Concerns About Leaks

My biggest fear with the teardrop is leaking.  I'm starting to get to the point where leaking can and will cause problems.  Once the insulation and headliner are in place, it will be very tough, but not impossible, to repair.  The roof vent is my biggest source of anxiety.  This thing is nearly 70 years old and is held together with hundreds of rivets.  In order to 'modernize' this baby, I had to remove a couple hundred rivets.  Each of those spots makes me nervous; however, I've taken precautions and things should be 'fine.' 

As I said, I used the butyl tape to seal the top of the vent hood to the aluminum.  I think I'm going to unscrew the screws so that I can get at the area where the wood and aluminum meet on the roof.  I did not apply any sealant to that area so I think I will do that and then caulk each screw hole and then again around the area where the aluminum and the plastic flashing meet.  That should be sufficient.

I guess, in the worst case scenario if we have a leak, I could always pull off the headliner and repair it.  I just don't want to have to do that.  This is another reason I am glad I'm not adding any kind of 'skin' to the top of the insulation.  So far, I've seen that the insulation creates a really nice surface once the headliner and glue are dry.  My original plan was to add a skin to be a 'tougher' surface.  Things seem to be just fine without one; this is also will prevent any kind of rot or mold from forming.   The headliner is marine grade and is actually from a marine surplus store.

I have sealed every single interior joint with clear silicone caulk.  There should not be any problem there.  Every piece of wood that is up against the aluminum has been treated with Thompson's Water Treatment. 

Another area that I'm a little concerned about is the door frames.  I am not sure how the original seal worked, but the seals I'm going to put on them are similar at best.  I have caulked the wood door frames and that should, theoretically, keep any water that makes it past the seal out of the cabin.  I feel like what I need to do is seal it up and then spray water into every single joint and surface.  Actually, I need someone else to do the spraying so that I can be inside and spot any leaks.  I may just do that with Jack once we get the door and hinge seals on.

For now, I'll have to let things be as they are.  I have a busy day and a busy afternoon.  Don't think I'll get any teardrop time today.

Pulling Lots of Things Together

Happy Mother's Day!

After church today we all went out for brunch.  I was able to steal away a little early and while I was waiting on everyone to get home, I was able to get all the old caulk, dirt and goo off of the hatch.  In doing so, I was able to see the potential for how awesome the teardrop will look when I get to polish it.  I used an SOS pad to get the goo and rust off of the skin and hosed it down and let the sun dry it; every time I do work like this, it makes me look forward to the polishing.

One of things that makes me really happy is that I was able to find tail lights that are almost identical to the original shape and size.  The down side to this was that the previous owners had put other tail lights on it and drilled lots of extra holes for that and for the license plate.  I decided that once it was all clean, I would cover the inside of the hatch in the headliner material.  I'll caulk the remaining holes to keep water from entering through the holes.  I really like how the hatch looks with the carpet like material on it.

One big task I accomplished today was putting the hinge on.  It was quite difficult.  The problem was getting the wood strip to be anchored; this was tough because it was a 'blind spot.' I couldn't clamp it because it had to be underneath and it prevented me from using any kind of clamp, etc.  Jack and I went to see Ironman 3 and decided to try to finish this when we got back.

We ended up drilling through from the other side and putting two temporary screws in place to hold it.  Then, we added the butyl tape and went to town.  Jack was a big help putting the hinge on the hatch. I think it looks really nice with the headliner on.  I was not able to figure out the mechanism that latches the hatch; I was trying to use screws and I just realized that it actually needs a bolt.  I just remembered that is what I took off of the latch.  Again, it's one of those strange things that you can't see it when it's doing it's job.  I'll have to fiddle with it later when I have more time.

I realized, sadly a bit too late, that the counter top was about 1/4" too wide.  It caused the struts which hold the hatch open to not be able to close all the way.  Thankfully, I can get away with using 1/2" plywood to make a finishing strip.  That will give the counter top a finished look.  Also, you can see in the image above that the wood strips will need to be painted orange as well to give it a really nice finished look.

The next big job was adding the butyl tape to the Fantastic Fan.  I installed the tape and cut roof spars to screw into and also to give some rigidity to the roof.  When I was moving the fan in and out in preparation for installation, I flexed the roof too much and the foam piece that was holding the dome light popped off.  I am glad it happened now and not when I had the headliner in place.  This reinforced the need for the roof spars, both to 'screw' into and for support.  Unfortunately, I broke one of the screw heads off in the process and found one that would not penetrate.  I'll need to check on that hole (right in the center) so that it does not leak.

I am still going to caulk the edges of the fan, but I'm hoping the butyl tape will do its job.

You can see in this image that I was able to 'brace' the ceiling with the vertical and horizontal spars.

There is no movement at all on the roof now.  I'll have to re-glue the foam for the dome light.  I may use the Gorilla Glue to hold the roof spars in place too.  You can see that I drilled holes to allow the wires to pass through the ceiling beams.

