Change of Plans...

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men...we ended up with some problems this morning.  We went out to check on the teardrop's cabin.  It had rained seriously hard overnight and was down pouring  as we ate breakfast.  Unfortunately, the caulk had reacted with the intense humidity and heat.  The caulk, which is pretty thick, began to liquify and was not solidifying like we had hoped it would.  We knew we would not be able to put the mattress in as it was.  We tried backing up the CRV and putting the teardrop in the garage, but it was just way too tough to maneuver with the basket on the front of the teardrop; it impacted the turning radius in a big way.  We gave up after a few minutes of trying and being completely soaked by the rain while we tried.

We decided to go ahead and take the kids to my parents to visit and we would stop at Harbor Freight on the way back and get some of the things we would need.  The first thing we bought was a 12" extension to the trailer tongue.  After buying a coupler lock, a new pin and a few other supplies we headed back to Powell.

Putting the extension on the tongue made a HUGE difference!  I was able, with some support from Erica, to back the teardrop into the garage quite easily.  I can't believe I didn't buy that thing before!  After getting the teardrop in the garage, we plugged in two fans and started airing the interior out and charging the batteries.

Installing the extension was simple; just insert a new coupler pin.  

Drying out in Powell.

Two fans drying the caulk.

We've decided that we would stay the night here while the cabin dries out and the caulk cures.  We hopefully will be able to load up in the morning and head to Athens.

Just an aside, I noticed some water in the galley area too.  I'm not sure what the cause of that is, but it has to be partly due to the poor seal and fit of the hatch.  That's not nearly as important to me as the cabin is, but it will have to be addressed when we get home.  For now, we wait and pray for no rain.

Sand, Sand, Sand, Polish, Polish, Polish, Paint?

Took a trip to Harbor Freight with Jack today.  Came home with a 7 inch variable speed grinder/polisher and a 6 inch random orbit sander, lots of sanding pads, polishing compound and plans of polishing the teardrop.  How hard could it be right?

Right away we figured out that the polishing compound we were using was not the right kind.  It was impossible to get on the pads because it was too 'solid' or hard.  When we applied it by 'drawing' on the skin of the teardrop it scratched the surface pretty badly; so badly that we could not 'polish' it away.  What to do?

Jack got me working on the hatch.  We rigged up a tarp to keep the sun off of us.

We went to Advanced Auto Parts and talked to the folks there.  We decided to buy some rubbing and polishing compound.  

We tried using these new compounds.  They applied better and did 'sort of' polish, but it was clear that the surface of the teardrop was not getting 'roughed up' enough to really shine.

If you look closely you can still see the paint the seller used to mark the year and price.  Something needed to be used that was more abrasive.  Back to the auto parts store.

We came home with 400 grit sand paper.  This stuff is super fine, and it did 'scratch' up the surface a lot more than any of the compounds we used, but still not enough to really shine the surface.  Time to go back to the auto parts store.

We came back with 320 grit sand paper and started in with this.  This really got rid of the leftover paint and got rid of most of the 'worst' scratches.  We then put a coat of polish over it and tried to buff it out.  There was so much debris from the sanding, that we ended up washing the hatch down with soap and water.  Finally, I applied a really caustic aluminum 'cleaner,' that is designed for pontoon boats.  That really cut the crud and gave a uniform look to the hatch.

Here is the 'finished' hatch.  I could spend a couple of more hours sanding and polishing just this section, but I decided to clean up and stop for the day.  

Here is a shot where you can see the 'color' of the top of the teardrop and the hatch.  It isn't as shiny as I wanted it to be; I was truly hoping for that magnificent shine of the restored Airstreams, but I am not sure I'll be able to achieve that.  Which is why I started thinking about painting.  I'm going to do some research on the process of doing this.  

This guy's teardrop has a cool retro look.  

I plan to call a few body shops and inquire as to how much it might cost to have it done professionally as well as ask a few questions on the teardrops and tiny trailer forum.

I Need You to Step Outside Young Man

Well, she's outside!

I was able to make it to Harbor Freight tonight.  I bought myself the heavy duty tow dolly I mentioned in an earlier post.  Of course I had to put it together:

Next, we hitched the trailer to the tow dolly.

The 'problem' is our driveway is on a fairly steep incline. 

