How to Restore/Build a Teardrop Trailer

Back in October 2010 my wife and I went camping in the freezing cold. I determined I don’t mind camping, but I really don’t like sleeping on the ground in a tent. The compromise is a simple little trailer. Since I am a car guy I figured the perfect solution would be to build a Teardrop trailer. I kept bugging Rashy to send me his E-Bay purchased plans but they were lost in his home office. Finally someone pointed out a 1946 KIT Manufacturing teardrop project in the HAMB Classifieds. After some negotiation and a call to my good buddy Ben D. I got a delivery around Christmas Time.

The Plan
Not many people can ride in my Channeled Model A comfortably for more than a few hours so the plan is to tow this with my 59 ElCamino. There is a different story about finding and installing a hitch on the 59 but I’ll save that for a later date.

The project was supposed to be a restoration, but turned into more of a scratch build. I started with a good title, frame, chassis, some original aluminum sides, a hatch and a door. The rest I made up as I went along.
I am after a simple, basic, camper; no toilet, water or power, just the basics.
Although this is a restoration of an original KIT trailer, I did take some artistic license to make it more functional and easier to build. I tried to stay true to the style and esthetics of the original where possible and practical. I tried not to use any Phillips fasteners where they would show to keep it period correct.
I could only justify the purchase of two tools on this project; first was a baby router (1/4&#8221 which turned out to be a great investment, should have picked up one of these long ago. Not only did it help making pockets for hinges, etc, but it also works for trimming the Aluminum skin once it’s applied to the wood. Then a nail gun, I hate Harbor Freight as much as the next guy, but after this build I’ll probably only use the nail gun to shoot at birds in the back yard so it’ll do.
Following is how I went about the process. The order here is not necessarily the order I followed, I get ADD sometimes and tended to jump around a bit

 

Start;
It all started with this. Not much there, but enough to get me going. Being my first time working with wood or building a trailer I felt better starting with something instead of going off a pattern. I was able to use the aluminum sides as patterns, same for the hatch. The Door only required sanding and a fresh coat of stain and varnish. I mocked everything up several times just because that’s what you do with a new project; you mock it up and pretend.

 

Frame and Suspension;
The foundation of any project is the Frame and Suspension. I started out with a great frame and most of the suspension. The frame required a good wire brushing where I found two small cracks that were easily welded. It took a good whack at some point as one of the spring mounts was out of alignment and all the perch bolts were bent over pretty good. I guess that happens over 65 years of use.



I cut loose the bracket and weld it back on, using a piece of round rod to align things.
With these small repairs complete, a coat of Rustoleum, and the frame was done.

Tractor supply supplied a new set of shackles and, like a typical hot rodder, I couldn’t leave them well enough alone. The stamping was rough so they all got the grinder treatment and rounded ends. I was also tempted to send them to the chrome plater but resisted the urge.

The axle is either solid or really thick and appears to be home made. The ends are turned and the drop looks like a Dago only with square stock. Also the spindle and hub is a non standard size by today’s standards. The wheel bearings appeared to be in good shape, but I’m the nervous kind and wanted to replace them just to be safe. Since the bearing size is not standard, the trailer store couldn’t find me any parts so I was forced to go to the local Industrial Supply store, $200 later I had new bearings and seals.

IMG]http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m593/TZandell/Teardrop/Susp31.jpg[/IMG]


The Wheels that came with it are 13”, supposedly they originally came with 15” or 16” for ground clearance I’m using what I got so the 13”ers stay. The tires were brand new Allstate Bias ply with some of the nubs still on, problem is they were probably new in 1960 and very cracked and brittle I was nervous putting 15lb of air in them to roll it around. Tires got upgraded to standard trailer radials and the wheels got a shot of Washington Blue stolen from my Model A.

