Making Walls

I am working on building the side walls now.  Scotty trailers side walls are made out of solid 1/2" plywood instead of framing.  Since the trailer is approx. 12 feet long I had to join together three 4'X8' pieces of plywood.  NOT an easy task.  I watched a lot of videos on the web learning about biscuit joinery, Gorilla Glue and pipe clamps.   Everything was set up in my garage and it was a tight fit for sure. I ended up having to climb under the wall and/or squeeze in front of the beer fridge to get to the other side.  The seams were reinforced with vertical 1x3s and some temporary horizontal 2x4 braces were added to the outside wall for stability when moving it outside to the trailer.

The next step was to use the original wall and/or aluminum skins to mark the circumference of the entire wall.  I learned that this is a very important step so taking your time and doing it correctly will save a lot of headaches in the end.  If you are off by even 1/8" then your aluminum skins will not fit properly and you will have leaks.  I used a jig saw blade in my Black and Decker Alligator to cut it.  My old jig saw finally bit the dust and I found this one worked alright....not great, but alright.  I think it would have taken a lot less time had my jigsaw worked.  As I look at this picture it looks like I might fall thru once the piece is cut but I made sure I was braced with the saw horses and separate pieces of plywood!  I always use safety glasses and respirator...the stuff they use to make and cure plywood is known to cause cancer and I have seen too many people in my office with eye injuries from not wearing safety goggles.



Once the wall was cut out I wanted to add beadboard on the side that would ultimately be the inside of the trialer.  This is a vintage trailer but I am not interested in restoring the fake wood paneling that was original to the trailer so this will be a customized job.  I want it to be like a rolling cottage so the beadboard will be a nice touch.  Here are a couple of key points I had to consider before taking this step:  I couldn't make the walls wider than they were originally and any added weight would need to be distributed evenly over the frame.  Apparently adding weight to one end or the other can mess up the balance of these trailers and cause bad things to happen.

So, I had to make sure that the bottom of the wall and the area where the wheel well resides did not include the added thickness of the beadboard.  Here is a picture of the area left only a 1/2" thick.  I made sure I had at least an extra inch of 1/2" area just for some "wiggle room" for when the walls are ultimately attached to the trailer.   I attached the beadboard to the plywood with Gorilla Glue and lots of staples.

You can see one of the vertical braces in place in this next picture.  The other one went on after this picture was taken.  I sanded the beadboard and in this picture it has one coat of primer on it.  Over the next couple of days I will add two coats of paint, sanding in between, and then a final antiquing glaze over the whole thing.   Lots of work for just one wall....It will take another week or two to get the next one done. I am not looking forward to mounting these things.  They are REALLY heavy so I'm gonna need to recruit some help!