1 Bored Clerk's Garage Built Camper

Can't wait to see this on your truck!

 

You and me both. It’s going to need an over cab rack or something to visually balance it out but I can design/build that whenever.

 

Nice work

 

So, I wasn’t completely happy with some of the edges after sanding/routing so I filled in some gaps and sanded and routed again. Then I put epoxy fillets on all of the inside corners (only 4 on the outside of the camper).


That’ll do it for today unless I get motivated this evening. I have an appointment coming up and it’s not enough time to dive into laying glass. At very least, I’ll be laying glass on all the seams tomorrow!

 

Glass taped all of the upper edges.



It was very difficult to control the resin as evidenced by all the resin smeared down the sides. Haha! This is all I could muster today. I’ll do the vertical edges tomorrow...and maybe the bottom edges. We’ll see.

 

Progress my friend, progress

How hard is it to work with the glass?

 

Not hard at all, if you don't care how it looks.

It helps if you're anal about how it looks. Not meant to be a slam on the OP, he has done an excellent job on both of the projects and obviously has skills that wasn't available in the hand-out line I was in.

 

I certainly don’t fall in the extreme anal category but I care more that some, less than others. I don’t mind some sanding and fairing to get her looking better. It’s all an experiment!

And, I would fully recommend diving in with both feet with epoxy and fiberglass. It’s pretty fun. Especially if you’re gentle with yourself about the process and end product with regard to looks and strength. West systems and their pump system are excellent for making epoxy that will cure every time.

 

Oh, and using a brush or roller would make the job much cleaner. I’m lazy about the most stupid things. But I’m old enough to have made peace with that.

 

I may have to give it a try sometime

 

Played around more with my adult papier-mâché project (aka, THE CAMPER!) I got all of the vertical edges glassed. No pictures because it looks just the same as the last picture pretty much. Tomorrow I’ll do all of the bottom seams.

 

Are you still going to leave it sitting as is or try and rotate it? I imagine from what I've read that laying glass is much harder from underneath.

 

Well, using thickened epoxy as the first coat before laying the glass on seems to be working for the tabs that I’ve folded underneath. I think it’ll be fine. Wetting our the glass while it’s upside down may be a problem. I may have to wet it out on the bench then lay it in place.

 

We’ll all find out how this upside down stuff goes tonight! It’ll be good practice for the inside of the camper. Some of that glass will be completely upside down: no edges wrapping up a vertical wall.

 

How messy is this process. I am having visions of the ghostbusters when they got slimed working with this stuff.

 

It’s as messy as you are. If you are careful and use proper tools/techniques (which I don’t very often), it’s not bad. Sanding is the really messy part as it puts fine dust EVERYWHERE. Plastic sheeting on the ground to catch drips and lots of acetone or denatured alcohol for cleanup of tools (scissors, roller handles) TONS of gloves and rags - don’t be afraid to use them. I switch to clean gloves all the time.

Try a small project first. Something the size of a briefcase or smaller. Just to get the idea of whether or not you enjoy the process. Doesn’t matter what it is. You can make a small plywood box with an open top and fiberglass that. That will give you inside and outside corners to deal with and will generally give you a good idea of how this stuff works.

 

Yeah, I am not THAT interested. Not my cup of tea. Just curious about the process more than anything. I have alot of respect for guys that can fiberglass well though. It's definitely an art.

 

It is an art if you can do it well. I’m a hack but it seems to be going okay for now. We’ll see how long it holds up!

 

Well, I didn’t feel like doing more glassing tonight so I laid out the door opening instead. It was on the list to do this week so it’s all good.


It’s a decent sized door to crawl through. I’m cutting to within 4” of the panel edge. I assume that’s still enough panel left to do it’s job holding the camper together. It will be backed up by 1/2” plywood epoxied in place as the surface on which the seals will...seal. All of that together should be stout. I’ll be cutting this hole this week. Will be nice to see inside!

I’ll also visit Pro-Tech here in Vancouver about my two custom aluminum boxes this week. Excited to get that rolling. Got some window quotes too. Looking at going with Motion windows here in Vancouver. 8 week lead time kind of sucks but that’s still January and I have a TON of work to do before any windows get installed. Thought about using All-Rite frameless windows but they are crazy $$$