 

Construction;
The body was pretty straight forward. A couple sheets of ½” Oak plywood a jig saw and a circular saw did most of the work. The basic carcass is made from Red Oak Plywood. The floor is ½” oak on top of a sheet of pressure treated Deck Plywood. The top is an 1/8” Poplar “Headliner” attached to 1” X 2” stringers with Pink insulation board in between and a sheet of 3/8” Luan board on top.


Since I just had the walls and some witness marks where the cabinetry was I had to design my own. I stuffed my travel duffel bag full of towels and put it on the shelf to get the size inside. For the kitchenette I filled the cooler with beer and built the rest around it. Made sense to me.


After parts were cut and fit, a coat of stain and a shit pile of Urethane was applied. EVERYTHING HAS AT LEAST 3 COATS OF HELMSMAN SPAR URETHANE. (George from teardropparts.com beat this into my head during several calls for parts and advise) Bear in mind most of this construction was done in Chicago in the winter. The urethane is supposed to dry in a couple hours, but after I brushed it on it was usually overnight, sometimes 2 days before it was dry enough to scuff and put on another coat. My Wife kept telling me “it looks like plastic” and I kept telling her I was going for Chris Craft Smooth…. 




The nice part about the Aluminum sides is it hides everything underneath so I used sheet rock screws from the outside in to hold most of it together. Where the screws are visible I used slot style to fit the era...

 

Cabinets-Drawer
After I had the general dimensions all figured out I made the shelves, doors, framework, etc. Not rocket science, however since I am not a wood worker it took me awhile to get my welder set right for the Oak. If a nuclear bomb hits my neighborhood, the drawer will still be intact.

The shelf in the cabin has a ledge of oak to keep things from sliding off during travel. Cut fit stain and Urethane. EVERYTHING GOT AT LEAST 3 COATS OF HELMSMAN SPAR URETHANE.

 

Hatch
My favorite part was the hatch; I got to do some archeology in the process. When I pulled out all the screws and peeled off the skin I found some old wood with green paint. There were some notes written in pencil from some worker in 1946, really cool. I also found a paint stick from the local California paint supply being used as a shim.

Pretty simple construction; an inside and outside Aluminum skin over wood spars. I used the old skins and made new spars. I had a lot of difficulty getting all the spars to have the exact same curve with no flat spots. I spent hours cutting with the jig saw and sanding to level it out. I added some additional bracing behind the License plate bracket; otherwise it is a copy of what was there.








Cut trim sand to fit and stain and varnish and of course EVERYTHING GOT AT LEAST 3 COATS OF HELMSMAN SPAR URETHANE.
With the hatch done I had to hold it up. Not wanting to use a single metal prop rod, I came up with my own version of legs with a pin to ensure a gust of wind doesn’t try to tear off the hatch. The hinge brackets took almost a week to figure out, prototype and make. Another part I am really tempted to pull off and send to the Chrome plater. The wood legs are curved so they fit snug to the hatch when retracted but that compromises their strength. My solution was to add a metal strap down the front. (These would also look good in Chrome. &#61514 At the base of the leg is a key hole that slips over a pin. The key keeps the leg from pulling straight up in a gust.

 

In the Cabin
As I made all the parts; sides floor etc. they got their coat of Urethane, including the inside walls and the roof panels. EVERYTHING GOT AT LEAST 3 COATS OF HELMSMAN SPAR URETHANE.

Everything looks good with a checkerboard floor, right??

I assume something will eventually get hauled inside so I added some anchor rings so I can strap things inside later on. They are under a 6” mattress pad so you’ll never know they are there.

The Poplar 1/8” skin I used for the headliner inside was attached to the spars with the nail gun. I used small finish head nails that hide themselves pretty well. I really like the finish and color of the stain inside.


I am still not sure what to do on the inside walls. The original had a Shellac finish. I wanted to make some panels and upholster it with material to knock down the echo and soften the feel, Cariann wants to Paint it. The jury is still out. In the mean time you can still see my notes and measurements in pencil buried under the Urethane. It still looks nice though.

