Truck cap/Camper cap build

[RJ Howell]

I decided to leave things alone for the balance of today. Tomorrow I will lower the cap and do the top. Then it's flip it over, wrap the plywood with the excess I left on the sides and finish the interior.

Wrap under and on the plywood. This is a critical point to me. So far he only thing holding that plywood on is Gorilla Glue. As good as it may be, I don't like 'a' system to hold it. Especially since this is the connection to the truck rail. By wrapping the canvas under (and on the plywood), now not only would the GG have to fail, but the canvas as well. I like redundentcy.

Interior: I've debated this a bit and have enforced the seams inside and outside. I'm thinking right now of just painting out the interior. I get that the walls will be more easy dented by doing this, yet this is just a Sleeper cap to me than a camper. If I had built it taller (which I now know I could have) and was going to spend time inside it, then I definitely would at least bedsheet it. I did bedsheet cover the overhead storage area earlier and glad I did that part. The rest, probably not going to do.

Another note of design: I keep looking at the tailgate wonder how I could design something to cover that area with the tailgate down. It would add the additional space to allow the pee-toilet the wife wants. I keep going some sorts of slide out, but the bed takes up the whole space in the truck-bed. No way to slide it in.. Canvas, tent style has come to mind, yet setup..
Here's what I mean, I barely have the room..



Maybe you folks can come up with something clever.

[RJ Howell]

Man am I going through primer! I just went into gallon 3... This canvas drinks more than I do!!!

I held back my balance of GG for the roof and working lap-overs. I had to jump into it to finish the balance of the roof flats.. Tomorrow I do the edges..

This has become important. If you over run the primer it will stiffen the canvas and you lose the stretch. You either do it all at once or be very careful of how much you spread the primer. You want those areas you will do later to have no primer on it. We were very careful being this is the last step for us.

It was an effort to cover, yet done and pleased with what we see. Tomorrow tells the tale of success! or not...

[pchast]

[RJ Howell]

Just trimmed and glued the backside wrap-over. I'll let that tackup and head back out in a few hours. This brings me back to working on the truck bed and figuring out how to get more space for the Wife's pee toilet.

Here's my thought and I do have plenty of canvas to make it from. This would add 18" to the interior space. The hatch becomes the roof and the canvas drapes down (possibly velcro) to tailgate. Could possibly roll it up and maybe bungee it to the hatch. For now, I don't see screens, just canvas and a full zipper entry.

[RJ Howell]

Trim out the window openings, sand and I'm ready to paint! I'm flipped over, again, to get those hard-to-do spots. Also will make it easy to do the inside ceiling.



I know for now my plywood templates will be the window opening covers and since I like the fabric look, figure I'll canvas them as well.

Took some time to get to this point. Build, re-build, re-build again, yet worth the time to get what I believe will work as designed and last a while. Every step brought something new to learn. I was hoping to be using by now.. It is what it is for time to do this.

[JazzVinyl]

Trim out the window openings, sand and I'm ready to paint! :) I'm flipped over, again, to get those hard-to-do spots. Also will make it easy to do the inside ceiling.



I know for now my plywood templates will be the window opening covers and since I like the fabric look, figure I'll canvas them as well.

Took some time to get to this point. Build, re-build, re-build again, yet worth the time to get what I believe will work as designed and last a while. Every step brought something new to learn. I was hoping to be using by now.. It is what it is for time to do this.

Looks really good RJ, hope mine looks 1/2 this good!!

Great job thus far!!!

[RJ Howell]

Looks really good RJ, hope mine looks 1/2 this good!!

Of which I'm sure it will be ever better! You have the benefit of knowing my mistakes and what I've found easier to do!

[RJ Howell]

Interesting day today in attempting to buy paint for the top coat. I wished to stay with Sherwin Williams and wanted to come as close as I could to the truck color. It's a nice Darker Forest Green.
So SW makes a automotive paint and you can reach back several years and find a match. Cool, but that's solvent based and I need water based. SW is divided into 3 types of stores: Household, Automotive and Commercial. They do not seem to talk much amongst themselves.. Their is no reference when gong from Automotive to Household.. Commercial had no idea what I was doing and since not buying 100 gallons this month, nor having a account with them.. useless to me.
I added up spending over an hour going through the fan of samples, to which the clerk did come out, as he could, and assisted. I found two I liked and went back in to get the single samples of each. The fan has too many others showing, the singles are larger and better. That worked and now have my paint! WHOA!

