Ordering Parts

Today was a day of ordering a lot of parts.

I explored two excellent resources, Lil' Bear Tag-Alongs and the Teardrop Fix-it Shop.

Both were phenomenal to deal with.  Both called me back to confirm my needs and walked me through the process of choosing the right materials.

I ended up ordering six lengths of five foot aluminum for the bottom of the trailer and the wheel wells.  That will give me enough to experiment with forms, etc. when I'm trying to bend it to fit my trailer.  I also ordered new door handles (inside and out) a hatch handle and lock mechanism that will lock and secure the galley lid.  I haven't seen the dome light that George offers anywhere else, so I went ahead and ordered that too.  It has a neat feature that allows you to choose between a white light or a red light.  This would allow you to 'see' without affecting your night vision.  Now that I think about it, I might order one more for the galley.

After some conversation with George at the Teardrop Fix-it Shop, I decided to investigate replacing the hinge.  After sharing the idea with Larry, I am not quite sure what I am going to do about.  He brought up a great point.  If I took the old hinge off and put a new on, the I'm going to be adding a lot more holes in the hatch.  That will decrease the strength of the hatch and could jeopardize the integrity of the hatch.  If I'm drilling out all those rivets, I'm thinking I might just go ahead and add a new seal.  It must have worked pretty well on the original right?

I ventured up to Racine today to take a look inside a Harbor Freight Store.  Having never actually been inside one of their stores, it was a little like a kid in a candy shop!  I purchased a few supplies for working on the teardrop.  One tool I'll surely need is a rivet tool.  There were about five different kinds.  It seemed the only difference was the heaviness of the steel that the tools were made from.

 Getting ahead of myself, but one of these sander/buffers and lots of these pads are going to be in my future.  The cost of the tools at Harbor Freight are ridiculous!  So inexpensive.

 These two trailer tongue boxes were attractive.  I think I like the much more sturdy heavier steel version for the cost.  I would like to integrate a cargo rack with grates

 I think this is gorgeous!  The above is from So Cal Teardrops and they know how to outfit a teardrop.  My goal, at least at this moment, is to add the diamond plate on the base of the trailer like they have done and then add something similar on the tongue as a way to carry our chairs, etc.

Tomorrow my job is to rebuild the window on the passenger side.  If things go well, I'll be able to use my template for the other side too.  It should be pretty basic; but those are some famous last words. 

That's all for tonight!