Father-Daughter Build 2013-14

[lfrazer98]

I FINALLY made the profile out of cardboard. My knees and back hurt and it took me about 5 hours. I really didn't think it would take that long, but I had to cut the cardboard to size and square it up, mark it up, connect the dots, erase A LOT, redraw, then finally cut. I am very happy with the way it turned out. 10.5 feet is really long! I may try to curve the front a little more so the flat section is blended a little better, but that can be done on the ply when I cut out the profile.

Next step- deciding on the door shape and size.

[KCStudly]

Looks good.

Interesting, I think it looks better than the sketch. Softer edges maybe?

I have a spiel I go into about how everything seems to take longer than you think it should, but I will spare you by not repeating it again.

[lfrazer98]

Here are my cutouts of my door options. I modified both to make them 36" tall. Both are 31" and 30" wide, respectively. On each door profile is a 15" x 18" window, which will be a screened crank-out.


Door #1- don't mind the not so smooth curve. It was a wobbly marker and freehand. I will do better on the real thing.


Door #2- D shaped- the other darker lines should be ignored.

Dad comes home in 10 days and we will be making lots of sawdust and ordering all my hardware!

[wagondude]

Lauren,

I just got caught up on your thread. You go girl! I like your design and you are doing a great job of planning it out. No one else suggested it, so I thought I would see If you have checked out Woodbutcher's "Slowmobile". It is a woodie with a vinyl top with a very vintage flair. Most notably, you might find his exterior finish interesting. He used un-tinted exterior paint for the final finish coat and UV protection. If the woodworking articles are right, it should prove to be a longer lasting, lower maintenance finish. I am giving it a try on my front door as varnish only lasted a couple of years.

Here is a link to the Slowmobile : viewtopic.php?f=50&t=48321&hilit=slowmobile

[jonw]

Hi Lauren -

My only suggestion on your doors is that you may want to come down to a square corner on the bottom right. That radius may be too tight for your door edge and T molding.

Looking good!

[aggie79]

Lauren,

You're being wise in working out your design on paper before putting it to plywood. Some of us didn't - - and it cost us time and materials.

My only suggestion on your doors is that you may want to come down to a square corner on the bottom right. That radius may be too tight for your door edge and T molding.

Jon has a good point. If you use t-molding you'll probably need to trim the inner leg of the "T" on the radius.

Another thought - you may want to overlay your door designs on your profile. That'll give you an idea of how the doors will look in relationship to your profile's front curve.

Take care,
Tom

[The Teardrop Nanny]

Lauren, you are making wonderful progress! Thanks for keeping us updated. Door shape AND SIZE WILL BE VERY IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY AS THE YEARS PASS BY....
Reasons why.....makes it easier to load things into the TD, especially if you have to stretch back in there to reach your storage space......and easier to get your lil ol' body out of the drop as time goes by...and I always want a view from my door/window.

Keep up the hard work cuz I know you are still teaching too, right? I always liked sharing my TD and adventures with my students as most of them had never seen or even heard of one before. I have found a LOT of educators (especially retired ones)
are teardroppers. They make for a really fun group of people to camp with! Hope our paths cross someday....Joanie

The Teardrop Nanny

[KCStudly]

On the other hand, if you are using trim seal on an inner door stop flange and you want the seal to be continuous with only one butt joint/seam, it pays to make sure the radii are not too tight (or square) to make sure the trim can form around them w/o puckering up.

[lfrazer98]

Thanks for the kudos and the suggestions! Let's see if I can respond to a few of them.

I am actually not familiar with how the door will be sealed. I guess I didn't know a metal T-seal would go there, but I think I understand from the descriptions where the T molding would go. With my wood sides, I am going to try to minimize the amount of Al around the door. However, I did get the profile from the Kenskill profile in the design library and changed the right corner radius from a 4" to a 5.5" radius. I figured since I was making a preexisting design a little large than there wouldn't be a problem fitting something around the corner. I could be wrong, but then how did others seal their doors that used this same design? I don't know.... I guess I figured I would have some type of foam or neoprene seal that gets compressed and that the door will be lined with a flat aluminum molding, similar to what KC said. Thanks for the pics, by the way! I will look into this further.

