My Trailer Redo - Days 119-122 -That Big Patch Job

  I am unbelievably pleased with how this turned out. I have zero/zilch/no/nada experiene working with Bondo in big areas, and this stupid space has a ridged hump in the middle. I was prepared to settle for moderately good. Instead, I got this to pretty darn good. Not 100% professional grade, but not shabby.

Let me remind you of the size of the hole I had to start with.

There is nothing fast about doing a project like this. I had kept working on building up the fiberglass in this area for quite a while. Every time I had some leftover resin from some other fix, I would slap on a little more fiberglass. There was nothing over 1/8 inch deep anywhere. Most was much less. The hole was initially covered in 2017 (wow- I've been working on this trailer for 5 years!), and I managed to get a hint of the ridge in the initial repair.

Well, you start by just filling it in- no matter how big the hole is. Smash the Bondo in to prevent having air gaps. Biggest tip from a friend- don't do it when the temperature is hot because the Bondo sets up even faster than normal. Second tip from me- if the can of Bondo you have has thickened over time, throw it out and go buy a new one.

First sanding- just to see how things are going. The lighter areas are sanded. The rest are spaces that still need to be filled and brought up to the right depth.

Repeat those two steps time after time, cleaning the dust off between each application, trying not to overfill so that you have to sand down a lot of product. This is getting closer- you can see there is a lot more light area, and much less dark.

I realized sometime yesterday that this was actually turning out pretty good. I was able to reconstruct the ridge. And at that point, I wanted to keep working on all the little dips and pits to try to get it nice and level. Here was the situation this afternoon. (The area below the bottom ridge is just going to have to be slightly rough. That's where I accidentally cut through the shell taking out the air conditioner, and I had to patch both the inside and the outside to get it to stop leaking. I can live with that.)

And looking at an angle down the length of the ridge. Not factory perfect, but way better than I thought I could do.

I decided that the large areas oould benefit from an extra coat of primer, so I slapped that on early this evening. You can really see how the ridge turned out in this one.

I didn't want to try to put primer on more of the trailer because I'm taking it out next week. I'd just get it covered with bugs and have to wash it all again when I get home. But I am pretty much ready to clean and finish the painting. I did find just a couple more little dings to Bondo, but they are no big deal.

In other news: I could not wake up today. It was humid, and that never helps. But I got the trailer pretty much loaded for next week, got ready for the vendor event, and I worked on one of my editing projects. There's another reading event yet tonight. I'm posting early because I have to get up and be functional earlier than I like in the morning.

See Index to Fiberglass Trailer Refurbish See Bigger Bondo

My Trailer Redo - Day 118 - Bigger Bondo

  I didn't do either of the things I thought I would work on this afternoon. Instead, I got brave and decided to tackle one of the larger areas that needed Bondo on the trailer. I'm not sure why I've felt hesitant about doing these- Bondo isn't that hard. Neverthless, I felt a little intimidated.

Let me remind you what the side of the trailer looks like- the side I haven't liked to show off because of the ugliness. You'll immediately notice the big brown square. That's the really scary one. It's where the air conditioner was. (I will tackle that next.) However, there is another funny-shaped hole above that.

That hole is where there was a fan above the stove at one time- long before I owned the trailer. The odd line abeove that was a little rain deflector to protect it. I cut that off. There was a grating screwed over it. You can see the holes. I fiberglassed the hole early on. But it needed to be filled with Bondo so it would be ready to paint.

So, the only thing I really did wrong is that I put too much Bondo on and had to do more sanding than would have been ideal. It also helped when I switched to the recommended grit of sandpaper. I was using too fine a number. But I think I've got this one ready for paint!

In other news: I edited all morning and finished the current project. I contemplated doing some trail work or writing a chapter in the afternoon. Ended up doing this, and I did write half a chapter. The weather was much more tolerable!

See Improving the Door