Today I'm going to continue the construction of the lower portion of the cargo trailer body and the creation of the knife edge that will be needed for the weather seal for the lid. So let's begin.
The lower sides of the body of the trailer had to be held in place using long wooden sticks and string until the resin putty mixture had cured over night. This was done this way simply because of the odd shape of these pieces made it difficult to hold them in place. Another simple solution to another strange problem.
The opening in the body of the trailer where the fenders will be mounted helped to allow the side to be mounted with the stick and sting. This was pulled tight and the pressure of the sticks on the sides did the trick. I remember doing this step and the hardest part was holding everything in place while I was trying to tighten the string. I was alone at the time and it still amazes me that I was able to do it without another couple of people helping me. But as you see I managed.
With the help of of some painters tape once again the lower portion of the trailer is now starting to look like something. This part of the assembly was once again left over night to cure once I had all the parts mounted and where I wanted them.
This is a good shot of the trailer from the rear with the upper panels of the cargo body now mounted on to the lower section of the assembly. It is really starting to take shape and it gives you a much better idea of how big the cargo area that you will have once it is completed.
This is the front view of the cargo body with a lot of painters tape holding everything in place while the resin dries. I must say that at this point all of the work that I had done to fiber glass the inside of the trailer before the parts were assembled paid off. It would have been much more difficult to glass this assembly if it was still all in foam at this point. Terrible to even think about it. Just was simpler to do the glassing first and then the assembly next. Planning paid off for sure. No glassing had been done on the outside of the trailer yet so that more shaping could be done to get a nice finished look.
The body of the trailer was turned over at this point and the fenders now could be glassed into place. The resin putty mixture made perfect fillets at all of the joints so glassing would be simple to do. All the edges were rounded off on the bottom of the trailer also.
The sides of the body at this pointed were smoothed out at the joint where the upper and lower body panels met. This removed the sharp edges that were on the sides of the body.
The fenders on the inside only needed a small crescent piece of foam in order to seal up the openings on both side of the trailer. The joints were filleted with resin putty once again and glassed into place. It gives the interior a nice clean look as well.
One additional piece of foam was added to the upper surface of the nose of the trailer so that a panel could be created to mount the hinges for the lid of the trailer later on.
Once the lower portion of the body had properly cured a large panel of one inch foam was cut and mounted to the opening of the body. This will be used to create the knife edge for the weather seal for the lid of the trailer.
The edges of the this large panel were once again filleted with resin putty and taped down with a lot of painters tape to hold it all in the correct position.
With all the painters tape I was using in the building of the trailer I thought I should probably buy stock in the company that makes it. Great stuff which was perfect for the job. The panel was made smaller so the the lid of the trailer once mounted would hide the rubber weather seal similar to how this type of seal is hidden on the trunk of a car when the lid is closed. Once I was happy with the placement of this panel I let it again cure over night before moving on to the next step.
The center section of the panel that was mounted next was cut out using a hot knife. This left a foam lip around the top of the body of the trailer that was an inch wide.
At this point in the build additional fiber glass was added to the outer edge of the foam and left to cure over night once again. The foam was then removed and now what is left is the knife edge that we need for the rubber seal to be mounted for the lid of the trailer. Additional fiberglass was added inside and out to this knife edge in order to make it as stiff as needed to be able to slide the rubber seal on to it without it breaking.
The knife edge worked perfectly with nice rounded corners and lots of strength. But as you can see it is to tall and some ragged edges so on to the next step.
It was determined at this point the the knife edge only needed to be around a half inch tall or so. I took a Sharpie pen and a small wooded block and traced a line around the outer edge. Using a Dremel tool made easy work of shortening the knife edge to the correct height and cleaned it up as well.
Now the hard part of this portion of the assembly was done.
The weather seal slid on the knife edge without any difficulty and was the perfect height now to set up the lid and hinge assembly. A really nice professional look again with some simple steps to get there.
Lots more to show you in the coming posts so keep checking back and I'll get it all out here as quickly as I can. Hope your learning as much as I did when I created this project. Enjoy.
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