M416 Build

[cruisertoy]

Sorry to hear about the sale. Wish I had the money you will be asking for it. 3 kids in the 80 is getting crowded. Not that I ever go anywhere anymore between work and my wifes business. We had camping trips planned twice a month this summer....been 0 times.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Wow, coming onto this build a bit late

Great stuff, thanks for taking all the time to post it up!

Drew

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Thanks Drew, my pleasure..

It sold with my extremely half *** effort (basically on the fence about selling it) a couple weeks ago to pick it up this month. Funny it comes up as I was planning to document those repairs. Also sitting outside the ZeroRust paint didn't hold up as much as I would have liked so it gets sandblasted again and this time powder coated..

I will post all the changes I made. I just made plans tonight to finally machine out those delrin bushings (thanks again to Motodave for this)...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

So here are pictures of some of the paint. About halfway through the winter I moved it outside where it needed to remain for the winter. I should have put it under a tarp but honestly it revealed some of the weaknesses of the paint I chose (the Zero Rust). Also the black held up really well but the tan did not. It might have been related to a lack of sanding, but some rust was also able to permeate through as the photos show, but I'm not sure if this would be the case with powder coat or not.

For the new owner I agreed to:

fix the steering/alignment issues of course
sand blast and powder coat the entire trailer again in the same color scheme.

I also fixed or finished a couple tiny little things like adding a decent height addition to the drop-rest (I forget the term - the thing the trailer sits on when not attached). I also added some drop bars from a Toyota tailgate to the tailgate but no pics...

It is sad to see it go and taking it totally apart really makes me notice how well I built it and the attention to detail. It also only took me a couple hours as well to completely disassemble.

This was all last week. It comes back from the powder coaters in a couple days and should be great.. I'll mention it again but I have 20% off coupons for powder coating at www.UtahPowderCoaters.com for anyone interested... I would be happy to mail them along. They do **phenomenal** work..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is some of the paint that didn't adhere. I'm not sure if its realistic to expect different results as there was plenty of snow and ice on there for a few months and honestly I didn't really clean or scuff the metal where it peeled too well.

This said what I mostly disliked was the rust coming through the cracks at the seams, which is probably due to lack of extra coats on the paint and/or lack of choosing to shoot primer...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is the cross member that was a little banged up. You can also see some pretty considerably changes in the alignment from the earlier pictures.. I never aligned the wheels by the actual wheel mounting pattern, just the arms and how I had welded them..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

On inspection of the arms there was no tweaking or bending of hte slightlest. This meant the issues with the arms weren't the arms. Also the steel is really thick (1/4" if I remember correctly) and the arms are heavy as hell and the axle tube is also very thick, so I decided to just leave it as is...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Again big thanks to MotoDave for graciously sending me some Delrin material to machine bushings. I didn't end up using it but seeing and feeling the material definitely inspired me to use it and this never would have happened if it weren't for this. Delrin (and a new crossmember) are definitely the solution to my problem (besides a correct alignment).

I was able to talk a long time friend, Eric Edwards, who is a machinist at Love Ridge machine in SLC that makes a lot of really neat products. Turbo housings for diesels, performance headers, military components, etc etc...

Here we go. I also had him machine some bushings for another project I'm working on which is a double isolated crossmember. I was worried with the rubber bushings in the crossmember that the drivetrain would shift forward and back on inclines and declines so this was a good solution for this. Eric does awesome work (really perfectly in spec to be press fit) but is also a perfectionist so this was a long evening. About 6 hours for the 12 or so bushings total, we were done at about midnight... But totally worth it..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is the cross member addition and the alignment procedure I used... I used my laser level again this time off the frame sides. It should turn out pretty well I'm sure/hope but I gave it my all...

The cross member is also super stout... There should be no flex. I checked and rechecked and also checked for warping in the welding process...

This is it for now. I then took the last of it apart and off to the powder coater. I'll post pics when I have it assembled again...

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I left my trailer outside for the winter, and the paint held up quite well. I also did minimal prep work on the steel. I don't think I even wiped it down with solvent. I used Sherwin Williams Industrial Enamel. I'm not totally happy with it, but I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

 

[timztoy]

ya your paint problly rusted and pealed because most steal and sheet metal has a layer of lube on it to prevent it from rusting.. and it needs to be cleaned, sanded, preped with prep solv, and primed with self etching primer to get proper adhesion for paint.. but ohwell you already have it power coated.. love the build though.. and im problly going to steal your kitchen idea for my 416 build.. or at liest the general concept.. :victory:

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

AOK so sad to see it go but the trailer was finally totally redone and delivered to the new owner today. The good news is he is local, I may even be able to borrow it if needed.. I also hauled around an Adventure Trailer (again, IMO, sort of the standard to compare it to) for most of last week and in regards to this trailer now with the alignment, the powder coat, and all the work, it looks and handles just so awesome and is also the perfect size in my book as the AT Chaser is actually much bigger and I would perfer or almost think the size of this trailer is about perfect.

So unfortunately I'm really sad to see it go and I realized what a trailer I actually built. It's sort of like fixing up a house you liked before you sell it. But again I will just not use it and/or its a slight exceed. I also got first right of refusal as well if he decided to sell it as well...

Such is life though, selling it basically encouraged me to fix it and get this last 5-10% done and also do the high quality powder coating in addition to the delrin bushings... Also again there is little actual flex of the super beefy arms I build and it tows like a dream now (I put about 40 miles towing it today) so I can now call it "fixed" thank God...

First the super high quality powder coating from Utah Powder Coatings...

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here I am pressing in the Delrin bushings, just awesome... These should also last for life I think... I am also pressing in the bushing sleeves and upgraded to I think its 9/16" bolts across the board.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

And here is the final product put back together. The only thing these photos don't show again is the weather stripping.. I will be sad to see it go and again I realized it was a great trailer but such is life again...

My dad also really dug this and the AT I was hauling around for the Carbon Neutral Expedition and said this morning "Andre, I finally get it" which made my day..

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Here is a photo hauling a similar colored AT with 35" tires but I really dug both and it was nice to sort of test it and realize mine actually compares...