1/18 scale Backyard Hauler

[ibj40]

Back in the day, before the construction of haulers became big business, we saw lots of cobbled together, backyard specials showing up at the race tracks.

This will be my effort to replicate a fantasy version.  The donors are the tried and true ACME Chevy ramp back hauler, less ramp back (that has been repurposed to another project) and the older version of the GMP race trailer, with some pieces from another trailer that was a donor for another project.

Here are some early pictures, with stuff just hung together, lots of fabrication in the future.

Edited November 22, 2019 by ibj40

[ibj40]

Going to need to clean up some of the chassis non-detail, as shown in the last picture above, and better here.



So I fabricated some panels out of 0.30" styrene sheet, and painted them flat black, and just SuperGlued them on.  Nothing fancy, but did the job.





I took the trailer pieces by Kenny's house yesterday.  He has a shop where he restores 1:1's, so has access to strippers and beed blasters.  I should get them back next week.

Put the original ramper body loosely back on the chassis.  Wow, the rear track to clear the trailer wheel arches is going to be WIDE!

[randyc]

Wow!  Living in NC, we see all kinds of things like this on the roads.  Scary and fascinationg all at the same time.

[ibj40]

5 hours ago, randyc said:

Wow!  Living in NC, we see all kinds of things like this on the roads.  Scary and fascinationg all at the same time.

Yeah, that was my inspiration.  Back in the day, I bought an IMSA Corvette body and chassis from Baird and Trivette in Atlanta.  It was advertised as coming with a trailer with a tire rack installed.

When we got to Atlanta, there sat the Corvette, on this rusted up single axle short tongue trailer, with a custom-made aluminum tire rack bolted to it.  From looking at the fabrication detail, the rack must have been worth more than the trailer.

When we got it all back to Dallas, we took off the tire rack and mounted it in the back of our dually, with holes cut through the bed and bolts extending down into the truck frame rails.  We junked the trailer, it was a traffic hazard.

Looked kind of like this one I made for myself out of a GMP trailer tire rack.

The other racers nicknamed our truck "Bullwinkle".

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by ibj40

[ibj40]

Got the trailer parts back from Kenny, plus acquired a tool box from one of my favorite eBay custom parts vendors.

Here's the mock up.





Will probably JB Weld the ramp extensions this weekend.

[ibj40]

Making some progress, finally, on this one, after spending some of the time over the Holidays doing nothing.

Should have taken a couple of in-progress shots, but used my favorite product, JB Weld, to bond the inner and outer fender pieces together from the bottom.  Will fill the gap at the outside with JB Weld, as well (will take some pictures tonight and edit this post tomorrow).

[ibj40]

Thought I would share my technique for joining the two sets of fenders.

First, I place a piece of masking tape under the one that is on the trailer, and then line up the second one as best as I can, and secure them both with the tape.


I then liberally apply JB Weld along the seam.



After that cured, I removed the masking tape, and applied a second coat along the smooth side of the fenders to hide the seam.





I ground away just enough on the underside to clean up any sharp edges and burrs, but not enough, hopefully, that I weaken the joint.



Then I tried to clean up the visible side, which may take a couple of coats of JB Weld due to the slight differences cause by putting the two fender pieces together.



I attached the trailer runner extensions in much the same way, aligned them the best as I could, grinding away some material to get a close of a matching mating surface as possible, and then applied the JB Weld.





With a little luck, maybe a coat of primer this weekend to make it look more homogeneous.

[Gramps46]

Thank you for sharing your technique.  Based upon your earlier work I bought some JB Weld but have not give it a try yet.

[ibj40]

2 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

Thank you for sharing your technique.  Based upon your earlier work I bought some JB Weld but have not give it a try yet.

It's kind of like the catch phase for Frank's Red Hot Sauce.

[kilrathy10]

looks like you're having fun... Good job, Man....

[ibj40]

Threw some Bondo on the fenders to smooth them up a little. If the weather's right this weekend, at least a coat of primer.

[ibj40]

Laid down a coat of primer.



Now the question is, should I lengthen the rear axle to fill up the wheel wells?

[ibj40]

Go big, or go home!

Widened the rear track by 3/8 inch on each side, in order to fill out the wheel wells.



I think this is where we're going to go.

[ibj40]

Got a coat of Classic White paint on it yesterday, hung it on my basketball net to dry in the sun.

Came out decent, for what I intended it for, although a lot of work.

[kilrathy10]

Actually looks pretty good with some paint on it.... Nice work... On to the next project... ?