In 2010, I posted a thread about the rebuilding and painting of my Hensley hitch. It contained much information and showed, via pictures, what the Hensley looked like and how it was constructed.
The pictures in that post were hosted by Photobucket who decided to charge a lot of money for linked photos and shut down anyone who did not pay their โransomโ. I was one of those persons. Many have asked that I fix that thread which is in the archives now. Since I cannot edit that thread to fix the missing photos I have decided to post it again.
Here is a rebuild of my old thread.
Since my Hensley hitch was about 5 or 6 years old when that original thread was posted and was really starting to get "long in the tooth" looking, I decided to re-paint it that summer. Hensley is not known for their good paint jobs and mine was starting to chip and rust quite badly. I decided to not use the original orange "steal me" paint and went with basic black instead.
Here is a picture of my hitch when it was new.
The job was not hard at all. The Hensley is a very simple hitch to work on if you know how to take a wheel bearing assembly apart. Here is the process that I went through to get my Hensley looking as good as new. Hope it helps someone a bit.
First, the hardest part of the job is removing the dust/dirt caps on the bearings. Mine fit VERY tightly and I used a large screwdriver and hammer to gently tap them off with the screwdriver tip wedged under the lip of the cap. As my old caps were quite ugly looking, I purchased new ones to replace them. Found out that was not necessary as the old ones cleaned very nicely.
Here is the hitch, after dis-assembly. Notice the numerous rust spots and places where the paint had come loose or flaked off.
Here are the bearing assemblies after removal and placed so I could re-assemble them in the same place they came from. I'm not sure if that is absolutely necessary in this case but didn't want to take the chance.
Following the dis-assembly, I sent the two main parts of the hitch out to be sandblasted. I tried scraping but it would have taken me all summer and the local sand blaster only charged me $30 to do both pieces. He had them done in about an hour where it would have taken me a week or longer to get them clean.
Here are the parts after being sandblasted and ready to get a coat of primer.
Next, I masked off the openings where the bearings go and painted the top and bottom hitch assemblies with DupliColor engine paint. Not sure why I used that particular paint but hope it holds up for a while. I kind of wish I knew a good powder coat guy but don't.
Put primer on and then several coats of paint on and then let it dry for about a week before I took the parts down. I decided to use black paint as mentioned earlier as it blends into the frame of the trailer much better than the original loud "steal me" orange.
After about a week, I put the decals on and covered them with a clear plastic laminating material cut slightly larger than the decal. The original serial number sticker and orange/yellow company sticker had a clear covering over them so I tried to stick with that idea. I then sprayed the whole thing again with about three coats of clear coat paint.
During the week that the paint was drying, I re-packed the bearings with grease. The old grease looked to be fine but I wanted to make sure all the bearing surfaces were covered and lubed. I used Mobile 1 synthetic bearing grease. Lots of fun getting all gooey and messy with that stuff! I probably should have worn rubber gloves during this process for safety reasons but didn't. I kind of doubt if my life will be shortened too much by doing it that way as I have lived a good many years already and by the time that grease has done anything to me I will most likely not be around to care!
I also use that week to polish up the parts I did not paint and to polish up the dust/dirt bearing covers
What fun!!!
Putting the new seals back into place was a piece of cake! I just used a short flat board and tapped them gently into place. I was kind of dreading this step as I had heard of others having a problem but everything went very easily. The HARD part was, again, getting those dust/dirt covers back on without destroying or denting them. I had to tap them on with a hammer but couldn't use "gentle" strokes. Had to hit them pretty good. Fortunately, not any damage but it was kind of dicey.
Here is the finished hitch. Notice the nice black/silver serial number decal Hensley sent me. It goes very well with the black color of the hitch. All in all, this was a very easy maintenance project that could be done by anybody. There were not even any large or special tools needed for the job.
Note: The white stripe on the front of the hitch is to aid in spotting the opening when backing into the hitch with the stinger.
Barney
The pictures in that post were hosted by Photobucket who decided to charge a lot of money for linked photos and shut down anyone who did not pay their โransomโ. I was one of those persons. Many have asked that I fix that thread which is in the archives now. Since I cannot edit that thread to fix the missing photos I have decided to post it again.
Here is a rebuild of my old thread.
Since my Hensley hitch was about 5 or 6 years old when that original thread was posted and was really starting to get "long in the tooth" looking, I decided to re-paint it that summer. Hensley is not known for their good paint jobs and mine was starting to chip and rust quite badly. I decided to not use the original orange "steal me" paint and went with basic black instead.
Here is a picture of my hitch when it was new.
The job was not hard at all. The Hensley is a very simple hitch to work on if you know how to take a wheel bearing assembly apart. Here is the process that I went through to get my Hensley looking as good as new. Hope it helps someone a bit.
First, the hardest part of the job is removing the dust/dirt caps on the bearings. Mine fit VERY tightly and I used a large screwdriver and hammer to gently tap them off with the screwdriver tip wedged under the lip of the cap. As my old caps were quite ugly looking, I purchased new ones to replace them. Found out that was not necessary as the old ones cleaned very nicely.
Here is the hitch, after dis-assembly. Notice the numerous rust spots and places where the paint had come loose or flaked off.
Here are the bearing assemblies after removal and placed so I could re-assemble them in the same place they came from. I'm not sure if that is absolutely necessary in this case but didn't want to take the chance.
Following the dis-assembly, I sent the two main parts of the hitch out to be sandblasted. I tried scraping but it would have taken me all summer and the local sand blaster only charged me $30 to do both pieces. He had them done in about an hour where it would have taken me a week or longer to get them clean.
Here are the parts after being sandblasted and ready to get a coat of primer.
Next, I masked off the openings where the bearings go and painted the top and bottom hitch assemblies with DupliColor engine paint. Not sure why I used that particular paint but hope it holds up for a while. I kind of wish I knew a good powder coat guy but don't.
Put primer on and then several coats of paint on and then let it dry for about a week before I took the parts down. I decided to use black paint as mentioned earlier as it blends into the frame of the trailer much better than the original loud "steal me" orange.
After about a week, I put the decals on and covered them with a clear plastic laminating material cut slightly larger than the decal. The original serial number sticker and orange/yellow company sticker had a clear covering over them so I tried to stick with that idea. I then sprayed the whole thing again with about three coats of clear coat paint.
During the week that the paint was drying, I re-packed the bearings with grease. The old grease looked to be fine but I wanted to make sure all the bearing surfaces were covered and lubed. I used Mobile 1 synthetic bearing grease. Lots of fun getting all gooey and messy with that stuff! I probably should have worn rubber gloves during this process for safety reasons but didn't. I kind of doubt if my life will be shortened too much by doing it that way as I have lived a good many years already and by the time that grease has done anything to me I will most likely not be around to care!
I also use that week to polish up the parts I did not paint and to polish up the dust/dirt bearing covers
What fun!!!
Putting the new seals back into place was a piece of cake! I just used a short flat board and tapped them gently into place. I was kind of dreading this step as I had heard of others having a problem but everything went very easily. The HARD part was, again, getting those dust/dirt covers back on without destroying or denting them. I had to tap them on with a hammer but couldn't use "gentle" strokes. Had to hit them pretty good. Fortunately, not any damage but it was kind of dicey.
Here is the finished hitch. Notice the nice black/silver serial number decal Hensley sent me. It goes very well with the black color of the hitch. All in all, this was a very easy maintenance project that could be done by anybody. There were not even any large or special tools needed for the job.
Note: The white stripe on the front of the hitch is to aid in spotting the opening when backing into the hitch with the stinger.
Barney
