Re: Wandering First Build - Finally Going Again

[Prototear]

By March and April we were stuck at home and I was working my day-job from home all the time but could manage to get 1 weekend day every week or two to work on the trailer. I settled on a license plate location and got a black steel frame for it and bent both it and my old license plate just slightly to lay flat on the hatch. The frame has matching bolts through 2 holes on the bottom while the top 2 holes have bolts with LEDs to illuminate the plate below. This was connected with the running lights and I tested several lights together. Most of the illumination on the plate in this shot may have been from the flash and at some point I changed the LED bolts for better ones but I don't remember if it was before or after this picture was taken. The running lights up on the top are also wired and powered.


Next I installed the front corner running lights and also installed a door keeper to hold the main side doors open. I tried to pick as simple of a holder as I could that wouldn't need an extra hand to latch it. A nub on the bottom of the side door pops into this hard rubber cylinder.


To have a solid mounting structure for the door keeper I installed a triangle corner bracket inside behind the skin riveted to the 1" square tube frame members.


I found that the force needed to insert the insert into the cylinder is a bit high but even higher for removal, much higher of a force than I need it to be. The nub is installed to the door with a backer plate to spread the load but it leaves me wanting to be careful popping the door back out of this keeper so I may slightly sand the nub to make the force lower and easier to use.

[Prototear]

My initial plan for running the wires fore-aft was to have some kind of hollow crown molding to hide it since there isn't continuous space in the ceiling due to a few square steel tubes running side to side. I found that anything like the hollow crown molding or other decent looking but bendable conduit doesn't seem to exist so I decided to move the fore-aft wire runs in the ceiling (except for the 120V AC which would go underneath the floor). To get around the lateral ceiling structural steel tubes figured I'd only need to jump around the center one if I was careful about the placement of the front cabinets to hide the wiring there.

The one structural steel tube to jump underneath is at the apex of the roof and just aft of the side doors. Otherwise, the wiring could run in the 1"space between the aluminum skin on top and the (eventual) birch plywood ceiling underneath. I designed a cover for this area that would work as a faring, a junction box and a dome light fixture all in one single item. After a cardboard mock-up I tried various sizes and curves to get it to fit, making it on a 3D printer. Since this is not outside exposed to water and sunlight I could use the less expensive PLA filament to make it. Imagine rotating this 90 degrees along its long axis to go up against the ceiling along the wall. The light is a simple LED panel that nests in the square hole and screws into the 4 corners. The fixture attaches to the trailer frame with screws accessible through the hole for the LED panel.


Here it is in a fit test (the 1x2" steel square tubing is black with some tyvek tape remaining on it). Unfortunately, I had put the insulation in long ago but had to remove some of it due to this wiring run change in plans.

[Prototear]

Around Memorial Day I got enough of the rough wiring done up to the front where the power panel will be so I could start a process to install the ceiling skins.


My plan was to make templates for areas where it would be too difficult without one, cut, stain, and seal the panels then install them. These panels are 1/8" birch plywood that is backed by luan. Started at the hatch and moved forward from there. The 48" sheet was just high enough for the inside of the hatch, but I remembered that the 48" aluminum skin installed on the exterior of the hatch was barely too short and I ended up with minimal overlap of the treadplate aluminum trim to accommodate it. Here I have used a few pieces of brown paper taped together to identify specific locations of holes for lighting, switches, speakers, wire pigtails. and access covers to maintain the exterior lighting and also the locations of the ribs and crossmembers.


Then laying the template over the plywood skin to mark all the holes. I had to clean out the inside of the trailer to have a flat surface to do the work since the rest of the garage doesn't have a clear area that I can leave undisturbed when not working on it.


A couple weeks later I was able to stain 4 ceiling skin panels and with the long days I was able to work in the sun out in the driveway and bring them into the garage to keep condensation and bugs off them at night. I used 2+ coats of Watco Danish Oil stain with a "natural" color and 3 coats of urethane. Fortunately the weather was great and i could do all 4 pieces at once over two afternoons.




Over the years I used one of the 4x8 sheets on a desk project at home so I was one sheet short but at Dunn Lumber I was able to get a birch door skin that was wide enough for the skinniest area and had a nice grain similar to the skins I have had waiting for this day for years.

