g-drop Build Journal

...ask your questions in the appropriate forums BUT document your build here...preferably in a single thread...dates for updates, are appreciated....

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 5:58 pm

I've had some business travel and other commitments lately but have still made some progress on my build - My focus has been to get the walls done.

I started by creating 2 templates out of thinner plywood - one for the outside profile and the other for the inside profile and then drew a 2x2 grid on each sheet:

139573

I tried to use a chalk line to create the grid but the lines were not crisp enough so I went back to using my trusty pencil - you'll notice some of the red chalk in the image above

139575 139574

Once I had cut over my templates, I spliced 1 and 1/2 sheets of 3/4" ply together to create a large 12' sheet. These sheets were quit heavy to handle! Splices where done using 3.5" overlap joints and titebond 3 wood glue. I had to get creative finding heavy objects to help weigh it down while the glue was setting:

139576

I used the outside profile template and a router to cut the first wall profile and then used the first wall to cut the second one.

139578

I then used the inside template to mark out the voids and used a jigsaw to roughly cut out those holes

139583

I then used a router to neatly finish off cutting the voids

139579

When done, I used the first wall as a template to cut the voids in the second wall

139581

I then used a router to route out the 1/4" deep mortise along the edge of each wall. The straight part at the bottom was easy to do using my straight edge as a fence but the curved part was a real PITA (Looks like I didn't take any closeup pictures of that)

Once done, I was able to dry-fit the walls

139582

I haven't cut the door opening yet - I measured and cut the door opening in my templates but want to wait until my doors arrive (yet to order) before I actually cut the walls. Next up I'll look at skinning the inside of the walls and start working on the cabinets.
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby KCStudly » Mon Feb 22, 2016 8:05 pm

Looks good. :thumbsup:

I like the aluminum wheels. :thumbsup:
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9609
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:05 pm

KCStudly wrote:Looks good. :thumbsup:

I like the aluminum wheels. :thumbsup:


Thank you sir!
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Sun Mar 13, 2016 7:57 pm

I've been hard at work over the last few weeks and wanted to post an update.

After a lot of thought I decided to mount my walls to the trailer before moving ahead with the interior shelves and cabinets - this is mostly due to a lack of storage space and I feel like it will be a lot easier for me to get things done on my own when I don't have to worry about holding/balancing/clamping things so my focus over the last few weeks was to get the walls up.

First off I had to pull the axle off and get the perches welded (thanks KCStudly for the great advice). After welding them, I gave then a few coats of primer and then another few coats of paint and installed them:

140101

Next up was gluing the inside walls skins and trimming the skin to size. I searched all over the city for a low profile router bit and eventually ended up ordering one off Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K2G69M

140106 140102

Next I had to cut out the holes for my doors - I ordered the 26"x32" doors from Vintage Technologies and I'm really happy I waited for them to arrive before cutting the holes in my walls because the corner radius on my template was slightly off and I would have had gaps. I made a new door template and then used it to cut the holes in the wall. First I used a jigsaw to roughly cut the holes and then I finished it off with my router:

140107 140108

Next I sealed the area that will be in contact with the metal frame with epoxy. I'm using West System epoxy (forgot to take photos during):

140109

I used PL Premium and treated 1 5/8" deck screws to fit the walls. Screws are spaced 6" apart:

140105

The interior of my build deviates from the original Wyoming Woody - The front will only have a shelf and I'll be installing a car stereo and some speakers above the headboard:

140103

I cut out a 1/2" recess on the top shelf and plan to install an LED strip in the recess for a mood light effect. The three gaps between the top of the headboard and the shelf will house the stereo and speakers and will be finished up at a later date - the idea is that it will be flush with the headboard when done.

Here is another view of the progress:

140104
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby KCStudly » Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:54 pm

Good work! :applause: You're making good progress, too. :thumbsup:
KC
My Build: The Poet Creek Express Hybrid Foamie

Poet Creek Or Bust
Engineering the TLAR way - "That Looks About Right"
TnTTT ORIGINAL 200A LANTERN CLUB = "The 200A Gang"
Green Lantern Corpsmen
User avatar
KCStudly
Donating Member
 
Posts: 9609
Images: 8169
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:18 pm
Location: Southeastern CT, USA
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Wed Jun 08, 2016 7:44 pm

Time for another update..

