Recently purchased this 1967 m416 trailer in Florida for $300 bucks. I have a long road ahead of me. I need help figuring out what to do with this the whole floor of the tub is rusted beyond repair if you can see in the pictures. I plan on powder coating the frame and bed lining the inside of the tub after all repairs are made also getting special adapters to match my jeep rims on this trailer. In the pictures I will show you the condition of the tub frame and everything else on this trailer

I have taken off the tub from the frame to see if any damage that was non visible would come to my attention and I was right on the money. The damage is worse than I expected a lot of money and time and labor will go into this but I'm in it for the long howl.
The brake system on the trailer works perfect so I don't see any need to be messing with anything else other than cosmetics .
Due to not having the trailer registered I haven't been able to go out and test the pintle hoop so that's still a mystery. The trailer came with no tags or Ids with any sort of vin and that's a bit scary. I know I can buy them online like the dimension plate so that's not a big deal to me but the fact that I can't find a vin on this really scares me anyone have some suggestions on that?
I plan on changing the tires and rims to match the rims on my jeep in the near future I will be running 32" on 15" rims. On older m416 forums I've seen that running tires is a big problem and doing a soa is quite tricky so I'm not trying to get into a mess.
I've started on this project by taking apart the tub from the frame and seeing the extent of the damage like I stated before and it's pretty bad I will load up some pictures so you guys can take a look at it.
My plan is to not worry about the tub yet and work on the frame. I plan on possibly sandblasting the frame to take off the minor rust it does have and powder coasting the frame so that it never have a problem again at least not in my lifetime. Only problem is I live in Miami so to try and find a decent price on a simple job isn't as easy as you think. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures it says I'm over the exceeded size? How can I fix this

Looks like a fun project that is going to take some work.

Best bet on the pics is to use a pic hosting sight such as photobucket.

Cant wait to see this all fixed up

Good looking trailer! I love those old military trailers. I'm not sure about Florida laws, but in AZ if you have a trailer with no vin on it, you take it down the MVD or a third party capable of doing inspections, tell them it's a homemade trailer and they will do their inspection, create a title for you and stick a vin number on it. It's as easy as that.

Avis wrote:Good looking trailer! I love those old military trailers. I'm not sure about Florida laws, but in AZ if you have a trailer with no vin on it, you take it down the MVD or a third party capable of doing inspections, tell them it's a homemade trailer and they will do their inspection, create a title for you and stick a vin number on it. It's as easy as that.

I will look into something like that here in Florida I'm sure we have it . Cause all I got was a bill of sale but of course with no vin they would confiscate this trailer and crush if in a heart beat so I need to do some research and take the right steps to getting that done. I will keep you guys updated on my journey with this bad boy.

Hello there!

Boy, you sure do have a little work ahead of you! It should be a fun project. I restored a M416-A1 last year and documented my experience. I also powder coated the frame, replaced the rusted out bottom, bedlined the tub, and tire matched it to my jeep. You can read about it here. Maybe it will give you some inspiration or ideas.

http://www.higherground4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?4601-Rebuilding-a-military-M416-trailer/page2

Here's a few things that I found out, and may save you some time.

1. The powder coat company can sand blast the frame for you. Even when I had mine completely sandblasted, they did it anyways.
2. Be CAREFUL when powder coating the landing leg support. The locking pin is NOT removable. If you attempt to remove it, you're probably going to bend it all to hell. It's best to remove the landing leg assembly and NOT powder coat it. Just blast, primer, and paint with Rustolium.
3. I have a LOT of resources and web links that I can share with you on finding parts. Just remember that the M416 came in 3 models. You have a Standard M416. There is the M416-A1 with the hydraulic brake. The drum is different, so the races/bearings are different. The M416-B1 had a totally different axle, as it used different rims/tires. So, in your search, make sure you are not buying parts for the A1 or B1.

This page has some really good reference material and replacement parts suggestions for the M416. https://sites.google.com/site/m416trailerproject/m416faq-html

Good luck on your project. I hope you will have as much fun as I did!