A Little Tearapy

[tony.latham]

...then withdraw and let it heat up again and cure/dry, then repeat.

Thinking About It:

That's giving me a headache just reading about it... Ouch.





Tony

[erfnie]

...we do plan to build and poly that whole roof/headliner separate, before it gets installed

* As it so happened, I poly'd & painted the interior over a 4-day period in a severe cold-snap (cold for N.Texas), using a space heater to maintain the proper temperature. I would heat it up, then get inside and do a section, then withdraw and let it heat up again and cure/dry, then repeat. It was difficult to do in the cramped 4x8, especially the overhead work.

* The drips from my brush/rollers while completing the overhead work were a real problem, ruining one pair of glasses when I misplaced my safety glasses, and the clothes I was wearing, also were messed-up. My face was half-covered with a vapor-respirator (I wish I still had it, since the COVID-19 appeared), but my skin was dotted with droplets that I was able to clean off before they hardened.

* Next time (if ever) I need to paint inside a confined space, it'll be with full head-to-to-coverage.

That sounds like it was a real PITA and I admire your persistence.
That method though, is exactly what we're trying to avoid by building the roof structure separate.

[erfnie]

The Lower Galley Section

Whilst the teardrop insides were drying from all the stain and poly we did some work on the galley section.
It was much easier to work on while it was apart from the teardrop. We could turn it upside down and attach all the partitions.
Here it is, upside-down.

We used the Kreg jig, screws and glue to hold most everything together.

Then we measured for the sink hole placement and cut that out.

Here it is ready to be finished with its own coats of poly. You might be wondering what those two strips of wood are attached on either side.
Those will support a cover that will go over the space between the seat boxes and the galley. One space will maybe hold the water pump.
(It's all part of the "raised floor/storage space" in the main part of the cabin.)

While it would have been nice to also attach the laminate to the countertop at this point, that would've covered the screw holes when it comes to attach it to the galley wall later.
Plus the garage isn't quite at a warm enough temp (as recommended on the label) for the contact cement to cure properly. So we at least cut it to size for now. This would be our first use of cutting laminate with the router. We taped the cut line to avoid chips, just in case. Then clamped it all down using the galley counter underneath as the guide. Here we go...

The router did such a smooth job of cutting the edge off. (I don't know why in the world we waited so long to get this tool!)

Then the tape gets pulled off and waa-laa, nice clean edge.

Very happy with the result


The Floor Vinyl
While the galley was out, it was a good time to lay out the floor and cut it to size.




Before we started on the roof, we rolled it back up and set it out of the way so it wouldn't get scuffed or damaged.
It would be easy enough to roll back in later when the galley and seat boxes are ready to go back in. We don't intend to glue this down.
It will be held in place by the stuff on top of it later.

[eLink]

The router did such a smooth job of cutting the edge off. (I don't know why in the world we waited so long to get this tool!)

Right!? I'm really lovin' my new router, and its uses, as well!

That laminate looks nice! What's the manufacturer and color?

[erfnie]

The laminate is a sheet we special ordered from Menards. The color/pattern is Oxidized Maple.

CustomCraft Countertops® High-Resolution 30" x 96" Oxidized Maple Laminate Sheet
Model Number: 6321-43_LS_30x96

https://www.menards.com/main/kitchen/countertops-laminate/all-countertops-laminate/customcraft-countertops-reg-high-resolution-laminate-sheet/30x48/kitchen/countertops-laminate/all-countertops-laminate/customcraft-countertops-reg-high-resolution-laminate-sheet/6321-43ls30x48/kitchen/countertops-laminate/all-countertops-laminate/customcraft-countertops-reg-high-resolution-laminate-sheet/6321-43ls30x96/p-1567492196866.htm

[erfnie]

The Seat Boxes

Changing gears from the galley, it was time to work on some seat boxes for the cabin. These have slat tops that can be lifted off to use the space inside the box for storage.
We decided to go with a slat top to help keep weight down and provide a little aeration under the mattress when its on top. Here is the graphic that shows the idea a little better.
The solid gray parts in the middle will be table pieces that can be lifted out and set up somehow - haven't quite ironed that out yet. The other highlighted slat tops can also be completely moved and set on top of the other two seats.

Then the mattress cushions will be able to be moved for more of a seating arrangement that looks something like this.

