Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

ive been reading your site for a month now and you guys are awesome and im glad to finally be a part of the group. ill bring you up to speed on where im at in my build and as soon as i can figure out how i will download some pics.
i have a trailer that ive already installed my floor on. its 5'x9'7"( i sprinkled water on it and it wouldnt grow any more so dont ask. lol!) i am following the generic benroy plans so i have to change it to my size of trailer. making my cabinets loger for more storage, etc. i have my walls already cut out including the door openings but have not marked out for spars or cabinets. i used the 3/4" ply as suggested but am using the good side on the outside for paint.
my questions are:
i wanted to skin over the rough interior with some cheap but decent looking oak type paneling i saw at H.D. it seems easier to install it now before i put up the walls but i would be covering up my cabinet and spar layout . and is there a huge problem with me building the benroy cabinet setup after ive permanently installed the walls? and which kind of attatchment method would someone suggest i use with the paneling? adhesive, pinailer, screws,etc?
sorry for the bombardment of questions but its amazing the help ive seen you give other people in their posts. glad to be here!

Dear Bronco,

Welcome and glad to see you are out of the closet! We all had to do it once.

It is great to see someone working off the generic Benroy plans. Some fine people put a lot of effort into those.

You don't want to skin the exterior yet because you're gonna want to drive screws through those walls into the spars. After your sides are connected to your frame, and into the spars, THEN you can hide all of those screw and nail heads by gluing on the skins.

And you're going to want to varnish the heck out of that paneling.

actually the interior is what i wanted to skin would that still be a problem? and also i could place my spars just between the ply paneled walls without having to notch out the paneling around the spars later.

Oooops--I just reread your post, and I see what you mean. My bad.

I didn't notch the paneling to accommodate the spars, and a lot of people didn't either.

Structurally, you're cool to go with your plan. But are you using solid walls or framing?

i am using solid walls and no framing just like the plans. thanks for the help. the only other question i still have is about building and installing the cabinets after i have permanently set the walls. this goes against the benroy plans. is there some big problems for me if i try to build and put them in later? it would probably be hard for me to put them in as a whole set up after the walls are fixed because of the gap space. but could i build them to fit a little bit as i go? it just seems alot easier that way and im concerned about where my cabinet walls end at the roof line having the proper angle cut.
also whats the best way to attatch the paneling to the 3/4" ply?

Bronc, welcome to the board...if you are using solid 3/4 ply for the walls do you really need the extra interior skin???? As to cabinet attachment, since the walls are solid you can build and attach the cabinets wherever you want them.

While we came up with our own plan, it included solid walls and we attached all cabinet parts to each other and the walls using 1/2' Al angle as cleats..if you click my www button and look at the various galley pics you will see what we did.

As to the ribs/spars, if you don't wish to screw from the outside, you can cut your interior skin down by the width of the spars and set the spars ontop of that skin and then use angle brackets as joist hangers and attach them that way...if you go this way, you can also place your ceiling skin on top of the wall skin, then place the spars on top of them...this last technique is amply demonstated on Steve Frederick's build sites...Gorilla Glue and a brad nailer will help out a lot here.

For pics, we like to have them resized to 640x480pixels and saved at low resolution(72dpi) as this helps those on dial-up...if dont have a program to resize click here ...Irfanview is a neat little prgram and the site contains a tutorial on usage...If you are running Windows XP click here and scroll down to "image resizer" and install, it will provide right click funtionality to your mouse to resize any pic on your PC...after that, look at "help with photos" at the top of main index page on this site for the steps to upload and post pics...good luck and have fun...........
madjack

thanks for the welcome madjack. the only reason i was going to skin the interior with paneling is due to the inside having the rough side of the ply. knot hole, etc. i actually do drywall finishing for a living. in my parents attic we skimmed drywall mud over the 2x4's and wood , sprayed texture on it and painted everything. what would you think of me doing the same to the inside of my teardrop?(except the texture part) that would save me the trouble of the paneling. and then i could paint the inside any color i wanted.

I think drywall mud would crack and jiggle out since the walls of the trailer will be moving and bouncing a lot more than those in a house.

You could fill the knot holes with another product and paint over. I've used short-strand fiberglass autobody filler on wood and painted over with good success on a home built boat project.

is there any certain filler filler you or any one can recommend? i like that idea. with paint the options are endless not like wood. and if i dont like the color down the road i can just paint over it. not only that but i can still make all my reference pencil marks for cbinets and spars and not worry about it.

Bronco-

Quickwood Epoxy Putty is my FAV!

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... ,190,42997

Stays put, NO shrinkage, sand/machinable, doesn't absorb moisture & you can finish over it, no prob!

Cheers,

Coop

thanks coop! is it mainly for the big holes or can you use a putty knife and spread it over medium to small imperfections? i saved the web site for future use.

Bronco-

It can be used for replacing large chunks missing to filling screw holes, etc.

I have even used it to sculpt objects!

Check your local hardware store they should have epoxy putties for wood, plastic, steel, etc.

Good for on the spot repairs of all sorts of things!

Cheers,

Coop

Bronco, welcome. Is the name for the tow vehicle or something else?
I've got a 92 Bronco project.... that's why I asked.

For the interior paneling, why not look at wall paper, short fiber carpet, wood strips, or 1/8" paneling of some sort? If you get something that is easily replaceable, replacing a small piece of strip would be a lot easier than anything else. However, wood will require a coating protection. If you go with a carpet, use strips also, and trim with 1/2 round. Just some ideas.

Bronco, Welcome! Another builder from the area who hoo! I'm building the Generic Benroy too. I think it will look great behind you Bronco. You can see build pictures of mine here.
http://tnttt.com/album_ ... er_id=1098
Feel free to ask if you have questions. BTW, I did build my cabinets after I had my walls attached.