Yes, I am still teaching so I do find it hard to get time in on the tear. This weekend was many hours spent making my profiles. And I do plan on putting the doors onto the side profile and will do so this week. I know it will look more out of place due to the color differences especially with the front being curvy, but I think they will blend in since all will be wood. And, Joanie, I was showing my profile to a coworker this morning and one of my students caught a glimpse. Later today she and another girl had to ask, very slowly as if scared of the response, if I was going to live in it. It was hysterical! I think they may have thought I was a crazy science teacher. After I explained, she said it was cool. Joanie, do you think I need to go wider than 31" with my doors?

I am now going to check out the slowmobile! Thanks for the link! Grades can wait.

[Esteban]

LumberJocks.com has an inspiringly beautiful woody teardrop Fern you may enjoy!? BTW, it's another very helpful construction and building techniques/ideas website. Several people there have built teardrop campers, with some overlap from tnttt.

[lfrazer98]

Thanks, Steve. He sure makes some pretty pieces out of cedar! Beautiful tear! Thanks for sharing

[The Teardrop Nanny]

Hi Lauren......grades can wait.....
Many a weekend trip I was doing grades and correcting papers "on the road" while we went teardropping. Dean would drive & I'd ask him to let me know if we passed any interesting sites or scenery so I could look up.....

Your door width should be fine. My TD (the Road Titan is 4' 1/2 wide) has a 28" inch (interior) door opening. Dean's TD is a 4' wide and his doorway is 32" wide-- plenty wide for me -- and him.
( But you should know we are NOT tall people, or very long legged. ) Yah, 31" should do ya.

ttfn,
Joanie

[aggie79]

Lauren,

There are two basic ways to seal teardrop doors. One way is to have t-molding around the door with a weatherseal on one leg of the "T" that seals against the sidewall door opening. The other way is to have an interior door jamb, that extends beyond the door opening in the sidewall, with a weatherseal around the jamb, and the door seals against the weatherseal. On my teardrop I was planning to use both methods. This is sketch of the section through the door and door opening:



I ended up not using the inner door seal because the outer seal around the t-molding worked so well.

Most woody teardrops use the interior door jamb and seal method. This way there is no aluminum that is exposed.

There are two things to keep in mind when figuring out how to seal a door. First, once you decide which method, you'll need to select the weatherseal that you'll be using. Most weatherseals compress to about 2/3 of their depth. So if the seal is 3/16" deep, you'll need to plan on a "gap" of 2/16" or 1/8". The second thing you'll need to decide is how you are going to make the "gap" for the weatherseal. You can either offset the door by the gap distance or offset the interior jamb. By offsetting the door, I mean that the plane of the door stands "proud" of the plane of the sidewall by the gap distance. (This is how I did the "gap" on my teardrop.) If you offset the jamb, the plane of the door is flush with the plane of the sidewalls. This is how most woody teardrop doors are done. To offset the jamb, you make a spacer the thickness of the "gap". This spacer is cut flush with the door opening and the jamb projects beyond the opening the width of the seal. (My sketch above doesn't show a spacer since I offset the door.)

I hope my poor attempt at explaining this makes some sense.

Take care,
Tom

[jonw]

Hi Lauren -

I did the same as aggie79 above. The spacing for the compressable weatherstripping on the inside of the door T molding requires a slight offset on your door hinge (so that the door is slightly sticking out from the sidewall).

I bought my door and hatch hurricane hinges and all moldings and weatherstripping from Grant Whipp at Lil Bear (a sponsor) which insured it all worked together fine. You might want to check with him or Frank Bear at Vintage Technologies (also a forum sponsor) for all the moldings and weatherstripping you'll need for your doors and hatch.

[KCStudly]

If you are interested, here is how I did my inner door seal spacers and flanges.

Here is info on the Trim Seal. The style I used is also available from McMaster-Carr.