I know I'm supposed to wait days to let the primer dry... I can't.. It's been drying for a couple days and I just wish to move forward. Everything feels real dry..

I started full strength and found it wasn't sinking in. I over ran that with a damp roller and in it went! So I cut the paint with water 90/10. Much better! I'll try again on the next coat at full strenght and see what I see.

Pictures tomorrow as I do the second coat and flip the cap back over to right size up.

Note: My feeling was the paint the at full strength was not sinking in and felt it still needed to for durability. Ya, could have primed it again, yet the primer doesn't have the water resistance I'm after. Felt it was better to go this way.

Note 2: SW does make a waterborne automotive paint. if you have a newer vehicle, you may wish to look into this deeper. My questions lead to answer mainly saying they don't sell much of it so you would need to find a larger store that may be able to supply, or order and hope for the best. I didn't get into costs, so that may again be prohibitive.

Gettin' close to a trail/trial run!

[RJ Howell]

I promised a picture once flipped back over and the sides are done. I'm liking the sides and may touch-up the front a bit.

Here's the front and the mistake I liked.



Here's the side done purposely to get that blotchy look. Kinda camo, yet not crazy.. I'll let it dry for a couple hours and see if I wish to do anything. Am thinking of mixing the two colors and doing another coating of sponge to get some more lighter tones in it.. Then again, the truck is dark and this is pretty close..



This was done by rollering a very bright light green on first then using a sponge to blot on the darker green. Lightly using the same roller to blend and adjust. Doing only 1 to 2 sqft at a time and holding a wet edge to help blend. You want to get even more creative? Add another light bright color, like a gold (yellow) and maybe a brown to stay woodsy. Do your light colors first and top with the dark (if you want dark, or reverse if you want it lighter. This color is close to my trucks color so I went this way.

Once it's dry enough, I move on to the windows and rear hatch. I'm getting close now!

[GPW]

That paint trick works great, looks good … I used a similar method to re-do my bathroom floor

[RJ Howell]

The top coat is darkening nicely and very happy with it. Today the interior gets painted out with my lighter green.

That leads me to getting very serious about the windows and hatch. I'm not happy about placing a metal hinge on the widow covers.. I do like how the screen looks if mounted on the outside, but then to rain-proof it.. I have put series thought to using some of my webbing as a hinge and mounting my plywood templates to the outside (covered and painted with canvas to match), yet that leads to some sort of stay to hold the cover open (and latch to hold it closed while driving).

The new thought is to do the screen (as I now like) on the outside and make the covers with my left over canvas and velcro them on the exterior. This would mean rolling them up to vent (possibly an awning type setup?). I'll be working through some details as I paint out the interior.



That's just the wood strips I used to hold the wrap into the widows while the canvas dried. Using it now to just hold the screen in place to see how it could work. If I go this way, I'd buy some screen frame stock (aluminum) and make up the frames. I think plumbers putty to hold and seal them, making them still removable for any repair in the future.

Not sure how pliable the canvas would be once painted out. Will it roll? How loose will it need to be? Could seal off the top edge to rain-proof it. I see some more testing in my near future..

[RJ Howell]

Busy day! Interior painted out, ran to HD and picked up the screen frame stock, screens made, lowered the unit and painted out the roof.
Good Day!

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Very pleased with all things done today!

The screens fit so nicely in that lip I made. There's also enough frame exposed that I think I could adhere the canvas to that and have my covers. I have some quality epoxy tape that would seal the top edge and use some more of it to adhere velcro to the sides and bottom.

Looking forward to giving it go!

[featherliteCT1]

Looking good!

[RJ Howell]

With a week of great weather coming, I had to get it outside and on the truck!

With it in the sun, I do see it needs another coat of paint. Also see a few places that need attention that I couldn't see in the garage/shop. Overall, very happy with the results so far! Plenty of interior height (which I was concerned about) and the back works against the tailgate as I hoped.

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I think it needs to be a little darker.

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I've cut my canvas to make the covers for the windows and will probably pull out the sewing machine and work on that today.

[Postal_Dave]

RJ,
That looks great.