The Charlie Project

[bigbendhiker]

Nice work on your trailer. Looks like your making great progress.

Congratulations on letting your kids participate in your build. Those are memories that will last a lifetime!

[Forrest747]

Well I roughed in the vinyl for the rear hatch. Also painted the lid to the tongue box. It was fun I can tell you taking off each hinge and then putting the vinyl under. I held it in place with 3/4 inch aluminum trim with buytl tape underneath I will make a nice gutter for sure. Then I roughed the sides. Same set up with the aluminum trim. Hope to keep the rain out while driving anf hide my hideous gaps. May have put a pinhole in the vinyl didn't expect a sharp corner. While I sit here think I figured out my hatch supports.
Stencil

Top Vinyl
Tongue box lid
New hatch support location

[Forrest747]

Well nothing much in the way of progress this week. too hot to work out there and other things have come up.
In Jeeps the doors are kept from swinging wildly by a nylon strap and a footman. well i was thinking of using footmans and nylon traps as my door pull hardware. I ordered some footman (23 dollars for 10) and looking at nylon straps and found http://www.strapworks.com/default.asp They ended up having some footman at much lower cost and got some nylon at lower cost as well and loved teh bargin section. ordered alot of webbing.

[KCStudly]

Thanks for the link. I'll be using these for sure!

[Forrest747]

I swear the snaps are taking forever to get here. So did a few other projects. I decieded to allow a lot of creep into the project and build some side tables. I have a large panel of cherry left over so cut it in half and glued some 1/4 inch plywood to stiffen it up. I will use the same method I did for the doors and use some poplar as the edges. I will ureathane the snot out of the tops and hope to give it a durable finish. I also have some crutches left over from my hip and knees so will use those as table legs. They are 18 inches wide and will be 4 feet long. They sit a little high to use as a traditional table to eat off of but hey they will hold a drink just fine.

Also I liked PSBreen and how they did the door trim interior and use it as a way to seal the doors. So made the first one and put the first coat of black paint. I don't have enough plywood for the second one and will need to make it out of two pieces. Still thinking how to use the vinyl to make trim for the windows. Just a lot small things to get it better.

Took the advice and bought a shelf to try to get more room, thanks Sharon. I think its a little too small, yet the concept is right. so I am thinking when i get my footmen i ordered from strap works i will get some wire shelves no legs and hold them in place with webbing, that way i can move them up or down if i need to.



trying out the concept after i had glued the plywood to it.

Door trim well see how it looks inside. I may add vinyl to it.

Routed out the channel for the table sides.

[Forrest747]

Worked on assembling the side tables extensions and have teh first one glued and clamped together. slight crack in one of teh side supports. thinking wooded gussets.

A neighbor who has a very nice 5th wheel camper finally had it as i had the garage opened. he came over and asked me if i was building every little thing on my trailer. i see you built your tongue box could of bought that. your door i am sure you could by those. the galley the light everything is hand built. you could of had a new trailer by now. yeap i said and then i wouldnt have something to talk about and say me and the kids built that and have people say wow really. he has been good in helping me push the trailer back into the garage when it rolled down the driveway once. he wasnt mad or upset just could believe people build thier own trailers.

I am sure i am under estimating the 3000 i put into the trailer but its paid for and i love it.

Tuesday am update.
Well put the tables together last night and i didnt cut the side rails long enough in doing my calculations i came up short about an inch. well better luck next time huh good thing i am building two. i was impressed with how hefty they are. still a little play in the middle thinking just a middle cross brace will do it.

Also fitted the door trim to see how it looks i am happy with it and with the thinner doors enough room to add a seal and not have to had a spacer.

[KCStudly]

Trim the table edge back, stain a nice dark square block, and glue it into each corner to "celebrate the difference". It will look really nice, like you planned it that way all along, and you won't have to rebuild anything!

KC

[Forrest747]

Thanks KC love the idea. was going to do the poplar black and just do those endcaps red.

