and the lower sides of the trailer.
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