The New Trailer: Sneak Peek

With a growing food menu, we thought about our poor feet at the end of an event. We needed to find ways to speed-up setting up and clear-away: a food trailer was a potential solution.

This project came with quite a number of challenges: find a suitable trailer, getting a tow bar installed, replacing the hot plate with a hob as well as radically changing the branding on the outside.

It is January 2025 and we’ve just taken ownership of a fast-food trailer, purchased from a local food business in Melksham.

A new project for 2025, our new food trailer after a light sand.

Preparation and primer done during some cold winter weeks.

While we researched an internal re-model and suppliers, we also contacted our friend Mark Langley to help us visualise a new designs for the trailer. Mark was able to quickly mock up a series of designs for us to review.

Mark suggested using parts of the lotus flower in our logo to wrap around the trailer as bold way of introducing the brand.

Next came the preparation and paint work.

It was now February 2025 and still freezing outside. We had a friend Patrick, help us with the sanding and preparation to the outside but would the paint stick in the cold temperatures?

Patrick did a fantastic job of repairing bits of the trailer as well as preparing the trailer for a primer coat of paint.

Choosing the colours at Unique Signs

We had two options regarding the outside design, a complete wrap from a specialised sign company or hand painting. There were doubts that a vinyl wrap would stick to the trailer, plus we would be using plastic, something we were'n’t keen on.

In the end the hand painted finish was more inline with what we all thinking, but who could do this?

We spoke to a local artist friend from Bristol Jenny Brock regarding the work on the outside. Jenny was excited at the project and we just had to find a suitable dry day for her to add her magic to the trailer.

In the meantime, we got to work with the blue coat. One nugget of wisdom we received from the sign company was not to get too hung-up on the colour match.

Jenny Brock brings the sunshine andbegins the first painting of the lotus flower aspect of the PLANYA logo.

The PLANYA food trailer with it’s new blue coat.

After some research and failed trips to Wickes, we found one single blue paint suitable for the trailer surface, at half price. During a freezing cold weekend of painting, we managed two really uneven coats of paint.

Doing DIY projects with two kids isn’t recommended. The first few strokes of blue however were in fact made by our son but despite the freezing temperatures, he actually managed a few hours before choosing the warmth of his play room.

Now, we were down to just one parent doing the painting and it had to be done before Jenny arrived the following week. It was getting dark so a further midweek paint session was needed.

When Jenny arrived, she made the whole thing look effortless. It was great to finally see the logo we had designed a few years earlier emblazoned on the trailer. The whole thing looked amazing and our vision was taking shape.

This was the relatively easy part, but we still had to replace and hob and find a commercial gas engineer that would fit it in order to ready in time for spring events.

Markets and event dates were being announced and if we didn’t get a move on, we would miss out on key dates. Look out for part 2.

Thanks for reading.

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