Cool Car Trailer...

[Racerbvd]

I saw that a while back, very sweet!!!

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
Tons of photos of the construction / conversion...

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/340096/5

-Wayne

That's Barry Wolk's trailer, I've see it in person, before it was finished.

Earlier this year when Barry loaded up his wife's 356 Speedster to take it to a new autoshow he helped setup and organize the torsion bar gave out on the highway, and he ended up in a ditch.

The trailer,, the car and tow vehicle are all under repair currently. He E-mailed me some photos recently, heart breaking what happened.

[goat]

Very cool I am getting one of these this winter for my summer jaunt accros the country.

[arcsine]

Nice what one can do with some disposable income and cubic time. Impressive.

[barry2952]

Originally posted by arcsine
Nice what one can do with some disposable income and cubic time. Impressive.

That is one way of putting it.

I can post updates here is anyone is interested.

10-13-2006

I cut the head off of the aluminum bolt, beveled the cut and cleaned the thread with a die. I cut two 1/8" parallel grooves in the bolt to receive the latch.



The latch is made from fairly soft 1/8" aluminum. That allows me to bend the tip to make a final adjustment.



Cutting through the side panel is the hardest thing to do. I drilled a hole outward to locate where I wanted the center of the switch.



I drilled lots of tiny holes inside my lines.



Connect the dots with the drill, file the edges to fit.



Just like it was always there

[cstreit]

I spent about 2 hours reading this a year ago or so. Fascinating stuff...

[Whtnkls911]

Unbelievable vision, craftmanship and engineering! His wife must truley love him.

[Seahawk]

Post updates, please.

Great work.

[daepp]

Yes, please post updates. I have been following this all along - fascinating - and tragic!

[barry2952]

Originally posted by daepp
Yes, please post updates. I have been following this all along - fascinating - and tragic!

Tragic? I don't think so. Although we were running in fairly heavy traffic, unbelieveably, no one was hurt. All things that happen to me tend to turn out on the bright side.

We actually didn't end up in a ditch. That would have been much worse. We ended up smashing the side of the truck (F-450) and the side of the trailer into a guard rail. When we hit the guard rail the Porsche came loose and slammed into the side wall of the trailer. It broke the wood wall studs but kept the car contained within the trailer.

Every cloud has its silver lining. I had just insured the trailer with Hagerty two days before the accident for $150,000. The independent adjuster immediately recognized the aircraft technology and wrote the repair estimate as if it were an airplane that had belly-landed. He enlisted the aid of an air frame mechanic to build an estimate. Turns out the adjuster is also a pilot.

He also inspected the Porsche and immediately determined that there was severe suspension damage from the front wheel hitting the wheel well in the impact.

The car was flat-bedded to Autometrics Collision in Pontiac, MI. The owner, Larry Smith, and I go back a long ways and he agreed to repair the car to Meadow Brook standards. Since Larry is the new Chairman of the Meadow Brook Concours I feel confident that the car will come back perfect. Also, we're invited to show the car at MB in '07. At least I know it'll be done by then. It went out as a 95-point car but will come back as a 100-point car. That's a positive.



The trailer is actually the best story. As the adjuster was gathering information for the estimate I kept my mouth shut and let him do his thing. I heard from Hagerty that they were sending me a check for $42,490 and wanted to know who I wanted to repair it so they could fill in the two party check. I told them to make the check out soley to me and they balked. I proved that there was no lein on the trailer so they had no choice but to write the check to me.

With some subcontract carpentry labor my total out of pocket will be about $1,100 for aluminum, fabricating subcontract and other materials. Repairs are almost complete at about 40 hours. You do the math.

Talk about a silver lining.

[barry2952]

10-14-2006

Finished wall and wiring repairs.





Just a reminder of what I started with after the accident.





I've come a long ways.





The last step before final finishes is the installation of structural foam. In order to do that I have to hit the open road for a 20 mile trip to the foam installer.

I'm going to await the arrival of the new weight distributing hitch before I venture out again.

The insurance company bought the defective hitch. I posted questions about WD hitches on several towing related websites and the brand Equal-I-Zer kept coming up.

The construction of the hitch is simpler yet performs both weight distribution and sway control.



http://www.progressmfg.com/

[daepp]

Barry you are coorect - tragic was the wrong word (and I was trying to think of a better one at the time, but it just didn't come to me.)

Better words to describe this scene are perseverance, determination and skill. I remember being very impressed that you picked up the pieces immediately and began again. I must admit, however, that I actually felt sorry for you when I first read the update. I am glad everyhting has worked out for you in the end.

So tell me, do you have mech or other engineering experience? Your work borders on the artistic - and obvioulsy your willingness to pick up the pieces and move on so quickly shows that you're no quitter.

Ok - I'll stop gushing now - I've just been so impressed with the project all along the way.

[barry2952]

You bring up an interesting point that I am constantly arguing with other art collectors. IMO what I do is not art. I didn't create anything nor was the degree of difficulty such that anyone with basic metal working skills couldn't have duplicated my work.

However, if you want to think my work is art, far be it from me to disuade you.

You're right, I'm not a quitter. It made me crazy waiting a month to settle with the insurance company. I was most pleased to start work on it again.

