Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Was he bending multiple small slats of solid wood and sanding to the final shape? This is the most incredible DIY thing to me, a perfect compound curve with a radius edge. As well I wondered what kind of caulking/filler he used to do the gap filling, there is a picture in the album where he masked off with painters tape during that process, and then I assume the whole thing is sanded smooth before the final application of the topcoat (polyurethane?) My intuition is that this trailer was not covered in fiberglass mat and epoxy, like stitch and glue kayaks, but I'm not sure I've never seen a large format or close-up picture of the finer details.

This looks to me like cedar strip technique. This tear is most definitely fiberglassed.

Instead of thin planks the radius could have been laid up with thicker planks (maybe even steam bent) and then shaped. Beveling the strips would have been fun to get them to fit tightly. Too bad there isn't an interior picture showing the roof-wall joint.

The galley pics show before and after the radius is added. It gives some clue as to how it was made.

Do you have a link to the album?

EDIT: I found the album with more pics. There was a maybe a 2"x4" "shelf" on the sides (top looks like around 4" narrower than the TD width. Wood strips (possibly steam bent) were laid up onto the shelf to build up to the roof height. Then the corners were shaped. How the builder got them so uniform I don't know. It's almost like they were done with a massive round over bit.

https://www.tnttt.com/gallery/album.php?album_id=696&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&start=216

My intuition is that this trailer was not covered in fiberglass mat and epoxy...

Not mat, but glass cloth and epoxy for sure. Dunno about the curve.

Tony

It's really like magic how well that the fiberglass cloth can disappear and not really interfere with that deep glassy finish! I am investigating the cedar strip technique now, it looks like just the search term I was missing

It's really like magic how well that the fiberglass cloth can disappear and not really interfere with that deep glassy finish!

I'm sure there's some elbow grease with several coats of spar varnish on top of the fiberglass.

Here's a video of me glassing my last:

https://youtu.be/BJZYGY2he1o?si=bt8HAAKKMKmLnWU6

The secret is mixing small batches.

Tony