Blood, sweat, and teardrops

 We have done so much on this camper project. I am amazed at the depth and breadth of Weston's knowledge every step of the way. From cutting out pieces to building cabinets to running all the wiring, he has known just what to do every step of the way. I've helped out as best I could along the way but we are really this close to being finished thanks to Weston. I couldn't have done it without you! 

This is where I left off during the early part of the week with the fuse panel and the charge port and battery charge display mounted in the front cabinet. I wanted to get them mounted as it would be more challenging once the inside roof plywood was installed.  Before I quit for the night Wednesday, I measured out the 5 foot by 5 foot plywood panel that forms the inside skin we will be staring at as ceiling. Of course nothing is completely square so I had to scribe the angle of the back edge which was off by a few degrees of 90. Not a huge deal, you'll never see it as crooked. Then I layed the plywood down onto the ledge across the back and along the right side. I climbed inside and scribed a line on the left side to cut so it would drop down nicely into the rabbited ledge. The seam conveniently falls in the middle of the front cabinet. Fit like a glove. Pretty good for an unsupervised hack. Again nothing burned or blew up. That was quitting time.  ...

Sunday morning and were are getting ready to set on the frame.  I started sliding the camper off the wooden table and onto the frame by myself because I'm impatient or impaired in judgment, never sure which, but was quickly shut down by Kim who obviously has the better judgement in this project although neither of us has lost a finger or poked an eye out, even on the times I fly solo and nothing has caught on fire. Even so she felt it best to wait for Nick to help lift it into place. Smart girl that one.  The frame all ready to go.   Rolled it out into the light for the first time.  Beautiful woodgrain! Cooler storage on the bottom left will have a slde out drawer. The lower right will receive doors and a slide out shelf. The edge of the countertop will get banded with wood. The three openings will get doors with wicker insets. The axle looks funny in this picture but only due to the angle of the camera.  We haven't decided on fenders yet but I'd like to ma...

 Saturday Kim and I epoxied the whole interior and exterior. Mixing the epoxy 100 grams at a time is slow going but in this crazy heat that's about as much as you can get brushed on before the goo gets too thick to flow out nice. We used a combination of "better"quality brushes and 4 inch foam rollers and will have some more sanding to do before a final coat but man does this thing look great! We still have to build cabinet doors but i took a trip to Lowes this week and bought hinges and knobs and we have plenty of wood left to make door rails and stiles. The center inset of the doors will be a beaded plywood also epoxied. We will be able to reach the items in the cabinets from inside the camper or from the galley. The inset of the galley doors may be made with chair caning although we haven't found a less than million dollar supplier yet.  We finished up Saturday with the entire camper shell epoxied inside and out. The plan was to be able to lift the camper shell ont...

Amish Kim needed another project to keep her busy during the week so she found this teardrop camper fabric and added the retro teal colored border. These are a work of art- just take a look at the mitered corner on the border!  I pulled all the clamps off of the door trim stops and finished staining the face frame of the front cabinet one night after work.   Just for fun I temporarily clamped the doors into the opening. They need to be shimmed to get a nice gap all around and the hinges and handles installed after getting epoxied. 

Being that I am a madman with my brad nailer, there seems to be lots of little nail holes to fill. I subscibe to the theory of: "if you cant nail it good, nail it a lot". Kim rose to the occasion diligently and with bare fingers, applied wood filler to all the little divots on all the cabinets. When it was all dry she hand sanded everything nice and smooth.  The next step is another coat of stain on all the inside cabinets. The galley cabinets will not get stained just epoxy.  Nick introduced me to the wonder of pocket screws when we were building cabinets in his bathroom. These are great for making face frames as it allows you to screw into side grain rather the end grain which is a weak joint. The down side is they leave ugly beveled holes on the back of the board. Normally this isnt an issue but since our cabinets will be accessible from the galley and from inside you will see the holes. Kim glued dozens of these little wooden plugs in place and later sanded them smooth. ...

Cabinets are a wonderful thing. Especially when you place one directly over your head where you plan on sleeping. I have no problem whatsoever managing to bash my chrome dome into numerous immovable objects throughout the course of the day, so why not add another level of fun to overnights! But seriously we need a place to hide the electrical fuse panel and all the wires that will send 12 volts out to the lights and the roof vent fan which by the way arrived from our friends at Amazon this week. There will be two doors on the outside two openings and the center opening will be a catch all cubby for snacks and bear spray and earplugs so Kim can get some sleep. 

Monday after work was sanding the face frame for the galley cabinet and the boards for the top of the cabinet which become the top shelf. I glued them and nailed them in place. Once that was done I spent some time cleaning up the shop and putting away some tools.   Tuesday after work I made a trip to Home Depot to look at cabinet hinges and pick up more glue and a couple tubes of PL adhesive. Hinges were too expensive so I'll take another look at Amazon.   

A nice artistic close up of the bead detail on the pine boards.  Check out the video: Here's the Happy Sander hard at work! Kim applied some stain to the divider wall and we started cutting more tounge and groove pine to make the countertop. I started making the face frame for the cabinets in the galley and the top of the cabinets. I'll get them installed tomorrow  after work. The front edge of the counter will be covered with a strip of hardwood to cover the end grain. We decided not to stain the counter boards or the cabinets in the galley. They will get sanded and coated in epoxy.  Another view of the inside as Kim gets it all nice and smooth. Larry, the previous owner who started the build had edge glued all the cedar strips together and applied a couple coats of epoxy before he stopped progress on the project.  Kim was inducted into the sanding dust hall of fame today after spending hours sanding all the inside surfaces in preparation for another coa...