Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

It was bound to happen I guess. I mean after things going fairly smoothly so far...

I put the first piece of skin on the outside of my tear and it did not go as smooth as I had hoped. First the small brads in my gun kept going through the skin and did not hold. I had to scramble to tack the skin on through extra spars I had laying around to hold the skin in place before the glue started to set up. It was a keystone cop episode for sure.

Which brings me to a couple of questions.

1. There is a small gap between the angle iron of the trailer and the tear. ( The tear is set down into the frame.) This will catch water and eventually rot out my tear. So my question. Can this gap be filled with calk or epoxy? I can pour it in till the epoxy is level with the top of the angle iron. Can anyone see a problem with this?

2. When the time comes to put on some epoxy and fiberglass cloth on my tear. can I just put glass cloth on the seams between the panels and where top meets the sides and paint resin on the rest of the wood? Or Does the glass cloth need to go over all the wood of the outside roof skin?

Todays work on the tear started me of all the things that can go wrong. I am worried that rain is going to ruin my efforts if I don't figure out just how to solve the sealing questions I have.

Sorry for the flood of anxiety.

Kevin

Okay, who's got a group hug emoticon handy?

Kevin,

Let's see... yea, you can seal up the top edge of the angle iron where it meets the wall. Just be sure to leave the bottom edge of the angle iron open so that it can drain and air dry.

The question about fiberglass on just the joints... I think you can... but then I'm not a fiberglass person. I think I'll wait till one of the real fiberglass people show up... and we have a bunch of those now!

Mike...

oops no wrong one. ok, closer
We don't have a hug emoticon.

Try this---close your eyes and imagine a big warm group of arms chokeing the life out of you. Your smothering and can't stop laughing cause Aunti M said so.....

Kevin, take a deep breath cause you need the oxigen.
Unfortunately we all do the keystone cop dance. Your glue won't dry as fast as mine at 100 degrees. That is the reason I am not pulling screws. Lots of people are pulling the brads and screws out when the glue dries.

If you find some loose places after put some glue in the crack.

You can do anything you want with your fiberglass. If you put it over the whole thing will be best but on the edges will keep them protected.

I found this Miriam. Will this work?



Mike...

Awwwwww isn't that cute. That or some puppies.

Ouch, I'm sorry to hear it!



What where you using for the brads? 18gauge? And what is the skin "Luaun"?

You may have just saved me the same aggravation. Cause that's what I'm or was planning.

Hope it turns out okay.

-phil

I remember sending screws right through the ply. What you guys really need is to practice your drivers. Someone used a piece of 1/8 between his brads and where he wanted them.

Play with your toys before you use them for important stuff.

I tried brads a few teardrops ago, on the hatch of all things. It didn't work. I had to quickly switch over to a stapler, and that didn't do real good either. I ended up using a hammer and some nails with a head that wouldn't pull thru the luan.

Mike....

were you putting in brads with an air gun? Reduce the pressure on the regulator and put them in at an angle.

Mark

I say screw it!!!
thats what I did.

Don't feel too bad. I had 2 ceiling skins on and found out I was out of square after everythingb was set and dry. I got it all torn off and spars cleaned of left over plywood and glue. When I was in the process of putting the ceiling panels back on again my brad nailer quit working just as I was finishing it up. The driver wouldn't retract far enough to let the next brad feed. Since I had just bought it I had a 30 mile round trip to HF to exchange it. Of course when I got home again the glue was dry. I created even more off color words I doubt anyone has ever heard before, it takes creativity. S*** happens and when it does it's in great gobs. With the encouragement and help of others on here I got through it and it will work out. I'm not a good one to give advice other than stick with it. You will get it done and figure things out as you go. For what it's worth, I was going to epoxy and paint my TD but decided that in the end it will be easier and look better just to skin it in aluminum. I'm sure I will "learn new skills" doing that as well but it will get done.

Elumia wrote:were you putting in brads with an air gun? Reduce the pressure on the regulator and put them in at an angle.

Mark

Yep to the air gun for both brads and staples. I've since used staples by reducing the pressure, but that only works for me when you're not trying to hold down hatch skins. In other words, it worked great putting in the inside skin on the baja benroy. But for the hatch I still had to use nails with heads and an old fashioned hammer.

Good thing I didn't throw away all the hammers when I bought the nailers.


Mike...

So what if you don't plan to cover the roof with aluminum?

Glue, screw, puddy, and epoxy?

-phil

If it's a woodie, I would plan on wood plugs where it is thick enough.

I would plan on wood putty where it is thinner. Then spar urethane the snot out of it.

But be warned, wood putty is very disappointing. I tested it on the Escape hatch, and even under the porch and floor paint, it still shows it's pores...

Mike...

Yep, I was using an air brad nailer with 18 guage brads on Luan. You all made me feel better about things. I am going to try using that 1/8th inch between deal. Oh, and reducing the pressure on my compressor. I think that would have helped. And I am going to epoxy it quite a bit. Is it unreasonable to want my tear to out last me? Oh, and thanks for the hugs and stuff.

Here is a pic of the panel after I pulled the spars off. I guess it turned out ok, (amazingly) This view doesn't show to many inperfection but I will have to epoxy the snot out of the edges.. Right Mike? And thanks for putting things into perspective Tripmaker You have the intestinal fortitude I need.
I left the top tack strip on till morning. Just in case.