Galley Trim and More Hatch Work

Ah Saturday, an actual real day off for most of us. I finished installing the hardware and mounted the galley doors.

I finished a few more sanding spots on the hatch and applied the ever-stinky EPS to the outside.

While I was working on the galley, I moved onto the last piece of trim that's been hanging out in the garage for a long time now. I had to do some trimming to the end of the piece below along with some trimming on the 2x2 spar that's at the top of the galley area.

Fits like a glove. I've got a coat of polyurethane drying on it now. Since I had a wet brush, I hit the spots in the cabin ceiling inside the cabinets. Minor oversight somewhere along the line. That's it for today, I think it's time to do an evening kayak paddle.

-g

Hatch and Galley Work

Day two of planned build work this week! I spent three hours on a work conference call, despite being on vacation, and had some of this plan derailed. It's the nature of the job, I suppose. I set pilot holes for the hatch-mounted tail lights, to begin with.

You can barely see them, but they are on the bottom left and right of the hatch in the photo above. I did a bit of sanding too, just surface stuff, sanding always sucks. Back on the galley side, I added some quarter round to the sides of the countertop. I think I might lay another coat of polyurethane down and call it finished. That's four or five coats.

I could install the galley cabinet doors next. Here they are with the handles just sitting on top.

Maybe the short-term list should be this:

• Galley doors installed
• Sand the hatch
• Apply EPS to the hatch

On to the next day!

-g

Teardrop Hatch and Other Miscellany

Crack a cold one, the hatch is structurally done. One last 4' x 8' sheet of plywood bought and brought home. The last chance to miss a measurement and be forced to purchase another 4' x 8' sheet of plywood because you can't form a five-foot by four-something panel with scraps. Here's the Last Big Cut jig:

I'll oblige myself with a selfie and the finalized section of hatch skin:

The next two photos describe the attachment of the first edge. It's the upper edge of the hatch, in any case. All attachment points to the frame were countersunk and Gorilla glue was applied between the skin and the vertical spars.

The bend towards the bottom edge of the hatch gets a bit strenuous, so I used some bracing to pull it downward to button down the remainder.

Here is the finalized hatch:

I did a quick mock-up with the hatch and it looks like it fits pretty well. There will always be some bending and shaping, but it looks like I'm in good shape moving forward.

Since I was able to put a full day in working on the Teardrop, I hit a few more things. I added the last coat of polyurethane to the galley surfaces and installed knobs on the galley drawers, as seen in the photos below.

Due to the extended holiday that I arranged, I have two more days to put a good amount of work into the Teardrop. I'll slide the drawers in and do some more finishing on the hatch and see where else the hours take me.

-g

July Kickoff

Well folks, the last big plywood cut is upon me. This will be the hatch skin below.

It's the final sheet of 1/4" birch plywood I'll buy for this project (knock on wood). Haha, bad jokes are fun. After the hatch it's just hundreds of details. The Teardrop build is certainly not near the end.

-g

Polyurethane in the Galley

Tonight was nothing special, just a second mundane coat of polyurethane on the galley surfaces. I'm using sem-gloss for a little bit of extra hardness.

Ooh shiney. It'll be a little less so once dried. I just remembered that I also need to apply some polyurethane to the inside top of the cabin cabinets. I think I just need to go ahead and finish the hatch. That involves sanding down the edges and pencil remarks and getting the 1/4" plywood.

-g

Fan Club

I received the vent fan yesterday. It's a Fan-Tastic model 1200 12v DC unit. The box was fairly dinged up, but the contents were just fine. My first impression was that this was of much better quality than my previous fan. Here I have it placed on the roof.

The body is molded in plastic, which I feel is an improvement over the white-painted metal of the prior fan. The paint began to chip and peel over time on that unit. Below I have a photo from the interior. The fan included an interior molding piece, which will clean up the look when finally installed.

Back on the workbench, we can take a closer look at the underside. There is a 3-speed control knob, a fuse slot and the dome lift knob. It lifts easily and smoothly.

The first thing I noticed with the fan was that its diameter was nearly the size of the entire unit. It's quite a bit larger than my last fan. The next thing I noticed was how much more air this fan pushes, and how quiet it is while it does that. I took a quick video of the fan's operation, embedded below.

Like I've said in the video, the lowest fan setting provided great airflow, certainly appropriate for the Teardrop cabin. I actually think the two higher settings would make it downright windy inside the cabin.Those may be handy to blow out moisture perhaps or obtain some sort of atmospheric liftoff.

Maybe that's a stretch.

-g

Weatherproofing the Hull

Ok, it's not a boat, so it has no hull. What I was really doing last night was applying an epoxy sealer to the outside surfaces of the Teardrop. I use a product from a company by the name of Rot Doctor (www.rotdoctor.com/)  called CPES - Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer. Just one application provides noticeable protection. It's even tough to sand once dried. Also note that it is very thin and easy to work with.

The second photo shows a partially-sealed side. The darker wood has been treated. The fumes from this stuff are quite strong, so make sure you have ample ventilation!

The vent fan is arriving today, I'll post some pics of that later. I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be much more quiet than the prior unit.

-g

Trim and Detail Work

Today's progress was basically cosmetic yet important. I installed the quarter-round in the cabin to run the length of the floor-to-wall junction. I polyurethaned them first then glued and nailed them down.

There was a bit of space there, and my thought is that this will prevent drafts. Yeah, it's also cosmetic. I also applied semi-gloss poly to the galley countertop, sides and drawer faces.

I'll probably do three coats in this area in order to thwart moisture and the typical cooking calamity that's packaged with camping.

I also made an Amazon purchase this week of a new ceiling fan. I still have the old one, complete with weathered plastic and a bad screen. Couple that with the fact that it was quite noisy, I decided to move on. Here's a 14-inch RV fan I ordered: Fan-Tastic vent fan

AT $114, it was about mid-range for fans. I think I spend $30 or $40 on the previous fan, and it was just too crappy. I think the next step will be to apply EPS to the outer skin if I get some decent weather so that I may open up the garage door. EPS can get you a bit fried. Oh, and more galley polyurethane, of course.

-g

Floor Poly Done?

I'm back at it. I'm super busy with work. I'm tied down everywhere, trying to find any downtime to work the Teardrop. I mowed the lawn for the first time this year and got to work on some Teardrop building. Anything is progress... if you spend 30 minutes adding the last polyurethane coat to the cabin floor, that's still 30 minutes of progress. If you spend 45 minutes just ruminating about the next steps, that still a 45 minutes of progress. First. I have a workshop and garage photo from a rainy night on May 1st.

I added the 3rd and what I believe to be the final coat of polyurethane to the cabin floor. I'll add some quarter round trim next to finish it off and there is really very little left to do "inside". I think I'll shop for a 14 x 14" ceiling fan tonight. The wiring is there, as I've shown in one of my previous post. Here's the floor:

I have the next batch of EPS to coat the outside, so my next couple steps will involve applying the EPS to the outside skin, installing the trim on the cabin floor and getting a fan purchased.

-g