The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

[KCStudly]

Thanks GPW.

[KCStudly]

Thursday I did some more touchup filler on the curb side door jamb and under the floor on the screw head holes on that side. It was dark so I had the floor lamp on the curb side, leaving the bench a bit dark; so I busted out the lanterns. Forgot to take a picture of then with them burning, but remembered today in the light.



The hanging Turd (bah dump bump) still had fuel and pressure in it from last year, but the 228E big hat had none. Still haven’t tracked down the minor pressure leak on that one, but I suspect the valve stem Grafoil packing.

Thursday’s rain turned into Friday’s snow. A wet heavy snow with temps hovering just above freezing, it snowed heavily from early morning thru until quitting time leaving behind about 2 inches of wet packing slush with another 2 or 3 inches of fluff on top. Headed straight home to do removal chores; the snow blower clogged readily, but I managed to get thru it.

Saturday was colder again, but it warmed up enough today to get some work in. I started by sanding along the underside of the curb side floor and the few areas of the door surround that I had touched up. What a pain sanding overhead under the floor! No choice but to wear full goggles, but they fog up instantly so you can’t see a thing. I have a pair of dirt bike goggles with better vents somewhere that I need to dig up. Sanding by braille.

Despite the forecast for overnight lows around 29 deg F, it was about 44 deg F by 1pm, so I decided to go for it and glass the curb side door opening. Here’s that roll of 2x9oz tape.


Since the tape has a nice straight bound edge on it, I decided to try a variation on the PMPP technique. Rather than use oversized plastic on top and bottom and then cut the excess away, I cut a slightly wider piece to my 30 inch strip length, with one edge cut nice and straight. The plan was to lay each length of tape along this straight edge; wet it out; and then use the single ply of plastic to transport and place the strip into position, before peeling the backing plastic away. That way there would be no cutting of the wet layups (almost none), less use of plastic (I would be able to use the same piece over and over again), and I would still get the benefit of the control that the plastic brings in keeping the cloth in the desired shape while placing it.

Here you can just see the transfer piece of plastic (with black sharpie outline around three sides) taped to another sacrificial piece of plastic over the plastic covered bench.


From there I used the plastic as a gauge to cut 4 strips of the cloth tape at 30 inches long, and another for the sill piece a little longer than planned leaving an inch or so for trimming.

I mixed up a 3 pump batch, checking weights on the small digital scale and adjusting accordingly (the pumps had bled down and despite thinking that I had primed them, they burped on the first pump stroke). I brushed wet onto the first two sides of the header, the top corner radii, and the corresponding portion of the door seal flange with a 1 inch chip brush with full length bristles; then wetted out the first 30 inch strip doing the final stabbing with another 1 inch chip brush with the bristles cut down pretty far (about 1/3 of full length) so that they were nice and stiff.

Whereas on the hatch sealing edges I had done each side in one long strip, I had gravity working with me there; here I was glad that I had decided to do the shorter 30 inch strips. They were very manageable and the plastic made it relatively easy to lay the tape right into the inside corner of the seal flange. Once I had traces of wet on the bench plastic, the transfer piece would stay put in the tack well enough that I didn’t need to tape it down again, and the traces of wet on the transfer piece made it easy to lay the next strip of dry cloth down to where it stayed put along the edge well during the next wet out. After about the third strip I realized that one edge of the cloth tape was a lot crisper than the other, so from there on I took care to place the crisp edge against the plastic edge, getting a crisper edge in the corner. Also, by the time I got back to wetting the next two areas of the door jamb, what was left in the pot was starting to gel just a tad. I was still able to brush it onto the wood, and it was going to be fine for that, but I had a little bit left over that I did not feel comfortable trying to get to soak into the next piece of cloth; so 2 pump batches from there up to the last smaller piece that was a 1 pumper.

Here you can see the wet door seal flange and front jamb. The 2 inch wide tape was the perfect width leaving just a mere 1/4 inch or less to be trimmed off after the cure. Note how crisply this piece butts into the corner.


Compare that to the rear jamb where it looks a little bit more like a piece of welting built up in the corner. That’s the difference between the tight and loose edges of the tape. (The cloudy looking area under the wet near the sharpie mark is where there was cured filled epoxy underneath, not a dry patch or bubble.)


Here’s an example of where two of the strips butted, in this case up on the header. Some of the strands at the ends of the strips pulled out a little, and I trimmed some off with the scissors. There may be a slight ridge there that will need to be sanded, and others may need a bit of filler, but that will be easier to deal with after the cure. In hind sight I suppose I could have put a little patch of 6oz over these, but then I would have probably had to sand most of that off to get it fair again, so I think this will clean up better in the end. Again, I chose not to overlap these seams because I’m not looking for structural strength here, just armor against wear and tear, and binding and sealing of the wood grain.


