October Teardrop Progress

Ah, the crisp October air is rolling into the Northeast US and a busy two months of work and social stuff has calmed a bit. My last post was based on the galley drawers installation. Here, I have a batch of several activities recently.

I've completed a full three coats of satin polyurethane on the inside headliner. That was a prerequisite for the installation of the interior lights. Below I have a few shots of the headliner with the lights installed. These are adjustable angle lights with incandescent bulbs. There are replacement LED bulbs that will fit this application, however.

The satin polyurethane will cut down on some of the reflective quality in the cabin. In a small enclosure, too much reflection can be a little much. I've also removed the square section of the headliner that will accommodate the fan/vent. Here is a photo of that below.

The next chunk of activity centered around wiring the front interior lights. These are foremost, as I can then install the outside portion of the skin that stretches from the front of the teardrop to the rear of the fan opening after the wiring has been extended more towards the rear of the teardrop. Below, you can see the wiring as I'm running it towards the rear, traveling through the spars.

To continue the grab-bag of work, I've also cut the 2x2" spar that lives at the back of the headliner at the top of the galley. Note the photo below, and I'll describe some considerations with this.

The 2x2" spar fits flush with the top of the wall outline at the corner of the cutout for the eventual hatch door. On either side I had to remove some material so it would rest on top of the cabinet face and flush with the outline. I just used some jigsaw work to do this. Also note that I'd placed a brace between the top of the spar and the garage ceiling, as the headliner has enough torque to bow the spar upwards until it's been conditioned a bit.

Finally, I've drilled the hole for the wiring conduit through the bottom of the shelf area of the galley. I'l run a piece of conduit down from the headliner through this opening, which leads to the wiring raceway inside the cabin. This will carry the wiring from the interior lights and fan to the raceway, which is the electrical motherbrain of the teardrop. Below you'll see the hole that is nearly a few inches thick due to traveling through two hunks of 3/4" plywood.

I'm pretty much ready to grab that next piece of plywood for the outside skin. I need to test the front interior lights first before I seal that portion in, of course. As always, there is much more to do. As winter approaches, sunlight dwindles and the garage kerosene heater warms up, however, there will be more time to work.

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