Lady Tear Droppers, drop in and say "Hello"!

[Miriam C.]

Hi Mandy and here are the links for most.

http://www.glittergraphicsnow.com/fairy-4.html
http://www.zwani.com/graphics/happy_birthday/?page=1

http://www.123glitter.com/comments-graphics/I_Love_You/

You can type in almost any word and get gif/graphics but a warning you might get a surprise. Look carefully at the url before opening it. My Space comments, even the ones with "content" don't open to embarrassing stuff.

Have fun

[b.bodemer]

Hello ladies,

I was just out for my first camping trip of the season and all I can say is it was as much fun as my first trip out last year.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying building or camping throughout the summer months!

Barb

[peggyearlchris]

Hey Barb,gad to hear you had a great camping trip for the season.Getting super hot here. I stayed out in the heat all day working on my TD. Trying to get it campable by July 11th beach campout. Peg

[CAJUN LADY]

Hi Barb - Hi Peg:

Barb - Happy to hear you had a good camp out. I went a couple of weekends ago and now I have "gotta go camping" fever. Some of the guys and gals put their teardrops away for the summer. Heck, I am just getting started. All I can say is "AMEN to having AC"!

[Pam Wright]

I'm so happy some of you are getting "out there".... I was supposed to but the evil cold monster got me last week and after the weekend pampering myself... I'm still coughing, sneezing and back at work....

Mandy, thanks for the concern.... I'm fine. The tornado hit north east of Denver and I live in a southern suburb. It did do a lot of damage.... but not near me.

back to work for now....

pam

[AmyH]

Hey there gals. I haven't been able to write for a while, because I have been under a really tight deadline to get the teardrop done before June 20th, its first camping trip! For the past few weeks I have been working on the trailer in ALL of my free time. I get home from work, and I work on the trailer until 11 pm or so. Then I spend all weekend working on it. I haven't even had time to keep up with photos. I'll try to get some put together to show you all really soon.

I finally heard back from the Washington State Patrol today, and I have my appointment scheduled to have the trailer inspected and issued a VIN on June 11th!!! Now the pressure really is on! I still have a little bit of trim to finish up, the fenders (still need to fiberglass them and paint them), the tongue box lid needs to be painted, and then there are some final touches that may happen after the inspection (finish cabinets, inside trim, etc...). I probably won't be completely finished by the time I take it on its maiden voyage, but it will be pretty close to done.

I had an incredibly cathartic moment this weekend after hanging the first door. I stood back and looked at it, and I started tearing up (no pun intended). I couldn't believe how good it looked! After almost four years of planning and building in my free time, all on my own, it is finally coming together! Both doors are on now, and they look fantastic! I promise I will get photos soon. They fit a bit snug with the weather stripping, but I am guessing that will get a little easier over time as the weather stripping compresses a bit.

The hatch is also on, and I just need to finish the trim and lighting install. I also still have to figure out how to install the hatch hardware for holding it open. Here is where I really could use some advice. I bought the telescopic door props from Austin Hardware (I think these are the ones). Others on the forum have used these as well, but even though they have posted pics of them, I can't seem to be able to figure out how to make it work. The props have two 90 degree mounting points, and I am trying to figure out how to attach them to the wall and to the hatch. Then once I figure that out, I have to figure out the correct mounting distances, etc... I am definitely baffled on how to do this, and I don't want to end up with a bunch of holes from trying different placement points. Any advice?

Hope everyone is doing well and gearing up for a great camping season!

[mandy]

Amy that's great news

Congrats to ya.
Mandy

[peggyearlchris]

Hi ladies.Glad to hear you all are getting camping fever and some are camping. Pam sorry to hear you have that terrible cold.I hate the summer colds. Amy I can't wait to see the pictures of your tear. I know how you feel to see doors on and hatch working. It's a great feeling and doing it alone sometimes is not easy.I worked all day in the heat yesterday and got over heated and felt really ill. I have to be careful and drink more often. I need to take more pictures.Have a good day. Peg

[Lynn Coleman]

Hey Amy,
Greato to hear of your progress, unfortunately I can't help with the hitch hardware. I'm sure there are some on here who can though, good luck.

Congrats to all of you who have been camping. It's a nice reward to go out and enjoy your creation, isn't it?

Lynn

[Miriam C.]