This front jamb butt joint has a little separation out on the flox corner (but I think it will be okay after I glass the wall and ease the corner slightly). Again, easier to add a little filler latter after the cure, than it would be to get it on there now. It’s so easy to disturb these edges when they are wet and vulnerable. Also note how the butt seam didn’t land exactly on my reference mark. That’s why I left the last piece a little long and trimmed it to final length (along with the plastic) after placing it down.


Here’s the sill all wet and glassy.


There was about half a pump left in the cup so I mixed in a touch of the 403 filler and touched up some of the screw holes that I was not happy with under the curb side floor edge. (Sorry for the blurry pic.)


Managed to stretch that and do some make up filling of the pocket screw holes under the front locker bump out.



I’m happy with it and hope that it all cures properly before the temps drop again. More snow in the forecast for tomorrow morning and into the day.

[OP827]

I like the warm look of epoxy reinforced wood, nice work

[KCStudly]

Thanks OP. The plan is to paint the jambs body color and the outside faces of door seal flanges with the same black paint that I used on some of the interior details (around the inside edge of the seal flange, and the same color as the powder coat on the front locker trim frame… also plan to do the trim plate on the ceiling outlet and the washer plates for the hatch actuators the same). That should transition into the black trim seal well and hide any lumpiness in the corners.

Despite the wintry weather and icy roads, I couldn't resist going out to the shop after work to see if the layup had cured okay. Sometimes the amine will make you think that it's still gummy, and it does seem to take a while (more than a day) for the "green" to come off of it, but everything seemed to be fine. Perhaps a little resin rich in some areas, but I can live with that on the door sill.

I used the utility knife to trim most of the excess cloth, what little there was, combined with the serrated knife for the tougher spots, and the small scrapper. The scrapper seemed to work well on some of the raised stuff on the faces of the butt seams, too. Then I did a quick scrub with a used greenie pad and cold water, but will probably have to hit it again more thoroughly.

I took pictures after the fact, but apparently left the camera in the loft (at least I hope that’s where it is).

[GPW]

I can’t imagine how you can get anything done in those COLD temperatures ... I’ve been up North in February .... felt like a free Ken Snowman ... Here we have to wait till it gets above 70F to go outside without dressing like “Nanook of the North “ ... True eh !!!

[KCStudly]

The trick is to layer up your clothing. I tend to run hot anyway, so for me, long pants (jeans), a heavy coat, ball cap and gloves usually is more than enough. In the shop I keep a long sleeve tee shirt for when I'm glassing (plus nitrile gloves and Tyvek sleeves), and a long sleeve denim button down shirt for when I'm sanding.

Just gotta keep moving.

When the snow blows in your ear it's like a wet willy.

[wagondude]

Here we have to wait till it gets above 70F to go outside without dressing like “Nanook of the North “ ... True eh !!!

Or a parade. . No one cares what the weather is when there is a parade.

[GPW]

Well, there is that eh !!! And when you’re standing around with a million other people (literally) it does get less cold ... then there is the point of feeling no pain

[KCStudly]

The camera ended up being in my coat pocket. Here are the pics from Monday after trimming the curb side door jamb FG.

Rear jamb; and close up.



The sill. You can see how some of the fringe bunched up against the inner seal flange (the white areas). This will probably get buried in a small bead of filler.


In this close up of the sill you can see how I started to fair the butt joint in the glass tape by scraping the ridge a bit just to the right of the black line.


I guess this is more detail than necessary to the point of micro-boredom.

Didn’t make it out to the shop today, and tomorrow I have a spirometry test to renew my respirator qualification for work, so that’s not looking good for progress either. This weekend we will be having some truly cold weather with daytime temps in the teens and overnights in negative digits, F. Not even planning on leaving the house if I don’t have to; plus the drags start back up kicking things off at the Winternationals in my old hometown of Pomona.

[KCStudly]

Sunday was the four (4) year anniversary of this thread, and I started lurking and designing about a year prior to that.

[GPW]

You’ve been Busy!!

[wagondude]

And almost half as many pages as the "big thread". Your catching up

[KCStudly]

It was a great spring weather day today. Sun shining, mid 50 temps, a great day to get back after the build.

My goal for the day… or at least by the end of the weekend… was to get the under floor filler work complete and to glass in the street side door surround. Almost got it all done today but ended up spending more time under the front locker bump out than I had expected.

But first, there was a recent post showing how a builder's foam had shrunk under their canvas leaving a very defined line where the foam butted up to a door jamb (if I am remembering correctly). If you look at this pic carefully you can see where the joint between the front roof foam and first spar has sunk down a little leaving a visible line. The foam doesn’t seem to have settled or moved, but the PL300 I used at the seam appears to have shrunk. No big deal, I think the glass and epoxy will handle it, but I thought it was a data point to share.


