Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

by **2bits** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:51 pm

That aluminum is looking sweet! You got Anodized so it will be alot easier to keep the finger prints cleaned up on it!

by **WayneFromMo** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:11 pm

Nice Aluminum.

I hoped you had help flipping your tear, you might have drop it and that would have been terrible.

But your tear is looking great.

by **aggie79** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:44 am

It's been a month since I last posted an update. Things have not moved along like I hoped, and I've only had a couple of weekends to work on the Silver Beatle.

In my last post, I had turned my teardrop upside down. I sanded the previously applied CPES (3 coats), applied 1 coat of epoxy, sanded the epoxy coat, and applied a thin layer of automotive undercoating.

And, as you can see, I turned my teardrop over to right-sde up. Then my attention moved to the hatch. My galley bulkhead wasn't perpendicular to the profile, so I needed to add a wedge-shaped filler strip. (The pencil line shows the header angle I needed for the galley hinge to fit correctly.)

Filler strip installed.

Then I began the hatch assembly. First I installed spacers (1/4" sides and bottom, and 3/8" at top for galley hinge.)

I managed to get both outside hatch ribs fitted and installed (each outside rib is doubled-up) and the hatch header and the bottom hatch spar installed, before I ran out of time yesterday.

Gig'em, Tom :thumbsup:

by **S. Heisley** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:00 am

Hi, Tom:

You continue to amaze me.

Since you appear to be building your tear in your front yard, the neighbors can just look out their windows to watch the progress! What do they think of all this? Have they made many comments? Have many wandered over just to chat and ask questions?

by **aggie79** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:09 am

Hi Sharon,
Thanks for the nice comments. Actually most of my construction has been in the garage. I have the teardrop on casters and roll it outside to do the stuff that has fumes. The neighbors wonder what is going on, but compared to the other stuff in our neighborhood, our teardrop is pretty low key.
Tom

by **2bits** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 12:09 pm

Hey Tom, it might have been a month, but you've still done alot in that time! Are you going to put insulation on the underside? I like your header panel, I had a similar issue too. Doin the hatch eh? how was it? Not scary at all now eh? Oh and that is soo cool that Linda is getting into it!!!

by **WayneFromMo** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 12:22 pm

I know about that neighbor thing.

Some days I found it hard to get anything done. :roll:

I wished I had a building big enought to put my TTT in. :twisted:

Wayne

by **aggie79** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:33 pm

2bits wrote:Hey Tom, it might have been a month, but you've still done alot in that time! Are you going to put insulation on the underside? I like your header panel, I had a similar issue too. Doin the hatch eh? how was it? Not scary at all now eh? Oh and that is soo cool that Linda is getting into it!!!

Hey Thomas,

I'm enjoying that my wife is getting anxious to go camping. My floor is a plywood-1x2s and insulation-plywood sandwich. So far so good on the hatch. We'll see how it works. I'm actually more apprehensive about cutting the sidewall notches than building the hatch. Fitting the latch hardware and trying to figure out the gas struts may change my mind on the hard part of hatch construction.

Since my LCG IV build date will not happen, I'm shooting for the Beaver's Bend outing in March (or at least that's when I think it is.)

Tom

by **2bits** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:49 pm

Beaver's Bend is nice! I have read on another thread that if you can leave your galley open somehow, you can close the hatch and locate the gas strut location from the inside which might be of a help if that is possible for ya! that is cool about the floor, that is gonna work beautifully!

by **aggie79** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:25 am

My hatch framing is almost complete! :worship:

Between traveling to San Diego on Friday to see my stepson graduate from Marine Corps boot camp and visiting my father in the hospital after his surgery, I did manage to get a little teardrop time this weekend.

I still lack blocking for tail lights, license plate bracket, latch, and gas struts - I guess that means I need to figure where these will go - but I feel good about getting this done.

Gig'em, Tom :thumbsup:

by **planovet** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:43 am

Looking good :thumbsup:

by **WayneFromMo** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:31 pm

About time you get back to work.

Hope your dad is doing ok.

I was station in San Diego when I was in the Navy had to go over to the Marine side alot. 32st street.

I found that a check list helps alot.

Keep driving on. :lol:

Wayne

by **Team Varekai** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:41 pm

WOW Tom, I am truly impressed. After getting your response to my pm, I clicked on your profile and then proceeded to read (with amazment) every page in the thread, I only hope mine goes that well and looks that good when I start my build. Cant wait for more!

by **aggie79** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 3:20 pm

Thanks Wayne for the kind words about my dad. He is doing okay - things don't heal as fast at 82, but he has been up walking on his knee replacement. (The total for him now is two hips and one knee.)

Darin, if you want to read some real amazement, check out Thomas' (2bits) and Mark's (Planovet) build threads. I'm kind of chuggin along on my build.

Tom

by **WayneFromMo** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:39 pm

Heck, things don't heal fast at my age.

WOW, replacment surgery I'm not ready for that. Just think he might be dancing in a few months.

I'm thinking, it may not be the age, it's when your older you have more time to watch the healing process.

Wayne

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