"Red Woof Inn" 10-16 update Hubcaps!

[Oldragbaggers]

Cliff, I just read your build from end to end and you and I need to be called the Redo Twins. I have done so many things over too, and I know I'm not finished yet. My counter, my galley shelf, my fiberglass roof skin, sanding and re-epoxying too many times. I'm right there with you and I feel your money-sucking, time-eating, nerve-plucking pain. I truly do. But your teardrop looks great. Your cabinetry is beautiful, I love the color, and the rest will come. I hope we meet up at a gathering sometime so we can set up chairs in front of our finally finished teardrops and share build stories.

But when you consider how close we are, how much we've already completed, we know we're going to make it, and soon.

[KCStudly]

10 ft looks great

It looks good from here, too. The red and black go together like a deck of cards; classic!

Way to persevere.

[Loader]

Looking great Cliff! Keep on moving, look forward to camping with you one of these days.

[CliffinGA]

Thank you all for the kind words and was planning on working it some tonight but had to watch the opening of the olympic games! But I will be up at 6am here moving cabinets out of the garage so I can pull it out in the light of early morning and get to doing some more work on the doors and hatch. I have to try and figure how much room I need between the tmolding and the edge cap in the door jamb for the weather strip I got from Frank at Vintage technologies. Not sure what spacing it has to have betwen them in order to work. I do have to say I love the trim and how easy it was to bend compared to the aluminum 1/16" chanel that I'm using to cover the sidewalls of the galley. Even trying to anneal it was tough or it just never got that hot as it still crinkled some. Ya'll have a good morning!

Cliff

[CliffinGA]

Well things happem and did not get enough done on the tear but one thing............................................................... HATCH IS SKINNED!!!!!!!!!! Did it differently thanmost by doing the small half first 18"x 67" and clamped it down and had it setting for most of last week then Saturday I put the hatch on the tear and the hatched had straightened a lil. Didn't get to work on it rest of night so put it off til next morning when I glued half of the rest of the skin on the hatch and screwed it down with #8 x 1/2" screws every 4" down the hatch spars and cross pieces. This was the main curved section and when I finished left it to dry in the hot garage til today. I pulled the hatch off set it on the saw horses and checked the glued edges on the spars and they were all good and tight . So I then pushed the bottom section down and started glueing from inside of the hatch and started one side with the skin straight and tightstarted screwing from the stop point to the bottom hatch full cross piece thus taking any slack out and smoothing it as I went. I guess you could say I wetted the skin from the sweat tha was pouring out but thats working in a garage when its 96 degrees and your dumb enough to forgrt to turn the fan on! Needless to say by doing it this way it ended up stretched ting and layed flatter. Only thing I will need to do to finish the hatch is to glue strips across 3 sections of skin at the seam where there was no cross pieces and you can see thru the seam. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow evening as I will be out of area working rest of the week. If so Friday night will be filling holes with putty and the epoxy and taping this weekend! Doors are on hold until I can figure the gap needed for Vintek Tech T mold and seal and door jambs. Thanks for reading guys and the encouragement maybe can have ready for a gathering in September!

Cliff

[Oldragbaggers]

Be sure and post some close up pictures of your molding when you do it, Cliff. I have to order mine soon so I am really looking for ideas and instruction on that part.

[CliffinGA]

Becky its easy to bend mostly on the curves but so far finding a way to keep it fastened has been fun. Grant said to use carpet nails and so far neither of the box stores has any of them. Screws poke out to much and brad nails eventually pull out. I picked up some brass screw nails and will try those sometime this week. I did find out that between the t-molding and the edge/jamb molding you have to have atleast a 1/4" for the t weather stripping I got from Frank. Ths means you have to have atleast 1/2" gap between your door and wall in the opening, whic h has left me doing alot of shaping on the door with a sander . Sometimes just to fix some of my earlier fixing! The hatch has come away with the skin glued good but I need to add extra support so I can reglue the seam.



I will try and get that this week as I will be home every night this week and should be able to get some more done on the tear. Just as a side note, this is a cooler a friend gave me and after I paint it this may be its final home:


Its a 6/77 coleman steel belted cooler that will become a battery/stabizers box on the tongue.

Wells thats the update this week as not much was done due to working out of town and raining here most of the weekend and I was just exhausted from last week.

Cliff

[S. Heisley]

Once the hatch is done, you're almost ready to go camping!

It won't be long now!

[jbyrd]

Wow, it is looking really good. I promise you I feel your pain on the redo stuff. won't be long now, maybe we will be camping together one of these days, I plan on making up your way soon.

[CliffinGA]

Sharon thanks for the encouraging comments!

Nice to see you have yours campable Jeremy, been wondering what came of you bud! Come on up, I plan to have it campable by next month even if its not all finished and parts are strapped on for a gathering up in NW GA . The wife says as long as she is cool and she doesn't get wet while sleeping then she's good . Right now I'm thinking that I will use a combo of brad nails and super 90 3M glue and see what happens as far as trim. And tonight I cut the pieces to go in hatch at the seam so I will have a solid wood behind them. Today was more rain and lots of humidity so did not do much in garage other than that. Tmorrow is another day and we'll see what can be done then!

Cliff

[Oldragbaggers]

Cliff, i am planning to use rivets to attach the molding to the hatch plywood edges. Have you considered those?

[Forrest747]

Looking great.

[jbyrd]

I plan to have it campable by next month even if its not all finished and parts are strapped on for a gathering up in NW GA .

when and where is this gathering I might be interested in attending if at all possible.

[down under tech]

Cliff: You are getting very close to your first of many enjoyable camping trips in your new teardrop.

I know how you feel about your trials and tribulations building your hatch. Believe it or not, I had problems with mine when I built it. Mine was sprung too much when I skinned the outside of it. I had made a template for the proper curvature before I started it. I used some cargo straps and bent it to the correct shape using the template as a guide on each side when I did the inside skin. I used PL Premium to adhere the skin to it and screws that I removed later. I left them on there for a whole day before I released them. I was glad that it held the right curve when I released the straps. I just filled the screw holes with wood filler before I epoxied the hatch.

You are doing great... Keep going, even with the obstacles you run up against. It will be beautiful, I know it my friend.

[CliffinGA]

Thanks all for the comments!

Becky I hadn't thought about rivets but I may look at them, only thing is I wnat to make sure what ever I use I can seal it well. What kind of rivets are y'all planning on using?

Thanks Forrest!

Jeremy its listed on the tearjerker site under the GA chapter Fall Gathering! Most of the chapters are having on around that same weekend. Ours is up at Cloudland Canyon state park here in GA.

Thanks Johnny I'm too worried about the hatch because I may make a shim to use on one side that should shift the hatch to bring the other side down to where it needs to be. I will try that this weekend and start puttying some of the holes in the sking now to get it ready for epoxying.

Cliff