Thinking that I would 'usually' need to do this myself, I thought I would give it a try.  Things went pretty well until the weight of the trailer made it down the slope of the driveway.  I had Jack on my iPhone shooting some hilarious video.  You'll have to see it for yourself.

 The sound Jack heard was simply a small piece of aluminum that I had left on top of the teardrop; it will be the strip that hold the rubber gasket in place.

After some serious tugging, we pulled it up the slight hill again into our backyard and onto the patio.  I'm still a little worried about a few small places where I know it isn't completely sealed.  I will get the gasket on over the hinge and seal everything up in the next few days.

My car is back in the garage for the first time since March 25th!

That's enough for today!

Let's Take it Outside!

We are ready to pull the trailer out of the garage and reclaim that space for my car!  The only problem is that in order to do so, I'll need to pull the teardrop out into the road, up over a curb and up a small hill grade to reach our back porch.  That would not be easy to do by hand, alone.  I don't even want to think about using my car to do it; that would destroy the landscaping.  Solution:

Harbor Freight Heavy Duty Tow Dolly!

This baby will make pulling the teardrop a breeze.  And, I just received some birthday money and found this coupon online:

 

This brings the grand total down to:  Regular Price $64.99; reduced price $54.99 - 20% ($10.98) = $44.01.  This conveniently is how much I've received in birthday money!

I'll have to make a journey up to Harbor Freight in Racine in the next couple of days.  I just read some of the reviews and nearly all of them say something like this:  "I should have bought this dolly years ago...no more manhandling my trailer."  

Possible Issue: Thanks to a Fellow Teardropper for the Head's Up

Emmit, a fellow teardropper, shared a possible concern in a comment to me.  He wanted me to be wary of the basket on my tongue because it may impede my turning radius.  I think, in fact, he is right, but I won't know for sure until I can hook it up and give it a spin in a parking lot.

However, I think I may have a solution and, once again, Harbor Freight, may have come through for me.

Here are two inexpensive, possible, solutions:

 

 Both of these 'could' work; they would give me an additional foot of clearance.  One even gives me a step!  Thank you Emmit for the head's up.  You may have saved me a tail light!

Worrying and Planning

I woke up in the night 'worried' about the storage boxes.  Yes I installed them with a strip of aluminum angle, but I screwed them into place; and the screws are 3/4" screws.  That means that only half an inch is biting into the wood.  A few big bumps and... I can just see them skidding across the freeway as I went through a major city.  Yikes!  I am going to keep the screws in place, but I am going to bolt the aluminum to the frame.  Then I won't have to worry about it at all.  Now that I have the jack stands, its just a matter of jacking up the frame and drilling the holes for the bolts.  Shouldn't take more than an hour.  Famous last words...

So, once again, Harbor Freight has come through for me!

 

For less than $20 I will be able to have a jack that I can keep in my storage box for an emergency!  Plus it will ease my mind when I bolt the storage boxes to the frame.

Another problem I've discovered is that the new handles are a millimeter or so too 'thick' for the interior mechanism.  Rather than file down the handle, which is a really nice chrome, I am going to pick up a set of files from Harbor Freight.  These will allow me to file down the mechanism, which receives the shaft of the handle.  

 

Again, look at the price!  

I may work on the door handles this week too; it would be great to be able fully close the cabin.  The next logical project would be to put the hatch hinge in place.  I can just see me spending days working on the galley cabinets only to shut the hatch and realize that I can't get it to close by 1/8"!

It would also be nice to see how the insulation and headliner would look on the door panels.  I am planning to glue the headliner to the foam and then put the foam onto the aluminum.  Because the doors edge is part of the door seal, I'm thinking that I would leave a 1/4 inch gap around the top.  I will probably then add a layer of foam weather stripping, which will compress when the door is closed.  It will be exciting to see how the doors turn out!  It will also teach me a lot about working with the different adhesives, etc.

 

Saturday

My Wingman, Jim Tingey was back for a status update today.  He helped me jack up the teardrop in order to anchor the edges of the plywood floor which needed to be bolted together.  We also completed the bulkhead installation of the green treated board.