[Prototear]

In mid-June I started installing the ceiling skins, starting at the hatch. This is held in place mostly with #10 stainless screws with oval heads and finishing washers along each of the 4 main ribs. This shot shows it with a couple cases of Manny's pale ale from Georgetown Brewing. This is their flagship ale and had never been packaged before as it was only available in restaurants, bars and sporting events on tap. With the coronavirus shutdown they weren't able to sell to the usual places so had a short special packaging run that was hard to get but I had to go into Georgetown (south Seattle) to get a trim router at HF and I had an opportunity to stop at their brewery and get the limit of 2 cases!



The next section of the ceiling forward of the hatch included the Fantastic Fan. Because the roofline is curved but the fan is flat, I had to build up an aluminum frame for it on the roof but had to do the opposite underneath for the ceiling to hold the flat trim. I made a mock-up out of firing strips then once I had the fit determined I made one of out of maple. The pencil line on the fan trim shows where the ceiling line is that I need to match.


I finished it the same way I did the ceiling skins with Watco oil and urethane outside. The frame shows the side that will be visible from within the trailer so here it is upside down.


The main ceiling frame has 3 members of1x2" steel tubes and these are where the joints in the ceiling in the panels are too. Generally my plan was to use strips of wood screwed into these steel tubes and routed with an upside down T cross-section (but the aft one is just an L). For the top one I needed to use a wider strip to accommodate the maple frame around the fan and that is shown in the picture above, although it's probably hard to tell what it is. I' don't know if I have a picture of these joints in the ceiling handy but it will show up eventually (maybe I'll need to take one).

At the end of June I moved the trailer back outside for the summer and got the exterior lights all installed.

[Prototear]

Moving forward, the next ceiling panel to fit was the one roughly in line with the side doors that also had a 38" sunroof. (This sunroof turned out to be too much work with curves going the opposite direction of the roofline, so a simpler window would have been more practical, but here it is and I need to follow through to get it done and make it work well and look good.) This picture is looking upward at the ceiling and slightly forward at night. Most of the insulation is 1"closed-cell foam but just the 1/4" aluminum bubble wrap (there's probably a proper name for it) covering the curved plywood lengthwise ribs.


I had not cut out the sunroof opening before staining because I was unsure if the skin location may be shifted a half inch fore or aft and it was too hard to predict before installing the first panel aft of this and figuring out the T wood trim covering the joint in between the panels. Next came a detailed layout with the sunroof template that came with it (so many years ago!).


I first tried the template on a piece of cardboard to practice and also to have another template if needed.


Here is the skin taped in place to see how it fits and it worked better than I expected. The aluminum frame of the sunroof seen here is above the skin as I didn't want to clamp the skin into this frame and have it be too soft to squeeze the top of the sunroof frame in place to maintain a good seal on top of the roof. The edge of the plywood skin is bare and I gave it an edge treatment using the leftover edging used on the exterior of the side doors with the soft rubber side of it upward toward the aluminum sunroof frame. I left the recessed slot accessible to either insert the rubber insert to cover the screw heads or to make a shade someday to fit into that space. The sunroof glass is removed in this picture and a piece of cardboard is on top to keep the sunshine out to get a good exposure for the shot.

[Prototear]

The ceiling and front wall are all part of the same continuous curved surface - so before trimming and installing the center panel I actually installed the front panel so that I could determine the boundaries of the top panel (the edge of the front panel is actually visible at the edge of the last picture above). I added a cross-member between the front-to-back wooden ribs so that I'd have a structural member to attach lights or other hardware near the top center of the front wall then simply placed the bottom of the front panel on the bottom of the wall and bowed it into the front of the ceiling. The structural member described also gives a way to pull the panel up tight into the curve.


I tried a couple light fixtures to pull the panel up (which were removed a few weeks later) and ran wires through a hole on the right. The front wall looks lighter than the ceiling and maybe it is a little bit, but I think most of the difference is due to the way the light reflects off it. The hatch skin, aft ceiling skin and front skin were all purchased from the same stack at the same time long ago; if any one might look different it should be the smaller panel with the sunroof, not the front.

Although I had roughly cut out the side walls from the 1/4" birch plywood years ago, I knew that I'd need to cut it more precisely when the time came so here it is, time to cut. I made a template from cardboard big enough for the more critical dimensions, specifically for the wheel well outline and its location relative to the side door, the roof curvature and the electrical outlet in the wall that will power an umbilical to the galley cabinets. Here you can also see some of the ceiling panel installed. I also tried the template on the other side and it was almost the same so I marked the differences on the template for when I lay out the cuts on the plywood.