I am an electrician by trade but I grew up in an artistic environment. My father wasn't handy at all but my mother was. She was the one with the tool set. Actually, she was the only one with a set in that house.

I'm fairly new to car collecting. After many years of collecting original works of art I ran out of space and started collecting outdoor art. Cars were just an extention of the collection.

[Jims5543]

I spent a whole lot of time reading the link and was heartbroken when I read about your accident.... er.. windfall.

Its just good you walked away unharmed. Thats what is important.

I am just curious, have you attempted to tow the trailer without the load and sway mechanisms?

I am curious because there was a time when these things did not exist and somehow we all managed to tow trailers without it.

I understand trying to be as safe as possible but as you mentioned on your wesite that anti sway mechanism seemed to bite you in the proverbial butt. I have to wonder if the trailer tracked well on its own. I mean, with 3 axles and good tongue weight it should track really nice. Tongue weight is everything.

The work you have done is amazing. I also love the 50's vintage of the decorations inside the parlor, nice touch.

[barry2952]

Thanks for the feedback Jim,

When we crashed, the 2" insert portion of the WD hitch was destroyed. Luckily I had our stock insert with a 2 5/16" ball on it. I disassembled what remained of the WD hitch and set the trailer tongue coupler down on the stock ball. The trailer did develop a bit of a nose down attitude, but I really had no choice but to get it off the road. I actually tied the Porsche down where it landed, right over the axles, and hit the road.

The plan was to take back roads the 30 miles back to the shop at low speed. The officer that stopped (no ticket, he could clearly see what happened) had directed us to make a turn but that turn was actually the freeway ramp so I was back on M-14 headed home. I kept it at the minimum speed for awhile and noticed that there was no porpoising or sway that I could detect. We went through several lane shifts and several episodes of driving on the paved shoulder being used as a temporary roadway. The trailer behaved flawlessly.

I believe that the trailer would be fine without the WD hitch but I've read that trailers over 5,000 lbs without WD hitches might be considered negligent in a court of law. Some insurance companies require them.

I am convinced that the original WD hitch masked the imbalanced load that I created. Everything was fine until the hitch fell apart and I lost all of the anti-sway effect of the WD hitch.

Wait 'til you see the finished product of the lounge area. I have been collecting '50s furniture and furnishings for awhile now and the bits and pieces you'll see are stuff that we've had for years.

However, I am looking for a period Bakelite radio that would be affixed to a shelf mounted underneath the outlet, in-between the windows.



Thanks for your interest.

[barry2952]

10-18-2006

I got the new hitch and installed it. I have to say that I am not impressed with the finish work on it. The packaging was atrocious and most of the pieces came missing about 20% of the paint.

Their video would have you believe that they take great care because it's "Made in America". I was able to flake paint off with my fingernail. They used no primer and didn't clean the parts before they painted them.

The finish work and paint job on the crappy Chinese hitch that failed is far better than this product. If that's the best America can do, we're all in trouble.


New work:

One of the things I never finished was a latch assembly for the upper rear door. I found a keyed dual plunger latch that operates very similar to a pick-up truck tailgate latch. Lift the handle and the mechanism draw the two actuating bars to the center, pulling in the plungers.

I needed to remove the door as one of the hinge blocks was damaged in the accident. I removed the inner door lining. I discovered that the ramp did some damage to the lining in the collision. I'll just use the damaged piece as a template.



The latch mechanism is similar to a passage lock plunger on a residential door. It's ramped so that it retracts under pressure. It will latch into a custom made socket that is ramped so that the door is held tightly in transit. I determined the location and made the cut.



The plunger protrudes through the side of the door about 3/4". Even cutting away that much of the wood side rail the door lost none of its structure because of the foam.

[jorian]

Great thread! I agree with many here. What Barry has done is a work of art. I too have a modest art collection but believe that many 'special interest' cars are true works of art. At my Lake property we have a vintage trailer that one of our neighbours GAVE us. We cleaned it up and use it every summer for guests. I would love to see the aluminum panels polished to the same standard but, when I get to the lake I don't seem to have the motivation neccessary....

Here's a pic of our humle '47 Travelite.

[barry2952]

Wouldn't that make a nice car hauler?

I noticed that your roof has tar over the metal joints. All of the tar patches on my trailer had failed. If you want to keep it water free you should consider a membrane roof. A solid sheet of rubber can't leak. I hired someone to do that work.

[kach22i]

Barry, that could be roofing tape on that other trailer.

Like this:
http://www.eternabond.com/products.asp?type=roof
EternaBond RoofSeal Black

RoofSeal is the best solution for leak repair. The choice of professional roof repair specialists, on virtually all roof types including EPDM, TPO, hypalon, most PVC, modified, all metals, even copper...

I've used a little of it on my hovercraft ($35 for 50 feet, 4 inches wide, found at professional roofing suppliers).

[jorian]

Barry/Kach,

I did use the tape AND I tarred over top. I knew this would be a temporary measure that I would eventually have to do properly. I would be interested to know about the solid rubber membrane. How is it applied? What's the approximate cost per sq ft? My lake property is about 60 miles from a medium sized town so I may have to do this myself. The trailer does not move as the wheels are removed.