Falcongirl's Foamie (standy)

[Falcongirl]

Day 9, we got the front curved sidewalls cut out and glued to the front flat piece. That took some ingenuity, since we had 15mph+ winds all day. I picked up some 1x2x8's that morning, and Himself used them to build a wind brace so we could get the front base glued together. Also got the curved front board completely kerfed, and then when Himself tried to hand-bend it, he snapped part of it. Hooray for Gorilla Glue. In one of those typical spousal moments: I *told* him we were going to need a heat gun to bend it. It's 2" foam, kerfed down 1" with a 1/8th circular saw blade straight across. Most of the crack will be cut off when we cut it to size. The fun will be getting all the TB2 into those kerfs before we bend it. I may hit up the pharmacy at work for a no-needle syringe.

Gorilla Glue is messy. Very, very messy. I can't decide which I hate more, Gorilla Glue or Great Stuff. Blech. Icky sticky mess. Pictures about to be loaded to album.

For those interested, cost of supplies to build camper so far: ~$873.96. That does not include the $600 paid for the utility trailer. We also haven't bought the latex paint for the final coat.
This is:
10 sheets 250 2" foam board
3 sheets 150 1.5" foam board (floor insulation, 1 sheet left over)
6 sheets 1/4" plywood (floor)
3 sheets 1/2" plywood (floor)
2 cans Great Stuff (used 1 on floor)
13 yards of 144" canvas
5 gals TB2
2-32oz bottles Gorilla Glue
6-1x2x8
10-2x4x8
2-2x8x8
Saw blades, putty knives, paint brushes, bungees, some rope.
I think we're up to 8-80ct boxes of Spax screws at this point. I've lost count.
30"x68" camper door/trim
2-12x21 camper windows/trim
1 roll putty tape
1 qt each flat black enamel (oops paint), latex flat black (correct paint), hammered copper paint

As a reference, when I was looking at 13-16ft campers on Craigslist, to get something that didn't need a complete gutting right away, they were a minimum of $1500 and those would've needed some work right away to use this year, so I figured I'd have spent $2500 on fixing up a used, much heavier camper. There isn't really a budget for this build, per se, but that was kind of the number I was estimating. We'll see how close I come to that mark when all is said and done and totaled up at the end.

[kudzu]

Peeked in your photo album. Nice kerfs. Himself looks good in pink.

[Falcongirl]

Peeked in your photo album. Nice kerfs. Himself looks good in pink.

He does.
I mean, I think he looks good, full stop. The pink was just an amusing addition.

[Falcongirl]

Day 11: Using ratcheting straps and heat, we got the foam front mostly bent, then the temperature dropped and the next time we ratcheted, even with heat, it cracked in two places. More Gorilla Glue and it'll have to wait until tomorrow to finish. It is SO CLOSE to done. Then we have to get under it and glue it. My thought is to TB2 some cloth strips along the inside to hold it in place.

Himself put more bolts in the floor. Then we cut one of the 4x8 sheets of foam into 2x8's. Tomorrow, I will glue those to two of the 4x8's to create the 6x8 walls.

Didn't get pictures tonight, we lost daylight too fast.

[Falcongirl]

Day 12: Ratchet straps and the heat of the day let me close the gap on the curved part and get some glue along the kerfs on the side to tack it in place. We're leaving the very top un-glued so we can fit the roof on properly. Got both sides glued together, with the help of about half a roll of duct tape to use as clamps. The piece laying on the bed of the trailer is one of the sides, about to be measured for wheel wells.

Day 13: Lucky 13! Glued the front curved bit to the floor, got the wheel wells cut out of the walls, figured out how to foam-shim the back end and got one shim glued in place. Got the roof panels cut out. Picked up another bolt-on wheelie jack for the back of the trailer and got it home only to realize that the bolts are too long for it to fit in the space. The door I bought came without keys, so the RV place sent me a whole new door handle/lock unit with keys and it arrived yesterday.

Tonight, if all goes well, we should have the walls up and glued. It'd be awesome if we got the door framed but I think that's not happening until Saturday.

Little concerned. You can see how much taller it is than the tow vehicle behind it. Most of that is due to the tire size, I think. I'm wondering if maybe I should get smaller tires. Not sure I can do that on this axle, though maybe..? The trailer looks huge, but inside it really isn't Himself can stand up in it, but his hair statics to the ceiling

[Falcongirl]

Day 14: First wall goes up, shim for Wall 2 is glued and clamped.