This is the left skin on the floor looking forward. Since I have no galley cabinets or bulkhead wall across the back I have an open view all the way forward that perhaps other teardrops would not have.


I stained the walls the same way as the ceiling panels and placed them. Here are views from the rear looking forward and also from the front looking back with the hatch closed. The larger lateral trim piece at the top is wider to reach to tie into the maple frame around the Fantastic Fan in the center.


This is looking aft - there is almost 2 feet of wall uncovered in the galley are to deal with when I design the cabinets. The panel with all the holes for fixtures is the hatch and the hinge is attached atop the 2x1 steel frame tube in the ceiling. Junction boxes are in the lower corners of the top ceiling panels for the fore-aft wire runs an the wire bundles will be arranged more neatly than it is here.

[Prototear]

At the top of the left side wall there is a mess of wiring hanging down and this is visible in the picture in the prior post. This is because the fore-aft wiring for lighting and DC power runs in the ceiling but needs to get around a 2x1 steel tube frame member running across the top. Here the wiring goes underneath and back up. To hide this and accommodate lighting, I made a fixture on my 3D-printer to also hold a LED light panel. This was installed on July 29 (I'm still catching up on my journal entries and posting pictures).


The joints in the ceiling panel each coincide with the 2x1 lateral steel tube - I won't need one for the front joint because it will coincide with the front cabinets and I plan to hide the wires coming out of the ceiling into the cabinets where the PD4045 will go.

Here is the left dome light fixture installed. It took several tries and tweaks to get one with the right subtle tapers and add fastening holes for screws accessible in the center before installing the LED panel.


This is the LED panel https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-dome-light-fixtures-non-waterproof/6-rectangular-led-dome-light-fixture/744/2018/ I used. I have one of these on each side of the trailer - the one on the right side doesn't have as many wires as that on the left.

I still have a small gap between the wall and ceiling panels and I'll cover that with trim later.

[Prototear]

I am now even further behind making entries to show my progress, almost 11 months now. When I have had time I had been working on the trailer rather than making entries.

After getting the ceiling and wall skins in the next step was to start cabinets in August 2020. I had to figure out how to configure the front cabinets with a flat side facing the "bedroom" that coincided with the structural supports and could hold the electrical PD4045 panel, the stereo, speakers, reading lights and have useful shelves. I tried some ideas with cardboard mock-ups for the panel and lining it up with one of the horizontal steel ribs in the ceiling where the ceiling skins came together, just forward of the side doors.


Lots of wiring from the rear hatch and ceiling came forward of the door and emerged either at the top of the skin and hung down toward where the PD4045 would eventually go.


I had to devise a way to attach to the upper structural support and provide a molding to cover the joint where the ceiling skins met. I took a 1x2" solid maple stock and ripped it diagonally and flipped them around and glued them back together to give a vertical edge on which to hang the cabinet fron panel that would be made from 1/2" birch plywood.


This is how it looked glued and ready to install (although upside down).


Here are the plywood panels hanging from the top bracket to see how they fit with a PD4045. Note that the real panels are upside-down compared to the cardboard mock-ups since this seemed to work better to manage the depth that narrows down at the top and leave more storage room in the big rectangular sections.


The horizontal piece is a fir 2x2 mock-up frame member with a dado on top to hold the panel an a wider dado on the bottom to accommodate sliding doors underneath and a notch on the back to hold up the internal shelf. I later made the real one out of maple (with 2 1x2s glued together since I couldn't find a 2x2).


Here is a buildup with a horizontal shelf. The small strip on the wall in the center pulls the skin into the curve and screws into the ribs - this is just temporary since I decided to remove the reading lights out near the speakers in the upper corners after I was told that the reading lights in the middle look like creepy crab eyes!


Other than the dedicated spaces for the PD4045, speakers and stereo, the other holes are just to make good use of what remains. I thought of putting doors on them but they were too small to bother so they are just cubby holes. Their edges and corners were irregular so I had to trim one precisely then used it as a template to refine the others with a trim router. The shelf in each cubby hole is about 3/4" below the opening so that way I hope stuff doesn't fall out too easily.