Soo Close!

I *really* wanted to surprise everyone with some pictures of my completed horse trailer. You know...the one that I bought in January and swore I'd have finished by May 1st? Yeah, that one.

That's still not done.

So Monday morning I was up before the sun rose (almost) and was out the door to buy my rivets. Showed up at Fastenal 5 minutes before they opened and waited...

...and waited...

And tried the door twice, because I needed rivets.

Just as I got back in my car and was going to drive away (it was 10 after Seven), some kid drives up on a scooter, parks on the sidewalk and unlocks the door.

I told myself it's probably the first time he was late to work. That's it. He's just not some kid who can't arrive on time and leaves customers outside waiting.

...but judging by how difficult it was for him to find me the right rivet...

Regardless, I bought 100, thinking I only needed 50 (they wouldn't do any less, and they're normally sold by the box of 500), and some new jigsaw blades to cut the diamond plate, and was out the door and headed home.

Right away I started caulking and did all the stuff that needed doing. So the trailer is officially caulked.

Then I had a quick breakfast (1/2 bowl of cereal) and was out the door again to start cutting the diamond plate. Which is HARD. The jigsaw blade is too short (why?!) so sometimes if you tilt the saw accidentally, it will skip and smash the diamond plate. NOT good. Needless to say, there were some scratches, dents and bends put into the stuff. Whoops.

Then, I can't cut a straight line and the diamond plate won't fit under the door! So I end up spending 45 minutes (when it's still cool out!) grinding it away with a Dremel. A dremel. You understand why it took so long : P

Then I rivet it on...and do the whole top row first, which you can't do. It prevents it from lying flat. You MUST do from inside out. So I have to drill out three rivets (sounds like no big deal, but it is), and re-do it. Okay, finally it's all up.

So then I cut the diamond plate for the door. Get that riveted on.

Cut the diamond plate for the fenders. Get one on and then don't want to work in the heat to do the other...so I lay it aside figuring I'd do it in the evening.

Cut the diamond plate for the rear doors. Again, sounds easy. It's not. It's about 1 pm by this point. YEAH, exactly.

Go to put it on and surprise, I didn't look at the other door (they were open), and the handle on that one is lower. Instead of needing 16" pieces I need 12" pieces. Frig. Too hot to cut them down at that moment, so I just put them aside. Stupid things.

Put the remaining rivets into the roof (since I'd run out last time). Wire up the rear clearance light...and discover I don't know which is the ground wire and which is the hot wire. Crap. Gonna have to wait until the truck is hooked up.

Moving on...

Rivet the bum-chain loops onto the middle gate...and break a drill bit in half. Dang. Get a new drill bit and carry on...

Rivet the licence plate lamp on, the licence plate...inside I rivet the bridle hooks up. One of the four has some cracking on the plastic coating, so I opted to just hang three. Spacing looks better anyway.

By this point, it's 6:30 pm. Not even joking. I had two breaks to wolf down a slice of cold pizza and a bottle of water, the other to take care of personal matters from all that water : P The sun had risen and started its decent, and I hadn't even finished.

A wasp was buzzing around, angry I had plugged his hole where he was building a nest. Nice. Gonna need to plug all of the holes...Imagine a horse being stung in a trailer?! Hell!

_________

By the time I had cleaned up all of the tools, picked all the rivet posts off the ground and closed up the garage, it was 7 pm. I was dripping sweat. The sun was still shining. It was 30 degrees out plus I was standing on a concrete pad in jeans, sneakers and t-shirt. My thumb was cut, there were metal shards in my palms and I had a blood blister from pinching my thumb with the rivet gun when my hands were so sweaty I couldn't get a good grip on it.

I had used up that entire bag of rivets (100), plus another 50 from a bagfull I managed to find. 150 rivets installed. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY.

I hung my trailer ties and discovered they weren't made the same. One fits nicely around the tie ring, the other is too tight. Stupid manufacturing processes.

I headed inside and had a shower. A cold shower. A long cold shower. Then the BF made me a breakfast sandwich (mmmmm....food) and I wolfed down another sliced of cold pizza. And a bowl of icecream. Laid there on the couch in front of the fan for 30 minutes (we don't have air conditioning). Then did a bunch of laundry, cleaned up the office, soaked my show clothes (which have been sitting around since...June?), organised the basement, packed all the spare trailer parts into a box and starting pulling out the items to stock the trailer with.

9:30 I had the laundry put away and the tidying done so I took the dog for a walk. Ran about the park for a little bit so she could stretch her legs. Then walked home. Took the back lane so I could have a look at the pony trailer...

Wow.

________

Tonight, I have to get groceries on my way home, and after supper I hope to finish the trailer. Seriously.

I need to:
- Make two cuts on the rear door diamond plate, and then screw it onto the doors.
- Rivet a hook over the door for my grooming bag.
- Hang the saddle rack.
- Connect the clearance light and rivet (2 rivets).
- Drill and rivet the right wheel well diamond plate.
- Drill the hole for the interior light and rivet (2 rivets).
- Caulk the holes in the trailer to keep the wasps out.
- Buy bum-chains and hang.
- Install old rubber mats.
- Attach the door-hold-openers.


DONE!

Seriously, look how short that list has become! : )

The dream is to haul it out of here on Wednesday evening. : ) The "DREAM".

Not that my horse is going anywhere soon. Between the scraped leg and the apparent abscess, he's down and out for the count. Fingers crossed he makes a comeback for the August 11th Gymkhana event... : )

In the mean time, we practice loading. Lots and lots of practice.

: )

And seriously, wait until you see the pictures of this bad-boy trailer. We're riding in style!