1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

Well, it’s been about two weeks since an update. Work exploded again...extra hours. And I was under the weather for a bit. Lame.

Got back after it tonight a little.



If you can remember back, I re glassed the edges of the door. Tonight I finish trimmed all the fiberglass and sanded it smooth. Ill mount it up tomorrow to start working on the latch. Really pumped about that!



I started sanding down the high spots on the fairing compound I put down. Gotta be careful to just take enough to get smooth but not cut the glass.

It’s really cold (for this area) at night right now and for the next week or so at least. Epoxy work on the exterior of the camper is going to have to wait. So, I’ll move to the interior and start fairing the inside. I can seal that up pretty well and leave the electric radiator heater in there to cure the epoxy. Works well.

My plan is to get the door latch dialed in and work on fairing the inside of the camper until it warms up a bit. It’s best if the nights don’t get lower than the high thirties or low forties to epoxy the exterior of the camper. I’ll finish the first round of fairing/sanding then I’ll probably go back over the trouble areas and get it as smooth as I reasonably can.

Oh, I’ve also been working on getting my fixtures designed for the camper mounts. They need to be precisely located. I’m going to make some plywood fixtures that I can clamp to the bed then clamp the aluminum mount blocks into. Then I’ll use the aluminum blocks as drill guides. Should work really well! Once the drilling is done, I’ll send the aluminum blocks out for powder coat. I’m just making double-triple sure they’re in the right place before cutting wood and drilling holes. But it’s all progress! Hoping to start crossing things off the list again soon!

 

About time slacker!!!!! Get this space craft done!!!!

JK, good to see some news on this.....we live vicariously through you man...

 

Good to see your still alive. I've seen some crazy low temperatures up north.

 

And I live vicariously through YOU!
(26, Christmas party, damn!)

 

33 degrees in the garage. I bolted the door on and my fingers were frozen. Not worth firing up the heater for the time I have to work this evening (not much). But I did get the door bolted on.




The gap around the door is okay. Looks decent in these photos, anyway. I still have so much cleanup and fairing to do...I’m sure it’ll be all good when it’s ready to roll.

 

I was just thinking that the gap looked fantastic, then I read your comment, lol.

Your work looks superb. I would venture to say, you are by far your toughest critic.

 

I can't wait to see paint on this thing!

 

Me too! I hope I can get a decent enough finish to not look like a turd. Haha

 

Thanks. I’ve been accused of this before.

 

Lol, you saw that? Yeah, good times.

 

Lookin good!

 

Did some mental grinding on the door latch. I hadn’t looked at the actual latch I bought for a long time so I hauled it out and spent some time checking it out. I’m pretty sure I have a good, simple plan of attack! I’m ready to hit it first thing in the morning. It would be huge to finish the door latch this weekend.

 

Saturday morning update:






Largely done with the door side of the latch. I still need to make enough clearance in the door for the strike plate and epoxy in the exposed core material...or route more of it out and epoxy in some 1/4” marine grade plywood. That would be the stronger route which means it’s the correct route. We’ll see.

 

It’s been three hours, any updates?

 

Actually...


Did more cuts, trims, reinforcements. Looks a little rough here but it’ll clean up alright I think. The clearances are very tight for the strike plate. It will almost bottom out on the door skin when properly shut. Why they don’t make that part of the latch adjustable for door thickness, I don’t know. Well, I do know: it’d be a lot harder and more expensive.


I put the door and the spacer plate (epoxy coated one side) in the “oven” to cure. That’s it for today. Should be able to wrap this up and the camper side striker plate tomorrow.

I’m going to take some measurements of the extrusions under the bed so I can finish laying out my camper mount guides. That’s a lovely job I can finish in the comfort of my dining room...while avoiding actual work.

I have a tough CAD modeling problem for a client that I’m avoiding because I can’t get my brain wrapped around all the surfacing and how to create it. Solidworks is good at a lot of things; organic surfacing is NOT one of them.

 

Worked pretty much all of Sunday on my CAD project. That was an exercise in frustration. Didn’t get it where I want it but It’s good enough for today.

This afternoon I started work on the camper but it’s just miserable out in the garage. I epoxied some stuff on the door latch opening so it’ll be ready to mount the latch and start fitting the striker plate.


Yep. That’s it. That’s all I’ve done. I am excited to get this cleaned up and done though. The lack of progress has been a little bit of a downer but that’s okay. The real deadline is the end of April. Heading to Moab to goof off with some buddies. We’ll be in buggies exploring the trails. But I want to drive down and camp in the new camper! Maybe take it on an easy trail to test it out a little. See how it feels and how it holds up. I still feel good about that deadline. Of course, I can’t get comfortable...gotta keep pushing!

 

I know that's right! Straight lines and surfaces are a breeze in SW but when you get into that stuff it's a nightmare.
Are you certified? I'm on the SW certification directory.

 

Certified? Nah, son; I took a class once.
I’m an industrial designer, not an engineer so I only use the crappy parts of solidworks.

 

I took a class... ...for a year.
Had to make a CFL bulb in it and had to redo it at least 10 times before it was able to do the corkscrew top without errors.
Then we had to make a candle holder with a bunch of organic leaf shapes and I gave up halfway through, which was further along than most of the class. Tutorials were rough to begin with then SW loves to throw errors for now reason until you redo it 15 times and then suddenly it works and you hit the save button another 12 times just in case.