There are two things I need to do to make it safe for being outside.  

1. Add the weather stripping to the doors.  

2.  Install the rubber/aluminum over the hinge. 

After that, it should be safe to be outside; I'll probably keep a tarp over it until I can really caulk all the roof and hatch joints properly.  Getting it outside will be great, but I worry about pulling out to the back porch without a tow dolly.  Maybe I could rent one from Lee's Rent It?  Or, I might need to purchase one if it works well.  They are pretty cheap at Harbor Freight. 

Galley Work

It continues to amaze me how 'little' two full days of work 'produces.'  Unlike a skilled cabinet maker, I've completely figured out my 'cabinets' as I've moved forward with this project.  I had a general idea of what I wanted it to look like; and then there was the reality of the profile of my teardrop.  The cooler was a large part of the design.  I wanted it to be easily accessible.  I wanted it to be able to be pulled out and accessed.  I also wanted a 'counter top' so that we could use it as a place to prepare meals, etc.

I used the butyl tape over the holes that were left when I removed the old galley.  I then screwed into these holes to anchor the wooden side panels.  So, I reused the holes with stainless steel screws.  The butyl tape was a bit of over-engineering, but I don't plan on being the last owner of this baby!

The angle and slope of the galley was really tight.  As you can see from the image above, the counter top is pretty narrow, but after experimenting a little, it does seem doable.

You can see in the image above that the stove fits perfectly in the area above the cooler.  I don't have a 5 gallon water bottle yet, but my hope is that it will fit, horizontally, next to the stove so that it can 'pour' into pots, etc.  I was using my Coleman lantern box as a stand in.  I have a few tweaks on the drawers.  I have great respect for cabinet makers.  I've made a few cabinets in my life, and always am humbled by the challenges they present.

The cooler clears the cabinet nicely and even the doors and drawers open when each other are open too!  That was just a happy accident!

Now that the cabinets and drawers are built, I'll take some time this week to paint, sand and paint them again.  In other cabinets I've built, I've 'dressed' up the doors with some edge trim and routed the edges.  I'll probably do that again, now that I know it all 'works.'

Left side open.  I'm not sure if I'll need to add any shelves here or if we'll use some sort of container/baskets to store stuff in here.  The right side will contain the battery, fuse panel, etc.

I plan on a couple of tweaks to the cooler area.  I think that the stove, water bottle and lantern will be able to be stowed like the first image above shows.  However, I'll need to create some sort of eye hook to hold a bungee cord which will hold them all in place while traveling.  I'll also need to put a latch on the cooler so that it does not come sliding out.  Another little happy 'accident' is that the small black latch in the center of the bumper is where the hatch will 'clasp.'  I used a small slide of plywood to mount the drawer slides that move the cooler in and out.  That was exactly the right amount of height that was needed to 'miss' the latch!  Lucky!

It really is hard to believe that I spent a whole weekend working on the Carpe Diem and this is 'all' I have to show for it.  It was a lot of miniscule progress, followed by several steps backward.  Nonetheless, things are looking pretty good.

Next up: electrical rough in.  I'm going to West Marine to switch the fuse panel from the four breaker system to the six.  I didn't realize that one of the breakers on the four was used to power the two DC outlets.  This would give me too few inputs.  Going with the larger panel will give me an extra circuit or two for future expansion.

I'm not sure how or where to place the circuit panel.  On the one hand, it could be stowed away under the counter on the right side.  On the other, I might want to be able to 'see' the lights for each circuit.  I'm not sure how important that is to me.  I'm going to need to research that a bit this week.  Another item that I need to research is how to 'charge' while driving.  I know it is pretty simple, but I need to integrate that into my system as I move forward.

I know I want to ready the electrical system for the future use of solar power too.  I explored several different 'makes' of panels, etc.  They all seem to have a very simple connector system.  I think I'm just going to have to decide on a system and then plan for the eventual connection before the teardrop is sealed up and insulated. 

Hinge Trouble

I started to tinker around with my new hinge tonight, only to find out I've got a problem.

Take a look:

What you are looking at is the discoloration of the metal from the adhesive used to hold a rubber gasket underneath the piano hinge, which was original on the teardrop.  The new hinge is one I bought to hopefully solve my leak issues.  Unfortunately, as you can see, the hinge is too narrow and does not cover the 'gap.'

Here is the original hinge:

Significantly larger; probably double in mass and girth.  I think I'm going to have to resort to replacing the rubber gasket and re-installing the original hinge.  I'm wondering if I should resort to my bicycle tire gasket solution again?

One thing that I did notice about the 'hatch' is that it is much more rigid with the horizontal stabilizer piece I re-attached to it.  Also, it seems like the hatch fits perfectly over the sides of the galley.  This was a problem on the trip back from Tennessee.  It seemed to be quite weak and wobbled a lot.  It now feels more solid.

Now, to find a gasket that is five feet wide and 1 1/2" thick, or something that would work like that.  I wonder if butyl tape would be sufficient?