Woody Benroy the "Le Baron"

[flbikejunkie]

Finally getting around to posting pictures of my build. Thanks to all who have contributed to the wealth of information on this forum. This is my first build and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Except for the sweating and cursing after I realized I had made a boo boo. I picked Le Baron in honor of my mothers 1978 Chrysler Le Baron Town and Country station wagon on which I learned to drive when I was 16. Since then I have always had a soft spot for "Woodies". I don't have a picture of the actual car but found some great examples on the internet.



I ordered my Northern Tool 5x8 trailer and picked it up at the local store. Boxes were in good shape with no missing pieces.


I assembled the frame and it's first journey was to carry our bikes on a camping trip to North Carolina in June of last year. My wife loves to hike and I love to bike.


I spent the rest of the summer planning the build and acquiring parts. In September I started the build. I was a little reluctant to post a build thread since I am such a novice builder. I have learned so much from other builds that hopefully some of the mistakes I made can help others to avoid the same problems.

So on to the build.

First addition to the frame where these jack stands for the back.


Next was building the floor frame. I bought a Kregs pocket screw maker which made the process much easier.


My first boo boo was buying cheap 1x2 at HD and assembling the floor over two weekends in the midst of a hot and humid September. I sealed the bottom with roofing tar but the wood warped and would not lie square on the frame when I went to mount it.


So on to the second floor. I bought better quality 2x4 and birch hardwood ply. The second one came out much nicer.


You can see the portable AC I used to help keep the garage bearable in the Florida heat.
I did make a minor mistake with the second floor. I could not get 5 foot wide ply so I cut two 4x8 sheets and joined two 5x4 pieces to make one 5x8 floor. One of the sheets I made an error in measuring and cut it 4x4 by mistake. I added some additional floor framing to join the additional piece back in.

I sealed the bottom with two coats of minwax helmsman spar urethane and 3 coats of auto body spray undercoating since the tar was so messy with the first floor.



I cut out the sides from 3/4 birch ply. Sanded them even with belt sander and coated the floor and inner walls with more helmsman spar
urethane.





The floor was secured to the frame and this time it fit perfectly.


Here are the walls up for the first time with a temporary roof spar.


After seeing pine tongue and groove used on a number of other builds I decided to use it for the headboard and foot board of the cabin.



Next up was finishing the roof spars and framing for the fantastic fan.

It fits!


Thanks for looking!
Rick from Florida

[Gunguy05]

Welcome aboard! Looks like you are moving right along.

Where are you in Fl? Yes, the AC will come in handy, we are planning on one for our build.. It's almost as necessary as the tires around here (GA)


Good luck and keep us posted!

[tac422]

Hi Rick,
Your build is looking Great !

Where did you get the jack stands from ?
Tac

[flbikejunkie]

Tac,
I got them off Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Atwood-82302-Stab ... wood+82302
Just got to love Prime shipping.
Rick

[martymcfly]

You could use the Corvette for the TV.

[flbikejunkie]

I've always used our minivan as TV. Here it is testing out the lights on the trailer. The jeep patriot on the right is my daughters and the camaro on the left is my older sons car.


With the two older ones out of the house my wife finally agreed to get rid of the minivan. In September, the van's lease was up and back she went to the dealer. I had installed a Class I hitch on my 98 corvette not for towing but to mount a bike rack. So needing to pick up my wood to start the build, I hooked up the corvette to the trailer and came back home ready to start.


The corvette is back in the garage and the new TV will now pull the teardrop when she's done.

[flbikejunkie]

My wife and I wanted a more open feeling inside and decided to go with just a large shelf for the duffel bags instead of cabinets.


The spars were then installed permanently. The rest of the inner ceiling was luan which I glued together before installing.






I glued together two oak spars to support the hatch


Here's the shelf after the back wall went up.


Next was making the trim from scrap wood.




That's it for now
Rick

[flbikejunkie]

Next up was the electric wiring. I was the most worried about this part since I have little to no electric installation background. I read all the prior posts on simple electric systems and the section in the generic benroy plans. With that help, I was able to complete the task with no difficulty. I just took my time and made sure I kept the wires organized. Here are all the parts I bought before installation.

The best investment was the Blue Sea Systems 5026 ST Blade Fuse Block with Cover I bought from Amazon. This marine fuse block had both the positive and negative bus and great directions.

Next are pictures of the wiring.



Here is the LED reading light installed and the galley light



Fuse block hooked up to the battery


110V super simple electric with battery tender to charge. I have two electric strips one in the cabin and one in the galley.

[flbikejunkie]

Next was insulation. I cut it to size with a box cutter.




I then glued on the external luan skin.



The hatch frame was then constructed and stained


Hatch was skinned with luan with good side inside as I am planning on leaving it with varnished wood.


Next was the small sink. It will has a manual pump and will draw from a 7 gallon bottle beneath the counter.


I then stained the wood trim.


The wood was then sealed with multiple coats of CPES

[flbikejunkie]

The last 3 weeks, I have been working hard each weekend to finish up. After the CPES I applied multiple coats of spar urethane and attached the trim




Next I caulked the space between the trim and the roof.

[flbikejunkie]

I decided that I needed more water protection for the roof living in Florida so I skinned the top with FRP. Here I am gluing the 4x5 section on.



I overlapped the pieces by 11/2 inches. I then used aluminum transition strips from Lowes as trim and to cover the seams. The aluminum was very easy to bend into place.



Skinning the hatch


I bought my hurricane hinge and doors from Frank at Vintech. I ordered it longer than the width of the camper as everyone has suggested so that it will overhang the edge and act like a rain gutter. I had to trim the bottom to fit with a hack saw.


Hatch hung for the first time.

[flbikejunkie]

I then cut the hole for the fantastic fan and installed it with butyl tape.


Fan inside


I used the extra oak 1x2 as a galley prop. I attached it to the counter with the bracket and to the hatch with a screw when open. It folds down on to the counter with the hatch closed.



Here's the galley with all the kitchen supplies in place. Once we've tried it for a while, I may add some cabinets and drawers in the future.


I made the bumper from a pine 2x4, stained, epoxied, and with spar urethane.


Today I took it out for the first drive. My wife snapped this photo in the driveway.


Everything rolled smoothly and I took it on the Interstate and could hardly tell it was back there. I stopped at the grocery store on the way back to pick up supplies for dinner and snapped a few photos.





Now on to the first camping trip!

[rowerwet]

[Juneaudave]

Congratulations!!! It looks really nice!

[Woodbutcher]

Nicely done. Now go out and enjoy it!