We ordered a custom sized foam mattress on line and I have to say it is really comfortable… Next time I get banished to the garage, I will have a comfy place to “think about what I did” before I go back inside and promise not to buy another Dragster.
The inside is roughly 4’ X 6’ and a fitted Twin sheet seems to work over the foam. Standard curtains will go up soon to keep out prying eyes, although I have to figure out how to use the sewing machine for this…. The sheet set from Target came with a fitted and a flat sheet. The flat sheet will get cut up to make curtains and probably something else I haven’t figured out yet.

 

Skinning
The fun is putting on the Aluminum siding after all the construction is done. I had both sides and the roof piece, but the roof was in rough shape. Luckily 0.030 Al is pretty cheap; I got a 10’ piece for around $50 to replace it. There are several Al extrusions on the corners and on the edges of exposed plywood used to keep it all in place. I also got some really cool rivet head spiral nails to hold it all down. These things are super cool.
I put the roof on first, taking into account the hatch hinge area. Everything went pretty smooth. I trimmed the front to wrap around on the bottom and it has cutouts that go around the frame. I had to notch out a hole for the vent, you‘ll see later.


The sides are on with glue and trim. There is a corner trim of Aluminum L bracket that had to be shrunk into an arch to match the curve of the side. I’m an amateur metal man so this was a fun challenge to shrink without a Shrinker/stretcher. I made a little form, kinked it then smashed the gather, over and over again until I had the arc. I had one old piece and two new ones. The old part is like Butter and the new ones are strong and difficult to shape. The bottom edge got another piece of L bracket that curves up a little at the tail. These along with the window, door trim and trim in the kitchenette all help to hold the siding on.



Two steps back
Round 1 of the siding. I used 3M Super 77 adhesive on both the wood and siding, attached it and installed all the trim. Started the other side and most of it was complete. Came back to it the next day after the first 95deg summer day and all the siding had lifted….. FUCK……… The only thing to do was pull it ALL off and make a new plan.

Round two, my Teardrop guy, George at teardropparts.com, told me to leave it dry and let the siding float. I ended up using some globs of silicone at various points just for my own comfort.

 

Vent
This particular trailer only had windows, no roof vent. I really wanted a vent, despite the extra work involved. I searched for something off the shelf from the camper supply place but the plastic bubble was not going to suffice. I almost integrated a 32 Cowl vent in the roof since I could get the door, surround, latch gasket, etc. all brand new, but that just smacked of effort to install. I ended up using the leftover 12” of hurricane hinge from the hatch and fabricated rest.
I had to add extra support in the roof when I installed the stringers and headliner. I had to cut a hole in the new Aluminum and fold the edge over. Made up this cool little hatch with openings, screen etc.
And of course EVERYTHING HAS AT LEAST 3 COATS OF HELMSMAN SPAR URETHANE.
The latch for the vent gave me nightmares for 3 months. I had versions of a barrel latch, Dzus fasteners; I trolled the screen door aisle, I mocked up a couple cantilever latches, etc. The hatch has to compress the gasket when closed, then move up 3” and pin the hatch when open so the wind doesn’t flop it over. My final solution is pretty damn simple and seems to work well.

 

Windows and Door
No windows came with the project. It was hard to find square RV windows; everything now uses the rounded corner continuous extrusion that just doesn’t look right. I finally found windows but they were completely powder coated black. A trip into the blast cabinet fixed that. The ones I ended up getting are slightly larger than the original version so I had to make some adjustments to the openings. It’s a small paragraph here but consumed a lot of time tracking these things down. For a future upgrade I will be trolling for some copper screen to replace the standard black nylon stuff that’s in there now.



One of the good parts I got was the Door. I wanted to keep everything original on the door. The interior finish was in rough shape, so after I got the window opening adjusted I went crazy with the sander to clean things up. Then some stain and EVERYTHING HAS AT LEAST 3 COATS OF HELMSMAN SPAR URETHANE. The door got topped off with a repro VIN tag.

