1958 16 ft
- 23 weeks
- 812 hours
- 1,640 rivets
Towed in off a cattle ranch with daylight showing through the floor. The owner stood in the doorway on survey day and asked if it was worth saving. It was.
The shell comes off. The frame gets welded. 3,400 rivets go back in by hand.
Rivetbuck does one kind of job: full frame-off restorations of riveted aluminium trailers, in a shop off Slag Yard Road in Cobbet Junction. One lift, one shell in the air at a time, since 2006.
- Frame-off restorations from
- $58,000
- Months, survey to road test
- 5 to 7
- Rivets bucked on a 26 footer
- 3,400
- Next open lift slot (sample)
- March
Frame-off means the shell leaves the steel. Anything less is a patch.
A 60 year old trailer rots from the bottom up, under a floor you cannot see past. The only honest way to fix it is to take the house off the chassis, and that is the only job we quote.
The shell is lifted
We cut the floor bolts, brace the shell with steel and hoist it clear. Nothing on the frame stays hidden under a floor we did not lay.
The frame is welded
Blasted to bare steel, rotten rail sections cut out, new channel and outriggers welded in, primed and painted before anything sits on it again.
A new subfloor goes down
Marine plywood sealed on all six faces, bolted through to the frame. The number one reason a trailer comes back to us is a floor someone skimped on.
Every rivet is bucked by hand
Solid rivets, set with a gun on the outside and a bucking bar on the inside. That takes two people and it is the way these shells were built.
Frame-off, in nine stages
Job 412 is a 1959 26 ft tandem-axle trailer that spent 31 years in a hay barn. This is where it stands this week, with the real days, hours and parts behind each stage. Pick a stage to see it. Sample job, updated every Friday.
Working day 68 of about 131. Stage 7 of 9.
On the lift now
- Days
- 11 / 18
- Hours
- 88 / 140
- Parts fitted
- 164 / 212
- Rivets bucked
- 698 / 1,180
New 12V and 120V wiring in marine-grade cable, PEX water lines, a tested propane line, and new closed-cell insulation. The belly pan is going back on this week, two people and a bucking bar at a time.
Rivets bucked on this trailer, through stage 7
1,110
1,110 so far of about 3,422 for the whole job. Each one set with a gun on the outside and a bucking bar held on the inside.
Three that rolled out on new steel this year
1964 24 ft
- 27 weeks
- 1,010 hours
- 2,980 rivets
Both axles seized, two spring hangers rusted clean off. New rails from the axles back, new torsion axles, and it now tows straighter than the owner’s newer trailer.
1953 21 ft
- 31 weeks
- 1,240 hours
- 3,105 rivets
The rarest shell we have had in. Eleven original panels were too far gone, so we rolled new ones from matching alloy and kept the rivet pattern exactly.
One person outside with the gun, one inside with the bar
A solid rivet is set by two people. The gun hammers the head from outside while someone inside the shell holds a steel bucking bar against the tail until it mushrooms flat. It is slow, loud and exactly how these shells were built. Pop rivets are quicker, and they are why so many restored trailers leak at the seams in year three.
- Solid rivets on job 412
- 3,356
- Blind rivets, where no bar fits
- 66
- Holes checked after drill-out
- Every one
Every blind rivet is marked on the panel map with the reason. An egged hole gets the next size up, never a blob of sealant.
$58,000 is where a frame-off starts
Most 22 to 26 ft trailers land between $58,000 and $74,000 and take 5 to 7 months. The survey tells you which end of that yours sits at, before you commit to anything.
In the $58,000
- All nine stages, survey to road test
- New frame steel wherever the old steel fails
- Torsion axles, electric brakes, new coupler
- Sealed marine plywood subfloor
- 12V and 120V wiring, water lines, tested propane
- Up to six skin patches, every seam resealed
- Three pass polish, windows rebuilt
- A 150 mile road test before you collect it
What adds to it
- Skin patches beyond six
- $650 each
- Rare original window glass, sourced
- At cost
- Solar and lithium house battery
- From $6,800
- Custom upholstery and cushions
- From $4,200
Paid in four, tied to the steel
- 20%to book your lift slot
- 30%when the shell drops back onto the frame
- 30%when the systems pass inspection
- 20%after the road test, before you tow it home
Four people, one lift, and habits from a rail car shop
Abe Kowalczyk spent 18 years riveting and welding freight cars in the Cobbet Junction yards before he bought his first 1950s trailer and found out what was under the floor. He opened Rivetbuck in 2006 in the old brake shop on Slag Yard Road. Otis Rakowski welds every frame. Jolene Vukovich runs the rivet crew and draws every panel map.
- Frame-offs since 2006
- 61
- Shell in the air at a time
- 1
- Jobs in the shop, never more
- 2
Sample figures for this concept.
Owners who watched their trailer come apart
They sent a photo every Friday for six months. The week the shell went up on the chains I drove four hours just to stand under it.
Two other shops quoted me a floor. Abe put it on the lift, showed me the rear rails with a screwdriver through them, and quoted me a frame. He was right.
The panel map they drew on day one came back with the trailer. Every panel number, every patch, every rivet they could not buck and why.
Get it surveyed before anyone gives you a number
A frame survey is $450 and it is credited to the job if you go ahead. Tow it to Slag Yard Road and we put it on the lift, or we drive to you anywhere within 200 miles. You get photos of the frame, a written report and a fixed quote within a week.
(555) 014-59599 Slag Yard Road, Cobbet Junction. Shop hours Monday to Friday, 7 to 4.