Hurricane Hinge, Fire and Diamond Plate

Sorry for the incendiary title. I'm really nailing some things down these days, as I follow directly from that last blog post a few days ago. The lock set has arrived, I bought all the diamond plate that Home Depot had and another coat of Fire Red poly paint went on the sides.

Hurricane Hinge holding the hatch

First, however, I'll get to the topic of the hatch door to body hinge. Known as the Hurricane Hinge, it's a bit of a must have for teardrop construction. It's available on Amazon, from the same company that produces the door handles I'd also purchased. The key to the hinge is that it rolls over into itself, preventing water from flowing down into the hinge apparatus. Above, it's been permanently screwed to the roof, along with silicone sealant below.

Diamond plate and Fire Red paint are snappy together

Above, we have the custom tongue box with aluminum diamond plate sheeting on the sides. I used .025" thickness, since it's not providing structural rigidity. I applied Gorilla Glue construction glue between the box walls and the sheets and then riveted it on in several places. The lid is soon to come, after moving to other areas.

Onto the galley, where the hatch door now permanently hovers over, as I've said earlier. An interesting thing happened once the door was fully installed. The sliding doors in the galley were jammed. It looks like the 2x2" crossbar just underneath the hinge and above the sliders became less bowed. I had to pop the top face of the galley and trim the edges of the doors slightly. Fortunately, I designed the top face and slider assembly to be removable.

Hatch door locking mechanism

I also adjusted the drawer faces for better fit while I was in the neighborhood. They weren't quite straight with one-another. This was an appropriate time to install the hatch door handle and striker. This was a bit delicate. Install the handle and latch plate first, and then the goal is to determine where you want the hatch door to rest in "closed" position, and get that spot marked for the striker.

Hatch door handle all shiny and chrome

Looking at the above photo, I need to install a bumper, trim and weatherstrip around the hatch door. Another major task arriving soon is fitting the side doors and installing their windows, handles, locks and trim/weatherstrip. Still plenty to keep me busy!

-cheers

Friday Night is Teardrop Night

There are quite a few ways to blow off steam after another long week, and one of them is having a few beers and building more Teardrop II! While I used to spend Fridays in a bar drinking the draft deal, I'm now more often in the garage building stuff. So I'll kick off my shoes, prop up my feet on the galley and update the FNtTD blog.

The update tonight involves finishing the galley drawers. At least functionally. I still have to build the drawer faces with some birch for aesthetics. Below is the lowest, and biggest drawer completed.

I calculated that there was a 1/4 inch between the drawers and the top and bottom. I used a scrap piece of plywood to space the drawers and mount the hardware, seen below.

Due to the marvels of modern technology, we fast-forward to the completed drawer installation. It all lines up wonderfully, but that's not for a lack of careful measurement. Below is the showcase, sans the drawer faces, of course.

I'll let the drawers sit for now. I'm thinking one more coat of polyurethane in the cabin, and then move to install the fore cabin lights, wiring and drill the holes through the spars for the harness back towards the rear. That would set me up for the next outer skin section, along the most precipitous bend of the teardrop.

Before that I'll have to cut the fan opening in the interior skin. That's some crude jigsaw work. This is it for now, it may be until next work week before I get around to building more.

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