Amy, I am in the same position with the hatch struts. Got them, can't do the logistics.

We definitely need a traveling strut installer. I am almost done with my kitchen and expect to spend a week redoing my TD top. Then it is off to the lake for some fun, sun and

[AmyH]

Hey there gals. I pm'd Bruce (bdosborn) about his set-up using the same props that I purchased, and he sent me a great explanation about how he did his. The problem with the props that I got is that they have two 90 degree bends in the mounting plates, and they just won't work well set up that way. Bruce drilled out the mounting rivets that hold these plates onto the props and replaced them with some gas strut replacement brackets that he picked up from Camping World. These have one flat plate, great for mounting to the side galley wall, and one 90 degree bent plate, great for mounting on the underside of the hatch. So....I just ordered these replacement brackets this morning, and hopefully I'll have them before the weekend. I want to get these in place before I finish the wiring connections for the hatch and before I put in the counter-top. I'll take some photos of how this all will work.

In the meantime I am working on getting the trim installed. I worked until around 11:30 last night getting trim on the tongue box, so I can install it (bolt it down). The lid for the tongue box has one coat of paint, and I have two more coats of paint to do on the outside face and some coats of varnish to do on the underside. I'll be annealing the trim that needs to be bent this coming Saturday, and hopefully that will go well.

Wow, nothing like having a set deadline to motivate a person to finish everything! Having that inspection scheduled is really making me work like a maniac!

Can't wait to camp, can't wait to camp, can't wait to camp!!!!!!!

[Joanne]

Amy,

Congratulations on making such progress on your tear!! I know that "tearing up" feeling when you realize just how much work you've accomplished. (I may have been crying about how much was left, but we won't get into that! ) I just can't wait to see yours in person.

Joanne

[AmyH]

Joanne, good to hear from you. I remember that you started building yours "after" I started mine, and yet you finished yours long before me. I think that part of my cathartic moment is just the sheer exhaustion, time and energy that have gone into this tear.

I wish I was able to make it to the IRG 2.0 this year, but work issues have crept up, and there is no way I can do it. I'll have to see about getting to some other gatherings, so I can finally start meeting all the great folks on this forum. I would love to see the Desert Dawg in person, along with all the other great tears you gals (and guys, since we all know you look at this thread ) have!

I promise I'll get some photos posted this weekend. It is getting tough to get good photos of the doors, since I only have about a foot and a half of clearance on each side. I swear my poor legs are covered in bruises from manuevering around this trailer in such a cramped space. I even dropped the hatch door plate on one of my toes the other day, and I have a bruise on my toe that is a perfect outline of the edge of that plate. Man I am going to be glad to have it pulled out of there.

[fireaunt]

During the Memorial Day camping trip my husband kept saying people were really noticing the tear. But I never got any input-- he grins and says - it's yours but I get all the credit!

I guess I can let it go or paint on the sides - mypod--by Marilyn

[AmyH]

Marilyn, somehow you need to get the credit for that great build. It is funny that people just make the assumption that the guy built it (sorry guys, but you know it's true).

So, I promised I would share some pics of my progress. It is a bit difficult to take photos in my tiny little garage, so most of the shots are at angles to the tear. Also, the marine paint that is on the roof tends to look a bit grey when hit with the flash from my camera. It is actually more of a mossy green color.

Here is a shot of the door that caused my cathartic moment:


Here is a shot of the hatch installed:


Here is a shot of the tongue box installed:


Here is a shot of the fenders after epoxying them last night:


Here is a shot of the trailer from the front (you can see the color better in this shot):


There are a lot more shots in my album if you want to take a look. I spent most of yesterday annealing all of the trim that needs to be bent. The annealing went really well. The candle soot method is great! It made it so incredibly easy to do. It's kind of like magic, just heat the aluminum with a torch until the soot magically dissapears! I only had one spot that just started to melt, but I caught it fast enough that I don't think anyone (but me) will ever notice. The aluminum channel that went on the tongue box curves was a bit brutal to install, and I had a lot of kinks to work out, but the channel on the galley hatch went on great with very little kinking. The curve on the tongue box hatch is just sharp enough to cause a bit of grief with the trim. It also caused grief when building the lid. The first one had to be trashed, and luckily the second one turned out great.

I hope everyone is well.