Stone shield/rock guard

Just before our last trip, we drove around the block, but we didn’t dare go any farther until we have a stone shield/rock guard in place. Our luck (call it Murphy’s Law kind of luck) would be that we’d take a rock in that Hehr HallMark 12 the first trip out. And I’m not restoring it again.

However, we can’t afford a new stone shield like this very cool one: http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/Rock_Guard_p/vts-561.htm

So, creativity to the rescue. I have seen an old, giant trailer with a big huge rock guard sitting in a junkyard that I pass quite often. So, I stopped in and asked how much. $20 – sold! Helped them pull it off – thankfully before the bees living behind it got upset. And took it home to figure out.

What we started with - large junkyard rock guard.

Soon I had some ideas about how to proceed, so we tore it apart (carefully) and threw out the old fiberglass insert.

Scotty trailers have this cool feature – the View-Through window. The front and back windows are aligned so you can see right through while driving. So it made sense to do a clear rock guard, rather than opaque – so we can still see through. I had a piece of plexi (or lexan? we don’t know yet) that I got free at a salvage yard, so that was the obvious choice. Here’s what we did:

1. Took apart the rock guard. It was literally huge – like 7′ x 3′. The Scotty one only needs to be about 56″ x 20″ or so.

Hinge/top of frame from salvaged guard.

Profile: center (what I call a strut) piece from salvaged guard. There were 2 of these.

Profile: bottom piece from salvaged guard.

Profile: side pieces from salvaged guard.

2. Cut down the two sides, top, and bottom to the new dimension, at 45 degrees in the corners.

3. Cut the center ‘struts’ to 1″ longer than the inner measurement of the frame.

We wanted to use separate pieces of the lexan, because our 1 sheet wasn’t long enough, so we bought 3/8″ aluminum C channel and cut it to the same length as the struts. It will act as receivers for the lexan. If you had it, you could just use H-shaped aluminum and get rid of the struts. Or, if you have a big enough sheet of lexan, just use a single piece & then rivet or screw/bolt through the center struts. We’re doing this on the cheap, so we’re using what we have.

4. De-burred and reshaped the corners of the frame. I used to build a lot of picture frames, so I have lots of corner clamps, which are useful for checking square and setting parts.

5. Created corner braces. I used a leftover piece of L-trim (aluminum) like that which is on Scotty cabinet edges, etc. Each was cut to 3″ long (about), then I clipped a 90 degree triangle from the center of the short side, bent the piece to 90 degrees, and hammered it to make a sharper corner. Filed the edges.

6. Clamped one corner at a time, drilled, and attached the corner braces. Originally, I wanted to use interior braces, but had trouble finding materials that fit properly. This solution was essentially free, so it worked for me.

Corner clamped together, bracket on, drilled through both layers on each side of corner.

7. Used #6 stainless machine screws and nuts to attach the corner braces. We had to cut the screws shorter – about 3/8″ total length – so they won’t interfere with the lexan later.

Short screw and nut, from inside the track. Lexan/plexi will go into this track.

Corner, from the front (outside of guard).

8. Only attached the bottom two corners.

9. Next, I set the placement of the two side window channels, based on the existing Hehr HallMark window sizes. I drilled and screwed in the channels at the bottom (surrounding the old struts, which I think add character and make the design work better visually but aren’t structurally necessary).

C channels flank the vintage 'strut' from the salvaged piece, to make frames for each piece of plexi/lexan.

10. Setting the channels gave me the dimensions for the lexan/plexi, so I cut the pieces. Each one is about 1/4″ – 1/2″ smaller than the total opening, to allow for a gasket.

Three sides assembled and waiting for rest of lexan/plexi panes.

11. I cut and then slit lengthwise some clear flexible plastic tubing from the hardware store. They only had 1/16″ wall where I went – I wanted thicker stuff but it ended up being quite snug. The goal is to just surround the lexan so it will stick in the frame and not flop around. Any gasket will do, but this was a cheap, easy, and essentially invisible method. Slid it over the lexan pieces and inserted them into the frames.

Clear tubing used as 'gasket' on lexan/plexi

12. The end pins for the top hinge were originally just a welded-on steel pin. I was able to use 3/16″ x 3/4″ stainless steel carriage bolts, and screw them right in. The only function is to keep the hinge from sliding out sideways.

Stainless carriage bolt used as end cap/pin on hinge at top.

Stone shield - almost done. Plexi is in and we were just waiting to finish corner braces.

Bulbseal at the bottom inside of the stone shield. We kept and reused the old one, which was in great shape, but it's just like the one for the Hehr HallMark.

Fini!

If I did this again – or if I get really motivated some other year, I would make it a few inches shorter. I think it hangs down a little low (though it’s nice when it’s open – it totally shields the inner open window so it would be good in the rain).

Well, almost done. We haven’t yet created supports, but we have a plan*. If you wanted to, you could buy support arms from Vintage Trailer Supply for around $30 here.

Finishing touch - the reproduction 'S' decal.

Reproduction Scotty decals (we have all of them and they’re fantastic) are available at: http://www.nationalserroscotty.org/resources/decals.html

Costs – excluding the arms, which we plan to fabricate soon* for nearly free:

• Salvaged stone shield – $20
• 2 3/16″ x 3/4″ SS bolts – $1.60
• 1 8′ piece 3/8″ aluminum C channel – $8 or so
• SS machine screws and nuts – $3 or so
• Tubing – $5-10 or so
• One piece of lexan (we didn’t quite have enough in our free sheet!) – 16.5″ x 19″ (side window) – $15
• And of course, the classic “S” decal that Scottys had – $2.99

So ours ended up costing about $55. If you needed all three pieces of plexi/lexan, figure about $30 more. Still pretty good, and definitely within our budget.

* We now made the arms (it took a while to write this post!) I used aluminum tubing, about 5/8″ outer diameter and a reasonably heavy gauge. A 3′ piece was $7.99. Got 2 (10/24) stainless wingnuts, 2 stainless with nylon locking nuts (10/24) and 4 thumbscrews (10/24 x 3/4″). I cut the 3′ piece in half. I smushed about an inch of each end flat with the vise, cut and rounded the corners, then buffed it smooth.  Then drilled a hole in each end, and added a screw-wingnut to one end, screw-locknut holding on a small clip to the other end. Add about $10 to the budget for the arms.

They look like this (sorry, you can barely see the clips at the far end, but they’re like these and were like 79 cents each):

The arms that hold up the stoneshield on each side. I'm ready to be done with custom fabrication for a while!

And attach like this:

It's dark out so I can't get a photo of the arms in action. So - a mockup.