Building The Atma Travelear Teardrop

[KCStudly]

That is just beautiful work!

It is going to come out very nicely in the end. You surely have something to be proud of now, but I can only imagine the pride you will have when showing it at your first gathering. Nice.

[nevadatear]

WhEw Dave it has been so long since a post we were worried that our guess for people's choice at irg wasn't going to make it". Get er done! Looking fabulous. Apparent you changed your mind about how you were doing your fenders. Those look super. Need special accoutrements for the work of art you are building.

[mezmo]

'Just LOVE a natural finished birch Interior !

It's turning out beautifully !

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[DMcCam]

That is just beautiful work!

It is going to come out very nicely in the end. You surely have something to be proud of now, but I can only imagine the pride you will have when showinging it at your first gathering. Nice.

Thank you very much. I sure am excited about getting out and going to our first gathering.

WhEw Dave it has been so long since a post we were worried that our guess for people's choice at irg wasn't going to make it". Get er done! Looking fabulous. Apparent you changed your mind about how you were doing your fenders. Those look super. Need special accoutrements for the work of art you are building.

Hi Debbie, Well, the good news is we are getting her done...the bad news is there is no way we can do it by IRG 4. As my brother says, 'it's all in the finish.' I can't rush now and have to do something over later. The fenders are in line with the original design and actually a better fit than the ones I wanted to do. Accessories!!!

'Just LOVE a natural finished birch Interior !

It's turning out beautifully !

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

Thanks Norm!

So now the run for Twain and Teardrops! Here' where we're at...


All the doors, drawers and shelves have been finished with their topcoat.


Right after I re-installed all the doors and such, we got our new mattress!!! It's 3" of dense foam with 2" of memory foam on top. The best part is it fits just right.








The galley is all top coated, all the stuff is re-installed, ready for Formica and icebox (when we get it done of course).


We ended up over correcting for the curve of the hatch. To get it back to the correct curve I added these little clamps; three on each side. They held the hatch in line for the top 1/8" skin.








The hatch is skinned!!! At least most of it. The last little bit is all the wood work left.






Here's the interior with all the lights, switches and coat hooks installed.





Now on to the aluminum!

Cheers,

Dave

[aggie79]

My goodness Dave,

When you post an update, it is major. The Atma Travelear looks fantastic! Goals are nice, but I wouldn't worry about deadlines. It will be ready to camp when it is ready to camp. Of course, this is coming from someone who spent 3 years on a build. Keep plugging away. You're in the home stretch now.

Take care,
Tom

[nevadatear]

You Guys are still coming to irg aren't you? Don't let not having a teardrop stop you. Chris squier is coming in the bottom half of his trailer! You are registered and paid. Remember we went to our first gathering by sleeping in the back of the rav4 in the snow ! You will be so glad you came, trailer or not! We are leaving Wednesday am from sparks.

It's about the lifestyle, a teardrop frame of mind, the friends and the camping, not what you are camping in!

[nevadatear]

Oh, and it looks fantastic of course. I got you done for twain and tears. And drag it out to cabelas for a day, even if it is not done.

[DMcCam]

My goodness Dave,

When you post an update, it is major. The Atma Travelear looks fantastic! Goals are nice, but I wouldn't worry about deadlines. It will be ready to camp when it is ready to camp. Of course, this is coming from someone who spent 3 years on a build. Keep plugging away. You're in the home stretch now.

Take care,
Tom

Great to hear from you Tom! Thank you as always for your kind support sir. I'm hoping she'll be ready very soon now.

You Guys are still coming to irg aren't you? Don't let not having a teardrop stop you. Chris squier is coming in the bottom half of his trailer! You are registered and paid. Remember we went to our first gathering by sleeping in the back of the rav4 in the snow ! You will be so glad you came, trailer or not! We are leaving Wednesday am from sparks.

It's about the lifestyle, a teardrop frame of mind, the friends and the camping, not what you are camping in!

Hey there Debbie, Alas, my body can't do the tent or car thing anymore so, darn it nope, we won't make it this time. Cabel's looks very possible though!

All the best,

Dave

[High Desert]

Sure hope you can make Cabelas Dave, would love to see the trailer in person. And if its not quite complete yet it can be proof to the non-believers that yes, regular people really do build their own. You can't buy stuff this good

[StandUpGuy]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all for your kind compliments, they keep the motivation level up! I'm currently using Blender 3D software instead of 3DS Max. I don't do much 3D professionally anymore and can't justify the single user price Autodesk wants for Max. Blender is free open source software that is amazingly close the the high end packages. They ask for donations if you make money using the software which I'm very happy to do. Hey Debbie, We'd love to caravan with you two! Hopefully I'll get 'er done in time.