Work has been slow and steady over the last couple of months. I've been working on the galley cabinets and I must admit, this has been the least favorite part of my build thus far. Here are some pictures:

I pretty much have everything prepped for the headliner installation which I hope will happen this weekend.
142351

I added a large drawer on the bottom right hand side to house my cooler - I've reinforced it to accommodate the additional weight even though I'm not expecting it to be super heavy. I still need to finish up the other drawer.
142350

I've sealed the lower front with 3 coats of minwax helmsman satin spar varnish. This space will not be accessible again after the headliner gets installed and will house my a/c ducting.
142349

I took a break from the sawdust a couple of weeks ago to focus on my a/c. After some great advice from aggie79 and shadow catcher in this thread http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=66135 I decided to go with a 5000 btu window shaker unit. I had a lot of fun taking it apart - here's a shot of the internal wiring before I started hacking it:
142342

I built a new front cover/adaptor using 3/4" poplar for the frame and 1/8" birch for the cladding. I then lined reinforced the inside by lining it with epoxy and fiber tape. This also made the inside and joins pretty air tight - it was nice to test this technique because I plan to make my fenders this way.
142343 142344 142345

I had to re-route the wiring out the side:
142347

I also removed the original thermostat switch and replaced it with a HVAC thermostat which I wired to a 24v relay (and transformer). I plan to mount the thermostat on the wall in the cabin and keep the original mechanical on/off/fan control switch and mount that in the headboard control panel. So far in all my testing this setup has worked great but I'll have to wait until I get a little further with my build before I can do any real field testing.

Here are some pictures of the completed unit - I used dryer dock connectors similar to those used on the pet cool units:
142346 142348
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby aggie79 » Fri Jun 10, 2016 8:34 am

Fantastic work on your teardrop! It looks beautiful. :thumbsup: :applause: :thumbsup:

You motivated me to get moving on my own A/C hack. I'm electrically-challenged, so could you provide a few more details on your relay type, transformer type, and wiring please?

Thank you and take care,
Tom
Tom (& Linda)
For build info on our former Silver Beatle teardrop:
Build Thread

93503
User avatar
aggie79
Super Duper Lifetime Member
 
Posts: 5405
Images: 686
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Watauga, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Fri Jun 10, 2016 2:03 pm

aggie79 wrote:Fantastic work on your teardrop! It looks beautiful. :thumbsup: :applause: :thumbsup:

You motivated me to get moving on my own A/C hack. I'm electrically-challenged, so could you provide a few more details on your relay type, transformer type, and wiring please?

Thank you and take care,
Tom


Thanks Tom!

I'll put together some info on the wiring, etc and post it in the next few days.
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:18 am

aggie79 wrote:You motivated me to get moving on my own A/C hack. I'm electrically-challenged, so could you provide a few more details on your relay type, transformer type, and wiring please?


Hey Tom,

Sorry about the delay - I was away from home last week and just didn't get around to writing this up. Here's some more info on the A/C thermostat hack. Sorry about the external image links, for some reason I can't seem to upload anything to the my gallery on here.

The components I used:

Any 24v HVAC thermostat should work, I used a White-Rodgers P200 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007T4D92Q)
Emerson 90-370 24V Coil Voltage SPDT RBM Type Relay (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NNRUQG)
Philmore 24VAC CT 1A Power Transformer (http://frys.com/product/1922642)

I want to start off by saying that I'm not an electrical engineer so forgive me if I get my terminology wrong. This is all connected to a
test rig at the moment so it is a little untidy.

