A Trailer Progress Report

For a trailer just a couple years shy of its seventieth birthday, the old floor plywood was in amazingly good shape - except at the edges.  The outer 6-12" of the plywood sheets can be torn apart by hand with relative ease. Hence the need to replace all of it.

Last week, another 20% of the new floor plywood went in, bringing the total to 40% of the new floor installed. With work yesterday and today, just over 60% of the old plywood is gone. I dry fit the next 20% of new floor today; some minor trimming is required on one of the two pieces in order to fit properly. 

40% of the new floor in, 20% more being dry fit

In the photo above, you can see more than just the new floor. You can also see the gap of the missing wheel well at right. The battered old wheel well on the other side came out this evening. Now I have a much better idea of how the wheel well is supposed to connect, and have changed my plans ever so slightly.

The wheel well is galvanized steel and was riveted to aluminum and regular steel.
Note the rusty patches along some edges due to galvanic corrosion.

Alas, no matter how much progress I may make over the next few days, the temperature continues to offer an annoying roadblock. Between them, installation of the new wheel wells and of those closest sections of new floor have dependencies upon painting steel they're resting upon, which can't happen below 50° F. I couldn't do that earlier because the old plywood is in the way. And before painting with a top coat there needs to be priming, which also requires warmer temperatures. The wheel wells need to go in before the next floor sections. I so look forward to having the floor replacement done, because everything after that becomes easier - and because I won't need to do nearly so much kneeling after that!

Tomorrow will likely involve a bit of sanding and cleanup of the mess that lay beneath the old floors. I did a rough cleanup today but it wasn't perfect and I'll be adding the rust from sanding the steel to the mess. The wheel wells and areas where they must be installed need a bit more work before I'll be ready to install them. There's only a bit more beyond that I can do until temperatures warm up. Perhaps I will return to constructing the drawers for the eventual furniture.

Expect a book review later tonight or sometime tomorrow.