While the cabin was still propped up on the curb side I sanded the last round of filler in the screw head holes under the floor on that side. I’m finally happy with them.

Then I gave the curb side door jamb glass a good block sanding and scuff, as well as scuffing the seal flange. For the most part I am happy with it. Here is a typical look at how most of it came out.


On the front upper radius the glass had bunched up a little on the inside corner, so I cut the worst chunk out and sanded the other spots with some 100 grit wrapped around a stick. I’ll touch that spot up the next time I have some filler mixed up.


The sill came out nice.


Next I keeled the cabin over the other way, setting the curb side down and lifting the street side.

As mentioned previously, the locker front bump out ended up hanging down below the floor about 1/8 of an inch. When I filled the small step between it and the front edge of the floor I laid a bed of filled epoxy behind the edge of the locker and just faired it out pretty wide onto the underside of the floor with a credit card squeegee. Then I realized that this extra filler would technically act as a shim between what should be the flat floor and the trailer frame. Probably wouldn’t be a big problem and everything would just find its own way, but it was bugging me. At first I thought I would use the radius block I made for sanding the fillet around the front of the locker and try to turn the ramp into a fillet that would match the radius on the trailer frame tubing.

Hand sanding filled epoxy while lying on the floor under your work… well, let’s just say it was unpleasant. Next I went at it with the palm sander using the radius of the felt pad to somewhat good effect, but there were some areas that seemed harder than others and I was about out of the 60 grit paper.

Then I decided to do what I should have done before I ever applied the filler in the first place; plane the bottom rear portion of the locker down (up?) to match the floor. Here’s how it looked after a few test passes with one of my less favorite planes. I figured the epoxy would be tough on the blade and the small palm plane would be easier to handle in the awkward position.


I’ll definitely have to sharpen the blade, but it did okay taking these interesting “bi-material” shavings.


After I was reasonably happy with that, I hit it all with the palm sander again, at least where the sander would reach before getting too close to the floor on the curb side, and came up with this much improved joint. You can also see the partially filled pocket screw holes that still need some more filler. I cheated and used the corner of the palm sander to scuff those out, breaking the glaze for the next round.


From there I worked my way down the underside of the street side sanding and scuffing the first round of screw head filler that I had done what seems like a month ago (it has been a very slow February on the build). Those will need some touch up, too.

Since my main goal was to get the street side door jambs glassed, and it made more sense to work with the neat epoxy first, using whatever might be left over to do the filler touchups, I switched gears setting up some plastic and cutting the 9oz tape strips. As with every other thing, I used my lessons learned from the first side to make some small improvements on the second side. I made sure to put the crisp edge of the tape weave onto the nice straight edge of my plastic transfer strip. I was more careful about spreading the epoxy out and painting it on the jamb more evenly to avoid rich spots; I overlapped the ends of the strips just slightly, about 1/4 inch (figuring it would be easier to sand the bumps fair rather than have to fill in any voids later), and I tried a little harder to squeegee out excess while placing the pieces before attempting to peel back the plastic. This all seemed to help. Here are a couple of shots with it still wet. The cloudy white glob at the seam in the second pic (over the sharpie reference line) is a wad of glass strand that was easier to let be than it would have been to try and cut. I’ll sand the bump fair after cure.



I had a little neat epoxy left so I laid a small piece of 6oz cloth about the size of a postage stamp over that little gap in the curb side butt seam, then another ply about 1x2 inches over that. I took a small scrap of the plastic and squeegeed it over the patch to pull excess epoxy away into the weave pattern of the surrounding cured cloth, and left it on there as a peel ply. Hopefully that will mean less sanding and should prevent amine blush, too. I forgot to take a pic of that.

Then I thickened what was left of the neat epoxy and spread that on the pocket screw holes under the locker. I tried to make sure that it was pushed into the crannies and left each one a little proud, but the light was fading by this time. I may not have gotten them all, but the ones I did get should be good and full. Just a few minutes before this was looking nice and fair (except for the not quite filled pocket holes) and now it is a mess again, but at least the sanding should go quickly on the next (final?) round here.


I didn’t get the second round on the screw heads under the street side, and I forgot to do that little makeup spot on the curb side upper front door radius, but the weather is supposed to be warm again tomorrow, so I will get another whack at it.

Hope to see everyone else getting some warmer weather and back onto all of your builds.

[GPW]

Although it never even froze here this year , the warmer weather is much appreciated ...
Looking GOOD KC ...

[daveesl77]

KC, I have been following your build and thread since I first came to TNTTT. I absolutely love your attention to detail and the information you provide. Your information and photos have helped me so much in mine. Poet Creek Express is a work of art and engineering.

Thank you

dave