It was one of our bigger repair and restoration projects. Last Sunday this all-steel box trailer rolled back onto the road after a year long refurbishment.
Originally a drab red oxide colour, after a lot of welding on the underframe and some repairs to rusty holes in the wheel arches, it now wears a smart blue and cream livery inspired by Sheffield’s pre-war trams.
New Landrover light fittings have been installed and everything has been completely re-wired. The re-wiring even extended into the towing van to rectify an annoying intermittent fault on the cable to the towbar. Nasty and unreliable plastic crimp connectors have been replaced wires which are now held together with a ‘Nasa splice’ and cables that were only just long enough have been extended to make them easier to work on in the future.
The paint was applied by brush, using traditional coach painting techniques. A layer of rust inhibiting red oxide was followed by white undercoat, then two or three top coats of gloss and finally a protective layer of varnish.
A new wooden deck for the front end was made from an old piece of plywood, stained with mahogany wood stain then varnished witb a high gloss yach varnish from the pound shop.
Finally a new brake cable was fitted and adjusted.
Further work will include the fabrication and fitting of a roof rack and the painting of the inside.