The boxes were built first and here it is shown with all the pieces that will make the slatted top.
Part of the top is more solid because we weren't sure if the mattress would cover the whole width being a 6-wide.

Using scraps to space and line everything out. The spaces between the slats had to be a certain width so the
bottoms of the other slatted tops would fit exactly in between them to not slide around when stacked on top.



Rounding out the sharp corners of the seat boxes.

Here is one box complete with top.

And here's where they will be placed in the cabin. The slatted bench top, table top and other slatted sections
will be built later in the same way.

[erfnie]

Wall Insulation
Time to get our piles of insulation pieces out of the way, that we cut awhile ago and put them in place.
We used a small brush and my other favorite tool - an old gift card - to spread the glue around quickly.
Then we popped the rigid foam pieces in their respective spots like a puzzle.

[erfnie]

Roof Structure
The plan here was to build the whole roof structure separate, in two sections. The first section starts at the hatch hinge and goes down around the front curve a bit. When that part is all assembled, we plan to poly it before installing the whole piece so we won't have to work upside down! For now though, here is the structure...
This is how it started, one bay at a time. We added blocking to add extra support because of the width being a 6-wide. Of course the top, flat roof parts were the easiest.
This part is a middle piece, right where the vent fan will go.

Then we got into some of the curved parts that were more challenging. We made some partial templates to help make all the blocking the same.
In the end, I'm not really sure these helped a whole lot. It was easier just to cut one piece of blocking and use that one to trace and cut the other pieces.



We made sure to cut some holes where the porch light wiring needed to go through.

A big chunk of the top section done.

Set in place for some test fitting. The whole piece rests on those grooves that were cut in the walls before they went up.

The last, curved part of the top section where it wraps around the front.

Here is the whole top section as one big piece.

The remaining front section will be more easily built in place later, without worry about having to work upside down!

[tony.latham]

Interesting how you are building the roof structure for removal and headliner installation and then installation. I have not seen that --I assumed you would just add the headliner to the lip on your walls and build the structure above it.



In the end, will the headliner end up on the shelf or butt to the walls?

Tony

[erfnie]

In the end, will the headliner end up on the shelf or butt to the walls?

The headliner will butt to the walls. Although I wish I would've thought to try it how you were thinking. It might have been easier and nicer looking. There are some minor voids along the edge that we'll have to cover with a strip of something to make it look cleaner. Kinda expected that to happen tho...

[erfnie]

The Headliner
(thank you Tony for teaching me that term. Can't believe I never heard that before )
Time to apply the 1/8" ply for the headliner. For this we used heavy duty construction adhesive and the stapler. Getting that curve to stay was a bit of a challenge.

A test fit after both pieces were attached. You can see the chalk lines we made to make sure the staples hit the solid framework.

And what it looks like from the outside.


Then we took it off again and applied 3-4 coats of poly mix.

And routed out the hole for the vent fan.

Then we fit it back in place and did some "human test-fitting" just for fun!


We'll finish off the front end next...

[OP827]

The headliner looks very nice . What heavy duty construction adhesive did you use, PL Premium?

[erfnie]

The headliner looks very nice . What heavy duty construction adhesive did you use, PL Premium?

Thanks! The adhesive is actually Titebond Heavy Duty Construction adhesive. We chose this only because we got a bunch of it for a good deal. It's holding up very well so far.

[erfnie]

Headliner Front End

The front end was built, one "bay" at a time, starting at the bottom. We'd test fit each section, then put it together in place.
Clamps came in handy to hold everything together to see how it fit.

Throughout the build we'd often print out various parts of our plan, right from sketchup, to reference measurements, etc.

A good chunk done with middle supports to add stability like we did on the roof framework.

The final "bay" going in place. Here is where we had to rout out some holes and grooves for wiring that comes out of the wall for the reading lights.

All done with the framework. View from the outside.

View from the inside.

Now since we wouldn't have to work upside down, we attached the remaining "headliner" in place before we poly'd it.
Once again, we marked the framework lines with chalk and blue tape on the walls and stapled and glued it to the framework.

Here is what it looks like from the outside.

[eLink]

It's looking great so far! It looks like you are planning a "stargazer" window on the curve; I'm curious to see how you work that out (I'm considering giving up on mine).

Off-topic question: How are you able to post more than 3 images at once? And how do you make them "non-scrolling"?