–Cleaning & Painting :

If you are landing on this page ..you should start from the beginning .. PAGE 1

Well I looked at the frame sitting on the saw horses out side .. and it looked like a real chore working on it..  SOOO   I took the whole thing apart… all the nuts & bolts.  They were rusty and some of them broke.

Now I’m left with just a pile of metal pieces that are easy to clean.  These cross pieces are all the same …so they can go in any order.

Same goes for the stake pockets..  I bought all new bolts to put it back together.  AND !

I’m keeping the folding ability.  These are the hinges,   all they need is a good cleaning and a bit of straightening.  I will also need to replace the angle iron feet the the trailer would rest on when tipped up for storage.   The weather turned to rain so I had to bring the whole works inside.

The whole trailer ( minus the wheels) is here on my lift table.  All cleaned and ready for painting..

And we have it..  just like new!  I”l let these cure for several days.  Then when we have a nice day I’ll go get a sheet of plywood and put the puzzle back together.

All eight stake pockets are spiffy again too.  Everything has a nice coat of paint now.  And it cured enough to put back together.

Here’s the front half of the frame..  like putting a puzzle together.  I left the bolts loose so I could use the plywood floor to square the frame up.

Of coarse I put a coat of stain on the underside of the plywood.  That’s 5/8 ”  GIS plywood fastened to the frame with 1/4 ” galvanized carriage bolts.  Not SCREWS !  This is strong and will last for many years.   Screws will become loose and rust easily…  bad!

Like I said all new bolts with locking nuts are used .  The stake pockets are on now too. Ready for wiring and lights.  Let’s have another page for the finishing …   PAGE 3