Todd's Teardrop Blog: My first "good look" at my Teardrop

Hans and I had been trading texts for the past few days; he was finally able to get to his garage where the Teardrop is being stored and send me some detailed images of the Teardrop. These images served to excite, puzzle, frustrate and amused me.

Hans and I are approaching the Teardrop from slightly different angles. He is all about building onto what is existing. I am more of the mindset of ripping it out and customizing the whole thing to meet my needs. Those needs, are always evolving. Hopefully, with my new, slower approach to the project, I will be able to be wise enough to know when to stop 'thinking' through problems and planning and when to begin implementing.

Here are the most recent images I have of both the interior and exterior of the Teardrop. I will add my thoughts and notes about them as they are posted.

Ok, I am going to need to do some wire brush work on the tongue of the trailer; I would anticipate a good amount of the underside of the Teardrop will also need to be scraped and painted over with Rustoleum. It's interesting to see how it meets the frame of the trailer; that hole there in the center must be where the electrical enters the cabin.

Yucky looking tail lights. I'm hoping that I can add new tail lights to the tear. I'm wondering how the skin will look when I remove those old tail lights. It's fun seeing the old license plate. I can't make it out, but that might be able to give me some clues on the ownership chain of the Teardrop. I'll also be adding a license plate holder to the Teardrop. I would prefer to have one in the center of the hatch and will have it lit with an LED too.

Okay, a bit more of a view of the tongue. I'm not sure what the metal angle iron is there at the right of the image. I researched a little and found out that the triangular piece that is connected the the frame is original. It pivots up and is stored on the small metal 'arm' that is just below the hole in the cabin. I'm not sure how this will impact the addition of a crank down arm. I would like to add one, I think. Additionally, I would like to add stabilizers to the rear of the Teardrop. I've seen where they can be bolted on, but I am not sure if I will have access to the frame in the way they are required to be added properly. May end up having them welded along with additional 'hitch' receivers to the back and side so I can add additional elements, tables, bike rack and so on, to the Teardrop.

You can see, above, the stabilizers and the additional 'receivers' that are welded to the frame. These receivers allow you to add all kinds of elements from tables to flag poles, awnings, etc. You are only limited by your imagination. It would be smart to have these designs in place when inquiring about how the cost of welding to the frame. Mental note: plan all possible welding ideas for initial consult with the welding shop.

Looks like those seals are going to need to be replaced ASAP. Larry, my Tourette friend, told me that the seals of the 1947 Ford truck fit the doors to the Teardrop perfectly. Now, where does one find a 1947 Ford truck seal? This was also the first time I could see the plywood floor. It looks solid. Larry told me that I may not need to replace the floor; that impacts my decisions about how to 'finish' the interior. If I don't remove the cabin from the chassis, I will only be able to bring sheet goods into the cabin that will fit through the door. I also noticed the smooth radius of the wheel well for the first time. This would be hard to 'cover' with wood, another consideration of how to 'cover' the interior.

Another yucky tail light. One side note, the edge trim of the hatch looks sound here.

Door handle hardware. Interestingly, the door handle hardware looks completely sound. I may be able to simply clean it up, spray it and use it over again! I am getting my first look at the window assembly. I still don't completely understand how it operates I think there is to be a screen there, but that makes me wonder, how to you open the window with the screen in place? Does it crank out? Not sure, but that will be fun to explore.

Aha. Another, more full view of the tongue. I am glad to see that the length of the tongue is substantial. I have plans to add a tongue box which will be part of my electrical system. I would like to store the battery and possibly the battery 'tender' inside the tongue box. I've seen some nice ones in the stores and online, but am considering making my own. One additional note about this area of the tear; I am thinking of adding 'diamond plate' to this section. It would reach from the frame up about four feet. This would serve many purposes. One would be to 'repair' the damaged finish you can see in the image. The other would be to solidify the skin and provide a bit more rigidity to the frame and cabin.

48" hypotenuse provides a substantial 'base' for the tongue box and storage 'gates.' In addition to the tongue box, I would love to add a 'shelf' where many things, like chairs, etc, can be stored. I have some excellent images in my idea binder of how this is accomplished. Here is one of them.

In order to make this work, I would need to have some welding done to the chassis frame. I'm finding that this is not that terribly expensive. It would just make sense to have all of my 'welding' done at one time. I'm not sure what the 12 volt receptacle is for there, but I'm curious.

The galley. Despite the 'historical' nature of the Teardrop, I plan to remove these cabinets. One interesting note is that I thought this would be 'impossible.' Well, it turns out that with a $20 tool called a pop riveter, I can easily repair holes made when the cabinets are removed. And, to remove them, one simply needs to punch the rivet carefully and then drill through the rivet with the same size drill bit.

Another view of the interior. Again, the floor looks solid. The doors are interesting to me. It looks like the 'window' is open. I again am curious, is there some sort of 'limiter' on the window? How does it open and close? I'm also noticing how the door frame is stiffened by wood. I will be interested to see how that will impact the insulating and coverage when I get to that point.

A close up of the 'ice box' that was standard on the 1947 model. Ice would be put in the bottom, I think, and the 'box' would have kept things chilled. It doesn't look very insulated. Interesting that they used steel, which rusts, for the interior. I imagine steel has better properties for absorbing and holding the ice's cold temperatures.

A view of the area where the three burner gasoline stove would have sat. In other images I wonder how the lower cabinet was utilized. It seems like that is a very deep distance. The upper cabinets are missing most of their doors and are riveted to the outside of the skin. I plan to add a plywood 'side' to both edges when I have successfully removed the cabinets.

My first interior shot of the front of the bulkhead. I can take away a lot from this image. First, the interior is a mess and needs to be scrubbed and cleaned carefully. Second, the wires are shot. I don't even know what those wires in the top right of the frame go to. Hans did tell me that the trailer lights currently do not work. I will need to have that fixed before I can begin the voyage north with the trailer. I can see that there were sliding cabinet doors; one of them is missing. I would really like to add a 'headboard' to the cabin when that time comes. I love the way my design model turned out as you can see from the image below:

I'm not sure if we'll end up adding the 'moon' roof, but the more I work on my designs and this remodel, I do think that I will go with a light hull liner over insulation and plywood inside. Finally, like my design, I will create a 'headboard' that has storage in it. The headboard will be taller than the model to most likely maximize this space.

Whoever the owner of this Teardrop was, they clearly didn't bother to do any cleaning. I chuckle a little at the color choice of the cabin. That turquoise blue reminds me of the 60's and my trips as a young boy to visit my Great-Grandparents in Florida. I'm going to clean, sand and paint the entire interior super high gloss white.

The galley. Note the one bulb. The original add for this model says, "Wired for electric lights." After seeing so many beautiful designs and build logs, you can't go any more basic than this. I would like to use flexible conduit, insulation and a plywood 'skin' to 'beef' up the galley and make it look much more modern. I will likely use a galley light that is an LED and can be switched from white light to red for night vision protection. The same will be true of the interior dome light. I think its neat that the 'struts' that hold the galley up appear to be in very good shape. I am not sure if those will need to be replaced. It looks like a good cleaning and possibly a coat or two of Rustoleum and then WD40 will put them back into pristine condition.