How about a build thread? An offroad teardrop...

[oz97tj]

I've seen them with adjustable length tongues that people do that with. Mine isn't set up that way but it does have a receiver at both ends so I can swap from a ball hitch to an offroad hitch or whatever and be pulled from the back of a trailer.

[joe_jeep]

looks sweet oz!

[oz97tj]

This weekend wasn't so productive. Yesterday I spent about 6 hours driving to go pick up my doors, vent, and some other misc. items. I got home to find some family had came to visit unexpectedly so that pretty much took up the rest of my evening.

Today, the plan was to cut up a couple sheets of plywood into strips for the roof spars, cut the doors, glue up the roof spars, install roof spars and put on the end pieces of the roof. It didn't quite happen. It started with my table saw not cooperating, so I had to run to Home Depot and rent one. Got it home and cut up all the strips. After returning it, I came back home to glue up all my roof spars. Installed the ones at the back to close up the bottom part of my galley and started installing some at the front. Then I started on the drivers side door. It ended up taking me about 90 minutes to cut the hole. I just wasn't with it or something because no matter how many times I measured, it was still not big enough. Finally after cutting it waaaaay too many times, I got the door in. Then I put up a sheet of the roof on the front. It didn't cooperate either. After another hour or so to get one piece on, I gave up for the day.

I only took one pic after I got the door in. I didn't take any more as I was just too frustrated.


I need to finish what I set out to do in the next day or so. I'm putting on the front and back pieces of the roof so I can climb under it and do another coat of epoxy and seal up all the joints and edges. I'm thinking this will make the final epoxy much easier as I wont have to worry about any of the parts on the bottom. Hopefully I can get back in the groove again...

[dustyxj]

What are you going to skin the outside with? or are you just going to paint/varnish it..? I had considered using FRP from home depot as an outer skin if I built one. Never needs painting, easy to clean, available in white, gray and tan colors, and you can use trim pieces for outside corners, inside corners, seams, and edges..... just a thought.

[oz97tj]

I didn't want any trim pieces or anything and want to keep it as durable and snag free as possible so I'm just going to epoxy and paint it. This, in my mind, is also the best way to completely seal everything.

I've purchased West Systems epoxy and it's easy to use and basically encapsulates whatever you epoxy in a hard plastic. It's awesome stuff, and extremely durable.

[dustyxj]

sounds good... same thing boat builders use, should hold up great.

[oz97tj]

This morning I decided to do a little more work. I got the rest of the roof spars installed, the hole for the vent framed, and reinforced the area where the hatch hinge will be.

This shows the front part of the roof I installed over the weekend.


Here you can see the roof spars.


And here is the back. I'll skin it in the next day or two.

[oz97tj]

No pictures this week. Finished welding up the trailer last night. Well mostly anyway. I had to do a little welding on the bottom and I had to do a little welding around the recievers. I'm about one weld away from being done, but of course I ran out of wire.

I then got the passenger side door installed and a few other unglamourous little odds and ends. Then went shopping for my ceiling panels, but nobody had what I was looking for in stock. Now, I need to call the place I got my 4x10 walls from. I'm guessing they will have it, but they close at 4 pm and it was later than that so I was out of luck. To make myself feel better, I bought a new air compressor, staple and brad nailer. lol

In the next couple days, I'll pick up some more welding wire and finish that up, paint the frame, and do one last coat of epoxy on the bottom of the tear. Then I'll place the cabin back on the trailer and bolt it down for the last time. Now let's hope I can find my ceiling materials...

[300Grand]

Very cool Oz! Where did you get 4x10 sheets of plywood?

[oz97tj]

Very cool Oz! Where did you get 4x10 sheets of plywood?

The only place I found them was Michigan Lumber in Flint. I purchased ACX which was $67 a sheet. If you want to stain the wood instead of paint, I'd step up to the cabinet grade stuff, but it's like $112 a sheet.