Bantam TC-3 Build

[Ar_Davis]

After looking for quite a while I finally found a trailer close to home at good price. I had seen quite a few m416/100's but most were butchered and/or way over what I was willing to spend. I found this one through a CL ad and talked with the old man for a while and ended up making the 1.5hr drive to go see it. I got there and was throughly impressed with the the trailer for the $550 dollars we was asking. The trailer has a lot of old scale but is very solid and unmolested. The tailgate has a few minor repair spots but nothing I can't clean up. The s/n puts it around a 1946 and from what I can tell is bone stock other than a replacement reflector on it. Here is where I was wishy washy for a few days, I hate to tear apart a stock trailer such as this since they are getting few and far between. I restore, service, and sale antique british cars for a living and I hate it when we get in a perfectly good car that someone has done botched repairs or modified something and their execution was poor. But I decided that I would go ahead and modify this one and sell off the original parts for someone that really wants to restore one for their willys or whatever. I had really thought about restoring this one and selling it and buying an M to build but I couldn't justify it for how much they go for in nice stock condition.

Now that my disclaimer and backstory is out of the way have some pictures




Does anyone know if this white reflector is stock? It was made by grotelight which made the correct red ones.









My trailer alongside one of my personal cars. This particular car was owned by my family 3 times, my mom daily drove it for a good while until we traded it to my current employer whom I bought it back from.

 

[Mark Harley]

Everything you need to know is here!

http://bantamt3c.com/

 

[atavuss]

That tail light looks like the original very hard to find (almost impossible to find) light that Bantam used. Looks like a nice original trailer!

 

[johnspark]

Very nice. Keep posting updates, we'll be watching.

 

[Ar_Davis]

It is the original. In fact I just put it on ebay hoping it goes to someone with a very nice trailer this is missing the correct one. Right now I'm trying to sell the stock parts so I can send it over and have it media blasted. I hope that once september is over and the large looming car show is over I will have some time and energy to at least get it painted, new tires, and a home-brew max coupler on it.

Also I realize I have a typo, rather it is a t3-c

 

[atavuss]

I talked to the guy that runs the Bantam site and he said your reflector is stock, just sun faded. If you look at his site there are a few trailers with faded reflectors. The two prong wire you have may also be the stock wiring too.
I took the stock Fulton hitch off my Bantam and am running a Max Coupler hitch. I fabbed up a mount for the Max Coupler out of a 12" long by two x two inch trailer extension. The stock safety chains were too short after adding the Max Coupler and 12" extension but a set of M416 safety chains work perfectly.

 

[highlandercj-7]

Nice find!

 

[Ar_Davis]

I will probably end up using a long enough piece of 2x2 to reach under the trailer and make a back bone then extend it out to be able to clear the tailgate on my JK. Then I will probably fab up some brackets and use safety cable rather than chain.

I was starting to think that was the case with the reflector. I forgot to put the harness on ebay when I listed the rest of the stuff, I'm glad you said something about it to remind me I had thrown it in a box.


Also I had this nice truck come visit me today to be fixed.

 

[atavuss]

Cool Rover, what year was it?

 

[Ar_Davis]

That one is a 62. it has the "roverdrive" in so it is interstate friendly…..Although he had ear protection in the vehicle. Lol

 

[Ar_Davis]

Finally had some time to tear it down. Now it's off to sandblast this week.

Also I have a good stock axle forsale if anyone is interested.

Also had a great weekend exploring in one of my little british cars this weekend when we went off to a show.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ar_Davis]

A few weeks ago I got the trailer over to the sandblaster and had it done with a heavy slag to knock all the rust out.

I got it back and was surprised to see some holes around where the upper frame overlaps the sheet metal. The metal is still thick so I believe it will end up with some epoxy rather than taking the hours to weld the holes up.




'

The first day I got to work on the trailer, after being out of town for so many weekends, I removed the tailgate and the old hinges. I then cut the old side supports loose at the rear and straightened the body then re-welded the supports along the entire edge instead of the spot weld from the factory. At the end of the day I got a little ahead of myself and seam sealed the edges of the floor.


The second day I got into the garage I went around and added welds over the edges of the seams to reinforce some of the old failing welds on the body. I also cut one taillight hole and test fit it. Hopefully next time out I will be finishing seam sealing all the edges and starting to fill some rust pitting.