Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi folks,

I am about to start 'final fit-hinge mount for my doors--doing piano hinge, surface mount. I am looking to get 1/8" clearance between door and wall all the way around. I am not planning to add any luminum trim or any thing like that at this point. So, what I am saying is that if you measured the clearance between the door and the wall at any point, top, bottom, sides there will be a 1/8" gap....allowing for some adjustments in process.

IF I decide to add trim later to either the door or the wall opening, I will dismount the door and sand off some more....

Once doors are spotted, I can actually begin putting the walls up etc!

Have been doing an unbelievable amount of sanding and varnishing on ceiling ply, interior walls etc...3 coats on everything....

Annnd.... we cut the curve on the hatch into an even more open configuration.....will send pics when I get the walls up..
the decision to adjust the curve came from the dry fit of the walls...

Hope this is a good day for everyone,

Jim

Jim,

I started mine this weekend. Sanding and polyurathaning the walls before installation certainly looks easier than it will be later on. My only concern is glue adhesion. Did you poly everything or leave the areas where the floor and roof spars attach bare? Or does it really matter? The angle iron along the bottom of the wall looks like it will make the wall installation a lot easier having something to rest on while screws are put in place. Good idea!

Jim

Tripper--

The angle is a permanent feature--it is aluminum angle and the idea is stolen....er....borrowed from Madjack <g> As far as varnish and glue go, the glue will not work on the varnish, so if you plan to glue, don't varnish where you want to glue..my duh! I will put screw mount cleats next to my struts and glue the struts to those as well as screw them to the walls...

Jim

I did 1/16" clearance. I have noticed that if the trailer in flexed, parked on very uneven ground, that the door will rub just a bit when I close it.
I think 1/16" looks better but 1/8" is more practical.

kayakrguy wrote:Tripper--

The angle is a permanent feature--it is aluminum angle and the idea is stolen....er....borrowed from Madjack <g> As far as varnish and glue go, the glue will not work on the varnish, so if you plan to glue, don't varnish where you want to glue..my duh! I will put screw mount cleats next to my struts and glue the struts to those as well as screw them to the walls...

Jim

I'll lay out my strut locations and poly around them. The angle at the floor line will make it easy to avoid that glue area.

Thanks
Jim

As far as door clearance goes I did what ever looked good did not measure. It worked out. Im not good enough to get it exact so why worry?

Jim...when we rough cut the door opening, we did 1/4" to accomodate the 3 pieces of 1/16th thick trim that we used to make our door casings/jambs out of...this should have left us with a 1/16 th opening all around...it was too tight and we had to add another 1/16 all around to give us 1/8th clearance all around with the trim in place...we sealed/finished/poly'd everything before assembly and used Gorilla Glue(read all label directions) during assembly...it has so far, proven to work well with the finshed pieces and the Al angle
madjack

Malcomb, Kens, MJ Tripper,

First, Trip, do the ceiling panels too while you're at it. Just about everyone here who has built these things recommends finishing those before installation....and as much as possible on cabinets etc becore installing etc. I simply follow where the wise, great and good have gone before <g> Seriously, Tom Swenson has some great pics as do Madjack, Kerry, and Mike..Gage has some good pics and advice.
I'm learning as I go...for the most part <g>

Malcomb and Kens--

I doubt if my 1/8" will be EXACT. I don't think anything on my whole build is EXACT. I blame it on my tape--keeps expanding and contracting and the wood keeps swelling and shrinking--some while other swells <g>
I just want the space to be 1/8" or less.

MJ, I gotcha on that business about the 1/8". I am not putting trim on the door or wall at the moment. I may do that later--if I do, I'll have to sand the doors some more. Right now, I just want to get a good fit and seal.
I am trying the interior seal ala your builds and Steve Fredericks. So, I am going slooowwww.