Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I invested in a small roller and a small roller pan, That worked really well, my trick was to put the glue down on the trailer and get the canvas adhered to it before it dried. I had to rewet with the glue several spots before I put the canvas down, the roller came in handy for that too. I did have a small brush handy to really wet some edges down. the day I really glued it was hot and the first dry day we had in a while. I rolled the canvas up to do the top and push pins came in handy to hold the canvas on the sides and in several spots. I cannot stress enough to use the glue liberally. it is going to drip and make your world not just messy but really stickie and messy. Use some type of scraper, plastic to rake along the canvas to push the canvas down into the glue. one thing about TBII it will dry and you can peal it off your skin. A shower with one of the bath scrubbies and all the glue comes off. No harsh chemicals. Just remember to take lots of ....I would love to see your plan in action!!!

Mary C.

KC a while back I posted this. Which is where I fit the idea for my radius cutter from. I well get pictures of mine soon. But basically I copied his from memory.

lthomas987 wrote:
I did manage to score an old solder gun to use as a foam cutter. I am thinking of following in the steps of allan1 and his foam cutting with a solder gun and ground wire. http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=909609#p909609

Ah yes. I had forgotten about that little gem.

KCStudly wrote:Ah yes. I had forgotten about that little gem.

So anyhow somewhere in there he talks about cutting the grooves with a hack saw. I got lazy and did it with a power saw. the groove was too big, so too much of my wire is burried. Also I used 2" PVC instead of 1" wooden dowel, to shape the curve.

So this weekend I did get the linen on the outside of my trailer. This post has a lot of pictures but probably not as many as I'd like. I missed a lot of steps due to being gluey.

As with so many things the prep took SOO much longer than the actual covering.
I used about a gallon of TBII on the outside I started with about a 1/4 bottle left in one bottle and ended with just a bit under that in another. I think the linen being so much lighter and thinner just takes up less glue. I used a 1/4" nap roller. I sanded all the foam with 80grit until it was suede like instead of shiny.

I also last week got a new TV, and we had a visitor while we were working. I am pretty sure my neighbors were having another one of those what the hell are the crazy white ladies up to today weekends though. EVERYBODY was driving by REALLY SLOW. Almost nobody stopped to say hello, except this big fellow.

Here is where we started the day: I rolled the trailer into the driveway. You can see the bias linen reinforcing strips I already glued on for the floor join. I am pretty sure this was the first trip out of the garage. We finished sanding and pricking the exterior.





We had lunch sitting in the garage. Too many bees in the grass.

We put both sides on first and then went back and trimmed and rolled the edges over the radiused curve. I ended up doing that curve with a surform plane and then going back and cleaning it smooth with the sander.



We then went back and marked the top for the placement of the narrower strip of linen (trailer 66" wide linen 60" wide. So we cut an 18" wide piece and lapped it 12" on the top and 6" to roll down over the sides.
Then we lapped the 60" wide piece over the narrow piece and hanging off the edge some as well. During this process it was super handy to have a scaffold on one side of the trailer and a step stool on the other (two scafolds would ahve been genius) and two helpers. One on the ground running around with a squirt bottle of water for our hands and the glue roller and brush. And one of us on each side of the roof.





Apparentely neither photographer could resist a picture of the sun coming through the window openings and linen. We just each got a different side.
The view from inside:

I then went and did the inside of the roof on sunday morning. I learned at TON. sadly mostly too late. so I will share for you all.

• while stretching the fabric on the outside is great.You cannot stretch at ALL on the inside. or as it starts to dry and shrink it pulls away from the inside of the curves.
• TBII washes out of hair much better than GG.
• right before you cut your kerfs go ahead and do the bulk of your interior sanding while everything is flat. I'd let the exterior sanding wait since inevitable garage dings will happen but the inside of the roof was a BEAR to sand.
• staple gun is your friend, I stapled a lot
• if you wrap your fabric around a thin light stick you can keep it rolled and held out of the way with only one hand all the way across the trailer. I used a 1/4" strip ripped off the edge of a 2x4 outside it was long inside I cut it narrower than the fabric by an inch or so.

LT, that came out really really NICE !!! Yes covering the inside is a bit tricky eh !!!

I know you've discussed painting the trailer, but I think you should at least some of that fabric as an accent stripe. You'd be part of the "glamping" craze. I think it would look cool!!!

Looking very good!

If I didn't know about tiny foamy trailers, I'd be driving by, craning my neck, too!

Try wearing a shower cap when you are working on the ceiling.

Oh, and that print may show through the paint, even after two coats. The background of that fabric looks to be a blue-green and I understand that green is one of the hardest colors to cover over with paint. One room that I painted needed 3 coats before the mint-ish green walls didn't show through. But also, I never used that brand of paint again. Having the flower print lightly show through might be a nice feature. Once you get a little paint on, you'll know.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! Tonight we finished covering the insides. I definitely need to do something about the two places where the fabric pulled away from the inside curve. Maybe injecting glue underneath and using sticks to push it up.

HI.

If it pulled away more than a small bubble its because its too short from shrinkage.
You will likely need to cut it and add a patch of some sort. I did my roof in 6-8" strips
and still ran across it in one place.

That looks great! I had problems with my canvas delaminating and coming loose in places, but it looks like linen is the way to go! Sure takes curves better than canvas. Looking good!

pchast wrote:HI.

If it pulled away more than a small bubble its because its too short from shrinkage.
You will likely need to cut it and add a patch of some sort. I did my roof in 6-8" strips
and still ran across it in one place.

That is really valuable info!

Linen is super stretchy when wet. So if I squirted somewhere to much that would explain it.

If you want to always be able to find your TD in the campground -
Just get some clear base [the paint before they add pigments and color]
and coat the linen with that. I'm sure No One Else will have that color
and pattern on theirs!

Congrats on your efforts so far, it's looking splendid.

Cheers,
Norm/meamo