Pocket hole new wing lumber or leave as originally built?

Hi Rod. About 25% of the joints on my trailer had no connectors and the perimeter framework was only held together with twisty nails through the birch ply. It held up well for 60 years so I assume that missing a few joints won't matter too much, especially if you are gluing the ply to the frame. That being said, I remember you mentioned in your restoration thread that you were thinking of changing some of the ash paneling. If you still want to have that option before you erect the walls I think you should definitely throw in a few connectors and pass on the glue.

Thanks Vix and Peter.

I was initially thinking the same as Peter – if it lasted this long, then why not leave it the same way, but once I got the wing boards in place, it became apparent that it will be necessary to reinforce the ends of the horizontal braces. The mounts for the hanging bunk are in this area as well as the side of the bed frame.

Today after yet more missteps, a common occurrence for me , I was able to tie in all the boards in the wing. Note: All wing boards are oversized and have yet to be trimmed.  Below is the current representative for the progress I made today. I have some more questions below for anyone to answer.



Color legend:

Short Purple lines are pocket holes. i.e. three lines is three pocket holes

Dark red zig zag lines show where there is actually no stud.

Red open rectangles are where backer boards need to be placed to support the sides of the bed frame. When the image is magnified, you can see several small arrows written on the paneling that indicate holes in the paneling. I marked these years ago when as a reminder when I would get to this point. These were from the screws of the bed frame – missed their mark! The bed needs more support.

Blue open vertical rectangle marks the possible location of an additional short stud. Is this redundant once the backer board(s) are added for the bed frame or an added necessity?

Green and orange circles represent gaps. The green gap is a little less than 1/8”, the orange gap, is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. Should I glue in a wedge in both gaps and then pocket hole to the wing board through the wedges Or sister a piece of lumber underneath each horizontal brace so that it can have a tight butt joint at the wing board?

I hope those are clear enough. 

Thanks,

Rod

I agree with te post above….fastners Over glue. Glue was never used at the factory so I’d keep it to a minimum.

Hi Friends,

I added glue and screws to the joints and added two pieces of lumber for additional support.



I have 1 of 2 backer boards with pocket holes drilled, cut and ready to support the bed frame, but decided not to add it at this time. I am going to wait until the walls are up and I add the bedframe to the interior. Then I will add the backer boards.

The clamped areas on the wall are where I added a white narrow strip of 3/8” thick poplar. These were left over cuts from the skirtboards. In the clamped areas, original screws or staples for the skin for anchoring the window frames barely seated and sometimes missed the lumber because the framing was too narrow. So, I glued the 3/8” strips in place to widen the framing boards. This seemed to me to be a good compromise for strength and not disturbing the original still good lumber.

The curved edge of the lower radius board will be cut/shaved to meet the end of the original but deteriorated skirt board that I laid in front of the new skirt board.



Cheers,

Rod

Hi Larry,

Gotcha. As stated earlier in the thread. The streetside skirtboard was heavily desintigrated so I didn't have a decent template for cutting a new one. The original taped together skirtboard that's lying in front of the new skirt board is actually the skirt board from the other side (curbside). Incidentily, that had a huge knot in it which came apart. Hence the masking tape to hold it together. I had to make a decision whether to precut the streetside skirtboard based on the curbside skirtboard or wait until the entire curbside wall was completed and then match to that one. I chose the latter for better or for worse.

This is my first restoration and it's been like trying to get to the center of a maze. We all know what that's like.

Cheers

Rod