Norwegian Unimog U1700L camper build

[Vegard_S]

So we finally also started gluing the sandwich panels together. Started with the floor, front wall and the right wall. When the glue has hardened here, we will continue with the panels for the rear wall, then the left wall and finaly the roof. When all panels are in place we will ad angel profiles on both the outer and the inner edges for increased strength. Since it is becoming Autumn here in Norway now, with quite low temperatures during the night, the glue takes quite long time to dry. So the assembly process will propably take a week or two to finnish, but at least it's going in the right direction!

 

[Victorian]

Nice!

 

[Vegard_S]

Continued with the gluing, both parts of the rear wall are now installed. We are currently waiting for the glue to dry, so that we can tackle the last wall and the roof.

Please excuse the blurry cell phone photos and all the mess at the garage floor. - I like to call it "creative mess"



The welding rods are inserted to prevent all of the glue being squeezed away when the panels are pressed together, they will be removed when the glue has dried, and the holes from them will be sealed before outer and inner corner profiles are added:


Lower part of rear wall in place, held together with lots of duct tape and various paint buckets, waiting for the glue to dry:


The panels for the rear wall has 4 stripes of vertical running plywood casted into them towards the outside facing side, thus allowing a good fixation point for aluminium "airline rails" In the poor picture you can also barely see the "honey comb" structure underneath the outer layer of fiberglass:


After the glue for the lower part of the rear wall had dried we vent on with the upper part for the same wall:

 

[Iain_U1250]

Looks like it is all coming together nicely. I also had la lot of "creative mess" , goes with building a truck by yourself it seems

How long does the glue take to dry?

 

[Vegard_S]

How long does the glue take to dry?

It depends on the surrounding temperature. The seals for the first two walls took a little less than 3 days to dry up and harden. But now the night time temperature barely exceeds the freezing point and in the day time seldom above 10 degrees Celsius. So the the lower part of the rear wall took almost 6 days to dry up. But after gluing the last part of the rear wall yesterday I put up a small tarpaulin and an electric fan oven, so hopefully it will be dry within a few days.

 

[jostein]

Looks like you are catching up What glue are you using, and will it be the same for the alu profiles?

 

[Vegard_S]

Looks like you are catching up

I'm working as fast as I can

What glue are you using, and will it be the same for the alu profiles?

The panels are glued together with a one component sealant glue (based on POP heteropolymer), named Körapop 225 (Datasheet: http://planoplastics.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Koerapop_225_gb_2013_10.pdf)

Both the outer and inner corner profiles are made of fiberglass, not aluminium. They will be glued on to the sandwichplates using the 2 component sealant glue (based on Polyurethan), named Körapur 666/90. (Datasheet: https://www.svb.de/media/734/pdf/manual_de_2011-10-31.pdf)

Before the glue is applied, the surfaces are cleaned with Körasolv WL cleaner (Datasheet: http://planoplastics.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Koerasolv_WL_gb_2012_02.pdf) and then primed with Körabond HG 83 (Datasheet: http://planoplastics.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Koerabond_HG_83_gb_2012_02.pdf)

All this is acording to recommendations from the supplier of the panels. And as I'm mostly used to working with steel, my knowledge on this subject is quite limited - So I have just trusted that they know what they are talking about. So I'm just hoping everything will stay nicely together such as they convinced me it would do! - So far it looks good

 

[Victorian]

Love the Koerabond Adhesive! We use it on our builds, its a lot easier to work with than any other suitable glues.

 

[Vegard_S]

Love the Koerabond Adhesive! We use it on our builds, its a lot easier to work with than any other suitable glues.

That's comforting to hear Victorian I have to say that I'm also finding it quite satisfying to work with. It's also very relaxing to know that you have 90 min of processing time available, so you
dont have to rush things, but can relax and take the time needed to do it proper the first time

 

[Ramdough]

I love the progress. I just found your build thread. I noticed that you used bushings (bronze?) in your forward camper support frame. What does the aft support swivel use? What angle of rotations does it support?

I am planning out a Unimog for the future and I am sure I will have plenty of questions.

Thanks

 

[Vegard_S]

I love the progress. I just found your build thread.

Thanks, glad you like it!

I noticed that you used bushings (bronze?) in your forward camper support frame. What does the aft support swivel use? What angle of rotations does it support?

Both the two fixing points in the front of the front of the supportframe, and the one in the rear of the frame have bronze bushings with grooves for grease lubrication. The bolts in the front are Ø35mm and the one in the rear Ø45mm. All three bolts are machined from Cromax 280x steel piston rods , and they have internal channels for grease lubrication.
The two fixingpoints in the front of the supportframe supports longitudinal rotation, and the one in the rear latitudinal rotation. This is the same sollution (although a bit more heavy duty), as was used in the original supportframe, which was attached when we first bought the truck. It's a bit different than the sollution most Unimog campers seems to use on their supportframes, as they often tend to use supportframes with 4 fixing points. - But the theory is still the same, as the intention is that the stiff supportframe is attached to the flexible chassis frame in a limited number of fixing points which can pivot/rotate. - Thus allowing the chassis to flex quite alot, without transfering the flex to the box on top of the support frame, which might would result in fatal cracking.

I am planning out a Unimog for the future and I am sure I will have plenty of questions.

Thanks

Pleace fell free to ask, I'm no expert, but will try to answer as best as I can

 

[Vegard_S]

So, we were lucky to get some lifting help from good friends last weekend, as a result we managed to install both the last side wall, and the roof! The wall was installed last friday, and with the help of an electric fan oven, the glue hardened quickly enough to allow the roof to be installed two days later

The panels are covered with protective plastic foil in the pictures, a lot of excessive glue sticking out from the seems between the panels, and plentiful of duct tape - So it looks quite messy.. But we managed to install all panels without any scratches or other damage. It also seems that we managed to glue all of the panels at the precise correct angles - After some cleaning, I believe it will turn out fine!

 

[Iain_U1250]

Great milestone. Now you have a camper box

 

[evilfij]

View attachment 371335

Where's Waldo!

Great work!

 

[Vegard_S]

There hasn’t been too much time to work on the Unimog lately, but finally we managed to install the outer corner profiles.





Last weekend it was then time to unite the camper box with the support frame. But before the camper box was lifted onto the support frame we covered the frame with 5mm thick stripes of 50 shore rubber. The idea with the rubber is that it will help smoothen out all small imperfections which may occur, and prevent that the fiberglass and steel are rubbing directly against each other. It should also act as a thermal barrier, and reduce the effect of the cold bridge between the steel and the fiberglass.










With the help of my father and two big lifting cranes at my work, we managed the job without any drama.