So I went to an auction today and actually spent some money. The trailer is a Model A box that for NY isn't bad, it has some rot to the sides at the base where they curve under and the rear U-channel is cut off for some reason across the bottom. It's on a home-made frame using parallell leafs and a '36 Chevy Standard axle - and I found the other two of these wheels in the barn and bought them too. I may keep it as a trailer for the time being. The lawnmower in it? Someone made a trailer dolly out of it. I needed a 1 7/8ths ball, so I bought that too. Actually works pretty good. The chassis is an old hay wagon made out of a Model A frame. The rearend is somewhat later Ford, gutted (no backing plates or driveshaft). It has wide-5 wheels and drums on one side. Up front it's had a lot of crap welded to it - instead of a spring, it has a piece of a second front axle cut off and used to hold it up - and all of it welded together. I probably should have passed, but I needed a rear crossmember and the wide-5 stuff is always good. It took $70 to outbid the scrappers. Hopefully no one steals it before I can go back and load it up, today or tomorrow. I also later found a 57-60 or so Corvette spinner cap in the barn. That cost me a whole dollar.
Yes, the trailer isn't a bad piece. The wheel lug pattern is an oddball 5 on 4.25", but some late Fords use that, a couple steel wheels and hubcaps and away I go. That only because I can buy them at the junkyard for $10 as opposed to what a couple of 5.50x17s are going to cost. I'll probably dig through my parts and see if I can find a pair of suitably vintage lights to put on it, I know I have a couple things that might work.
A few more pictures of the frame now that it's home. It has a clear serial number that comes up to June 1929 engine production, which I suppose could make it a very late 1929 or a very early 1930 actual car depending on how long before the engine was installed and when they did the changeover from one to the other. A lot of welding on that axle, although a couple of them have cracked already. In fact, one of the wheels is welded onto what's left of the studs of the drum (!). The wishbones are cut off fairly short and welded to some plates which are then welded to the frame, too. Seems like a lot of work for something that could have just been left as it was. Trailer needs a U-channel repair patch but those are cheap.
Some rot in the bottoms of the side panels, the right side is worse, but for something from here in NY it's great. It makes the other bed I have look like the pile of crap that it is.
The Jalopy Journal
