New and Improved Camper Box Build - Ver 2.0

[Heifer Boy]

Stage Twelve – The Main Door

It was time to test fit the main door before gluing up any more pieces of the camper to finalise some details. The main door is 1.2m long and is to be side hung so I am using three of the nice Stanley hinges that caused me so much trouble earlier. There are only two in the photos but the third has been fitted since.

I supported the door and carefully packed it so it fit the frame properly and screwed it all together. However, as soon as I opened the door it dropped about 25mm because the whole frame twisted under the weight!!! It's a pretty hefty door. It's not so bad when it is fully open as it is pulling on the camper at 90 degrees but the box is still pretty flimsy without any floors or walls in place. It should stiffen up nicely once this is done.

Overall, very happy with the door. It will have a drop down table, the water tap and some lighting in it when finish. I did this test fit so I could figure out where the water hoses and power cable would go and finalise the storage slide positions. Better now while I can still see inside the box rather than after everything is glued in place!!!

 

[Heifer Boy]

Stage Thirteen – Floors and Walls

With all the detail finalised there was no reason not to epoxy the rest of the box together. So I did!!

I had one last last task to do though. Cut an access hatch into the top of the fridge box so I can get to the water jerry can that sits behind the fridge. This is to disconnect the hose when I need to change jerrys. I like this hatch a lot. Really simple, neat and tidy. And in the right place too!!!

Glueing up the floors was easy as they are just flat pieces of ply that locate into the dado cut in the centre panel. Everything had been dry screwed before so I just mixed up the epoxy and stuck it together. Messy stuff but really, really strong.

The walls are actually door frames for the side doors and are made the same way as the main door frame. 12mm ply outside, 9mm ply inside with a 15mm smaller hole to create the door jamb. These were laminated together and then epoxied in place once the floors were done.

The flimsy box I mentioned earlier is now gone and it's all stiffened up considerably. I still have to fillet everything which will make it absolutely rock solid and I haven't even put the top on yet. It's now time for the final fit out and finish to start.

 

[pods8]

What method did you find worked well for the epoxy coating? Roller, squeege, brush?

 

[Heifer Boy]

A thin foam roller was the go with just a brush for the corners. I'll use a squeege first when I use the fibreglass on the outside and then roll to complete.

 

[indiedog]

Looking good HB. :wings:

 

[windsock]

A thin foam roller was the go with just a brush for the corners. I'll use a squeege first when I use the fibreglass on the outside and then roll to complete.

G'day Heifer Boy,

I've been reading your thread with interest. Some very fine workmanship. When we were glassing up the cloth on boats we would use a laminated grooved roller for spreading resin and then working air out of the weave. Closest thing I could find online is on this page. Once the air had been worked out then a smooth roller to finish up and make sure of an even spread of resin over the matting or cloth.

All the best with the final stages then use.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[Heifer Boy]

When we were glassing up the cloth on boats we would use a laminated grooved roller for spreading resin and then working air out of the weave.

Hi Phil. I've got one of those rollers too but haven't used it yet. I thought the it was just for working the matting flat rather than spreading out the resin. My thoughts on the process were -

1. Mix up and roll on epoxy using foam roller
2. Lay on fibreglass matting
3. Roll out with grooved roller
4. Pour on and spread out more epoxy with a squeege to get into the weave
5. Roll on final coat with foam roller

I was going to roll wet-on-tacky to save sanding between coats. From your statement it looks like this might be more like it -

1. Mix up and roll on epoxy using foam roller
2. Lay on fibreglass matting
3. Pour on and spread out more epoxy with a grooved roller to get into the weave
4. Roll on final coat with foam roller

This sound about right?

 

[pods8]

Are you using fiberglass matting or cloth? Matting supposedly doesn't work that well with epoxy since there isn't any styrene to dissolve the binder.

I was mainly interested what you found worked well on bare wood. When it comes to the glass work, if you could do each plane in the horizontal I'd think just sticking with a squeegee would be the easiest since its easy to push resin around and work bubbles all with one tool. However the vertical sides make a roller likely need. After the cloth has set up and you're working to fill the weave a roller would make sense to me if you're not making up a fairing compound.

 

[windsock]

G'day Heifer Boy,

When we were working on the boats vertical and unusual angles from the horizontal was the norm. As Pods8 states and something I didn't consider straight away, you can flip the box around to work in the horizontal pretty much on demand. You then have bubbles floating to the surface as a natural event rather than as with our work where we had to physically force the bubbles to the surface once the resin was applied (if vertical or upsidedown by brush or spray). I guess what ever method works for you to get the bubbles out would be apprpriate. See if the roller works, otherwise continue as you have been. One thing we found with the roller though. Maintenance on it between uses was critical as if the roller became stiff with a resin build up in the shaft area it moved the cloth around too much. Your method of foam roller, squeegy sounds good in this respect.

Looking on with continued interest.

 

[Heifer Boy]

Are you using fiberglass matting or cloth?

I was mainly interested what you found worked well on bare wood. When it comes to the glass work, if you could do each plane in the horizontal I'd think just sticking with a squeegee would be the easiest since its easy to push resin around and work bubbles all with one tool. However the vertical sides make a roller likely need. After the cloth has set up and you're working to fill the weave a roller would make sense to me if you're not making up a fairing compound.

Sorry. Terminology got the better of me again. I mean fibreglass cloth!! No fairing compound... it's not that critical to me.

