A Little Tearapy

[swoody126]

the pics along w/ the tutorial have proven this is a very attractive finish for a hand crafted camper

sw

[erfnie]

Hatch Catch Up
It's by no mistake that it took us this long to start building the hatch. Admittedly, we've been procrastinating this part . But it was now time to get it going.
This will give the PMF some good time to dry well before painting too.
We had already roughly cut out all the hatch pieces awhile ago. They just needed to be smoothed, sanded and trimmed to correct measurements at the ends.
They were all cut from 3/4 inch plywood. The top and bottom straight pieces are poplar boards.


Then we started from the outside and worked our way in.


We used glue and kreg holes and screws to put it all together. All the edges are doubled up.


Some test fitting in place.



Once the measurements for the spar spacing were all figured out, we started adding the cross pieces and attaching the spars from the outside working in.




When the framework was done we attached the 1/8" ply on the inside with heavy duty adhesive and staples along the outside edges.
After that was dry we trimmed it off with the router.


Here's what it looks like from the outside. Now we can figure out the route for wires for the lights on the underside of the hatch.


And the view of the inside/underside. We attached some thin strips of ply along the edges to cover up most of the staples.


Cutting and fitting pieces of rigid insulation for the spaces.


Here's the hole where the wires for the hatch lights will enter. It leads to the top area of the galley where all the other wires already run, leading to the power center.


Starting to finish the underside with stain/poly. The wires for the hatch lights are in place and poking through the holes as you can see.


This picture shows the back pieced with rigid insulation. The small square piece is actually an upside-down hollow box, placed over the hole with the wires coming through.
It provides a little extra space to stuff wires into the hole from the other side and that hole will be hidden by the light fixture once it's in place.


All the insulation and wires in place, ready for filling the gaps with Great Stuff.


Jumping ahead, we attached the plywood to the outside. Our hatch has a straight part at the bottom and we had to make a joint where the curve starts
to keep the overall shape intact.
In hindsight I wish we would've spliced these pieces better, but Hopefully the paint job will distract the eye enough and cover it up later.
Then we proceeded to skin it with the canvas just like the main body of the teardrop.




The canvas was wrapped around the edges and held with clamps until it dried. We trimmed off the excess after it dried.



Next up... Painting!

[erfnie]

Let's Start Painting!
This was an exciting step, that I had been looking forward to for a long time - when I could finish up the look of our teardrop with an artistic touch!
The plan roughly drawn out looks like our avatar picture here, painted with four coordinated colors, lighter to dark. The end result will
make it look like you're looking at a far off wilderness landscape.

First step was priming. Not too exciting but boy, did it change the look of the PMF - didn't realize how dark that really was!
Working from the top down to the sides.




Next up was the lightest color for the very distant "mountains".

Here I jumped ahead a little and added the dark strip along the bottom.


Moving on to the next color. These "trees" are just slightly defined.





And then the final color...which is the same color we did underneath the floor that was done way back before the floor was even attached to the trailer!
The trees were roughly painted in at this step.


On the hatch, the colors were matched up to the sides.





As the final color went on I defined the trees in more detail with the second coat. Then the idea came up to somehow put a signature on our teardrop.
We did this with hand prints that I disguised into the trees! It took a few tries and locations to get it just right, but it was easy enough to paint over and try again.
First try on the side. Slopped some paint right on my hand and pressed it on!




Didn't look quite right so we moved to the front. First DH's.

And then I added mine and blended them into the trees a bit. Can you see them?

[swoody126]

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sw

[pchast]

Nice!

[Nanner]

Hey Erfnie
Many thanks for all this, my fellow Canuck. You do great work, and the pictures really help. Thank you. I also need to mention our case of shop envy... but moving along.

Some questions
Building the floor (p1)
1. what does PMF stand for?
2. what is the "mix" in your mix, primer and exterior paint comment? It comes up a few times.

Stretching the Floor/Walls (p1?)
1. I see you used 5/8" ply for the floor and it has one centre spline.
2. I could not find the thickness for the wall ply; it appears to have 2 splines? If so, did you use the same bit and just do 2 cuts with it?

Cabin (p2?)
1. boxes - fantastic idea! I'm guessing these are 4" deep (storage space)? 6"?
2. what's the interior height, floor to headliner? I can't tell if you stretched the 4' piece of plywood or if it's just a 4' sheet.

Roof Structure (p3)
1. is your "framing" 1x2?

Cabin Front Corner Cabinets (p4?)
1. is this 1/2" ply? 3/8?
2. ply thickness for the galley cabs?

Roof (p5?)
1. Insulation: do you think a pressure fit would be sufficient or is the glueing necessary?

Canvas finish: we had this on the cabin top of our boat and I've not seen it used for TDs, but what a great idea! You didn't do any epoxy work to keep the water out. Do you feel this finish will be sufficient, what with traveling down the highway (much faster than sail boats ever go.

Thanks again.
Signed, About to Start in Vic

[bartek]

This is really beautiful - great job! I really wish I could paint even half that good...

[tony.latham]

What a CLASSIC!



Tony