[Falcongirl]

Day 15: Wall 2 is up, front curve is glued down entirely. Wall 1 trimmed to the end of the trailer. Some of the seams sanded down. Purchased some canvas drop cloths to sacrifice as reinforcement strips.

[KCStudly]

Interesting approach. I can't imagine the difficulty trying to piece that all together in free space like that. Surely it must be easier to build walls on a flat surface and then stand them up(?).

...and I am assuming that the front will get some kind of curve or shape eventually. Can't imagine laying that out and cutting it in place.

Must be "himself" who doubts the research that you have done here(?).

Oh well, I guess it isn't so much how you get there as it is the journey in getting there!

[Falcongirl]

Day 16: (July 3) Door framed & insulated, 2 of the three roof panels glued on, reinforcement strips and drywall edging installed everywhere we could install it. Killed the random orbital sander, first casualty of the build. Spackled everything.

Day 17: (July 4) Last roof panel installed. Curvy foam in the corners of the door cut and glued in. Orbital sander replaced, wheel chocks purchased, everything on the outside sanded. J showed up and trimmed the edges of the roof and curved panels so I could finish adding the edging to that. Then began the fun with canvas. And by fun, I clearly mean hell. Straight TB2 was too difficult to apply in the heat - by the time we finished one little 3' area, the first part had dried. We diluted it 25%. That worked out much better. The overhang was wrapped first, then the back panel glued on. Then we cut 125" of canvas to go over the curve and front. I screwed up my corner, I cut the triangles the wrong way, but it worked out. Himself messed up his corners and spent so much time putting more glue on that he reached maximum glue saturation level and nothing would stick to anything, so we left that one alone long enough to dry some. We rolled glue over one side, placed the canvas roll on top of the camper and pulled it down to where we wanted it, and then smoothed it out using hands and spreaders. Then glued the roof and rolled the canvas across it, then the further side and dropped the canvas down. About 20' of canvas, all told. At that point, it was too dark to do any more, so we had to call it a day.

Day 18: I got up at 6, hit the entire camper with another shot of TB2, and then started trimming the canvas and gluing the wrap-under parts. When the hardware store opened at 7:30, I bought a staple gun. Best decision ever. Glue, slap canvas down, supersaturate outside with more glue, and when gravity tries to defeat me, BAM! Staple. I will eventually pull all of them out. Sprinkled a tiny bit at 1pm, but I kept working. At 3, had to run some errands.. annnd totally forgot my phone was on my bumper. It is gone for good, so all my progress pictures are as well Himself showed up at 4, just as I was pouring the primer to put on the first coat. We started painting, and the sky went that scary green/yellow colour that usually precedes a tornado, so we ran the tarp over the top. Himself engineered it to tent out over the sides, so we kept painting. We had just given everything its first coat when the skies opened up and a monsoon happened. For much of it, we were bracing the tarps down so they didn't huff up and snap back against the camper. It was exciting. The rain let up but didn't stop, so we installed the door and called it a night.

Tomorrow is the day I leave for the camping event.. with the trailer. The roof still needs to be coated with primer, so I'll be waking up at ohdark to do that. I also have to replace my phone, because driving 200 miles with a camper we literally just got done building seems like one of those times a cell phone is NECESSARY. Oh, and I have to install the lights, but I might cheat and get the magnetic set from Harbor Freight to get me to the event and install the actual lights once I'm there. Depends how much time I have before I have to hit the road.

Once I have a new phone, I will get a picture. Due to the storm and the current colour, the temporary name of this foamie is The White Whale. Though The Wicked Witch would also work. For now, I'm going to shower and see if I can get the dried TB2 out of my hair without shaving my head

[Falcongirl]

6am, the day I need to take the camper camping: Off to put primer on the roof.

[Falcongirl]

12pm, we have two coats of primer on the roof. Here are the pictures. Right now, it's basically a BWB, because we don't have time to put the windows in before this event. :/ I also need to re-paint the poor hubcaps


Heading out to site in a few hours. This.. will be a bit more exciting than I had hoped.

[plectrudis]

Amazing!!! Congratulations to you!

[OP827]

It is like a house extreme makeover show, but only in a form of foamie trailer.
You guys have pushed the (envelope) build and showed all here how quickly this can be done!
Congrats!

[KCStudly]

The profile looks nice and straight. Sorry to have been concerned for you and your methods; it looks to have turned out quite nicely!

[daveesl77]

This is a REALLY interesting build! Wow. I have missed the prior posts but now seeing what you have, this is great! I'll be interested to read your thoughts after your trip. Keep up the good work and well done.

dave