Gorgeous Day!

Today was magnificent!  I love the weather when it is 70 degrees and sunny.  I embraced the sun today and set up my work table on the patio in the glorious sun.  Okay, to be truthful, I slept in late and by the time I got outside the sun had crested and the sun was only partly on the patio.

A perfectly blue sky; the moon is hiding directly in the middle.

My big challenge today was to install the rest of the insulation and finalize the interior electric.  Mission accomplished on both parts.

In this image you can see the switch for the porch lights in place.  I'm going to need to do a little finesse work to install it.  Notice how nice the insulation and headliner look in the corner there.  I will finish the back wall by installing the cedar strips.

You can see in this image that I installed a strip of cedar right next to the door.  This was a cool thing I thought of because I needed something solid to anchor into for the cup holders.  I used 3/4" foam insulation instead of the 1" that I had been using.  With the cedar strip glued to it with Gorilla Glue, it came out to be the same thickness as the covered foam.  Once it has completely set up, I'll install the drink holders.  You can also see in this image how I used the foam to form 'panels' that were then covered with the headliner material.  I actually didn't have to glue them into place.  They are held in place by friction.  The small bolts that hold the door frame in place are all that was needed to hold the panels tightly in place.

After cutting the panels, I used Loctite 300; it is specially formulated for Marine applications and high heat.

Heavy coats on both the fabric and the foam.  Again, this adhesive was formulated to work on foam.  Normal adhesive would 'eat' away the foam.

This stuff had exceptional tack.  It was simple once the fabric was cut and sprayed to make the panels.

Here they are ready to install.

The great thing about doing it this way is that if I ever 'did' need to remove a panel, It would not be difficult to do so.  It is also very simple if I ever need to install any type of hardware on the outside of the teardop, I can simply pull out a panel and attach the hardware; then simply pop the panel back in place.  I am going to put a piece of cove molding along the entire 'seam' between the cedar and the insulation panels.  I tested it out today and it is a 1" cove molding that will bend perfectly.  This additional friction will hold things neatly and give a really nice finished look.

 

The reading lights look really great I think.  I like the accent color and the way the silver looks against the brown.

 The power port worked great today to charge my phone while I was in the teardrop working.  

Tomorrow I will need to figure out what I will do with the bulkhead area.  Part of me would really like to have the cedar strips and insulation in there.  The other part of me worries that if I insulate it I will take away valuable 'space.'  Not really sure what will go in there.  Probably shoes, jackets, rain gear; maybe even fishing poles?  I'm sure my wife will have some good insight on what to do there.

The teardrop this evening as I was finally cleaning up at 9:00 p.m.  It was a good eleven hour work day!

Crazy Weather

Today was an interesting day.  Mostly cloudy, warnings of lots of bad weather, but so far only a teeny bit of rain.  I got a lot done today.

I built the slide out shelf for a laptop and/or to place iPhones or other I suppose even a fan, heater or whatever.  

Once I had figured out the dimensions of the shelf and how I was going to mount it, I needed to figure out how I was going to get the 12 volt power ports into the cabin.  I decided not to put them behind the slide out shelf because it would have been really hard to get to them.  Instead, I put them to the right of the shelf.

Here is the housing for the power ports.

Drawer slides in place and open.

Pull out shelf installed.

Open.

Power ports installed.

The next big project was to get all the cables cleaned up and organized.  This is the battery strap which holds the battery in its place.  

 

My simple on/off switch for the battery.  Simply twist it to the right to turn it on; twist it to the left to turn it off.

Everything tidied up and strapped down.  I installed the fire extinguisher too.

Doors and all hardware installed.

The galley is complete.  The only thing I need to do is install the sliders on the cooler slide out tray.  Still need to fix and install the reading lights again and install all the additional insulation.  Not too much more inside work left though.