The original thermostat switch on the A/C unit has two connections, one runs to the mechanical switch and the other going to the unit itself
I removed the original switch and wired those connections to one side of my relay. Original wiring shown here:

http://imgur.com/r8NVhNm

I used a 24v relay because this is the voltage commonly used by HVAC termostats so in order to get 24v also needed to add a 24v transformer. I had initially hoped to use a line voltage thermostat that could operate at 110v in order to avoid a transformer, but I found them to be more expensive than the 24v versions and not as pretty to look at. Here is a picture of the transformer and relay and how they are connected - I labelled the terminals:

http://imgur.com/ayRXg6V

I then use thermostat cable to connect the thermostat to everything, here is a picture of the thermostat wiring:

https://imgur.com/PP91fWr

Here is how the wiring all goes together:
Power Live/Neutral ----> Black leads on transformer
First Red lead on transformer ----> Terminal 3 on Relay & "C" on thermostat (yellow wire)
Second Red lead on transformer ----> "RC" on thermostat (blue wire)
"Y" on thermostat ----> Terminal 1 on Relay (red wire)
Terminal 2 on Relay ----> Terminal 3 on A/C mechanical switch
Terminal 4 on Relay ----> A/C unit (Live)

I hope this helps - let me know if you need any more info.

Chris
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby aggie79 » Tue Jun 21, 2016 1:35 pm

Thank you Chris for a very detailed explanation. I promise I won't derail your build thread any more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Tom (& Linda)
For build info on our former Silver Beatle teardrop:
Build Thread

93503
User avatar
aggie79
Super Duper Lifetime Member
 
Posts: 5405
Images: 686
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Watauga, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Sun Mar 05, 2017 2:08 pm

After a long break from posting, I thought I'd post a quick update to show some of the progress over the last 6 months. I didn't do much last summer as it was too hot to work in my garage and once football season started progress was slow too. In addition, I spent a crazy amount of time traveling for work late last year as well, but I managed to get to a point where I needed to attach the outside skins. Needless to say, that has been my least favorite part of the build thus far. My old man came to visit over Christmas so I managed to get some help getting those skins glued - its definitely not a one person job. Here are some pics:

I got the A/C ducting run before installing the headliner

147057

147048 147049 147047

Here are some pictures of the inside with completed headliner. You can see the back cabinets with electrical panel in the middle as well as the front headboard with the 'control panel'

147050 147051

I then got the wiring run and installed the insulation

147053 147054

Once the outer skins were on, I started making the galley hatch

147052 147055

I then installed the hurricane hinge and got the hatch fitted:

147056

The outer skins are red oak - I had intended to leave it in the natural state, but after getting the skins on I feel like I want to darken the outside a little so I've been testing some dye colors. I am currently working on fenders, tongue box and getting the galley hatch completed and definitely intend on posting more regularly. I really want to have it done by the summer, but I guess it all depends on my work and travel schedule.
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby ELM » Mon Mar 06, 2017 12:00 pm

It's looking very nice and your inside cabinets look great. :thumbsup: Keep up the good work and us updated on your progress.
My Build journal. viewtopic.php?f=50&t=65395
User avatar
ELM
Teardrop Master
 
Posts: 277
Images: 176
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 5:49 am
Location: Sutter Creek CA
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby aggie79 » Mon Mar 06, 2017 1:24 pm

ELM wrote:It's looking very nice and your inside cabinets look great. :thumbsup: Keep up the good work and us updated on your progress.


I agree with all of the above - very nice! The HVAC duct work looks great too.
Tom (& Linda)
For build info on our former Silver Beatle teardrop:
Build Thread

93503
User avatar
aggie79
Super Duper Lifetime Member
 
Posts: 5405
Images: 686
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Watauga, Texas
Top

Re: g-drop Build Journal

Postby g00s3 » Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:29 pm

ELM wrote:It's looking very nice and your inside cabinets look great. :thumbsup: Keep up the good work and us updated on your progress.


aggie79 wrote:I agree with all of the above - very nice! The HVAC duct work looks great too.


Thank you both - given how awesome your builds are, I really appreciate the kudos!
g00s3
Donating Member
 
Posts: 32
Images: 59
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:44 am
Location: Dallas, Texas
Top

Previous

Return to Build Journals

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests