Cabinets for car trailer

[Indy78]

Has anyone built their own cabinets for your car trailer? Been looking for a place to buy the panels and trim but am having no luck. They need to be easily wiped down because they are going in a concession trailer. This is what I'm trying to accomplish. Thanks in advance.

 

[tlspeed1]

Found these guys for doors

http://www.midwestracecabinets.com/store/c10/Single_Door_Kits_(Base_Cabinet)_Black_or_White.html

I was searching for race trailer cabinets.

 

[lightn95]

I built my own. Look identical to the ones in my buddies GoldRush trailer.
Basically built the door frames out of .5" square stock. The a piece of .030 aluminum sheet that I get from a sign shop.then wrapped the out sides with .625 ID aluminum chanel stock. Then built the frames with .75" Zchannel in aluminum. Used SS piano hinges pop riveted to the doors and the frame.

 

[Indy78]

tlspeed1 thanks for the link, if I don't build my own from scratch their 3 door kit may be the way I go.

 

[Indy78]

lightn95, I was thinking right along the lines of what you have done. I was wondering if coil stock like what you would wrap a window frame in would work.

 

[lightn95]

Indy, coil stock is generally 24" wide. It would work if you can make your doors that wide. But I think the shortest length of coil stock is 100'. That's a lot of extra. It's also thinner which might be an issue.
The sign material comes in 4'x8' sheets and is powder coated. It's the same material that the trailer companies use.
There are a couple companies on line that sell a wide variety of extruded aluminum.
I also used 3/8" aluminum for the counter top.

 

[tlspeed1]

tlspeed1 thanks for the link, if I don't build my own from scratch their 3 door kit may be the way I go.

No problem. After some more research I am considering making the door frames out of the products below, and using pre finished aluminum for the skins.

https://eztube.com/

http://www.estoconnectors.com/

 

[Motiracer38]

Lightn95, do you have any pictures of your cabinets? Was the .5in square stock steel or aluminum?

 

[lightn95]

Pm me your email. I'll send them to you. I can't figure out how to upload pictures....
.5" steel stock.

 

[lightn95]

See if this worked

 

[tlspeed1]

See if this worked

Nice work.

What did you use to secure the corners of the doors and the door sheet?

 

[Motiracer38]

Thanks for that, those look good. Did you put a sheet of alum on the inside of the doors as well? I think I've got the basic construction figured out, orangealuminum.com helped a lot.

I would envision tack welding the inside of the .5in squares, gluing the panel(s?) to the frame, gluing the U-channel around the edges should create a very stiff door. It does look there's fasteners in at least the top door U-channel.

Now to figure out the rest of the cupboard and size it to fit helmets.

 

[lightn95]

Naa... what I did was make a square frame with the gussets in the inside corners. Then glued the sheets to the frame and guests with 3M spray glue. Mitered the U channel around the perimeter. And secured with pop rivets.
Orange aluminum is where I got some of my pieces from too..

Yes..I did put a panel on the inside of the door.
I can get you more pictures if you need them.
Mocked up doors....

 

[Indy78]

lightn95, those cabinets look great, and I will try a local sign shop for the aluminum sheets. Powder coated would be much better.

 

[Indy78]

tlspeed1, those eztube connectors would be great for another project too, A bar height shelf for an ez-up.

 

[lightn95]

Thanks Indy, it wasn't really that hard to make. It just took a lot of planning ahead. I felt like I had the next 4 steps planned out before I started the 1st.
The only I would change on mine are the door reveals. There too big for my liking...but it's a race car trailer..I know for nextra time.

 

[Rc_Guy]

Has anyone built their own cabinets for your car trailer? Been looking for a place to buy the panels and trim but am having no luck. They need to be easily wiped down because they are going in a concession trailer. This is what I'm trying to accomplish. Thanks in advance.

Can I ask what you sell in the concession trailer?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Dude are just south of the trailer capital of the world. I think everything you need up is north around Elkhart.

If you scroll down to post #118 after following the link, you can see how a built my cabinets.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=338443&page=6


I bought them from CNL Cabinets after drawing up plans for the fronts. I built the rest myself.

http://www.cnlcabinets.com/

I purchased the alum angle and white sheet aluminum from a source to the cabinet maker.
https://www.johnsonssurplus.com/

 

[Indy78]

Can I ask what you sell in the concession trailer?

It's going to be a Shave Ice concession trailer. We went with a bigger trailer than we needed because we also run a charity that helps pediatric cancer patients and will be using the trailer for fund raisers too.

 

[Indy78]

Dude are just south of the trailer capital of the world. I think everything you need up is north around Elkhart.

If you scroll down to post #118 after following the link, you can see how a built my cabinets.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=338443&page=6


I bought them from CNL Cabinets after drawing up plans for the fronts. I built the rest myself.

http://www.cnlcabinets.com/

I purchased the alum angle and white sheet aluminum from a source to the cabinet maker.
https://www.johnsonssurplus.com/

Elkhart is over a 4 hour drive from me. And I jump on every opportunity to build something myself over buying it if I can. Doesn't always work out for the best though. Your cabinets turned out great.

 

[Indy78]

I bought some Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Wall Panels to do the walls in trailer. I'm thinking about just building my cabinets out of plywood and using those panels to skin them with and trim it with aluminum.

 

[Rc_Guy]

It's going to be a Shave Ice concession trailer. We went with a bigger trailer than we needed because we also run a charity that helps pediatric cancer patients and will be using the trailer for fund raisers too.

From what I hear there’s good money in shaved ice.

Wife and I have had a barbecue vending trailer since 2010, in fact we just had a new trailer built last year.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Elkhart is over a 4 hour drive from me. And I jump on every opportunity to build something myself over buying it if I can. Doesn't always work out for the best though. Your cabinets turned out great.

I understand the distance, my drive was about 3 1/2 hours pulling a 12' enclosed trailer. However, I figured out what I needed for my project and made a shopping list.

I hit up two RV surplus places and the place I got my cabinets from. The place I linked, I bought my white metal (think trailer skin) sheets and some aluminum angle from. They also have other stuff like spare tires and LP tanks. The aluminum angle was dirt cheap. Cheap enough if I knew somebody was going back out there, I would ride along and stop to pick more of it up. I think I paid 30 cents on the dollar of what it costs here.

There was another place, my first stop, that I bought some thin aluminum diamond plate 4x8 sheets at. If you're going to need any holding tanks, pumps and such, it maybe just worth the trip to grab everything you need for this trailer project.
https://bontragers.com/