Once again, a half-car pseudo-teardrop

[groys02]

3 weeks on, some more progress. I finished up the gasket/seal work around the windows in the rear doors, and put Trimseal + bulb around the door openings & trunk opening. On to wiring.....

I decided to put a small board off to one side of the trunk/galley, which will accommodate bits for both running the 12V side of things off shore power thru a converter, or off a car battery kept topped off by a solar panel... and an on-off-on toggle switch to go from one system to the other.
The solar panel etc will come later... yesterday & today I spent time getting the pieces mounted on the board... getting a wood mount for the board glued & screwed in place... and then mounting the board off to the right side of the galley--hopefully still handy, but mostly out of the way. I also shined up a spot on the metal flange below the board for grounding it to the body of the camper.

At the top of the board is a 110-12V converter which will output up to 15A, which should be more than I'll ever need. Below that, a marine 6-circuit fuse panel. To the left side the controlling switch, and the input wire for 12V positive from the future solar controller..... space below the fuse block for the solar controller.

Next up... mounting a 110V power strip at the top of the galley's forward space, and a small 110V block with USB ports, off to the side of the camper's rear, interior space.
Then I'll need to run 12V lines forward to a USB strip, reading light, stereo location, and exhaust fan in the roof.
Hopefully the pics make sense of this wordy description............

 

[groys02]

Yesterday & today, managed to get the galley area working surface covered in Formica, and some oak trim around the front & sides...........

 

[bdosborn-SMB]

Boy I thought building in a van was hard with slightly curving walls.
Looking good!
Bruce

 

[groys02]

Thanks, Bruce!
Last few days, I tackled building a headliner. The OEM one was steel 'bows' holding up fabric... but with it shortened, IF I could readily scare up a new headliner, it wouldn't fit anyway.
I remembered a thread I saw on a street rod forum, where someone had laid plastic on the roof & laid up a couple layers of fiberglass for a headliner base. So I sorta did that, but did more of a paper mache approach, but using PVA glue [clear & flexible & water-resistant].
So---layer of the headliner fabric, face-down on the plastic... half a dozen layers of the PVA and newsprint... when that was well dried, used construction adhesive and glued down a layer of 1/4" polystyrene, making lots of pie cuts around the perimeter so it'd lay flat.
Today, cut the hole in the roof for a 6" exhaust fan, and installed it all. Amazingly, the headliner fit real well, tucking up over a metal brace both front & back, and well out to the edges on the sides. Minor miracle.

 

[groys02]

A couple more weeks, and some more progress.
I ran wiring to the exhaust fan, running it alongside a couple oak strips I ran from side to side, up against the ceiling, for both appearance & a little stiffening of it.

Then got a plywood bulkhead installed against the inside of face of the spare tire well on front of camper. With a couple holes in it to allow things like bags of bath-n-shower stuff to be dropped into, out of harms way.
Also got a "package tray" installed from the lower edge of the dash forward.
And after that, put down some thin carpet pad & thin carpet, edged with aluminum strips.

Last couple days, I've been agonizing over the taillights ['70 Karmen Ghia]... mating their wiring with the old English Ford wiring loom, and the generic 4-wire trailer plug wires. But they work now!
As does the small map/reading lamp on the interior... mounting panel for that maybe done today.......

 

[groys02]

Oh, and just to clarify where the spare rides..........

 

[groys02]

This afternoon, I installed the 2 small "trim panels" I covered in black vinyl this morning, and then spent WAY too long fiddling around with mounting the new 12V LED reading lamp, and below it the 110V block--multiple 110 plug-in spots, as well as USB outlets & even a C port.
Even though it took too long, it feels like a step forward... gotta be able to read a book on the chilly nights & mornings.
[at which times I'll be glad I'm in a teardrop & not a tent]

Regarding the 110V block... that'll be my only 110 access inside the camper. At present, I have an old iPod dock with speakers that I can plug into it and set on the rear window shelf, for tunes as required.

 

[groys02]

Last post for a while. Have to admit I'm tired of fussing with details, as I try to "finish off" lots of things. But... took the time to install the Curt wiring harness on my Mazda 3 hatch this afternoon... checked to make sure running lights, brakes, and turn signals all work on the teardrop [they did]... and then took it for a 20-mile spin on the county blacktop roads.
Pulled just fine. 'Noticeable' load on starting & stopping, but cruised just fine. Stable through several fairly sharp curves... and on a deserted stretch, I even did a rapid, dodge-the-imaginary-animal manuever--which it immediately stabilized from, with no wild push felt on the Mazda.
Also, it lines up nicely, height & width wise with the Mazda. I can see clearly out the Mazda's rearview mirrors, as well as straight back through the camper on the inside rearview mirror.
I'll probably do a bit more fussing before camping this fall with it, but it wouldn't be required. It works...........

 

[groys02]

Oh, wait! Yet another post/update.
I decided I really needed to try out camping this fall, in the mild weather a couple days ago, and so I hauled the teardrop 5 miles up the road to a local state park with lots of in-the-trees spots... picked one with electricity... and set up.
In my last-minute rush to go, I forgot a number of things, but the basics all worked well.
I now have a list of things to add to it in future, for avoiding some nuisances this time, and I'm satisfied that the essentials work.
Note: with the daylight hours getting shorter, it was very nice, and quite comfortable, to sit inside near the LED light and read a book.

 

[groys02]

Another bit of work done. I'd ordered a 50W solar panel + cabling + controller some time ago... and picked up a battery to stash to the right of the galley area.
Over the last week or so, off-n-on, I mocked up the panel on the roof... then built a light-angle 'tray' for it to sit in... and then made 4 'legs' to bridge from panel to drip-rail area. A little like the roof-racks old VW bugs used to have, but lower profile.
Today, all welded together, and 1/4" holes drilled through roof-skin to fasten it firmly to the roof of the little 'pod'............

 

[groys02]

Over the last few days, I got that roof rack painted satin black... then hooked up the + and - cables [routed through grommets in holes in roof] back to the controller box back in the galley... and hooked up the battery, of course.
Now I'm semi-ready to use the teardrop in non-electric sites, or off-grid ones in national forest campgrounds.......
One more step taken.