Tear build without a plan

[91kuhndog]

You are absolutley correct Becky. I dont want to finish this one up and regret not doing something right. I did get about 5 hours this afternoon to start another phase of my build. I finished the subwall between the galley and the bunk area. I added a degree of dificulty by building an off-set wall to allow room for my 15 gallon water tank and pump. I also started the top cabinets in the galley. I'll work on the cabinet doors this week.... I also started pulling, soldering and shrink-wrapping the 12V DC power wires to all the lights, fantastic fan, and other 12V stuff. The 110V will be done tomorrow though. I need to do some research on a roof mounted vent fan to pull the hot air off my air conditioner... I may just mount another 14" roof vent up there with a manual opener. Any suggestions out there?








tomorrow will be a slow day... wiring, electrical hook-ups, wood puddy and interior sanding. I have about 8 hours of trim, sanding, painting, and detail oriented stuff to do this week before I attempt the base cabinets in the galley and install the water tank & pump. Otherwise, a hot, Sunny Carolina day of relaxation and a project!

[KCStudly]

Nice progress. She is looking great! Those wheels keep making me think of late model Corvettes.
Keep it up and before you know it you will be camping.

[davidniebeling]

Oh heck yeah, Lookin' awesome! You'll be camping in no time!

[91kuhndog]

Thanks guys... you're right KC, I had a thought of using a set of 17" C4 wheels off my 84 but I found three of these Mustang wheels on CL for a great price, and with new rubber. I didnt get any pix this afternoon but got about 3 more hours this afternoon. I finished the countertop this afternoon and the base cabinets for the kitchen. I also finished the ceiling panel install too.... now i have to wait on the 6" roof mounted fan to arrive, to pull hot air off the air conditioner. My 12 year old wood puddied all the staple heads and bad spots on the inside, I belt sanded the outside and fixed any screw heads that might hit the aluminum siding.

This week, I should be able to get the wiring in and done, 12V wiring complete so I can hook up shore power...

[91kuhndog]

Wow, it feels like an eternity since I last worked on the Bug... between bad weather and weekend duty, my build was the last thing on my schedule. Well, this afternoon I drug her around to the driveway and evaluated everything I've got to do. So, in a few short hours, I managed to get my air conditioning fan base made and installed... the last of the roof supports installed, the power panel cabinet door hung, all I have left to do with that is cut the hole in the door for the converter panel and mount it. I started pulling wires for both 12V and 110V and ran all my wires from my power "IN" outlet up to my converter panel. OH YEAH, I put the wood vinyl down in the galley too and got all the cabinets reinstalled.... My hope is, by the end of the week, to have a great deal of the wires pulled and lights hooked up, along with the fans, stereo, and all the other bells and whistles it'll have! This is gettin fun!

[91kuhndog]

Made a little progress on the tear build today... I finished all the 12V DC wiring, worked on the 110V install and finished the formica job on the countertop. BTW, if folks out there are frugal enough, you can pick some of this stuff stuff very reasonable. The 3/4" oak plywood had a gouge in it, the mgr marked it off 75%, same thing on the formica except it was $93 and he gaive it to me for $15 due to some cracks. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get my 110 finished, power converter installed and a smoke test done on both power systems. Also, I'd like to knock out the base cabinets in the galley and finish all my water tank hook up's so I can test that too. Pix of todays work!

[AlgoDan]

Looks like good progress on the trailer, wont be long before you smell the campfire. Keep it up, your getting there.

[91kuhndog]

Thanks Dan... I put in a real long day today working on it. I can smell the campfire now! I managed to finish the countertop and backsplash install today, I got all the cabinet doors put together and Kilzed and I finished all the cabinets in the galley. I'm going to start making my rear hatch this week. That ought to be interesting as I have read a lot of forum entries about offsets and seals, I'm about to figure it out. Mr Frank Bear has been a big help and I'm using a lot of his extruded aluminum hatch trim pieces to finish this up. Once the hatch is done, I plan on getting the aluminum skins on... lets see what the week brings...

-Brad

[91kuhndog]

Well, this week has been a pretty successful one on the build but I did a poor job of taking pictures... I finished the galley cabinets this afternoon, painted everything up and installed the new stereo. I still have a few wires to hook up on the radio and a few other odd's and ends to finish in the galley and it'll be done. I'm going to start my rear door build tomorrow afternoon, I was waiting on some aluminum that's being bent for me to get done... but I think I can build the hatch without the aluminum being here. Here are a couple pictures of the galley, with all the doors installed.





That has to be the ULGIEST refrigerator I have ever seen. I think I'll pick up some appliance paint tomorrow and repaint that thing some light beige color... that nasty orage is really messing up my color combination in the galley.

[KCStudly]

Looks great. The straight back does appear to have a very functional attitude.

[Wolffarmer]

I have been thinking about building a straight back on my next one. Put all the tail lights on the door and hinge on the left. Open it up and can check the lights real easy.

Your trailer is looking good.

Randy

[91kuhndog]

Thanks KC & Randy. Randy, I bought all the hinge's and mounts to side mount this door but i worried about the weight of the door on one side warping the plywood. I opted for a heavy duty hurricane hinge from Frank Bear at Vintek. I cut all my wood this afternoon and was able to get it roughed in. Then I took it apart. I started looking at the way AlgoDan (Dan) mounted his latches in his back door and I'm going to have to route out some material to do that. His rear door turned out exceptionally well. I hope to have ALL my power hooked up tomorrow and tested 100% so I can get the insulation installed and start putting the plywood on the roof. Working so quickly, I find my little stuff (punch list itmes) adds up real fast & I have to stop, back up and pay attention to the details. I did minor, detail oriented touch up stuff for 6 hours today. Good thing is, I can now get busy tomorrow knocking out the hatch frame and get the wiring run through it. Pix coming tomorrow although they might not show much.

[rmef27]

youre making some great progress.your hatch area is looking really nice but I agree with you wanting to paint that referigerator.

[91kuhndog]

OK, I got about 2 hours this afternoon to work on the hatch door frame. I was able to get all my wood ripped and pocket screwed together. Speaking of geting ripped.... has anyone bought Oak or Poplar lately? Great day, the big box stores are the only ones who carry it on the islands and they're very proud of their hardwoods. Here are a few pictures of the frame hung in the back of the trailer....

[91kuhndog]

WOW, it's been two weeks since I've been able to work on the tear so I took the liberty of dragging her around front last night and working on it. I have worked on it a couple times in the past couple weeks but only an hour or so at a time. So yesterday I completed my smoke test (electrical system test) of both the A/C & D/C curcuits. Everything tested great! Fantastic Fan, AC vent fan, all the lights, and the radio too. Better yet, I plugged her into the 2000W inverter generator I used on the 5th wheel and I was able to run the refrigerator and the AC at the same time without an issues. The Champion inverter only runs about 40% throttle with both running at the same time. I was also able to get the AC hung in the cabin area, build the TV mount in the cabin are, I built the rear shelf and installed my paneling on the lower rear wall. Here are a few pix for updates showing the battery hooked up so I could complete my voltage tests and make sure the converter is working properly.

Great thing is... I have 100% of everything needed to finish up, I'm just lacking time







I'm quickly coming up on another time span where work and vacation will keep me from making progress... My one sticky point though is I'm waiting on my metal for the sides. My metal distributor has ordered my aluminum 3 times and all three times it's ben delivered damaged. Today I went to pick up the top (only piece that came in not damaged) and they bent it wrong. So I will be on hold again until Monday waiting on 3 more 5x12 sheets of .060 mill finish to come in.