Preparing Cabin Floor for Installation

 The cabin floor comes in three parts, the two halves and the butt block.  The floor is too large for a single sheet of plywood, so two sections must be glued together.  As you can see, there are three puzzle joints, and if you look closely you can see the butt block lying on the lower half.  Wax paper is under the joint to keep it from sticking to the cardboard I have laid under the whole thing.  All three sections are made of 3/4" marine plywood--very stout stuff!

 Here the two main sections have been glued with thickened epoxy, and more thickened epoxy is spread on the butt block.  The epoxy is thickened with a product called Cell-O-Fill, made of cellulose I think. 

 Another shot.  In this one you can see the puzzle joints a little better.  In my haste to get things ready before the epoxy started to "kick" I knocked over the container, spilling some glue on the plywood.  I cleaned it up and put wax paper under it.

Butt block installed over joint.  The butt block is held down with temporary wallboard screws.  After the glue cures, the screws will be removed and the holes filled.

Installing Galley Base and Quarter Panels

 Four stiffeners have been glued to the galley base and the galley base installed in the back of the camper.  The bricks and cans are acting as weights while all the glue sets.  (Remember, the camper is still upside-down.)

Here's the galley base installed, along with the quarter panels on each side.  The blue lines are masking tape applied to the part of the shell that will become the galley hatch--just to make sure nothing gets glued to it. 

The small object in the lower-left corner of the photo is a thermometer.  I have a fairly wide window of temperatures to work in (60 - 90 deg F), but it's starting to get close to the lower limit at night so I'm keeping close track.  This particular thermometer records the lowest and highest readings over the previous 24 hours.

Preparation of the Rear Galley Hatch

As you can see on the picture in my frontispiece, the rear section of the shell opens up to provide access to the galley (kitchen).  Before the hatch section can be cut out, some parts must be added.

 You've already seen this picture of the hatch stiffener and bulkhead.  The hatch will be cut out just forward of the stiffener--you may remember the dashed line of slots that were cut by CLC.  By putting the shell together first and then cutting the hatch (and doors) out of it, there is a much better chance of a good fit.

 A lip is also added at the rear of the hatch, both to help stiffen it and to make it more weatherproof.

And here is a shot of the rear hatch, stiffeners, and bulkhead.  I did not get quite wide enough to show the entire hatch.  As I said it will be cut out later, just in front of the forward stiffener.  On the right and left sides, you can see that the fillets only extend as far as the stiffener.  The hatch is merely stitched to the shell from there back, so all I have to do is cut those wires.  They are there now to help the hatch keep its shape.

Rear Bulkhead Installation

A bulkhead is inserted at the rear of the cabin to separate it from the galley (or in "lubberly" terms, the kitchen).

 It looks like I forgot to get a picture of the bulkhead before the hatch stiffener (which will be covered in the following post) was installed.  Anyway, this is a shot of the bulkhead from the rear, inside what will become the galley.  The area between the stiffener and bulkhead will have to be filleted after the hatch is cut out of the shell (more about that later also).

Shooting down at the bulkhead (remember, the shell is upside down right now).  What will be the galley is to the left--cabin to the right.  I was able to add the fillet all the way around from the cabin side.

Installing the Side Panels

BTW, I've been asked how long this will take and how far along I am.  The project is estimated to take around 250 hours, but a lot depends on how simple or complex the builders decide to make their campers.  I haven't kept track but I reckon I have spent about 20 to 25 hours on it so far, so I still have a very long way to go.  The shell itself goes together pretty rapidly, but things start to slow down quite a bit after that--there are a thousand small details.

The side panels go in next (I hope everyone realizes that the camper is mounted upside down in the cradle, so the roof panels are at the bottom for now).

This is panel 3 on what will be the right side.  You may have noticed small white labels here and there that make it easier to find the right pieces. 

Even if those stick-on labels are lost, though, ClC has engraved labels on every part.  For example, this is right-side panel 3 at the rear end.  The engraved labels always go to the inside, so it's pretty easy to make sure everything is oriented properly.

The above photos show the right-side panel wired in place and both the right and left panels wired in.

Panel 4, right side, is ready for installation.

And here it is attached to panel 3 with copper stitching wires.  Looking closely, you can see dotted lines where the doorway will be cut out.

Here, I have stood the shell (in its cradle) on its right side to prepare for finishing the seams.

Looking down at the inside-right.  You can't tell, but I have "tack-welded" the joints with super glue so the copper wires can be removed.  Tack-welded is CLC's term for it.  Sticking with the sewing model, you might want to call the operation "basting."

And here the joints have been filleted with thickened epoxy and covered with fiberglass tape and unthickened epoxy.  This is actually the left side of the shell--I waited until I was finished with this operation to take the final picture.

In the next few steps I'll be installing a bulkhead that separates the cabin from the rear galley, working on the galley hatch, and installing the cabin floor.  After that the basic cabin is finished and the cradle comes off.

Joining the Roof Panels Together

I was not able to take pictures during this process because all the steps have to be done in one session, before the epoxy cures.

Here are the three roof panels joined together with epoxy and fiberglass tape.  The middle joint is flat enough that all I had to do was "prime" the seam with epoxy, lay on the tape, and fill the weave with  more epoxy.  The two outside joints are more angled, and fiberglass loses its strength if it is bent too sharply.  So on those joints I had to mix wood flour with the epoxy until it was about the same consistency as peanut butter.  This was then spread and smoothed on the joints to form a fillet for the fiberglass tape to lie on.  Then the tape was applied and a coat of epoxy applied over it.  Inevitably, epoxy will drip from the container, so all those streaks are from smoothing out the spills with a brush. This entire area will be sanded and covered with more epoxy later, so none of that will show.

The job of applying the wood-flour thickened epoxy to the joint is usually done with a plastic bag made to form a "pastry bag."  That works pretty well but my hands are so shaky that the corner of the bag where the epoxy comes out jumps around too much.  So when I was building the PocketShip I ordered several of these tubes that fit a standard caulking gun.  The business end is not floppy like a plastic bag and I can hold it much more steady with both hands while pulling the trigger.  This particular caulking gun is different than most--it has a 6:1 step-down ratio on the trigger.  I have to pull it more times, but it is much easier to pull, helping me keep it steady.

Hard to see it here, but in this area I got quite a few ripples in the fillet.  The solution is to wait a couple hours until the epoxy starts to gel, then smooth it out with a gloved finger dipped in alcohol.  I have used this method many times to smooth less-than-desirable fillets and it works extremely well, especially when there is no fiberglass tape over the fillet.

If it works out nicely enough this time I'll add the "after" picture to this post.  If not I'm not going to worry about it because the entire ceiling of the camper will be covered up with a headliner, so we can pretend it didn't happen. :-)   I like to do the best job I can even if no one sees it, but won't cry over it if I can't fix it.

Two hours later:  I was able to smooth it out some, but not enough to merit another picture.  Maybe I waited too long, although at 68 degrees I don't think so.  Maybe it's because of the fiberglass tape.  Anyway, it's not too bad and as I said it'll be covered up.