Next, I measured and cut the first piece of headliner for the floor.  Simply placing it on the floor of the teardrop immediately made a huge difference!  The whole space was more 'finished' and pleasant.  Unfortunately, I had to remove the storage boxes and start over with the aluminum trim.  I was too eager to have the floor boxes in place and realized that with the headliner on the floor, I would need to re-do the aluminum edging.  Nonetheless, it looks much, much better.  I didn't use any contact cement yet.  It's too cold and I'm weighing the benefits of the material I have.  I may end up returning the gallon of contact cement and going with a spray adhesive from 3M.  I'm researching that for a later date.

In addition to 're-doing' the trim, I decided to anchor the boxes to the frame with some of the left over aluminum angle material that was left over from removing the galley.  I screwed the angle to the frame and then screwed the boxes to it.  This is a much more secure way to do the floor boxes anyway.  I should have done it that way in the first place. Well, I should say, I tried to do this.  I need to invest in some jacks to get the trailer up in the air, even a few inches will greatly increase my ability to work on it.  I plan on picking a set up from Harbor Freight tomorrow.

I showed the door hardware and the ventilation fan to Jim.  He was impressed with the fan!  One thing I discovered, kinda by accident, is that the fan's blades are clear which allows you to be able to 'see' the stars through the vent!  I'm thinking about where to place the vent in order to take advantage of this awesome design feature.

I may go ahead and cut the opening for the ventilation fan tomorrow.  It would be nice to have the additional light in the cabin while I'm working on it; plus this would motivate me to get the other electrical work started.


I started measuring the cabin for the foam that I plan to install.  I turned to Sketchup again to help me with figuring out my materials.  The end result is pretty cool, take a look:

Above you can see the 4 x 8 sheets with all the individual sections marked out.  My plan, at this point is to install the headliner on the individual pieces of foam and then install the pieces.  By doing this, I should eliminate the need for large sheets of headliner to be installed.  That's the plan at this point.

I'm getting ahead of myself.  The galley needs to be at least roughed in completely before I can start installing the electric.  

Ordering Parts

Today was a day of ordering a lot of parts.

I explored two excellent resources, Lil' Bear Tag-Alongs and the Teardrop Fix-it Shop.

Both were phenomenal to deal with.  Both called me back to confirm my needs and walked me through the process of choosing the right materials.

I ended up ordering six lengths of five foot aluminum for the bottom of the trailer and the wheel wells.  That will give me enough to experiment with forms, etc. when I'm trying to bend it to fit my trailer.  I also ordered new door handles (inside and out) a hatch handle and lock mechanism that will lock and secure the galley lid.  I haven't seen the dome light that George offers anywhere else, so I went ahead and ordered that too.  It has a neat feature that allows you to choose between a white light or a red light.  This would allow you to 'see' without affecting your night vision.  Now that I think about it, I might order one more for the galley.

After some conversation with George at the Teardrop Fix-it Shop, I decided to investigate replacing the hinge.  After sharing the idea with Larry, I am not quite sure what I am going to do about.  He brought up a great point.  If I took the old hinge off and put a new on, the I'm going to be adding a lot more holes in the hatch.  That will decrease the strength of the hatch and could jeopardize the integrity of the hatch.  If I'm drilling out all those rivets, I'm thinking I might just go ahead and add a new seal.  It must have worked pretty well on the original right?

I ventured up to Racine today to take a look inside a Harbor Freight Store.  Having never actually been inside one of their stores, it was a little like a kid in a candy shop!  I purchased a few supplies for working on the teardrop.  One tool I'll surely need is a rivet tool.  There were about five different kinds.  It seemed the only difference was the heaviness of the steel that the tools were made from.

 Getting ahead of myself, but one of these sander/buffers and lots of these pads are going to be in my future.  The cost of the tools at Harbor Freight are ridiculous!  So inexpensive.

 These two trailer tongue boxes were attractive.  I think I like the much more sturdy heavier steel version for the cost.  I would like to integrate a cargo rack with grates

 I think this is gorgeous!  The above is from So Cal Teardrops and they know how to outfit a teardrop.  My goal, at least at this moment, is to add the diamond plate on the base of the trailer like they have done and then add something similar on the tongue as a way to carry our chairs, etc.

Tomorrow my job is to rebuild the window on the passenger side.  If things go well, I'll be able to use my template for the other side too.  It should be pretty basic; but those are some famous last words. 

That's all for tonight!