1st teardrop build

[andy2]

I have been working on this for a couple of months and thought id share my progess. I wanted to do this as cheaply and quickly as possible and im no skilled tradesman, basic DIY skills are my limit.

I did alot of research and decided to buy and old trailer tent trailer and build onto that rather than have a trailer built. I have built everything to fit 8x4 sheets and went for birch ply sides and Aluminium roof. A hatch at the rear and basic 240 hook up with internal lights.
Trailer is 4ft wide and roughly 7ft long.

(I am in the UK so my measurments may throw some of you Yanks as we dont understand inches!!

So first I stripped and painted trailer with Hammerite




Then added the wooden base and frame work. Underneath has a couple coats of bitumin paint to protect it.



Insulated the floor and cut the sides out of 12mm Birch Ply



3 xcoats of yachts varnish


and attached the sides to the base and started fitting the cross spars


all glued and sealant in each screw hole before screwed in to make water proof




On to making the rear hatch



Then the internal skin was added which is 4mm ply




I then insulated between the spars. I went for earthwool as my spars are 34mm wide so Cellotex was either to thin or to thick plus its expensive!
I also put in the internal lights and ran the wiring before the top skin went on.


Then put on 4mm ply and coated in more varnish


I also sealed the edges with PU40 sealant and cut the hole for the Fiamma 40 roof vent

Got the aluminium skin on, its 1.2mm ali and its floated on, attached at the front and back and also held on with the edge trim.PU sealent along all the edges and under the edge trim to make it all water tight.




next is the skinning of the hatch and getting it all screwed on and door hung

[dales133]

Realy nice work considering you only regard yourself as a handyman.you did well to get 4 mm bent round that profile and looking that neat

[KCStudly]

Looks great!

[daveesl77]

What a beautiful design and build! Wow, a true classic. If you consider yourself just a DIYer, I can't imagine how good the "pros" are where you come from.



Really nice work

dave

[andy2]

Thanks for the nice comments, I have learnt everything from this web site and all the great information the members share.

[Woodbutcher]

Beautiful job, well done!

[andy2]

Its been a while with any up dates due to having a smash in my van and the trailer having to be put on the side lines for a few weeks. I have managed to get back on track now and got some work done and im pretty much there now with the external.
Skinned the hatch and finish all the edging and metal work.



I have got the sky light light in







made the windows out of external ply and a perspx cake stand! I cut 2 pieces of ply to make a recess and stained the wood a dark oak to make it look nicer against the birch ply walls. Sealed and screwed on with dome head bolts to match the edging bolts.