Rehabbing the Trailer Dining Benches

Our vintage trailer remodel is at the mercy of Portland weather.  Last weekend, we did some minor demo of the interior of our 1954 King Vintage Canned Ham trailer.  At this point, we can either start replacing the floor and walls of the trailer or begin restoring/replicating interior cabinets, benches, appliances, etc.  To work on the floor and walls, we will need to remove the exterior skin (metal part) of the trailer, exposing the interior to the elements so we need a full 2 day weekend of 100% clear skies.  This weekend predicted a mixed bag of rain, clouds and wind- not a good set up for outside work so into the garage it was.

Andy began his weekend, carefully taking apart the old Martha Washington stove (more to come on this in a later post).  I decided to begin tackling the two front dining benches that fold into a twin bed.  

Dining area table and benches.  Table folds down and benches lay flat to make a twin size bed.

I wasn't sure, going in, what I would be able to reuse and what I would have to rebuild so using a punch, hammer and pliers, I carefully removed the millions and millions of staples holding the upholstery to the frame.

Back side of bench

Back fabric removed to reveal staple nightmare

About half way through the first line of staples, Andy casually looks over from his table of stove pieces and comments, "Wonder when the family of mice will come running out."  Dick.  Now I am terrified but the work continues.

Under the upholstery and decades worth of mouse poop, padding covered well preserved springs.  This springs were attached by even more staples but after careful excavation, I finally had one bench in pieces.

Staples removed

Springs which I labeled with blue painters tape

Sinuous Springs

At this point, I decided to only take apart one bench at a time so if my careful labeling and pictures were confusing, I could look at the intact bench to get the whole thing back together again.  Overall, the wood framing was in pretty good shape and I felt good about filling holes and sanding.  Mr. Rain On My Parade, Andy glances over.  "No, those are getting replaced."  Grr.

Old Frames

Off to Home Depot we go to get 5 2x2 boards to replace the bench frames (we went ahead and got materials to make new frames for both benches) as well as an assortment of hardware for the now-in-a-million-pieces stove.

Once at Home Depot, I had to begrudgingly admit that Andy was right when I saw the price tag for the 2x2s.  $5 for new frames is well worth the price.

2x2 boards are 82 cents each

Car carts are not made to cart serious supplies

My task done, I entertained 3 wild animals in the hardware department while Andy tried to match 60 year old screws, nuts and washers.  An enormously frustrating task.

My drivers

Trying to find hardware

Once home, we got to the task of cutting the 2x2s into lengths using the chop saw.  Andy taught me a great tip for this:  measure the first length and cut then use this board as your template for all other same-length cuts.  This makes sure all your boards are a consistent measurement.

My first cut board on top so I can measure the bottom board

For the 2 benches, each with a seat and back, I cut 8 35" lengths, 4 20" lengths and 4 16" lengths.

Next step was to create a lap joint at all of the corners.  A lap joint is a stronger joint since it gives you more surface area to connect with glue.  Andy did this step for me on the table saw.  Despite his excellent teaching, I am terrified of this saw and am a shorty-mc-shorterton who can't reach the length of the saw while keeping even pressure on the wood.  If you'd like more information on how to set up a table saw for a lap joint, check out the video at the bottom of this post!

Making a lap joint on the table saw

From here, we went to drill press to pre-drill holes into each corner.

Holes prepped, each board got glued up and screwed.

When making a 90 degree frame, it is incredibly important to make sure the corners are square.  By measuring corner to corner diagonally, you can check the measurement and make any adjustments needed if the diagonal measurements are not the same before the glue dries.

Finally, Andy made two corner supports for each frame to put in opposite corners to keep the frames square.

Glue dried, we are ready to put the old springs onto the new frames.