 

Lights
I had old 6V lights to start with... Standard process for us car guys here, disassemble everything and replace all the wiring and plug with 12V stuff. The hard part was the lenses. I have no Idea where to get new lenses so I had to make some. You can see in the picture I had a square lens that really wanted to be round; I gave it a little help with a hack saw and some sand paper. Drilled a couple holes, made gaskets and it's good to go. I re did all the wiring to the tongue with standard trailer wire kit, routing from underneath up the inside wall and through a grommet into the hatch. I really don’t ever want to remove the 127 screws to take the skin off the hatch if there is a wiring problem.

 

Mockup
Gotta mock it up a couple times make sure everything is functional.
One day I had to move the Model A and trailer out so I could get a good cleaning done, time for a posed picture. June was the first trip around the block behind the 59, no latches on the hatch or door, safety chains not welded, etc. But it did move on its own wheels again.

 

What’s left?
Still need to determine if we are going to paint or upholster inside, but that’s not going to stop us from using it.
Fenders are on order, but won’t be on for the July trip. My Teardrop guy has the original molds used by KIT in 1947 and pulls fenders off of them... So I have a set of brand new OG fenders on the way. This trailer was very early production in 46 and did not come with fenders so I will have to do some fabrication and I may have to narrow the axle a couple inches to make it all fit, but that’s just par for the course.

Post log
As with most projects I had a time line and Budget. The timeline hinges on a weeklong vacation trip to S. Dakota for a week over 4th of July, which gave me roughly 6mo. Looks like I made it with 2 weeks to spare. The Budget didn’t go so well. As with any first time project I could shave off some $ on the next one with the lessons I learned. The good news is, restored versions seem to go for $5,000 - $7,000 and I am much less than that into this one.

Look for me in the campground; I shouldn’t be hard to spot.

 

very cool! this is on my list of things to do one day...

 

Good Job! I just finished a home-built teardrop and took it on it's first over-night trip 2 weeks ago. Mine is scratch-built from 3/4 inch birch plywood. As fate would have it, I went through a thunderstorm from hell my first time out. No leaks and it was comfortable. Hope you enjoy yours. Sam

 

Very good build. I have wanted a tear drop for some time now but building one is not an option for me. I get close to wood working tools and destroy a lot of wood and make a shit load of saw dust. I am still looking for something that will turn my head but nothing to date. I enjoyed your post here and what you have done is nothing short of "GREAT" Thanks for posting the step by step for us to drool over.

 

Nice job! I like the vent. Can I get a close up on your back door and how it stays open to use the kitchen. I am going to re read this at night with no distractions, haha...

 

Sam, I read through the other Junk Brother blog a couple times on his build, I bet yours turned out just as nice.




Don,
When I get home I'll take a couple shots of the hatch legs and how they lock in.

 

how many coats of what now?

Looks good Tyler! Was cool watching it come together on Facebook.

 

I don't have an oak setting on my welder (I'm Canadian, we use maple).

Nice work TZ. What's your dogs name?

 

I should have bought stock

 

That's pretty bitchin. Good job. If you wanta pull it down for the drags I've got a spot for you to camp!

 

Very nice work.

I sold Minwax for many years and the Helmsman is one of their best but you are right it is pricey!! HRP

 

That's awesome Tyler! A snuggle shack

Are you and Jeffy planning on using this when you team up and run the dragster?

 

Cool Tyler, I have wanted one for ages!

Where in SD? We may get to cross paths?

 

Wowcars was telling me about this, looks great Tyler!

 

Now I want to build one too. I´m too cheap to stay in a Motel and I hate tents, so this has to be the perfect solution.
Nice work with the restoration!

Manne

 

Is there another way out or a to get the door off the hinge if somebody puts a lock on it? I'm just sayin?

 

.357 under your pillow, they won't have time to finish the job!

 

Great work I love detail and you hit it on the head !