Fairy Diddle

[Anita Rae]

GPW, you are such a little stinker.

Here we go:

Charlie was at work when I glued this on. It went on pretty smoothly but as you can see it has a nasty warp in it.


I needed to glue a board on anyway that the bed will attach to from the inside. This, I am hoping will hold that back end down when we are going down the road. So here I have the board glued in place and supported with lots of other boards and clamps and wedges.




When I remove all that, the bow in the styro was stronger than the glue and both ends of the board popped off leaving me with a half glued board and a still bowed back end. Soooooo.....you guessed it. I took the whole thing off and started over with some help from hubby.


In this picture you can see the finished back end. We glued the board on 1st and reattached it. I don't think I could have done it by myself because of the strength it took to tighten the straps. Even with Charlie doing the straps it still had a tiny bit of bow in it but we quickly cut some boards and wedged it against a nearby table until it was dry.





We had a few friends drop by to supervise.




I thought I took pictures of it after we took the straps off but I guess I didn't. We are headed out of town to a rat convention for the weekend, so I will get some more pics of it when I get back. It really turned out nicely. Now I need to clean up some of those seams and then I can put the skin on.


The other thing is that I am thinking about ordering some marine dock bumper to trim out the edegs. I think that will kind of hide the seems and give it a more finished look.

[GPW]

AR, That’s looking really Good !!!

We’ve given much thought to this bending “thing" with foam ....and the “spring back problemâ€

[ebutler]

AR, NICE!!!! A Big one !!! Any ideas on how you're going to bend the foam for the roof/etc. ?
We really need to investigate the bending of foam with heat ... I saw on the Dow site a picture of foam with what looks like a propane tank and torch (wide spread tip) So we must assume that it's possible ... We've bent Lots of thinner Foam (1/4-1/2" ) with a heat gun ... Thicker material would just need more heat (used cautiously) ... Would be nice to just attach the roof sheet to the front , apply a little heat and bend to the contour .... no messy kerfing , smooth interior (less finish work) , and the foam once heated and bent stays in that shape ... perfect for galley hatches!!!

Here is a site with a page on heating foam although it is a different kind called Zotefoam. http://www.recumbents.com/mars/pages/pr ... 3heat.html

[atahoekid]

Looks like his mold is made of pink XPS which was kerf cut. Sounds like he covered his mold with plaster and muslin. Don't know about plaster on a foamie exterior but I think I heard someone mention muslin before on the long thread. Just another thought.... Seems there's more than one way to skin a "Foamie"

[GPW]

The real beauty of heat bent foam is once cooled , it stays in that shape ... Forever...
That foam looks just like the OC Pink stuff ... ??? 200F sounds about the right temp .... Boiling water eh ?

a test ... place a sheet of foam between two horses (saw horses) ... pour boiling water across the middle till it sags to the shape you want ... let it cool ... test ... easiest , cheapest way I can think of ...

[Anita Rae]

I know ya'll thought I disappeared but I didn't. I've been working on the trailer but my computer got a nasty virus and I lost most of my pictures. After that I just didn't take any more. Anyway, here she is. I still have some painting to do but she is pretty much finished. 12 ½ ft long and 6 ft tall. We took it out for a trial run a few weeks ago and had a blast. I towed it with the 4 cylinder Mariner.

I will try to get some more pics tomorrow of the inside if you want.

[jdarkoregon]

Very nice, Great construction of a beautiful trailer,.. Let us know some of the final specs, Weight, etc??? I'm looking forward to the images, don't forget the insides. PLEASE

How did it do when you were on the road, was it affected much by wind, trucks, ???

John

[S. Heisley]

Congratulations, Anita! Your trailer looks great!
Thanks for remembering us and posting a picture.
I, too, would like to see some pictures of the inside.

[GPW]

Love that Paint job !!!

[eaglesdare]

oh i love it!!!!!!!! did you cover it with canvas? did you use tb2? would also love to see more pics.

[bonnie]

Love the paint job. I too would like more pictures. Thanks!

[Anita Rae]

Thanks guys. I will take some more pics when the sun gets up. That one was taken at night.

How did it do when you were on the road, was it affected much by wind, trucks, ???

Actually wind was one of the things that really scared us. We took it over to Ocala which meant I needed to get out on I95 for about an hour. My DH followed in his truck. I white knuckled it every time I saw a Semi but it turned out to be a non issue. I can feel a slight pull when a truck passes me but nothing major.

Honestly, I don't know how much it weighs. I wanted it for my little truck to haul and if it struggled too much, I will start taking thing off the trailer.

My big disappointment is that my mileage dropped from around 25 mpg to around 15 mpg. Maybe some of that is my fault because I was nervous and I took it out of overdrive for the whole trip over. On the way home, I relaxed a little and started slipping it in and out of overdrive when extra power was needed. I even used the speed control when I was at cruising speed. I was able to cruise with the traffic and I even passed a few of the slower vehicles. Yay!


And I got into a race at a stop light with a big 5th wheeler that wasn't about to let this ugly little thing pass him. Hehe, I won. What can I say...he was too heavy. LOL

did you cover it with canvas? did you use tb2?

Yes, it is covered with canvas, TB2 and exterior house paint. I don't recommend the house paint because the dang stuff keeps getting air bubble. I'll bet I've popped and patched a million of them. This has been a real learning experience for me.

The paint job is just the little jars of acrylic paint that you get in the craft department. I will put a clear coat on when it is finished. I just felt like it needed something and I think it's going to work out. I haven't done the other side yet, so I really need to put some thought to it and get busy. This bad boy is pulling out of here Saturday morning headed for Chattanooga. Gonna go up and see the leaves change.

[GPW]

Bubbles in the paint ... that’s odd huh? ...

[wagondude]

Maybe an adhesion problem/incompatability between the paint and the TB2. If I remember correctly, you saturated the canvas with the glue, or am I wrong? Did you sand before painting? Might have worked out better if the glue was used to put the dry canvas on then saturate the canvas with the paint. Or, as we have now found, skip the glue and go with the paint for the whole job. Otherwise, you have one nice looking camper. I will also be looking forward to the new pictures.

[Anita Rae]

I'm not sure what is going on with that paintl. Could be a lot of things. Too late to turn back now.
Here are some photos. It was too cloudy yesterday to do much painting. I will try again today.

This is looking in from the front door. We have a 2x2 shower.
The orange cushions on the right will be replaced but they will get us through. The shower floor seems to be a good place to store stuff I'm not sure where I want to put. That's just some Dollar Tree stuff that I picked up because... well, it was only $1 and I'm sure I can find some reason to have it. On the left is the sink. On the right is a small seating area with storage underneath.




Here is the sink area. The top cabinet has dishes. Underneath is pans, food, plumbing and that is where we store the water heater. The water heater attaches to the outside of the camper and hoses bring the water back inside.

This is also a good picture of the wood print fabric that I used on the inside walls of the trailer. I attached it with TB3 then put a clear coat over it. And you might notice that we used two different woods. Lowes ran out of the birch and I didn't want to wait soooo.

You can barely see the pump switch on the right. I'ts kind of in between the shower and the sink so it is easy to turn on and off. The other outlet is 110.