jrfromafar
Adventurer
Your angles look really good - so far this project seems doable - even for me (lol)
billboards hauler: homebuilt fiberlgass composite popup for flatbed tundra
- Thread starter bphang10
- Start date
still at it, slow and steady. double our typical rainfall in june and 8" of rain so far in july is keeping it slow. painting the board locker was a learning experience! first coat i tried the 2 part high build epoxy primer. this stuff is super thick and the worst smelling stuff i've dealt with. i started to roll it on with a 1/4" roller cover....too much texture. switched to a 3/16 and it did a lot better, but was tough to get on even. had to be careful not to leave "ridges" at the edge of each roller pass. also, if i did not get complete coverage in the 1st pass and went back over that area to cover the voids, it would do the opposite and pull more primer off the surface, so i found i had to get good coverage on 1st pass. ended out with a pretty good job, but not as easy as i'd hoped. as this was a test, i wanted to see how the finish was without sanding the primer. after 1st coat dried, i switched to an "above water" 1 part high build primer. ("total boat topside primer"). this stuff was about half as thick as the 2 part, rolled on super easy, had better coverage and dried quick. i followed that with "total boat wet edge" topside paint, again without sanding. i could have achieved a much smoother finish had i sanded and will likely do so for the rest of the camper, specially the exterior, but this is a closed in area and i actually wanted a bit of texture to keep boards from sliding around. i "rolled and tipped" the final paint, my first attempt at this style, and it went easy. i think it will look much better on a sanded primer. one coat was all it took on the topside paint. i did run into another issue: it rained pretty hard just as i started painting the final coat. humidity stayed below 80 in my shop (it warns not to paint above 95%) but the paint cured super slow. the label said allow minimum of 16 hrs, but it took 3 1/2 days (about 70 deg and humid) to fully cure.
with the box painted, i could finally put the lid on it.
on to the roof. this i a big piece of nida-core.. 80" x 12'. the roof is curved from front to back in order to have no flat area where water can pool. on my old camper this has always been a problem, eventually causing sag and a reason for leaks around the vent. so the roof has short walls laminated to the main sheet. first, each wall must be "glued" in place before laminating.
then the lamination. here's the final wall prepped to lam. the tape is layed out to provide a guide to roll out the fiberglass tape. the masking paper serves as a surface to "wet out" the tape. i roll out the widest layer of cloth on the paper, wet it out with resin by pouring and using a brush or squeegee. then brush resin on the surface to be lammed. next, i roll up the wet fiberglass, and starting from one end, roll out the fiberglass along the tape line. after it's rolled flat from end to end, i smooth out the top surface, working from the middle to each end, working out most air bubbles. then i do the same to the vertical surface. i usually do this using my hands (gloved, have a lot of gloves readily available). if the surface is good and wet this goes easy and i lay out the subsequent layer dry but in the same manner, using my hands and a fresh pair of gloves. use a brush to wet out any unsaturated area and finish up with plastic squeegee to get out any air bubbles and remove excess resin. here's a photo prepped to go.
and here's a shot of a corner after it's been lammed.
with the box painted, i could finally put the lid on it.
on to the roof. this i a big piece of nida-core.. 80" x 12'. the roof is curved from front to back in order to have no flat area where water can pool. on my old camper this has always been a problem, eventually causing sag and a reason for leaks around the vent. so the roof has short walls laminated to the main sheet. first, each wall must be "glued" in place before laminating.
then the lamination. here's the final wall prepped to lam. the tape is layed out to provide a guide to roll out the fiberglass tape. the masking paper serves as a surface to "wet out" the tape. i roll out the widest layer of cloth on the paper, wet it out with resin by pouring and using a brush or squeegee. then brush resin on the surface to be lammed. next, i roll up the wet fiberglass, and starting from one end, roll out the fiberglass along the tape line. after it's rolled flat from end to end, i smooth out the top surface, working from the middle to each end, working out most air bubbles. then i do the same to the vertical surface. i usually do this using my hands (gloved, have a lot of gloves readily available). if the surface is good and wet this goes easy and i lay out the subsequent layer dry but in the same manner, using my hands and a fresh pair of gloves. use a brush to wet out any unsaturated area and finish up with plastic squeegee to get out any air bubbles and remove excess resin. here's a photo prepped to go.
and here's a shot of a corner after it's been lammed.
thanks, the angles were easy relatively quick. and yes, quite doable, just allow about double the time that you expect!
big sigh of relief! a friend stopped by so i had extra lifting power and was able to test fit the roof now that the roof was cut to size and the walls were in place. it's roughly 80" x 144", and there was a lot of effort made in keeping things square and lined up, and also alot of room to screw up. it was too heavy and awkward to test as i went, so i went with my measurements and hoped for the best. had to take into account the thickness of 20 ounces of fiberglass lamination, keeping the short roof walls vertical and square to the roof panel, and the roof itself needed to be relief cut in order to get my curve. here it is, and i'm stoked with the fit.
jrfromafar
Adventurer
Great progress!
Overland Hadley
on a journey
Looks like you are doing some nice work. I sure am jealous of your skills with nida-core.
jrfromafar
Adventurer
The top of roof is 80" x 12' ? did it cost more for custom size, & is there much bend in it?