Yesterday we got all the aluminum for the Travelear!!! A huge THANK YOU to Grant at L'il Bear!!! Grant is the go-to man for your supplies!

Back to the build,

Dave

Intersting about the Blender software. I used 3D Studio Max for many years and then switch companies and learned Strata 3D. It is much simpler than Max but renders OK. I recently purchased it for home use.

Your build is incredible! The cabinetry is like 40s Deco furniture. Very unique.

[DMcCam]

Sure hope you can make Cabelas Dave, would love to see the trailer in person. And if its not quite complete yet it can be proof to the non-believers that yes, regular people really do build their own. You can't buy stuff this good

Hi Shaun, I think Cabelas is very possible but she can't go too far without a VIN or license. I'll need to get that done too. It will be great to meet you in person sir.

Intersting about the Blender software. I used 3D Studio Max for many years and then switch companies and learned Strata 3D. It is much simpler than Max but renders OK. I recently purchased it for home use.

Your build is incredible! The cabinetry is like 40s Deco furniture. Very unique.

Hi SUG, The main reason for Blender for me was the constant updates and huge user base. The new 'cycles' rendering engine is very close to the other platforms too. OK, the price is pretty cool.

I'm so glad you like the design. My idea for the Travelear was a 30's - 40's deco trailer that was restored in the late 50's.

This weekend was a little slow, I think the heat took it out of us.




I did finish construction on all the wood, the hatch is ready for finish!!!

On to electrical and aluminum!

Dave

[DMcCam]

We missed everyone at IRG 4 but did take advantage of the time to get more done on the Travelear.

We prepped the passenger side for gluing the .040 anodized aluminum to it. Then drilled the holes for the lights and to cut the door out.

Here's the aluminum glued up with the exterior edge all trimmed up using a 3/8" router following bit.

This is where we hit a snag. The smallest router bit we could find that would work was 3/8". The door's clearance is only 1/4". I'm using Grant's 'T' molding but to bend it to my tight door radii I'll need to neck down the inside to about 1/8". If we used the router to trim out the door I might not be able to cover the aluminum edge with the trim. After a few hours of trial and error (mostly error), we found that a Dremmel 'zip' type bit cut the aluminum very well and was less than 1/4" in diameter. So we ground off the cutting threads of about 1/4" of the end of it so it wouldn't cut and smoothed it round. This made a make-shift following bit that took less than a 1/16" extra aluminum off the outside of the door frame.


This is what the passenger side looks like all trimmed up.


I forgot to take a shot of the driver's side in the shop so here's a shot in the garage.

My brother got the roof all prepped for laminating the .063 aluminum but we ran out of time. Hopefully we can get it done in the next couple of days so I can start the trim in earnest.

All the best,

Dave

[nevadatear]

And you missed a FABULOUS time! In Redding on our way home. Will call you with your stuff from grant when we get to Reno. Glad your making good progress.

[burlesot]

This build is phenomenal!

I love everything about your design and the finish.

I especially like the details you put into the cabinetry. The bent drawers on the inside are gorgeous. Did you bend them by hand? How did you do so?

This build, from model to finish will be an inspiration to me as I plan and move forward!

TB

[DMcCam]

And you missed a FABULOUS time! In Redding on our way home. Will call you with your stuff from grant when we get to Reno. Glad your making good progress.

Hey Debbie, We can't wait to hear about it! Thank you so much for bringing our stuff from IRG, see you soon.

This build is phenomenal!

I love everything about your design and the finish.

I especially like the details you put into the cabinetry. The bent drawers on the inside are gorgeous. Did you bend them by hand? How did you do so?

This build, from model to finish will be an inspiration to me as I plan and move forward!

TB

Hi Todd, Wow! Thank you very much sir! I don't remember which page of my journal the bending form is on, but it's somewhere in there. We made a bending form and laminated 4 sheets of 1/8" Baltic birch plywood to make the aft cabinet and drawer faces. It's not too hard to do really. I'd advise making the form a little wider than your material to be bent. I found most of my information on bending plywood online.

Thanks for stopping by folks,

Dave