One more detail and shes DONE!!

[Nick]

Where did you get the wood replacment? Just go to Home Depot/Lowes?

What size planks did you use? I am waiting for my EUC to clear and am trying to get my ducks in a row so when it gets here I can start getting it spiffed up.

I had all the wood cut by my Battalion Chief's brother, who owns his own lumber mill. He over size-rough cut everything. and I cut and trimmed it all down to size, then routed all the edges. Its local "valley oak" from the central valley here in Calif.

I dont remember exactly what size I made the final dimensions. I can measure them when I get off duty Monday.

Thanks
Nick

 

[CMXterra]

Nice to have connections

I was looking for the end measurements so I can start collecting what I need. Thanks and your trailer looks great!

 

[Wrench Wench]

Having a supplier of large, graphical, military stencils is a Good Thing(tm), but for something small and textual like the tailgate lettering you showed, you can always go cheapskate and do it yourself.

I didn't have any military stencil fonts on my computer, so I googled "miltiary stencil font download" and found Browning Transit Chest with its Browning font. Once installed, I went into OpenOffice.org Draw and made the original of the drawing, but, of course, if it's all text, I could just as easily have used the Writer. All centered, 170 point, and then exported to PDF, attached here.

If you have a razor blade or sharp utility knife, you can cut out the blackened part from printing to a regular sheet of paper, spray the back with some easy release contact adhesive, stick it to the tailgate, *psssht*, and done.

As they say, "Good enough for government work."

 

[Nick]

Thats pretty cool. I thought of doing it that way. I figured there had to be a site with stencils on it, but never got around to lookin.

Thanks for the suggestion. Ill give it a shot.

Nick

 

[Nick]

Nice to have connections

I was looking for the end measurements so I can start collecting what I need. Thanks and your trailer looks great!

Ill take some measurements when I get home, and let ya know.

Nick

 

[Pawnshop]

I normally am not in favor of civilian conversions of military equipment, but THAT is going to look very nice behind a Power Wagon!

 

[Nick]

I normally am not in favor of civilian conversions of military equipment, but THAT is going to look very nice behind a Power Wagon!

Thank you very much.

 

[Wrench Wench]

Tried again. Slightly different font. In Writer. No margins. 150 pts for U.S.A., 200 pts for the serial number. I guess Writer knows how to anti-alias, because this looks a lot better than the first one I did. It's also about 1/3 smaller for the PDF file size.

Of course, the ultimate stencil maker wouldn't be an Office package. It'd be a CNC package with a bunch of otherwise worthless wood panelling.

 

[Nick]

Tried again. Slightly different font. In Writer. No margins. 150 pts for U.S.A., 200 pts for the serial number. I guess Writer knows how to anti-alias, because this looks a lot better than the first one I did. It's also about 1/3 smaller for the PDF file size.

Of course, the ultimate stencil maker wouldn't be an Office package. It'd be a CNC package with a bunch of otherwise worthless wood panelling.

Ok, I'm lost. I tried goin to that site, but I dunno what to do from there. I opened the page that had the sentences in different sizes about the fox??

I like the first font you did better, but I like the "2" and "5" from the second font to go with the first font...Make sense??

I think I need them at 1.75".

Help? I think? ha ha ha

Thanks
Nick

 

[CMXterra]

Any luck with the board measurements?

 

[Nick]

Sorry, my internet was shut off so they could upgrade the towers.

Ok, the side boards, front and rear gates are all 3/4" thick by 3" tall. These are final measurements, after I trimmed them down and routed the edges.

Do you want or need lengths of the boards too? And do you need bow measurements too?


Nick

 

[CMXterra]

upgrades.. gooooood.

I will take all that you will offer. Im not sure what condition the bows are in but I know I need to replace all the boards.

 

[Nick]

Ok, all the sides, front and rear are all 3/4 x 3. The sides are 7' 11" long; the front gate is 5' 3 1/4"; the rear gates are 2' 7 1/4"

The bow cross pieces are 57 3/8" from end to end. The inside measurement from the inside of each upright is 67 3/8". the bows and the uprights are all 1 3/4" x 1 1/8". I made my uprights just a tad longer than stock, I think thats a matter of preference, depending on how much headroom or cubic footage inside you need with the cover on.

Obviously your dimensions may differ depending on the trailer itself, but this will give ya an idea. Im kinda glad when my wood was made, he made them so much bigger than I asked for, it gave me some room to play with

clear as mud??

Nick

 

[NMC_EXP]

Hi Nick

If that trailer is where the stake pockets I had ended up, they found a good home.

Regards

Jim

 

[Nick]

Yup, thats them Jim. Dunno if you can see the storage pockets in any of the pics or not, but they are on there.

Thanks alot for them

Nick

 

[Nick]

Well, here it is.

Thanks to Wrench Wench for the help and suggestion to make my own stencils. I did just that. Tinkered around til I found the perfect size for what I wanted, spaced as I wanted. Printed em out and transferred them to an adhesive electrical tape-type film, cut em out, taped em off, voila!!

I'm pretty happy with the result. Alot better than the paint shop's attempt that for sure!!!

Nick

 

[CMXterra]

looks great!

 

[Wrench Wench]

Nice.

 

[Nick]

upgrades.. gooooood.

I will take all that you will offer. Im not sure what condition the bows are in but I know I need to replace all the boards.

Have ya got to making your boards and bows yet?

Nick

 

[wallew]

Nick,

THANK YOU SIR for sharing this work. I have an M101A1 and an M101A2 that I need to refinish. At least the A1. The A2 is in pretty fair shape.

Two years ago I was cutting bows. On the last bow, the last cut, my table saw 'grabbed' the wood and shot it back into my leg. It bounced off my right leg, leaving a nice square bruise, and bounced forward across the blade.

I AM ANAL ABOUT SAFETY. I don't wear one pair of glove. I wear two. I wear a pair of flexible mechanix type gloves. Over that is a heavy pair of leather work gloves. Yes, I WAS using a push bar. I ALWAYS use a push bar. did NOT matter. It happened so quick, I'm glad I am anal about safety.

I lost about a MM of skin and tissue. The funny part was, as soon as it happened I thought to myself "That's gonna leave a mark". I went in and cleaned up the wound. Then I shed the clothes I was wearing that were covered in sawdust. Put on a pair of clean sweat and went to the emergency room.

End of story is I'm fine. Minus just a small slice of skin on my left thumb. You wouldn't notice it unless I give you a thumbs up. THEN you notice it.

I HAVE SAVED every photo you posted. I am looking forward to refinishing mine. Though I'll be using 383 Carc, I LOVE what you did.

And BTW, what model is in your avatar?

GREAT JOB. I'm gonna steal a LOT of ideas from this thread. Thx Nick.