My Epiphany - Sanding - Sanding - Sanding

[JTROBB]

I was trying to use the roller for a nice finish with minimal sanding. I use a thin epoxy from US composites and I do not have any issues getting the cloth to fully wet out with just a squeegee.

Jason

[ieheg2]

Hi Paul!
Watch your work! Excellent!
Soon the weather will be warm, and then the work will go faster.
Here in Siberia today, the rain and the snow began to melt.
The size of my camper like yours!
In the photo, the result as I built.

Sincerely Sergei. Tomsk.

P.S. Today is my birthday. I am 50 years!

[Woodbutcher]

Looks good Sergei. Do you have more pictures of your trailer? We would like to see more.

[calepy86]

so how is this thing coming along? i am very interested in the layout and design you have created... i would love to see it finished

[rowerwet]

not sure what you use to sand/remove resin or paint with. I bought a Painteater this year and was very dissapointed to see how slow it was when I needed to repaint the garage. However I found it was perfect and quicker than a belt or disk sander when removing paint and marine epoxy on my boat projects. the scotchbrite is coarse enogh that gummy epoxy doesn't clog it up, and at the same time it isn't very aggressive on wood. I use Sureply luan underlayment for all my boats, if you know the stuff it is at lowes, and has black x's printed all over one side. Using the Painteater I could remove the paint and epoxy right down to the wood and still read my pencil marks from construction and it didn't touch the print on the wood unless I kept it there for a long time.
It is one tool that has earned it's place in my shop.

[13ptbuck]

Any updates on this one? I like the layout and the slide out kitchen.

[parnold]

Here it is three years later and I finally got back to work on my trailer. I was discouraged by some little problems I had, and since I have my teardrop to camp in, it just wasn't pressing enough for me. After opening it up from it's multi layered plastic cocoon I notices a very small amount of water damage, which were repaired in short order. I put about another 5 coats of polyester resin on the whole trailer after I finished taping all the edges. Time will tell whether I made a good decision, but I used joint tape instead of fiberglass cloth. I used two layers, and it is actually made of fiberglass, and much, much, much easier to deal with that fiberglass cloth strips. I sanded the trailer each morning and applied as many coats as I could during the day. Yesterday morning I sanded a little more aggressively than usual and now I am in the process of applying the paint. I am using Karnak white roof paint. It is an elastomeric paint, but not quite as thick as roof coating. I had great success with the elastomeric paint on my teardrop roof.

It's still early in the day and I have tons to accomplish, I'll try to post some pictures later. My goal is to get it all painted, roof vent, windows, hatches, and door installed today!

[mikeschn]

Good to see you back at it. How long does that Karnak paint take to dry?

Your schedule for today sounds a lot like mine. But I'll be happy if I can get 2 coats of TBII on AND some aluminum paint. I'm not sure I'll have time for the aluminum paint.

I'll check back later for the

Mike...

I am using Karnak white roof paint. It is an elastomeric paint, but not quite as thick as roof coating. I had great success with the elastomeric paint on my teardrop roof.

It's still early in the day and I have tons to accomplish, I'll try to post some pictures later. My goal is to get it all painted, roof vent, windows, hatches, and door installed today!

[KCStudly]

Yes, great to have you back around to it!

[parnold]

Mike, it is in the nineties here and very humid, so the Karnak is taking about two hours to dry.

[aggie79]

Welcome back Paul! It's good to see you back. I can't believe it has been 3 years.

I remember your 2nd project and look forward to see it progress.

Take care,
Tom

[parnold]

I worked on the trailer Wednesday through Sunday. Saturday and Sunday were brutally hot, but I persisted. I applied six liberal coats of polyester resin to the entire trailer, with as many as ten coats on the tape joints. Every morning I sanded the entire trailer to get a fresh surface for the polyester to bite into. Sunday morning, I sanded the entire trailer, more aggressively to prepare for the paint.



By the middle of Sunday afternoon, I had the trailer three coated with paint. Because I was using Karnak white elastomeric paint, I could not convince the guy in HD paint department to tint it for me, so I tinted the yellow myself using food dye. Unfortunately, I ran out of yellow before I realized I didn't paint the bottom of the door. I will stop tonight and buy a third gallon of the paint, so I can give the entire trailer an additional coat.



Once the paint dried thoroughly I mounted the door, and windows. I have yet to add the trim to the door to make it watertight. I'm still going back and forth on the best method to achieve that end.



One thing I learned, on an eighty degree day, you can easily apply a quart of resin with a paintbrush before it starts to gel. On a ninety plus degree day, I had all I could do to apply the quart. I literally slapped that stuff on to get to it before it started to harden in the plastic cup I was using.

I went through 36 3" paint brushes with the resin, and so far eight more with the paint. I bought the cheapest chinese brushes I could find. I used very close to three gallons of polyester resin, and a little more than a gallon and a half of the paint so far. I went through about 175 feet of joint tape.

I still have two holes in the sides of the trailers where the hatches will be mounted. I need to slightly enlarge both holes to get the hatches to fit.

I have a planned camping trip in three weeks, so once the hatches are done, my big goal is to get the stop/tail lights installed along with the side markers. I'm ordering my memory foam matress and some drip caps today or tomorrow.

[KCStudly]

Looking good. With that much resin I can't imagine you will ever have a problem with water intrusion.

[parnold]

Thanks KC!

I got the two hatches installed tonight when I got home from work, but the weather was so hot, I did not much else but clean a little. I did dig up my boxes of stuff that I purchased three years ago when I began this journey, including the two swiveling lights that go over the bed, and the two sconces that go on either side of the big window. I found all my lights (Stop/tail, and side markers) as well as my "porch" light. I ordered the leg for my table, a fire extinguisher, and a memory foam mattress today. The next couple nights are supposed to be a little cooler, so I plan on one more coat of both the white and yellow paint, vacuuming the heck out of the trailer and starting to install some of the interior lights. Heck, maybe I'll even throw an A/C unit in in to help me keep cool!. I still have not decided 100% on how to seal the main door. I'm leaning toward and exterior metal trim with gasket on the top, bottom and handle side, and a thin gasket only on the hinge side. I think this method will minimize any possible water invasion of the plywood, even though it is coating in resin.

Installing the tail lights is a must, as pretty much the only thing stopping me from running to my local campground right now! Ok, maybe work is a little bit of an issue too.

There is a ton of work to be done on the inside, but now that's it's waterproof, I can actually start using it. Hopefully my ambition keeps at the pace it has been this last week. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, so it is a lot easier to get ambitious!

[KCStudly]

I'm like that too, a small set back can put me off a project, but you are over that hump now and there is no stopping you. The problem was relatively minor in the grand scheme of things and you solved it. Keep the train rollin'!