Kenskill style build in Delavan, WI (Now Cub Modern)

[Mr. Lahey]

I'm still at it over here with the PMF. Pretty amazing how many surfaces need to get covered. I'm still working edges and openings. A few more sessions of this and I will be ready to work with the big pieces of canvas.

So far it's been smooth going. Most challenging piece was the inside hatch rail. It's a long surface with a curve that keeps getting tighter. Not a lot of finger room to smooth things out. One side done. One to go.

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Doors are almost ready for canvas. They will be first up.

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[Mr. Lahey]

Pretty much have a good idea on how I am going to paint it and accent it. I'm a big fan of a retro look. I found a picture of an old Cub Modern with a side graphic stripe I'm going to copy. Don't remember if I found the picture here, or on the web. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use it.

Still deciding on the colors I will use. I have it narrowed down to two choices. As I work with the PMF and look at the camper, I'll home in on a final choice.

Side stripe graphic I want to copy

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First sketch in pencil of side graphic. Going to sand off and try again. I want the center stripe a tad wider. Also want to back up the curves closer to the door opening. I do like the initial look of it on my camper.

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[Mr. Lahey]

More PMF work.

Sometimes I'm like a little kid with no patience. I've been really curious how the canvas would look on the exterior. So I skipped ahead a tad and covered both my cabin doors. I could not be happier with how they came out. All my tedious prep work to the camper body and canvas paid off big time. The canvas went on smooth as glass.

I learned quite a bit while doing this too.
Ironing the canvas was not a waste of time. It is wrinkle free and it helped lay down a lot.
Every lump, defect, or flaw on the surface telegraphs through the canvas as it dries. It must shrink a tad and tighten?
Working with smaller pieces is best. I am going to pre cut each section before I lay it down.
Going to iron the smaller pre cut pieces. Last time I ironed the whole half of the drop cloth I was going to use. Threw out a lot of ironed scrap cutoffs.
Super sharp razors are the best to cut this stuff with.


First pic is before final prep for canvas. I wanted all the frayed threads gone so they would not show through. I ran around the edge of the sheet fabric all the way to first cut the glued threads. Then I came back with the palm sander and some 80 grit and sanded off the frayed threads. I also scuffed up the glued sheet fabric on the edges and window opening. It got a tad fuzzy and was great to hold the next coat of glue.

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With all the threads sanded off I coated 1/2 the door with glue. Paid particular attention to wet the edges and corners. Then I smoothed the canvas on.

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As it dried you could just see the outline of the sheet fabric edge and window opening framing. The inner window opening edge will be hidden when the window goes in. The door edge looks fine to me. I'm happy with it.

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I've also rethought my original plan to saturate all the fabric with a glue/water mix. I think I'm just going to do edges and area's that I want to trim threads with the sander with the glue mix. The rest of the canvas I'm going to saturate with paint.

[Mr. Lahey]

I had time today to work more PMF on the teardrop today. It was the first large piece of canvas to install. I also needed to do it by myself. So I used a method I saw used here by another member and it worked great. Very happy with my final results. Now I just need to repeat the process a few more times.


First I cut the canvas to the approximate size with some extra over lap on all four sides. Then I hung the fabric on the tear from the roof down. I positioned it as needed and held it in place with some push pins. Then I also ran a row of push pins about half way down the side front to back.

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I then took out the push pins on the top and let the fabric fold down on itself. I glued up a 6 inch width or so of the body side and smoothed the fabric into the glue. I kept up gluing strips of the body and smoothing the fabric on untill I got to the roof. Then I was able to take out the center row of pins. I then folded the fabric from the bottom up onto itself and held it in place with pins. Now I did the same thing of gluing up the body side downward 6-10 inches at a time until I reached the bottom.

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I got that side on there with out a wrinkle or pucker. Just laid flat on there as nice as can be. I'll let it dry and then trim and glue all the edges in place. Could not be happier with the first results.

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[Staryder61]

You're moving right along with this..

The canvas is nice and smooth

Liking the re-tro looking side graphic you are planning on using.. think that will look great on your tear with it's shape..

[TimC]

More PMF work.
Super sharp razors are the best to cut this stuff with.

First pic is before final prep for canvas. I wanted all the frayed threads gone so they would not show through. I ran around the edge of the sheet fabric all the way to first cut the glued threads. Then I came back with the palm sander and some 80 grit and sanded off the frayed threads. I also scuffed up the glued sheet fabric on the edges and window opening. It got a tad fuzzy and was great to hold the next coat of glue.

Not sure if this will help, but, this is the tool I used to cut frayed edges. I don't know what it's called. It's part of my wife's sewing arsenal. Worked great when the glue was almost dry.



Tim

[Mr. Lahey]

Well I got all 4 large pieces to both side walls laid on and glued in. There is going to be a bunch of edge and openings razor trimming and glue down work. So that will slow me up a bit. No matter how I tried to use the drop cloth canvas I would have had a seem in the wall. So I laid out the fabric to get the seem in the door opening. I will just have a short seem above and below the door. I like the quick set up time of the Titebond 2 for this work. You place the fabric and smooth it down, and it stays put. Works out well.

