1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

I got some work done this last weekend.


I finished glassing the edges of the door opening with 6oz glass. Wanted to make sure the edges were protected from use.


Another shot of that.


Got the door edges all sanded up nice and smooth. Next step here is to work on the door handle mount and then using fairing compound to clean everything up for paint.


Started laying fillets around the inside of the camper. Nice to be starting to work inside...feels like progress.


Got some glass laid in on some seams too.

This is where I left it. Ran out of epoxy or I would have done more glassing. I may be able to pick up more today. If not, definitely tomorrow. Usually West Marine has this stuff in stock so I shouldn’t have to wait. I think this next batch of epoxy will be the last if I play my cards right! I’m excited about that.

Still waiting for reasonable enough weather to paint my test panel. And, still need to order windows! That’s killing me. I want to paint the test panel first so I KNOW how thick my finished walls will be. A +\- 1/16” tolerance is pretty tight. So I want to be sure. Maybe I’m overthinking it and should just give myself the panel thickness plus 1/32” for paint inside and out and call it good. Let the +\- 1/16” tolerance on the window take up the slack.

 

Not sure how you are sealing your windows, but there is a Dow Corning product that is used to install windows on skyscrapers that I seen recently on a sailing channel I watch on youtube- 'Sailing Uma'. At the 6:00 mark is where they talk about the Dow Corning product;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOvbkQ2tdXw

 

My understanding is that the windows come with a seal attached. Not sure yet what that is. I’ll talk to them about it. If it’s up to me? Who knows! Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely check it out.

 

In stock!


I’m ready to work again. I’ve got some stuff to handle for the next couple of days including Saturday. But, I’m hoping to squeeze in some work in there from time to time.

 

A little fuel filler update:


The conduit clamp holding my fuel filler neck is working okay but it has a lot of flex. It will fatigue and break eventually. So, I designed a nice, stout aluminum clamp to replace it. I have a buddy that owns a machine shop so he cut me a bit of a break and machined these parts for me. When it stops raining, I’ll install this. I’ll have to slide the bed back again to drill the mounting holes so I’ll do a bunch of other stuff that needs doing at the same time: replace all the bumper hardware with stainless steel, try to figure out the overfill on my gas tank...again, mount my fuel filler brackets and maybe lay out where my camper mounts will go.

 

Progress!!!!!

Nice man!!!

 

Great work man! Do you think that the final weight will be different from your original estimate?

 

Very nice.

 

It's been a week since the last post. You okay over there @1 Bored Clerk ?

 

I'm beginning to wonder if the fumes from all his epoxying finally caught up to him. I mean he did buy two cans last we saw.

 

I’m still alive and as sane as always!

Life is just not letting me work on the camper this week/weekend. Time is just slipping by... Next week should be good. I should have more time in the evenings and maybe actually take a weekend day or two to really out in some work.

 

Now we're getting to the truth!

 

Good to hear!

 

I’ve saved so much money by combining my camper epoxy needs and my pancake syrup needs into one product.

 

Nice sunny day so what do I do? Hide in the garage for several hours...working on the camper!


Used all of my epoxy cups, put a second coat of primer on my test paint panel and fired up the heater to kickstart the drying of everything.


Epoxy fillets...that you can’t really see...




More epoxy fillets...that you can’t really see. I also fiberglass taped all of the seams around the entry door!

I’m really happy with the progress today. If I had more epoxy cups, I would have done more but I’m happy with the solid forward steps today. I’m planning to spend a bit more time in there tomorrow. Hopefully, I can finish up all the interior seams in the next couple of days!

I’m going to put my first top coat of paint on the test panel either tomorrow or Monday. I can’t remember how long I’m supposed to wait before top coating. Not sure it really matters as this is just a test panel to see how the application process works and what the top coat color looks like. I hope we like it! It’s a big enough panel, we should get a decent idea on whether or not the color will be cool or over the top. This will also allow me to measure the panel thickness with paint and confidently order the windows which I’m really pumped for. That will put me on an eight week timeline to get everything else pretty much done so I can pop the windows in and call it done-ish. Haha.

 

Lol, something I've never been able to say

 

It’s a stretch goal.

 

Big update!




Paint color chosen! My wife and I looked over a bunch of color chips and decided that this is the one we wanted to test first. Prepped and painted the panel the same way I intend to paint the camper. Learned a few things...like this will be a 50/50 paint job (looks good from 50 feet or at 50mph) and I don’t have the patience to make it much better than that. Haha. Though a 20/20 paint job may be possible.

We wanted something bright that felt lighthearted and fun. This color with the bare aluminum boxes, black windows and bare aluminum L track is gonna be sweet. Plus, we’ll fit right in with the forestry and BLM rigs.

Also, we’re not asking for comments so keep that sh!t to yourselves...unless it’s complimentary.

 

Live hard, sleep hard.