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thanks, but i had to laugh about the "finishing up" part! far from there, but well out of the woods.
the main skill working with nida-core is patience! each edge seems to require a lot of time and i think sand paper is permanently attached to my hands. i feel good about the results though, and am confident it will be plenty strong and be around for a very long time.
it's been awhile since i ordered the nida-core, but i think less than 10% more for custom size. well worth it to have solid, full size panels to work from. but you will measure at least 5x before making that first cut! a mis-cut could be costly. biggest issue on custom sheets is time, i believe mine took about 5 weeks.
the roof begins at 2" in the front and slopes to 4 5/8" in the middle of the main compartment and back to 4" at the rear. so that's about 2 5/8" slope in 99" for the front, and required 5 relief cut's in order for the roof to follow the contour of my sidewall without too much tension. the rear, which only sloped 5/8" in 45" layed down with just a little clamping pressure.
here's a few photos of the underside of the roof. i made the relief cuts, then glued and lammed the walls to the roof sheet. next, i flipped the roof, filled the kerf from the relief cuts with fiberglass reinforced compound(the blue stuff) and laminated a couple layers of cloth over the whole front just for safe measure. i just finished the lamination and am letting it cure a bit more before i cut the fiberglass along the yellow tape lines.
jrfromafar
Adventurer
Checking for updates ...
updates? yes, seems like a little but the roof was alot of work! lots to think about: surf racks, solar positioning and mounts, roof vent elevations, tie down mounts, roof latch mounts, lift system mounts.... building with honeycomb core composite, i feel it necessary to reinforce all of the mounting points. this usually means drilling or routing out one side skin and through the core, leaving the 2nd skin in tact. then filling the void with a reinforced resin putty mix, and re-glassing. more than the time it takes, figuring out where each of these features should be in advance is the hard part for me.
here it is, top of the roof is done:
the little squares are the mounts for the solar panel, elevated and laminated in place. the mounting screws will only penetrate the mounting plate, not the main roof. i also elevated the vent mounts for the same reason...no screws penetrating the roof. also elevated so that any water or snowmelt will pool below the vent (if at all) .
the front vent had to be built up in the front in order to make a flat surface since the curve is greater up front. i also made the leading edge of the surf racks 45 deg. my thinking was a bit better aerodynamics and also a larger surface area to bond and laminate.
here's a mock up of how it will work. when laying this out, i put boards on the roof and moved them around and found that the rocker in the board closely matched the curve of the roof so was able to keep the racks low to the roof, and the nose of longboard will be very low and curved downward at the front.
here it is, top of the roof is done:
the little squares are the mounts for the solar panel, elevated and laminated in place. the mounting screws will only penetrate the mounting plate, not the main roof. i also elevated the vent mounts for the same reason...no screws penetrating the roof. also elevated so that any water or snowmelt will pool below the vent (if at all) .
the front vent had to be built up in the front in order to make a flat surface since the curve is greater up front. i also made the leading edge of the surf racks 45 deg. my thinking was a bit better aerodynamics and also a larger surface area to bond and laminate.
here's a mock up of how it will work. when laying this out, i put boards on the roof and moved them around and found that the rocker in the board closely matched the curve of the roof so was able to keep the racks low to the roof, and the nose of longboard will be very low and curved downward at the front.
jrfromafar
Adventurer
Beautiful work! How is it that there are no overlaps & is one solid color - are you doing the fiberglass work then spraying a gel coat on it?
no gel coat. first i lay up the joints using graduating layers of fiberglass tape and laminating resin. after it's well cured, i grind outside the edges of the tape where they stick up a bit, primarily due to the seams in the tape absorbing more resin and expanding. anyway, the goal is o just take away that edge and blend it to the main surface without cutting into any more of the tape. i use a 4 1/2" grinder and 36g. then i tape it off about 1/4" past the tape edge and apply a "hot coat" of sanding resin(laminating resin plus a wax additive that allows for easy sanding. hot coat is also sometimes called a fill coat as it fills the weave of the cloth and allows you to sand to a smooth surface without getting into the cloth). after that's cured, smooth out the joint using 80g and a polisher/sander or often by hand in tight areas....lot's of hand sanding on the surf racks and vents. for a bit of extra protection and fairing, i hot coated the whole roof.
a couple of photos of the corner's layed up, but not yet ground.
and a corner after it's been hot coated and sanded.
a couple of photos of the corner's layed up, but not yet ground.
and a corner after it's been hot coated and sanded.
Fantastic thread and craftsmanship! 
Great boat building skills there in that camper, it's going to be a beauty I'm sure. Might as well post a pic of the board(s) you've made while you're at it....
This is going to be nice......any idea what it will weigh in at when it's completed?
Last question, what do you want for that Coke sign or cooler in your shop? LOL The one that says no return...
Great boat building skills there in that camper, it's going to be a beauty I'm sure. Might as well post a pic of the board(s) you've made while you're at it....
This is going to be nice......any idea what it will weigh in at when it's completed?
Last question, what do you want for that Coke sign or cooler in your shop? LOL The one that says no return...