[Forrest747]

Got my shippment from strapsworks and I am a very happy camper. The footman went in great and I found that I ran out of the 30 I ordered in 20 minutes. They made great door pulls and I used them just under the upper cabinet and I figure I can hang stuff from them and not have a lot of holes in my finish. Put some in my upper cabinets so that I can suspend some shelves and be able to change the height if I need too.a very nice addition to my galley. I think at that price get a few more for the inside. I have the 10 small ones left and will use those on the tongue box. The one pound grab bag of straps is fun and the kids loved it. Glued the door trim in place and now teh door will not shut all the way i can see sawdust in my future.



Thursday am update.
Things went well yesterday. got another poplar stock and finished routing and gluing the second table together and that was fun a little long this time and i am ok with that. My father asked if my stove worked and to be honest i hadnt ever used it since i bought it. So I poured in the gas and read the lighting instructions and wham i made fire. it will be intresting learning how to use this. ALso for my tongue box lid i deciced to use some webbing as the hinges well see how this goes.

[Forrest747]

Have all this webbing now and thinking about it now that i have it, bungee cords. oh well we shall see how this will go. I just find i have to buy so many things to make the webbing work.
Got the tables poplar painted black and its looking pretty good. I also added some more d-rings to hold the prop rods in place. I also added a fire extinguisher next to the sink. i will need to add some webbing to prevent the upper cabinet door if it goes down to far from smaking the nozzle of the FE.
With the tables painted a first coat i added teh hinge bracket and installed and wham lunch time. well did lunch time before the bracket but did find that yes in using folding chairs the table is too high, but hey it holds a drink and half sandwich rather nicely, so going to keep them. Tested them out also in storing them in the galley for transport. also in the galley i strung up two of the cargo nets along the back side to help hold things in thier place. Need to find a spot for teh coleman lantern i didnt know i had.

At this time I want to thank my crutches. For over 18 months they allowed me to get up and move around. You know you have been on crutches long enough that you have to replace the rubber parts. So in a final act i cut them to size made a bracket and going to use that as my table prop leg.




On a side project to give teh wife some confidence and knowledge about power tools we built her niece an art easel. Jennie did all the measuring marking cuts and even used teh router table. She used teh drill press and teh chop saw. SHe was a lot anxious but it turned out great.

[Forrest747]

Well the snaps are in finally OMG that took forever. I am a happy camper once again. Also i got a jar of 20 mini bungee cords taht i will be using to hold the prop rods in place. So i measure out some holes for teh snaps and predrilled those at 6 inches apart. I am thinking i will have to redo teh side vinyl. I also found a place to store the lantern while traveling under the sink i will however not be able to use the box. Footmen on teh tongue box lid and side.

[pappaw]

coming along nice!

Cheers

[Silvrzuki77]

Lookin good!!!!! If your Interested nov 9th we are doing a offroad trip from beatty to tonopah right along side death valley. Would be a great maiden voyage!!

[Forrest747]

Well I set all the snap studs. Although I had to put blocking behind each one. I put up half the stud on the inside and at 6 inches apart. I am not happy with the outcome. The hem is narrow at one side and too wide on the other. I also found the fabric on the side not to be wide enough. So I will need to figure something out. Also need to figure out the corners


Evening Update:
I blew up my vinyl on the outside. I have found out the button snaps I have are for thicker fabric than the vinyl I have. Even doing a Zach hem it we still too loose. So I double folded going through 3 layers and used my vise to comrress the button together. Talk about a PITA. Do a snap fit measure for the next one in out in out over and over 15 times. Put it all together and so far it looks great. Took some time to fit the webbing and buckles on the tongue box and painted the prop rods so that you can tell which one is for what side. Added a footman to the space where the lantern will go and fired it up for the first time in I am sure 7 or 8 years. I think it needs new mantels lots of fading in and out and one is torn. Not much else going on although also put the door seals on and closes nicely. Whew.

[Forrest747]

Well last night was alot of little things. Did some more painting of the interior of the hatch. I also worked on a handrail for my dads new house it needed some sanding and first coat of paint. I also added some more door seals on teh passenger door and then the rest i had put on teh tongue box. avoided the vinyl.

I looked at the round windows and thinking on how i was going to do the vinyl and recalled i am avoiding vinyl so i pulled down some flex trim i had bought a couple of years ago for this purpose and cut to fit put in place and it looks good. It says its stainable so going to do that tonight and then just glue in place. THen i added teh interior door trim half that i had done and will hopefully cut the second half tonight as well.