G&M's 'Drop

[tony.latham]

but once I did, they agreed to send replacement product.

You were probably missing the sweet aroma of that stuff anywho...

Tony

[western traveler]

That’s great news Garth. Glad to hear..

[OP827]

Garth, I am curious if the epoxy stick well to this ML cured polyurethane liner. I am sure ML liner sticks well to a cured epoxy, but I have no experience of epoxy sticking well to cured polyurethane, as with other polyurethane glues the epoxy usually peels off easily from a cured polyurethane surface.
Cured polyurethane is known to be resistant to chemical bonding, even to itself.

[GarthB]

Garth, I am curious if the epoxy stick well to this ML cured polyurethane liner.

Thanks OP827. I appreciate your concern. Since it was such a thin layer over a very small area that had been sanded thoroughly with 120 grit (approximately 6"x6"), I'm not going to lose sleep over it, personally. The entire shell has yet to receive a final scuff sand with a medium scotch-brite on the random orbital to hit the low spots, so I think that most of what I laid down will be removed before final paint. Monstaliner told me over the phone that any type of paint other than oil-based could be applied over ML if it had been scuffed well with a medium grit. To my knowledge, since it has already cured for two weeks, it will be strictly a mechanical bond to the original paint no matter what I use.

I am relieved in the fact that the small test area didn't "pop" at all. Hopefully the ML goes on and cures just as well.

[GarthB]

On Friday, we scuffed the entire painted surface with medium scotch-brite pads until we couldn't feel our arms anymore. This was a tougher job than I was anticipating and had to be done in order to add some tooth to all of the low spots in the ML's texture that remained. After scuffing, we blew the whole thing off with compressed air, wiped it down with dry cloths, and then wiped it down with MEK.

Yesterday, we taped all of our edges and then rolled on two new coats of ML. Climate conditions were 73F and 54% humidity, so I figured it was nearly as ideal as we could get for weather to apply it in. We were very diligent about rolling slowly and not rolling any areas more than they needed to be. I opted to thin the coating a bit for these two coats as well, hoping that it would allow paint to flow into the pinhole craters a little easier. I used ML's S-8 reducer by filling the small can of pigment that they send about 1/3 full and mixing it in thoroughly with the other 3 components.

Overall, the whole process went very well and my wife and I are feeling an enormous sense of relief. The two new coats took care of approximately 99% of the pinholes and the texture is exactly as it should be. As for the pinholes that managed to translate through from the original two coats, they are incredibly tiny, and I'm wondering if anyone on here knows of a good choice for a clear-drying wax (or other compound) that I could apply to the surface that would fill them? By tiny, I mean you need to have your eyes less than a foot from the painted surface in order to even begin to notice their presence, and even then, you've gotta look hard since most of them are few and far between.

There is always the clear coat option. I'd just like to pursue a more simple fix that wouldn't require scuffing the surface, if one exists. Either way, it isn't going to stop us from getting out and camping with the remainder of summer/fall that we have left.

[Capebuild]

Looks beautiful. Your persistence has paid off. Glad it all worked out in the end.... and really nice color.

[GarthB]

Been chipping away at finishing touches while trying to enjoy the Northern Michigan summer at the same time lately. Hopefully it'll all be wrapped up within the next week or so.

We got the fan installed after the first paint job. Thankfully, it wasn't proflex'd yet when I discovered the solvent popping. I'm waiting to proflex until all of the exterior seams are ready.


Installed a 12V outlet at the foot of the bed for a heated blanket, per my wife's request. This was part of the reason we decided to go with a fairly large battery.



I glued a sheet of 18 ga. galvanized steel to the countertop. Stainless was $215, galvanized was $40. The compromise was a no brainer in my opinion. There are a few blemishes, and I'm sure we'll add quite a few more as we use it. I would like to figure out if there is a way to polish galvanized or not.


The battery has been mounted in the center bay of the galley. We chose to go with a VMax 100AH Group 27. Solar will likely be something we utilize for charging later on, but for now, we'll be relying on a Noco Genius charger as well as a trickle charge when necessary from the TV.


All of the drawers and galley components have been built/test fitted and are now in the process of receiving sanding sealer and polyurethane.


We're getting excited.

[western traveler]

The battery has been mounted in the center bay of the galley. We chose to go with a VMax 100AH Group 27. Solar will likely be something we utilize for charging later on, but for now, we'll be relying on a Noco Genius charger as well as a trickle charge when necessary from the TV.

I got the VMax 110AH Group 27 and the same charger for mine. The solar will have to wait for me too (I can tote my Honda 2000 if necessary).
At first I thought dang, I should have made that port bay wider but then realized the weight needed to go in the center.
The drawer slides will just be swapped.

[cjlangellier]

Installed a 12V outlet at the foot of the bed for a heated blanket, per my wife's request. This was part of the reason we decided to go with a fairly large battery.

My wife made the same request! We put a 110V outlet down there to avoid the battery drain. Our tear won't see too much cold weather use since I have the cargo trailer converted with heat for use as an ice fishing/winter camping unit.

[tony.latham]

She REALLY looks great.

