Teardrop II Build: Headliner

I had a couple sheets of 4x8' 1/4" birch plywood in the stash for the cabin headliner construction. Tonight, I acted on that.

The plans, based on the Generic Benroy plans (here on my Google drive and also found somewhere on this site) call for a one-piece headliner. Depending on materials available, this can be a difficult bend to undertake on the front curve of the teardrop interior. The last time, I built this in sections around that curve, and that's how I'm doing it this time.


Below are my notes on the first piece of the headliner. It's 58 1/2" wide by 39 3/4" long. It creates a headliner section that runs from the galley upper cabinet face to the middle of the double spar area in the ceiling towards the rear. Some of this is limitations in 4x8' plywood - you just can't quite reach to the forward double spar with that dimension.

This is the 4x8 sheet of 1/4" birch plywood in all its glory. Here I have my rig set up to cut it accurately with a circular saw for one of the dimensional cuts.

The fit was very good. The rear section of the sheet, closest to the camera, will bend down to meet the top of the vertical cabinet wall that is predominant in the photo.

Prior to gluing and screwing the headliner into the spars, seen moving away from us.

The ceiling section has been secured with Gorilla Glue and screws to the two spars seen above. You need to lay out lines to determine the position of the spar that's midway between the exposed edge of the headliner and the cabinet face, below. I put a lamp above to see the voids on either side of the "hidden" spar. 

This is the workshop/garage from the basement door. It's just a little cozy. A kerosene heater provides warmth for the winter build.

I now have to cut two spars into shape to tamp down the headliner. Those will be above the cabin cabinet face and the galley upper cabinet face. I'll have to grab my chop saw, which has been on loan. The next step is simply building more headliner, which will come in four more sections. It seems to have been slow progress lately, but all the work was wrapped in detail grinding like polyurethane coats and sanding. Progress will move more quickly now, even though it costs me late nights.

[g]