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TimC and Star thanks for the encouraging and helpful words. I won't be buying a razor cutting wheel like in your picture Tim. I can see how that would work well. I've got a big box of single edge razors and they work fine too.

[Mr. Lahey]

I've been trimming and edge gluing all the wall canvas. So far it's going pretty well. I have the large canvas panel for the roof cut and ready to be ironed. My roof canvas will require a second piece and seem, to cover the whole roof. Going to cut and iron the second smaller roof panel and my hatch panel today.

I'm working with Harbor Freights 9'x12' 10oz. canvas drop cloths for the material. These cloths have a sewn and folded seem in them to get them to be 12' long. That seem can be pretty bulky and gets worse when you have to overlap it with another piece of canvas. I cut these drop cloths right down the 12' seem and ended up with two 6'x9' panels from each cloth.

The 6'x9' panels worked well for laying out and cutting my smaller panels to fit the camper. I was able to layout for and place the seems in areas to make them as small as possible or keep them from view up on top of the roof.

So far I have used up most of three 9' x 12' drop cloths, and will be able to finish the job as planned, with what I have. Up till now I have used a half a gallon of TB2 to glue everything in place. Plus I used most of an old king size bed sheet for thinner fabric in door jambs and hatch jamb areas. I will need to open a second gallon of TB2 for the roof and hatch panels to be glued down. I'm surprised but I think I will get all the glue down work done with about one gallon of glue.

Still debating how I want to saturate this canvas. Paint or glue? I was able to find some original Glidden brand Gripper primer, not the PPG brand that seems to be replacing it. So I tried it out in the galley water lip area. Amazing stuff. It acts like an adhesive and seems to harden when dry. It's so thick with solids you can stand a paint stir stick upright in the center of the gallon can. I'm going to really soak a few area's with it today and see what I think. I know how a glue soak works on the canvas from some test panels I've done. Time to see how this Gripper primer does when soaked in.

As a weird side note about these Harbor Freight drop cloths. I've been ironing them with a real hot steam iron. When you hit these things with that hot steam iron they let off one heck of a stank!!! I mean like you're in an unclean animal barn on a bad day. The smell goes away quick thankfully, when you are done ironing . I don't know what the heck these things are finished with, but they are not pleasant to iron!

[Mr. Lahey]

Minor progress update. Been busy with other things for a while. Have only had an hour here and there to work on the camper. I did mange to get one side trimmed and edge glued. So at least it's forward movement.

I have also once and for all settled the debate with myself on how I was going to saturate the canvas. I'm going to do 50/50 mix of TB2 and water. I did another test panel with that mix, and a test panel with Gripper primer. No comparison on saturation. The glue water mix really soaked in right to the wood. Can't pull the test fabric off the wood. Not to mention how it dries to a hard shell. So that's that.

A pic of the trimmed and glued openings and edges. Going to leave all the bottom edges loose. Then come back and go all around the camper bottom at one time.

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[aggie79]

Looks fantastic!

[retep]

Very sweet!!! You must be feeling the excitement to get it on the road. Very nice work !!!

Peter


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Staryder61]

The PMF is looking great.. from others and yours, can see it takes awhile to work it..
I do like the shape of your tear..
Keep up the great work..

[Mr. Lahey]

Thanks for the comments and compliments guys. They are indeed motivating to me.

Not sure quite yet. The teardrop project may end up on the side line once again. Some what frustrating being this close to the finish line. Yet I think it will be for a very worthwhile reason.

For quite some time I have wanted wire/insulate/heat the garage I work in. I've built this teardrop with one working outlet in my garage. Plus a lot of extension cords and multi outlet strips. I also have to shut down for the season at about 40 degrees or so.

It appears that for once the willingness to tackle this, the funds, and a skilled helper may all be available at the same time. With this helper I would be able to get my garage ceiling installed and insulated, wired for the lighting, and gas heater hung and working. I will also need to run a gas line out from the house to the garage.

The helper would be available soon. If we start soon, I would beat the crummy weather we get here. I would also have functional heat out in the shop so I could extend my work season out there this fall and winter. If I can work out our schedules for the helper and I, I think I'm going to park the teardrop early this season.

I will get the last of the PMF trim work done. Plus get the PMF all saturated with the 50/50 glue water mix in the next few days. Then most likely park the teardrop and start on the garage heating project. Mixed emotions for sure. Another teardrop build delay = bummer. A heated shop here in Wisconsin...priceless!!

[Staryder61]

Going for the electric, and the heated shop, sounds like a plan...

Then maybe work on the tear in comfort for the winter...

[Mr. Lahey]

An update on the PMF work. I have it all finished and ready for paint. All the canvas is saturated with 50/50 glue water mix. I'm real happy with how it came out.

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