It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

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It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby gorgerider » Sun Feb 01, 2015 2:44 pm

I'm a newb and don't really know what it is that followed me home yesterday. I hope ya'll can help me figure out what it is.It looks like a homer, but may be an old kit. Dimensions are 10' L x 4' W x 4' H at max. As best I can tell, skin thickness is 1/16" (sides and top). Skin fasteners are machine bolts and nuts. Windows/doors are matching, look like they belong there, and are not something scavenged from another source. Lower frame is steel angle iron. Tongue is boxed angle (welded on two corners). Center side trim is riveted and looks like a factory job. Fenders are aluminum. Floor and walls are plywood. Steel rods bolted through across the inside at the top for added strength along top corner. Door/hatch handles look like 40's or 50's automotive, but could also be original to an old kit. Hitch is old-school screw bolt (like and old U-Haul trailer). Single tail light looks like 40's or '50's. Whatcha think?

I'll make another post to add more pics. Thanks for your response.
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DSCN1785[1].JPG
DSCN1785[1].JPG (232.49 KiB) Viewed 13685 times
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby gorgerider » Sun Feb 01, 2015 2:49 pm

Here's a few more pics:
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DSCN1789[1].JPG
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DSCN1788[1].JPG
DSCN1788[1].JPG (238.96 KiB) Viewed 13684 times
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby gorgerider » Sun Feb 01, 2015 2:52 pm

And a few more:
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DSCN1793[1].JPG
DSCN1793[1].JPG (216.01 KiB) Viewed 13683 times
DSCN1791[1].JPG
DSCN1791[1].JPG (235.99 KiB) Viewed 13683 times
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby teddy » Sun Feb 01, 2015 2:53 pm

Nice find! i cant help you with the IDing, but it looks sweet. I think i know where your time is going the next few months :)
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby dales133 » Sun Feb 01, 2015 3:28 pm

No idea what it is except a thing of beauty.verry nice find
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby pchast » Sun Feb 01, 2015 8:39 pm

Nice find! It looks like it will clean up relatively easily too. :thumbsup:
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby S. Heisley » Sun Feb 01, 2015 11:10 pm

:o It looks like you bought yourself a wee bit of rolling work. It looks pretty old. Those can be treasures. Be sure to insulate the cabin or you will freeze your tail off. Aluminum conducts both heat and cold really well. But, you probably already know that....
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby aggie79 » Mon Feb 02, 2015 6:50 am

It looks like a Modernaire.
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby len19070 » Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:40 am

Nice Modernistic/Modernaire/Cub.

http://www.nicksteardrop.com/photos.htm

Modernistic, Cub and Modernaire
Prefabricated Trailer Manufacturing and Modernistic Trailer Manufacturing, located in the Los Angeles area, made these shiny aluminum trailers in the late 1940s. National Trailer Stores, also based in Los Angeles, distributed them. Ads for the Modernistic, which were available as kits for $280 or fully assembled for $500, appeared regularly in popular handyman magazines throughout the 1940s.

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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby gorgerider » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:45 am

Thanks, folks, for your responses. You nailed it. Now I just have to find the serial number. Any hints?

I'll also need to figure out how to deal with a few rips/cracks in the skin. I've searched the aircraft skin repair sites and all I come up with is drill a hole at each end of the tear and apply a patch. Any other sources or ideas? I'll never get to restore it to shiny aluminum because of the dents and I'll have to paint it. I can bang out dents and squirt the zinc chromate and enamel.

I'd like to keep it, but it's a little big for my 1500cc-powered MGA. I think the 2300cc, 140 RWHP motorcycle would do a better job of towing in a straight line, but it'd scare all sorts of bodily fluids out of me to hitch it up and let out the clutch. And the extra weight would negate the option of me dating a fat chick. The good part is it would fit my 6' 5" bod. The bad news is I'd have to find a 1947 car to go in front of it. Oh well. we all have to make sacrifices. :D

Thanks again. I'll let you know how things go. I have a camera and I'm not afraid to use it.
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby cecil » Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:59 am

Nice ! very NICE ! :thumbsup:
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby bobhav » Wed Feb 04, 2015 6:52 pm

'rider,
I think it might be time for you to purchase an AC / DC tig welder. I believe that you could carefully hammer out the dents and weld the tears. The missing aluminum could be replaced. The skin repair would be a number one priority. There is a metal working forum that comes to mind, MetalMeet. Good Luck with the project.

BobH.

quote="gorgerider"]Thanks, folks, for your responses. You nailed it. Now I just have to find the serial number. Any hints?

I'll also need to figure out how to deal with a few rips/cracks in the skin. I've searched the aircraft skin repair sites and all I come up with is drill a hole at each end of the tear and apply a patch. Any other sources or ideas? I'll never get to restore it to shiny aluminum because of the dents and I'll have to paint it. I can bang out dents and squirt the zinc chromate and enamel.

I'd like to keep it, but it's a little big for my 1500cc-powered MGA. I think the 2300cc, 140 RWHP motorcycle would do a better job of towing in a straight line, but it'd scare all sorts of bodily fluids out of me to hitch it up and let out the clutch. And the extra weight would negate the option of me dating a fat chick. The good part is it would fit my 6' 5" bod. The bad news is I'd have to find a 1947 car to go in front of it. Oh well. we all have to make sacrifices. :D

Thanks again. I'll let you know how things go. I have a camera and I'm not afraid to use it.[/quote]
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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby ae6black » Wed Feb 04, 2015 9:18 pm

I wish I was closer to it than just a picture. I'd love to study that TD and see how it was made it looks to me like there's very little wood other than the deck involved. From the pics it looks like it's just a skin just riveted together. It must be made well or it never would have lasted this long. I hope I am around it some time to take a closer look.

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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby FredSB » Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:48 pm

Very cool


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Re: It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

Postby 48tinhouse » Sat Aug 12, 2023 5:01 pm

The Modernistic/Modernaire TD were aluminum skin over a flimsy steel framework. The only wood was the floor so they didn't have a wood rot problem like all the rest. Since the skin was stressed they all have cracks. I just count them as "character", and I do drill holes at the end at each.
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