Smiles to go! Updated 8-2 new pics! First trip!

[jss06]

Great progress. Looks like you did get over your building slump.

[booyah]

ok, now with pictures and description

Thursday night
First, let me say I was apprehensive about building the hatch. With nothing to support it, and knowing I had to be precise, I opted for caution.

I borrowed my fathers mitre saw for this part, as so far I've built almost all of this using my little cordless 5.5" Ryobi circular saw. Its tiny and not so precise (in my hands at least) but its quiet enough I can run it at night without bothering the kids.

So for the hatch, I built the ribs from 1/2" 5 ply CDX plywood (same as the floor) with the router. I used the piece of lauan plywood I had previously cut to be the inside of the galley as a template then used the flush trim bit on the router to turn out the first rib.
Then I used three screws to hold that rib in place as I turned out seven more. I tried to clamp initially, but the clamps slipped. Once I had 8 of these 1/2" ribs, I screwed and glued them together, and allowed them to sit for a night or two for the glue to dry.

I also cut eight 18" 1x2 spars and four more at 18.25" (for the center). Plan was one rib on the drivers side, 4-18" spars, rib, 4-18.25" spars rib, 4-18" spars, and the passengers side rib.

Friday night was hatch assembly
Everything went together like clockwork. It all squared up nicely and looks great. Appears to fit perfectly, and follows the curve dead on.

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Saturday night I started on the exterior skinning. The tear is 60.75" wide, so I had to combine two pieces of 5x5 birch to get it done. I opted to cut each side at 33" wide so I could trim some off incase things didnt go quite perfectly square. I also plan on fiberglass taping the seam down the middle as well as the edges and epoxying the entire camper.

This is the front two pieces of exterior, trimmed up and the next ones being fitted behind it.

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[booyah]

More pics

Sunday night, I cut the next pieces of exterior. I used some of the left overs from the front, to do the top here, as they werent cut the bendy way, but they were on the flat roof! Perfect!

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Then I skinned down to the hatch and past a little. I plan on trimming this up with the router once the glue has dried and I can pull the staples back out.

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This is just a close up of the edge that was already trimmed.

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Hopefully tonight I will run the router down the edges to trim them up, cut out the ceiling fan vent, and get some wood filler to fill some of the gaps, and just clean stuff up overall.

[booyah]

Quick update
All exterior skin is on.
Hatch has been trimmed to fit, and all the structure should be complete at this time

Need to pull staples from the hatch, and reinforce a few points on the hatch where it will be latched down, and have the handle attached then its time for the round over bit, epoxy and fiberglass tape.

Paint and finish electrical (fuse box is going in the tongue box, so all electrical has yet to be terminated)
The she should be campable!

Pics will come later today

[booyah]

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[azgreg]

Looking real good there.

[S. Heisley]

Looking Good! Keep going!

[booyah]

Kind of fallen off the world here

So after the last pics posted, I've removed the staples from the hatch, ordered up the epoxy and fiberglass (coming tomorrow)
done some patching for the little flubs sanded the sides in prep of epoxy

Rounded off about half the edges and cleaned up the interior a bit.

Tonight I am reinforcing some strategic spots in the hatch with more plywood on the inside, pulling staples from the inside, rounding the rest of the edges and just doing more prep work for when epoxy comes. Planning on doing epoxy and FG thursday/friday

[rebapuck]

Hey!! That looks just like a teardrop. Good job.

[booyah]

so pics may come later.

Got fiberglass tape on all seams and edges, got three coats of epoxy on everything (except the hatch, thats this week)
Letting the outside cure this week and startign work on a basic galley setup (looking at counter tops, and maybe a foldout table section), a kid bunk inside, and paint for the interior. Also working on the remaining electrical terminations (interior, fuse box battery etc will all be in the tongue box, so its waiting on paint yet)

Next weekend is paint, then attach the hurricane hinge, doors, tongue box etc, finish the electrical, and she should be campable after that...

[booyah]

So, quick pics update. Added FG tape to all seems, and 3 coats of epoxy to everything but the hatch

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[booyah]

last two pics

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[KCStudly]

Looks good!

[dogscats]

It's moving right along

[booyah]

Quick update, still waiting on epoxy to cure, otherwise started on the hatch countertop and kid bunk. Hope to paint the inside this week, and working on getting the staples out of the ceiling liner. Also need to FG and epoxy the hatch, and reinforce a few specific spots (handles, latches etc)

been running a little slower this week, hard to do much more with the tear taking up 90% of the garage space curing and the mosquitos outside ready to swarm anything that moves