"She's Done!"

I can't believe it, but I think I can say that 'She's Done!'

I had a few of last touches that I wanted to do today.  Two of them were merely cosmetic, one was going to be very useful.  I have been waiting for weeks to be able to finally put my Carpe Diem decal on the hatch.  I think it looks incredible!

Moving to the front of the teardrop, I needed to apply my foam rock guard.  I decided against the steel diamond plate due to cost and weight.  I think the neoprene will work well for many years.  And, if it gets too messed up, I can switch it out for a very low cost.

After installing the rock guard, I carefully drilled the holes for my cargo basket.  The best part is that I've kept the tongue piece on so that if I wanted to, I could remove it and insert it on the hitch of our car quite easily.

I installed the 120 volt inverter under the shelf in the cabin.  Now we can use either 12 volt or 120 if we ever need it in the cabin.

The indoor/outdoor thermometer is easy to move about; it's simply velcroed to the side wall.  I also did a bunch of little things in the cabin:  I installed a few pieces of trim molding and put in a cedar floor in the bulkhead. 

My terrific daughter helped me finish these simple orange polka dot curtains.  They provide just the right amount of privacy while still allowing the air to move in and out.

And that's about it!  I have just a couple of small details to finish; one in the galley and one under the trailer.  Those two things will be finished easily tomorrow and then we can start planning the first road trip!  

I had the chance to show off the Carpe Diem today to a couple of friends who came by.  They were quite impressed!

Insulation and the Smell of Cedar

A successful, but shortened weekend.  I wasn't feeling great this weekend, but I did manage to get a couple of things mostly finished.  I installed the insulation on the ceiling.  I used the PL 300 adhesive, which is especially formulated for foam board.  It seemed to work well, but it did not have as high an initial tack as I wished it had.  I ended up needing to brace the ceiling panels.  I suppose I could have been more methodical about it and cut specific pieces of wood to brace the ceiling, but I just used whatever I had in the workshop.

 

I let the insulation cure overnight; actually I ended up taking two evenings to get the whole ceiling done.  I did the front one night and then the back the next.  I would have liked to have done it all in one session, but the bracing that was needed slowed me down and made it kind of difficult to maneuver inside the cabin.

I had some help from my amazing daughter.  She helped me cut the material to cover the door insulation.  This was partly experimental and partly finesse work; she is much better at this than I am.  Plus, I loved that she was taking part in the process.  She'll really appreciate the doors a lot more now!  We'll use the spray adhesive to hold this all in place; it's pinned now so that we could experiment with how to apply it.

Fashionable, even in the workshop!

 

One door prototype ready for installation.

I invited my wife out to give her insight on how to proceed with finishing the ceiling.  She was not a big fan of the carpet on the ceiling.  Instead, she suggested, maybe we could use cedar or tongue and groove pine.  She was right; the finish would not have been what I wanted on the ceiling, no matter how carefully I tried to install it. 

 So, I went to the hardware store and purchased some incredibly aromatic cedar.  I wish there was a way to capture the lovely smell!  I used the 1/4" thick cedar on the ceiling and it worked beautifully!  The only thing that was a little tricky was getting it to 'stay' on the ceiling.  I was using the PL 300 adhesive for foam board to hold the strips in place.  That worked okay until I got about four strips in place and the combined weight started to pull them off.  

I purchased a brad nailer at Lowes and tried using 5/8" brads every six inches or so.  That sort of worked, but the brads were only anchored into the foam; so they didn't have much holding power.  I ended up needing to brace the ceiling, which made working a bit tough.  You can see from the images that I finally figured out that using one thin piece, which bent, allowed the pressure to be spread across the entire area being supported.

I finished the entire ceiling today.  I'm thinking about putting it in the bulkhead section too.  It would make the cabinet/closet a bit nicer and would make it smell great too!  The Fantastic Vent was going all day today and made working in the cabin bearable with the sunshine pounding down on the teardrop.

One really interesting thing I discovered this weekend.  The teardrop's temperature gauge showed that the insulation is making a huge difference.  Without the insulation, the interior temperature rose to over 114 degrees.  With the insulation, the highest it got this weekend was about 80 degrees.  It was a little cooler, but still, that shows that the one inch of insulation is making a big difference!

After letting the ceiling 'cure' overnight, I'll be anxious to add the weather stripping seals and then try out the door with the insulation.  I'm looking forward to receiving my baskets this week.  One last week of school responsibilities; even so, I should be able to do some work each evening.