This is part 7 in my on-going series on rebuilding my old camper trailer. These little trailers are sometimes referred to as a "canned ham" trailer because of their shape. I like to refer to it as my "tin tent" trailer because it's not really much bigger than a large camping tent.
I ended my last post in this series with a few photos of the interior floor supports that I had put in, and a picture of the back end of the trailer from the outside.
At this point, I started fitting the aluminum skin back on the trailer. The upper empty space on the back of the trailer had a large window in it when I bought the trailer. The window was not original to the trailer as built, there may have been a window on the back, but it would have been smaller than the one that had been put in when I got the trailer. I decided to rebuild the back without any window in it, it's one less leak potential on what is essentially part of the roof of the trailer.
The best piece of the aluminum skin from the back of the trailer was the bottom section, it didn't have any big holes it it. The only problem with using that piece of the skin was that it didn't have the lap seam joint on the bottom of the sheet. I decided to attempt to bend the seam joint on the bottom edge of the sheet to make it easier to use on the back of the trailer to cover the area where the window had been, and to fit the next lower piece of aluminum skin properly.
I set the piece of aluminum skin on my outdoor work table and clamped a 2X3 in place on it to use to form the first bend necessary to make the seam. I folded up the seam using a hammer and a piece of 2X4 to bend the aluminum across the length of the seam.
I used my 6 foot long straight edge as a backing to finish bending the seam.
When I was done with the bending, I had an acceptable lap seam on the piece to fit the top of the next lower piece into.
After getting that process finished, it was time to fit the piece to the back of the trailer.
After getting that piece fitted, I had to find another piece of aluminum to make the next lower piece of skin for the back. I had a piece that I had taken off the trailer, but it had some larger holes in it, so I didn't want to use it for that area, so I had to come up with a different solution. That will be the subject of the next post in this series.
That's all I have for this post, thanks for stopping by to check it out!
