Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Forgot to mention, there was a little spot on the underside of the street side locker bump out where the glass had lifted going over the radius and left a little dry spot. I sanded this back and, before mixing the 410 into the 5 pump batch, I painted a little neat epoxy on, put a little patch of cloth on it, and daubed on some more neat. Don’t worry about the edges or loose strand; that will sand away after the cure.


Just to prove that bodywork was actually done;



Note the prop stick with soft paper towel pads keeping the otherwise unsupported galley wall edges separated, trying to keep them from warping together more from weight of sanding action.

Glad to see things happening on your build once again. I have also put most of my efforts towards getting mine at least functional this spring as well.

Nice to see another Jeep added to the family as well.

Thanks Daddy Jeep!

I finally found a few minutes to get the next video edited in the Crawler Hauler series. go check it out.

https://youtu.be/-qh08ypatmk

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Pretty cool, Daddy Jeep.

Tonight I washed down amine on the whole street side and ran the air file (formerly referred to as the "jitter bug").

Also, hand sanded the little patch repair on the corner of the locker bump out.

About 1-1/2 hrs of mostly straight work, couple of short rest breaks.

I'm really hating the "lint free" shop towels. They aren't really lint free, and they are hardly absorbent (they saturate quickly), so I am burning through more of them, even though there were more per container. Really difficult to dispense, too.

I'm tempted to donate them to the downstairs shop and just buy another box of the regular ones.

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About 4-1/2 more hours Saturday.

Cleaned up sanding dust from last session. Scuffed lows. Wiped with towel just dampened with acetone. Another full coat of fairing filler on most of the street side wall. I could have tried to just fill all of the numerous low spots, but I’m still experimenting and trying to develop technique. With Mike’s advice to add more one time and take off once, not knowing where those target points are, it is taking me a few iterations to figure it out on this large scale. Rear section first, then front.



I mixed five (5) batches varying between 4, 5, 6 and 8 pumps, depending on my estimation of the amount needed to complete a particular section. Six (6) pumps to start the rear area; not nearly enough. Eight (8) pumps more; worried it might go off in the cup by the time I mixed in the filler. Not to worry, it seems as though the filler helps slow the initial reaction. Five (5) pumps to start the front of the wall section. Two four (4) pump batches used to pick up stray areas around the the edges and light recesses. There were a couple of areas that didn’t get an extra coat, but they were well fared already, and I was getting tired by this point.

When mixing larger batches of the fairing filler I use the full size (not cut down) large ice coffee cups. The fairing filler is so light and fluffy that it usually takes two additions to get it mixed in, and the high sides of the cup help keep the filler in the cup until it gets mixed in. I think it’s easier to add it in two doses because it incorporates easier in the wet slurry stage, leaving less to incorporate once it thickens up and gets harder to stir. I think it gives me better control on the consistency, too, making smaller final additions to creep up on the consistency I want. Not possible to weigh the filler as it is as light as air.

A note on using the pumps as well as the digital scale. After leaving the resin and hardener for a bit, just left the pumps in place, I think they get a little restricted. Prior to this recent uptick in build activity I had been using the fast hardener from one of the small cans with the short pump straw. With the spring temperatures on the rise, knowing I would be using larger batch sizes, I switched back over to the slow hardener and longer medium length pump straw for the quart sized cans; which meant I had to clean the hardener pump out with some acetone so as not to cross contaminate. Whereas the resin is the same and comes out of a gallon can with the big long straw pump that I didn’t bother to clean out. So by weighing my cups I could see that the resin was coming up short by almost a full pump, whereas the clean hardener pump was only coming up short by the typical .05 oz (about the resolution of the scale). Again, I keep a paper plate as a drip catcher zeroed out with the empty cup on the scale. Right on the plate I have written the resin and total batch weights for various batch sizes per pump stroke.


Rather than pouring into the cups, using the pumps is neater (no spillage or need to wipe the spouts and tops of the cans… although in storage I turn the pump spouts back over the tops of the cans and they always seems to drip a little now and then), keeps me from over pouring and screwing up that way, too.

I always leave the cups out of the trash so I can check them the next time and make sure the batch cured well.

Hi KC,
Glad to see you're back at work on the Poet Creek Express!
Take care,
Tom

Thx Tom. Always good to hear from you.

The reflection from your garage windows on the trailer’s fiberglass wall hints at how beautiful this thing is going to be. Can’t wait to see it outside on its wheels. You’ll get there!

Nice and Shiny now !!!

The shine is because the pic was taken while the epoxy was still wet.

Spring is here, the trees have started budding out and my hay fever kicked in. No respirator action for me for the time being, so the next round of sanding will have to wait a little bit.

It will look much flatter, and duller, after the next round of sanding.

You'll be at at Poet Creek before you know it now...

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... and thanks for the encouragement, lfh and ghcoe!

Well, one thing is for sure... I suck at bodywork!

After last time I was feeling pretty good about the application of fairing compound. Thought I had done a good job putting it on "thick enough, but not too thick". Thought I had good coverage w/o too many whammies.

Well, when I checked back (in good light) there were plenty of ripples and troughs (though I'm still hopeful that there is plenty of "high" to sand back), a few bubble pops, a couple of debris pimples (maybe a flake of sawdust here and there?); but the worst, most discouraging issue was... more blisters on the forward section.

Two small ones close together near the top, about half dollar size, and two more about palm size further down; one of which is very close, just forward of the buried running light wire chase.

Soooooo, last night I went around and scraped a few high spots and drips; washed amine; and did the drill and inject epoxy thing. As soon is I drilled the blisters deflated, again suggesting an off gas or temperature related expansion. As best I could tell, there was no spackle under the suspect areas.

Since the unthickened epoxy tends to run down and find any gaps (I hope it doesn't migrate into the wire way), it doesn't necessarily fill the holes on the first go. Sometimes it does, but in the worst case I like to think of it like a cylindrical film... hopefully with enough grab to keep the epoxy weave from lifting back up.

Tonight I'll stuff some thick down in any remaining holes and maybe do some pickup fairing before sanding again.

Man I hope this blister issue is isolated to the street side.

Are you doing all of your body work with Epoxy? I would think it would be about time to switch over to some Automotive Body Filler (Bondo).