Silver Beatle - She's now with an old friend!

[Woodbutcher]

Your doing a great job....I wish I was that far. You will be camping in no time!

[aggie79]

Thanks for the nice words about our teardrop.

I already let the cat out of the bag of my long weekend's accomplishments, but besides getting the wheels and tires on the Silver Beatle, I was able to finish a bunch of time consuming details.

The biggest focus was on the doors. I liked the look of the RV locks that Mark (Planovet) used, so I changed my plan to use these. I had already mortised the doors for mortise locksets, so the first thing was to fill the mortises. Then I went about trying to figure out how to install the RV locksets.



Using a series of different jigs, I cut and routed the lockset openings.



I then epoxied the outer plywood skin of the doors and door edges. After the epoxy cured - I waited until the next day - I applied 3M 4200 around the perimeter and openings to hold the aluminum in place.



After the sealant set, I routed the openings in the aluminum.



The last thing I did related to the doors was to mock up my hinges to be sure they were aligned and would open. I'll take off one side of the plywood and use this jig to drill the hinge holes into the teardrop.



I then moved back to the teardrop to permanently attach the shell to the frame. I'm using a combination of 3/16" SS trailer deck screws at 12" on center and 5 - 5/16" SS lag bolts per side. I finished about half of them and then got bored, so the last thing I did this long weekend was to mock up the fenders.



Aesthetically, I had hoped that my fenders would be even with the bottom of the sidewalls. I tried to calculate all the dimensions and variables, and eventually gave up, but as dumb luck would have it, the fenders are in the location I was hoping.

Thank you,
Tom

[Lookfar]

This is really coming out nicely, you're on quite a roll. And I'll admit, I'm a big fan of dumb luck.

[S. Heisley]

So far, Tom, you've got a huge "Cool" factor going. With your attention to detail, it can only get better.

[2bits]

I like how careful you are in mocking up a sample piece many times to let the surprises come out then. Very smart!

Sooo... How many times have you looked at the photograph with the fenders mocked up?!?!? I would be looking at it all the time hehe

[StPatron]

WOW!

Lookin' super as I expected. You're quite the craftsman, Tom, I like your template approach. Great ideas.

I'm saving those pics of your door/locks, and will use them as a guide when I start on mine. Many thanks for the pics.

[J.Heyboer]

Those doors look sharp! Keep up the good work!

John

[planovet]

Using a series of different jigs, I cut and routed the lockset openings.

Looks good Tom!

I like the way you did your locks. I didn't use a jig, just cut the hole and then trimmed away wood a little at a time until I could slide the lockset in. Also my door was completely finished when I did mine, made it much harder.

[aggie79]

Ugghh...it was 87 degrees at 7:00 this morning when I headed out to the garage.

The heat has slowed me down but not stopped me. I've been busy doing a bunch of uninteresting details the last two weeks. My main projects have been: finishing the aluminum work, building the interior door surrounds, and deciding a fender location and drilling holes for the carriage bolts to attach the fenders to the sidewalls.

When I attached the aluminum to my teardrop, I rough cut the door openings. I needed to come back with a router and trim the aluminum to the openings in the sidewalls.



It's kind of messy, but a router does a nice job on the aluminum. It does throw aluminum "sawdust" everywhere.



While I had those tools out, I also cut out and trimmed the opening for my electrical inlet.



I agonized over where to locate the fenders. Once I found a location I liked, I traced the outline on the sidewall. Stainless steel carriage bolts will be used to attach the fenders to the sidewalls. Rather than freehand drilling the holes, I made a template out of some scrap 3/4' mdf.



The template is in place. Now its time to gather courage to drill the holes.



Holes are drilled in the sidewalls.



Now its time for for the fender holes.



I drilled the holes in the fenders 1/16" larger than the sidewalls to give me a little wiggle room when installing them.



It's 2:30 pm on Sunday, the temperature is 94 degrees (with a heat index of 100) and I am spent. Still a productive last two weeks.

[2bits]

Great work Tom, you can have the rest of the afternoon off! I am about to START working on mine for the day, we'll see how long I last.

So once the fenders are on, it is just finishing up the doors mainly?

Thanks for taking all the time to post the photos with the commentary, I know you would probably rather be laying on the couch! LOL

[aggie79]

Great work Tom, you can have the rest of the afternoon off! I am about to START working on mine for the day, we'll see how long I last.

Thanks, Thomas.

The temparture on Sunday didn't get as high as it had been. I just the think it was a cumulative effect from working on the teardrop on weeknights and Saturday. Hopefully you survived the heat.

So once the fenders are on, it is just finishing up the doors mainly?

To get it campable, I need to finish and hang the doors, install the trailer lighting, Frankenstein my Petcool until I can get the TD electrical system in, and decide how I'm going to keep the hatch closed. Of course, fenders are optional for the first outing!

Tom

[planovet]

The temperature on Sunday didn't get as high as it had been.

Really? The high yesterday was 103 at the airport. Pretty much par for the course the past 2 weeks.

Good progress!

[2bits]

Tom, Well placed ratchet straps may do the trick in a pinch for that hatch! I am looking into an additional method for mine too since mine just has 1/8" of rod going into each side. I fear big bumps...

[oklahomajewel]

Great work Tom ....


Would someone come work on mine please?

[aggie79]

Thanks y'all for keeping motivated.

I didn't get much time to work this weekend, but I did get the doors hung. I've been putting this off, not wanting to mess up the aluminum with a bunch of holes. As it turned out, they almost fell into place.



And they even open without binding.



Now, I need to pull them off to add the aluminum trim to the doors and the opening and add the door surrround.

I also bolted in the stabilizer jacks at the rear and started fitting out my tongue box to house my Petcool.

Gig'em!