Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Spent a day applying primer to the canvas. I used Glidden Gripper. It took 2 gallons to primer the whole thing. As I was applying the primer, I found all the spots where I didn't get the canvas bonded to the foam. They would create a bubble in the canvas as the fibers would swell. Luckily, there weren't many of these but it was still disconcerting to see formerly smooth and flat canvas bulging out from the foam. I don't know if it worked but I tried to squish the Gripper through the canvas at those spots with a putty knife and liberal amounts of Gripper. When the gripper dries they all shrank back to their former size and the canvas is smooth again. I hope the fibers are encapsulated and bonded to the foam but I'm not sure how I can tell. I guess when I go to paint, if the fibers are encapsulated, they won't swell.





I also had to make a flat surface for the tail lights and license plate mounts. The bolt is holding it in place until the glue cures. I'll then caulk it and primer and paint it. I started to use another tail light but the more I worked with it the less I liked it and I ended up purchasing a surface mount light instead.



As a side note, I'm at 518 hours worth of work. So just under thirteen 40-hour work weeks. I've spent a bit of that time re-doing work I wasn't happy with the first time (floor, door frame, tail lights). I hope I am past the halfway point. It is starting to look like a trailer.

Looks really GOOD !!!

GPW wrote:Looks really GOOD !!!

+1 Sure does! Looks super.

, yes, you have a trailer!

That is so great! Love watching it come together.

Great looking build. So where is your red stapler?

Wolffarmer wrote:Great looking build. So where is your red stapler?

Glad you caught the reference. Office Space is one of my favorite movies and since I was building a desktop for my home office, I thought it would be fitting.

This is such a classic and classy look and a beautiful job in the build. If and when I build another, yours is definitely an inspiration for me. Thank you for sharing this build, I've learned a lot.

dave

Your build is truly inspirational! I'm planning a foamy in the near future and I have learned a lot by following your progress. Keep up the good work!

Man this thing is looking great! You are going to get me in trouble. I mentioned "time to build another one" last night to the wife and she grumbled.. Really though, you execution of the canvas adhesion and smoothing around the edge areas looks great. I might have to explore foam territory one day, and when I do this thread will be one of the places to read up on. Keep up the good work.

I allocated 1 day to building wheel wells and getting them installed and it took 4. The wells need to support weight because I'm building shelving on top of one and a counter on top of another. I had one piece of 3/4 inch plywood left-over that was 4x4. It took careful planning to get the pieces cut out of that one piece. They are glued and screwed together and then I used "L" brackets to help hold them down to the floor along with glue. The brackets sit in a groove so that they wouldn't interfere with the flooring. The wheel wells are 4 sided so they sit up against the wall but they aren't attached to it. I'll fill the gap at the wall with spray foam and caulk.



The hardest part was deciding what to do with the seam where the well sits on top of the floor (a potential leak site). There is also a potential leak site where the plywood sits up against the wall. I glued canvas under the floor and up the wall over the seam. The canvas was then saturated with glue and, after the glue dried, it was primed and painted. In the wheel well arch, you can just see the seam where the plywood and foam are sitting side-by-side. That seam is showing through the canvas that is covering them.

To give the wood some additional toughness, I sprayed on bed-liner. I focused more on the top of the well, because it is sure to catch road debris coming off the tire. Not sure how well all of that shows up in the picture. I may spray another coat of the bed-liner on it. I'll keep an eye on it as time progresses.

It was time to get some paint on the trailer so I could get it out of the garage. I like the swoop that GPW drew but I started to worry it looked too much like the graphics that they put on modern trailers. The ones that look a million variations of like this:



What I really wanted was more of the classic look. So I spent some time searching the internet for more classic paint schemes. Here are a few examples:


This one is especially nice since it is matched with the tow vehicle. I wasn't looking to spend that kind of money so I tried to pick a color that went well with my tow vehicle without being an exact match.








Here is what it looks like right now. I really need to get it out in the sun so I can see what it looks like.

Great build! I've gotten back to my Albuq. trailer build this past week and progress like yours is very inspiring. Hope to meet you soon. My most recent build journal post is here: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=61303&p=1127278#p1127973

Very good painting work. It looks like you know that special painting trick for masking on rough canvas surface.

Nice job. The paint scheme is really nice.

I am also not a big fan of swoops and tribal like graphics. I think you nailed it.