Renovating a trailer, looking for roof suggestions

Maybe some plastic polymer just so it doesn't look so much like a trailer.

Thanks, but why wouldn't I want the trailer to look like a trailer? It's a trailer. I just want it to look good, thus the renovation. ;-)

This material seems interesting. It less that $10 more than I would pay for a 4 x 8 sheet of white aluminum. If it's able to be installed over the existing roof, right out to the metal edging strips, that might be the way to go.

That black is a form of rust, and if you don't stop/remove it, it will continue to creep until it has gone completely thru. It's what's down in those pits, where your abrasives don't reach, that will seed devastation. Even if you cover it with paint/membrane/tar, whenever it's as much as humid, the rust will creep. If you cover it, and liquid water/condensation/vapor gets between the steel and covering, it will go fast.

I don't know if covering with aluminum will cause a reaction with the galvanized steel or not (disimilar metals). You should check into that.

The roof will probably be the most arduous part of your restoration.

Thanks for the thoughts.

I was at a trailer service shop this morning getting new rims and I spoke to one of the techs, showed him the pictures.

He suggested contacting a few collision shops and see if they had a rust conversion product that I could apply to stop further damage. (e.g. Rust-Oleum Rust Restorer, but better) I'm going to make a few phone calls.

I replaced all the wiring last night, inside and out. Found out that the trailer has a flakey tail light fixture. It has an incandescent socket but there were 1157 LED equivalents installed. All the lights (turn signals, brake, tail and running lights) work fine with the vehicle lights on. However when I turn the vehicle lights off, the running lights flash when the right turn signal is used. :-O

I borrowed a set of new LED fixtures from a buddy and everything worked fine. Now I just have to find an equivalent LED fixture that will fit in the existing cutout on the rear doors. I think I found a Bargman equivalent, but no one has it in stock locally, so I'll have to buy it online to see if they fit or if I can make them fit.

I forgot to address this comment. If I do end up using aluminum for the roof, I would take the existing roof off, not just cover it with aluminum. Covering neatly it would probably be tougher than replacing it.

Use a rust convereter on all the rust/steel and prime it - then put on a good membrane. Aluminum on galvanized will corrode through pretty quickly. You COULD bond aluminum over the membrane but I'f just put on an uluminum(silver) roof coating

The guys I know would fiberglass it but they do that stuff.

I've done some fiberglassing but not enough to do a good a job on a trailer roof - especially since there are easier DIY options.

There was never a plan to put aluminum over the galvanized. I'd remove the sidestrips, pull the galv and put down a whole new roof. That would give me chance to repair some of the interior "ceiling" also. That's sandwiched between galv and the metal framing.

I'm seriously leaning in that direction.

So, 2 questions:

Flat 4 Harness: Brown is Tail & Running Green or Yellow is Signal & Brake White is Ground.

My new Bargman LED Tail light fixtures: Green is Tail Black is Signal & Brake White is Ground

My LED running light fixtures: Black Is Hot White is Ground

Why don't the fixtures use a Brown wire for the tail and running lights and a Green/Yellow striped wire for Turn & Brake? Seems like a no brainer to me.

How old is the trailer. Robertson's patent expired in the '60s so there may have been cause to come up with a design that took a common (in Canada) driver that wasn't covered under the patent.

You can find them in the states now but the first time I saw them was setting up a molding system is Mississauga in the early '70s. Off to Canadian Tire for yet another screwdriver.

Supposedly Robertson and Henry Ford were in a pissing contest so Ford went with Phillips.

Here's another variation on the theme to add confusion:

The trailer is ~25 YO, 1997 model, so the patent had expired long before that.

I used to work on washing-machine size disk drives back in the 80's. I think it was HP that started using Posidrive screws. 2 different sizes. Great...2 more tools to carry around.

The screwdrivers are still in my garage toolbox.

Yeah, I just had to buy a tri-wing driver so I could replace the $4 thermal switch on the coffee pot. Apparently Mr Coffee doesn't want you fixing their stuff.

Then there is the T5 Torx so I could replace the battery in my Garmin Nuvi.

IBM was pretty silly about the fastener thing. Our "Allen/Bristol" set had about 50 "L" wrenches in it for about 8 bolt/thread sizes and that was before Torx and metric. I wrote a suggestion about it and it was kicked back saying we had no control over what our vendors used. When I countered with "why not, we are usually their biggest customer" I just got an answer like "No but thank you for playing our game".

OK, so as we drift farther afield, here's my suggestion system story...

Our suggestion system paid you some small amount of money for basic "that's a good idea" suggestion (like $50) all the way up to large amounts based on a percentage of what the company might save over some specified time period. (5 years?)

Being a computer tech I got to go into all different parts of the company, from office space, to the research labs, to manufacturing, to distribution, etc. I always kept my eye open for things to suggest and often earned a little extra spending cash.

One time I saw something going on at one of the manufacturing sites, an area where a good friend of mine was a supervisor. I spoke to him about a suggestion I wanted to submit and he helped me put together the words and some numbers. We've figured that the payout to me would have easily reach $15K-$20K if implemented. (1985-ish dollars)

I submitted the suggestion and it got shot down. "Thank you for your suggestion. It has merit and would indeed result in a large savings over time. Unfortunately, the implementation costs exceed what we have available at this time, so we are unable to put your suggestion to use." Typical stupid, short term thinking.

Fast forward 3 years. I'm back in the same area and I see that my suggestion has been implemented. WTF? I contacted the suggestion department to find out what was going on and they opened an "investigation". It turns out that the implementation of my suggestion was not done based on my suggestion. Some engineer within their own department noticed the issue, suggested the change, and the department now had enough money (or maybe decided that going in the hole actually made sense over the long term) to upgrade their system.

The only upside of the whole matter was that suggesting the change was part of the engineer's job, so he didn't get paid for the suggestion. He didn't work for the department at the time that I made the suggestion, so I don't think he stole my idea, I think he just noticed the same thing that I did.

Either way, it still smarts that I was right but didn't get paid for my idea.