Cool McCool's Garage

It’s been in the  upper 70’s to mid 80’s here all week, the grass is green, the trees are leafing out, flowers are blooming.   You might expect the warm weather has resulted in huge progress on the main project here, the “Tini-Home”, but just like our shop watch dog is doing, I’ve taken time to stop and smell the flowers.   What fun would spring be if I spent it all in a tiny little trailer inside a messy shop?

Yesterday I had big plans.  I was going to help Dad replace some shingles on the shop roof, pull the snow-thrower off the tractor and put the mower on.  I was going to get the trailer out of the shop to work outside, finish up the interior trim, maybe get a coat of varnish on,  get the wiring finished up and clean up around the shop.   Lots to do!

So,  I got out and went over bright and early to get started.  Happily, he had other plans, and said we could do that (the roof) some other day.   I had driven the GMC in order to haul away the junk.  To pull the trailer out and get to work, I needed a trailer hitch, which meant it needed a rear bumper.  One thing lead to another, I ended up spending most of the day building a bumper for that.  Not on a list of urgent “need to get done NOW” things, but it had been somewhere on the list.

I had the massive aluminum channel,  a 5/8’s thick 12″x4″ slab,  that had been the front bumper on the Diamond T,  two 7′ long pieces of 9×3 quarter-inch steel that had been the frame reinforcements on the GMC in its former, stretched state, and the hitch receiver that had been on its rear bumper.  All this was whipped up into what I think is a pretty neat, practical, and very purposeful looking bumper for the GMC. 

I’d had to rebuild the ancient Quadrajet on Tuesday (called off from work), as it was flooding and leaking fuel, and gotten an actual exhaust system under the truck, so it runs great and is actually quiet enough to have a conversation  (the conversations usually run toward the “What’s that smell?”) with unlucky passengers, usually Kim.  It seemed important to get a bumper on it.  This was also a good excuse to get the ’36 out, wash it and go for a ride to Tractor Supply to get the 3/4×3″  grade 8 bolts that I needed to hold the bumper on.  And just drive around a little in the warm sunshine with the top down!

The trailer did get some attention too, between all the goofing around.  I had to figure out how to make the slightly curved small side window fit the flat side.  It had over a half-inch of “bow” at the center.  I simply cut partially through the aluminum channel frame and pushed the window flat, being careful not to push too hard and shatter the tempered glass.  That worked great, it fits much better.

Next up, I needed to figure out how to attach the window, and the big front window, to the trailer body.  They had aluminum trim/retainer rings, but these were intended for a different wall thickness, and the black-coated trims didn’t look “right” in the vintage interior.  I ended up making some retainer trims from the same quarter-inch paneling as the interior, which worked great and fit the style.  Most of the other interior trim is done as well, so hopefully by tomorrow afternoon the interior will be all finished up and varnished. 

Today’s plans call for a trip to the metal recycler to get rid of the scrap metal, a stop at the landscape store for a truckload of mulch for Dad,  work on the interior of the trailer, and then the Gilmore Garage Works.  Busy day here at CMcC’s Garage, better get moving.  Just like Ari, I seem to have a short span of attention…