Building lil' Woody

[Staryder61]

Looking very very good.. with those doors.. coming along great...

[Sparksalot]

In the photo you can see the maple has been masked off as the pieces are epoxied into place…I count 25 clamps in this photo!

Nice! I didn't have nearly as many clamps then as I do now, so many of my similar situations were accomplished with gravity clamps. The pieces were on a firm surface, or the floor, and jugs of water placed on them to hold things while glue set up.

[Tukanu]

Episode 9: Tailgate

…well, not actually a tailgate. It is a fixed panel that forms the tail end of the teardrop.
It is a pretty simple box made of 2x6’s and covered with 3 layers of 1/8” ply which have been epoxy-laminated.
The challenging task is the ½” maple trim that have to be curved to match the tailgate.
The trim pieces were split down to ¼” and steam bent. Two pieces were epoxied together to get the ½” thickness which matches the side trim.

The steam bending is a trick I learned from mandolin building. The pieces are soaked for two day in the bathtub. Then they are wrapped in an oven bag (the kind you use for cooking a turkey!) and baked for 1 or 2 hours at 225 degrees. They are immediately put in a curved form and allowed to dry for 4 days.

The next project will be to epoxy the trim pieces to the tailgate and make the final installation.

[Tukanu]

Episode 9: Tailgate cont:

In bending and epoxy-laminating the curved maple trim, it is necessary to allow for some spring back when the piece is removed from the mold. In the photo you can see the black line which is the true curve of the tailgate. The cut is at a tighter arc to allow for the spring back. It is about a half of an inch tighter along the 20” length of the piece.

The next group of photos shows the steps in adding the trim, and the cutouts for the taillights.

The last photo shows the tailgate saturated with penetrating epoxy, and in a for trial fit.

[Tukanu]

Episode 10: The hatch.

There is no shortage of information on the hatch. Probably because this causes most builders the most stress. No matter what shape teardrop you are building, the hatch has to be both curved and fit with precision.

I can only add a couple of suggestions. First, a lot of posts say use a 1/4" gap at the hinge. actually, a hurricane hinge needs 3/8" gap when you include the thickness of the hinge and the built in 1/4" gap built into the hinge.

The second piece of advise is to use double faced tape to secure your spacers to the hatch opening when you lay out the hatch framing.

I like the looks of the exposed framing for the hatch. I built mine with Baltic birch ply. The frame pieces are notched and will be skinned with 1/8" birch plywood, and will be skinned with Filon.

[Tukanu]

The hatch is framed with 3/4 Baltic Birch, and skinned with 1/8 birch ply. It is pretty light. The finished size is 48 wide and 42 long.
The frame is 1 3/4 deep and is glued and screwed together.
Note the temporary corner brackets. These were attached when the frame was placed in the opening to make sure the frame was square when the skin was attached. The skin is glued with Locktite PL.

[Tukanu]

Episode 10 cont:

I waited for a relatively warm day (60 degrees) to skin the hatch with Filon. The contact cement label says to use it outdoors because it is extremely flammable, and if your house doesn’t blow up and kill you, the fumes will.
The minimum temp for working with the cement is 65 degrees, but the south side my house is always 10 degrees warmer so I figure I was safe.

Once the fumes cleared, I moved indoors to finish the hatch. I sealed the underside with amber shellac to get a vintage look, then three coats of spar varnish.

Lastly, I installed the aluminum trim. The pieces all came from Vintage Technologies and looks very professional when it’s finished.

A shout out to Oregon Trail’r for an excellent video on how to build a hatch and install the aluminum trim.

[Wolfgang92025]

It's been a while since the last time I checked on your progress.
Sweet looking teardrop.
Your will have a trailer that will get a lot of attention going down the road.

[Tukanu]

Thanks Wolfgang...it has been a challenge and fun.

[Staryder61]

It's been a while since the last time I checked on your progress.
Sweet looking teardrop.
Your will have a trailer that will get a lot of attention going down the road.

I agree with Wolfgang...

Will definitely be an attention grabber.. great work.. on that hatch..

[Tukanu]

Thanks David. Congratulations on your progress.

[Tukanu]

Episode 11: Cabinetry

With the Colorado weather turning cooler, I can’t do much work in the garage. So I will be working on smaller projects in the basement shop. I plan on going pretty simple for cabinetry; some cabinets and a drawer for the stove in the galley; an open bin storage in the cabin; a small shelf in the forward end of the cabin to house the electrical and some small item storage. Here are some ideas from the internet:

[Tukanu]

The plan for the galley is a drawer to house the stove on the right, an open area in the middle for a Coleman Extreme, and a single door cabinet on the left.

The forward end of cabin will have a long narrow shelf with storage below. I will dedicate part of this storage area for the electrical panel.

The rear of the cabin will have an open bin where I can throw my duffle bag and maybe some books or board game. Lil’Woody is a weekender, and we pretty much fit most of our stuff in a duffle bag. So it makes sense to have an open bin rather than smaller cabinets.

The interior ceiling and forward nose are a continuous curve about 92 inches long. I am going to build it in three sections. I have the first section complete. It needed to be in place so that I could work on the forward shelf/storage. I like having the ceiling open so I can stand up and work on the cabinetry.

[Tukanu]

Galley Cabinets: A Game of Inches

Actually, it was a game of quarter inches. The original plan was for a stove cabinet on the right, a Coleman Extreme cooler in the middle, and a storage cabinet for plastic bins on the left. These totaled up to 48 ½” with the cabinet sides….but I only had 48” clear in the galley. So, the only option was to push all the cabinets to the right, and eliminate one of the cabinet side pieces.

[Tukanu]

Other than the overall design attraction of a teardrop, the galley seems to get the most attention from onlookers. I wanted something different than just plain square doors. I played around with some sketches of various shapes and decided to use lots of curved shapes. The stenciling on the cabinet doors is an art deco design that I think works well with the overall Grumman design.