Tony

[GarthB]

We put a 110V outlet down there to avoid the battery drain.

Cody, I was worried about that as well, so this outlet has an on/off switch. I'm curious to see just how fast the battery drains with a blanket plugged in. I warned my wife in advance that it wouldn't be something that stayed on throughout the night!

John and Tony, thank you both! I've hardly thought twice about the monetary investment thus far, however, the time and labor investment has been humbling.

Got the doors and hatch installed. Both tasks went fairly smooth and we're really excited by the way its all shaping up.

I'd be lying if it didn't hurt a little each time I have to drill through all of my layers of paint and fiberglass though. Despite dabbing proflex on the end and head of each, with each screw, I quietly think to myself, "don't be the one that somehow manages to leak and turn this whole thing into a pile of mush."




I'm currently trying to determine why my hatch isn't sitting quite perfectly with the 1/2" D seal installed. It fits equally well on both sides without it.

On the passenger's side, fitment is good (both sides will have draw latches near the bottom):


Driver side, however, the hatch isn't compressing the seal as far:


The seal is recessed an equal amount into the hatch on both sides and both lips on the galley wall are identical in height. I let the hatch sit in the closed position overnight to see if I would be able to find any pinch points showing up in the seal this morning. There was one area that showed some pinching, along the tight radius up at the hinge, so I trimmed it out in this area. However, trimming it out didn't change things much. Wondering if I might need to order a 3/8" high seal for this side rather than the 1/2" high seal. It just perplexes me that the other side fits as well as it does if it is a matter of seal height.

[cjlangellier]

It’s hard to tell from pictures but it looks like your gap right at the hinge is tighter on the driver’s side of the trailer. If the seal is binding up there, that alone could be enough to prop the hatch up a little higher on that side.

Your trailer is looking really great btw. I love the color you guys picked.

[tony.latham]

Wondering if I might need to order a 3/8" high seal...

It's a good question on what is going on. The bottom line of course is whether or not the seal is engaging the lip. If it is, I wouldn't touch it of course.

You've done a superb job. Nobody but you is going to notice it.

Tony

[western traveler]

I'd be lying if it didn't hurt a little each time I have to drill through all of my layers of paint and fiberglass though. Despite dabbing proflex on the end and head of each, with each screw, I quietly think to myself, "don't be the one that somehow manages to leak and turn this whole thing into a pile of mush."

Garth, thanks for sharing that!

It is driving me nuts thinking about how carefully I’ve tried to make this a watertight package only to have begun drilling and screwing holes in it everywhere!

[GarthB]

Thank you for the insight and compliments Cody, Tony and Ralph! After using the hatch the past few days, the seal has begun to relax and conform a bit and the fitment is getting better a little bit at a time. I think I'm going to cross it off of my list of concerns.

My apologies in advance for the lengthy update, but things have been moving at a very rapid pace the past couple of days. I've felt like a kid on Christmas morning getting to unpackage and install all of the remaining hardware and electrical components that we've accumulated. For starters, we got the galley overhead light and the ratcheting paper towel bracket installed:



After we got some light to work with, we installed all of our freshly polyurethaned drawers. On the left is the stove and water slide out on a set of locking drawer slides. The water container is a 3 gallon aqua brick and the stove is a camp chef. It also has room for a fry pan, pot, and a propane bottle. And, last but not least, a bottle opener on the face.

In the middle are two latching drawers. The upper drawer is a full 23.5" deep and the lower drawer is shallower to account for the battery at 14" deep. It amazes me how much storage space that these provide.

On the right is the cooler tray on locking drawer slides. A utensil drawer was made to go above the cooler but, unfortunately, will need to be remade due to the fact that the lid on the cooler that we bought doesn't actually sit perfectly flat on all four edges. Oh well. That's what you get when you try to build everything to such tight tolerances.





Next, we got the electrical box all buttoned up. We squeezed a lot into this thing but I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.



Inside, we have the fuse panel, a Noco charger, a main fuse between the battery and the fuse panel, and, obviously, all of the wiring that goes to/from the rest of the camper.

On the outside of the panel, I made the access door so that I could change fuses and access the charger. When charging, we can open the door and run an extension chord in to the charger from shore power. A big design focus for this was making sure that the hinges of the access door were on top. This way, if the hatch gets shut, the door can never remain open and damage the hatch or the electrical. It will always be pulled out of the way of the hatch by gravity.

Left to right on the bottom half of the panel is a tow vehicle charging cut off switch, galley light switch, battery monitor, and 12V/USB charging ports on a switch.

Next, the countertop storage divider was installed. It is full width, from wall to wall in order to look complete, however still provides access to the electrical controls. A fancy storage divider that is cut for our mugs/coffee supplies/cooking supplies will be made later on once we establish what items we're going to keep here will go behind it. Hopefully our electrical doesn't need any revisions anytime soon, because I caulked the bottom edge of the divider along the surface of the countertop in case a spill ever occurs.




And finally, the cabin interior is also complete. Door and fan trim got installed and we added some hinged coat hooks next to the doors. It is now ready for the mattress and the curtains that my wife made.