The LT... Thomas' Luxury Tent

[jdarkoregon]

BUT OMG, its beautiful

John

[rhltechie]

awesome thomas!! It looks really good. Is that aluminum sheets or what? Keep on truckin brutha!!

[2bits]

Thanks alot guys!

Yeah, I think I might remove the racing stripes too

Yup it is .040 black aluminum, it bends really well. I am not too worried about the black being too hot. Since this is Texas, so when it is hot, it is hot no matter where you are or what color you are in , I don't plan on doing any camping when it is really hot anyway. I got a smokin deal on the sheets ($40 ea) and yes it looks awesome. My truck is black too, so they match and I got Air Conditioning in both!

I did the annealing on the trim at first, and it took a LONG time using a propane torch and I apparantly missed a couple of spots where it was bending at different rates. When I did the other side, I put it on top and started working it down, and figured once it started to get tough, I would stop bending and anneal from there down, but I kept going and going and going until it was all bent! I didn't need to anneal the other side at all! I liked it so much being how smooth it was, I put the first one I did up on the shelf and got a new piece and just bent it fresh without any annealing and it bent all the way down just fine too, so that was cool. I was sure with my radius I would need to, but I didn't. I still might need to on the hatch but we will see when I get to that. I liked that it was all one piece too.

I am really glad I got this trim with the screw covering vinyl insert. It really makes it easier since you don't have to worry about your screws being perfectly straight, and the black insert looks cool against the black top.

More pics...

Trim:


Leaving 3/16 on each side for expansion under the Texas heat~Thanks Gage


Over lapping the sheets~ Thanks Grant
The black lines are to let me know where the nails are that hold down the masonite so I can screw around them!


Looking forward to seeing that sunroof installed! Thanks for all the comments!

[cdfnchico]

Thomas,
Have really enjoyed watching your progress. It looks beautiful!

[Ivar the Red]

Way cool Thomas.

[aggie79]

Wow! The black really looks good with the woodgrain.

[Miriam C.]

Absolutely awsome! Love the black alum. and trim. You really are almost there

[2bits]

Dropped in a couple more screws and took the straps and the rest of the plastic off.

Note to others, make sure to leave a little space to slide the front trim in across the bottom. The masonite and aluminum is laying right up on the top of the frame and I am probably going to end up having to chisel out a 16th of an inch of the wood to be able to slide the angle in.

HAD to take a picture of how cool it looks tho

[S. Heisley]

WOW! Good job!
I can hardly wait to see how/what color you finish the sides with!

[Rigsby]

Just two words---F*****G SEXY!!

[Marck]

Very beautiful build you have going there, it will definatly be a very nice piece of craftsmanship when completed

[2bits]

Thank you as always!

Sharon, I think for the edge trim on the sides I am going to get a 4x8 piece of good 1/8" plywood, round over the edges and cut it out about 2-3" wide all the way around, and stain and poly it the exact same color as the rest of the walls. I think it might stick out too much color wise to go to a different color on that area. Being a sheet of plywood, there will be no joints and the grain will be continuous all the way back to the hatch. Since it is only 1/8" thick and rounded over I am not too concerned about the end grain looking bad, of course I will test it first, but it looked pretty good on my 1/2" cabinets.

Here is a pic of how the other part of the trim for the sides is going to lay out. Probably 1/8" hardwood of some sort. This trim WILL be a different color although that is yet to be determined, probably lighter like it looks here...

[S. Heisley]

Ohhhh! That should look nice! With the dark roof, you could get away with an ebony-type stain on those strips, if you decide not to go light.

[2bits]

Yeah, I need to mull that dark roof combo Sharon, thank you! I think I will be spending some time in Photoshop on that one.

On another note, I cut the holes for the sunroof and roof vent tonight. I haven't glued and screwed them yet, but they look real good sitting in there finally!

Preparing the cut, drilled pilot holes from the inside out then played connect the dots. Masking tape to protect the surface. I freehanded the corner curves:


Say bye bye Jenay...


Yeah, it looks great!


Why stop there, I cut the hole for the vent next!


A shot with the flash:


A shot without the flash, blurrier but nicer looking, I am seeing stars now:

[jdarkoregon]

Way Cool