When we were working on the boats vertical and unusual angles from the horizontal was the norm. As Pods8 states and something I didn't consider straight away, you can flip the box around to work in the horizontal pretty much on demand. You then have bubbles floating to the surface as a natural event rather than as with our work where we had to physically force the bubbles to the surface once the resin was applied (if vertical or upsidedown by brush or spray). I guess what ever method works for you to get the bubbles out would be apprpriate. See if the roller works, otherwise continue as you have been. One thing we found with the roller though. Maintenance on it between uses was critical as if the roller became stiff with a resin build up in the shaft area it moved the cloth around too much. Your method of foam roller, squeegy sounds good in this respect.

I plan to roll the camper box around on the floor so the majority of my work is on a horizontal surface. Some bit will have to be vertical otherwise it would take me about a month to do all the surfaces!! Good tips about keeping the roller clean. I was wondering a bit how to use it properly.

Also, when ever I have looked at the boat and kayak building sites they are just laying large strips of cloth over the hull and butting the strips to each other down the length of the hull. But my camper is a bit of a different shape. When it comes to laying out the cloth I obviously want it to wrap over the corners for strength. For example, if I have the box upside down and am starting on the floor do I just cut the cloth so it is smaller than the depth of the box and run a strip across the floor and down each side. Then when I am doing the back wall I just wrap over the corner and butt it up against the first strip of cloth. I don't want to end the cloth at the corner joints.

I guess some of this can be done wet-on-wet but other sections will have to wait until dry and get sanded between coats so I can roll the box around. It will still take a few days to get it all covered but I can't think of another way to do it efficiently.

An ideas?

 

[pods8]

I guess some of this can be done wet-on-wet but other sections will have to wait until dry and get sanded between coats so I can roll the box around. It will still take a few days to get it all covered but I can't think of another way to do it efficiently.

An ideas?

FYI: You can still overlap in the tacky stage (you may be rolling that into your "wet" stage). If you need to wait till dry and you're just trying to eliminate the sanding step you can add a strip of peel ply in the areas you need to over lap. Supposedly you can just rip that off and layup right on it.

Peel ply: I'm not well versed in it and haven't played around with it yet but its my understanding its usually dacron or nylon type cloth (possibly treated, not sure if you can just use cheapo fabric from the store) that you layup as the last layer wetting it out like normal (probably would what to leave an exposed tail to grab onto). Its only superfically stuck there, the epoxy doesn't bite into the fibers, so when you grab the tail and rip it off it leaves a non-glossed surface (similar to what you want from sanding) exposed for laying up more laminations.

 

[Heifer Boy]

Peel ply: I'm not well versed in it...

I've read about this stuff too but I'm not too concerned about getting an absolutely perfect finish. It's like gelcoats as well. I've read about it but not getting into it for this build.

At the end of the day it's just a camper box that will get beaten up offroad so as long as it's strong, waterproof and dustproof I can live with a few dimples in the paintwork. A good sand a bit of filling should do the trick.

 

[Heifer Boy]

Stage Fourteen – Metalwork!!

Next up was the battery tray and the internal roof support. I need to get these done as they are being welded up offsite and I need them before putting the top on the box.

I already have a 90ah Deep Cell Fullriver AGM Battery which is my house battery. The spot it will fit in is in the front RH side on top of the fridge box. I needed to make a battery tray to hold it because the 9mm ply top ain't going to do it alone!!!

The battery is going to lie on it's side so a standard tray won't work. Some slotted angle from the local hardware and 4” grinder with a cut off wheel and I had a tray. Bingo!!!

This going to be welded to a steel plate folded up and bolted to three of the walls of the camper for support. All the weight will be taken vertically so the 9mm ply fridge box top is nearly taken out of the equation. A bit of Cardboard Aided Design later and I had it cut out of a sheet of steel picked up a local roofing supply. These guys will also do the welding and will fold up the plate for me although I had planned on doing this myself. That was until I destroyed my 20 year old Black and Decker Workmate trying to bend the plate between some angle iron. I tore the top right off it!!! D'oh!!!

Underneath the roof of the camper box I'm putting four 32 x 32 x 3mm aluminium angle cross pieces which will support the roof and act as a kind of internal roof rack. The roof top tent will be bolted through the roof and attach to these cross pieces. They help keep the box compact and mounts the tent as low as possible to the box.

The front and back cross pieces will be bolted to the front and back walls. The end will bolt to the side walls and there will be a support along the centre panel. The the middle two cross pieces will just attach to the side walls and centre panel. The RTT has two rails down the floor and these will bolt to each of the cross pieces. I think eight connection points should be strong enough!!!

So I cut up a bunch of brackets from the same angle and sent them off to the welder along with battery tray. Should get them back in a couple of days.

 

[pods8]

I've read about this stuff too but I'm not too concerned about getting an absolutely perfect finish. .

I didn't mean to try and use peel ply for a surface finish aspect, only use it where you'll need to laminate over later (ie probably the perimeter) if you wanted. Since you peel it off you have a fresh ready to laminate surface ready without sanding. I was just mentioning it in case it helped out your efficiency at all. I don't really intent to mess with it at this point.

 

[Heifer Boy]

I didn't mean to try and use peel ply for a surface finish aspect, only use it where you'll need to laminate over later (ie probably the perimeter) if you wanted. Since you peel it off you have a fresh ready to laminate surface ready without sanding. I was just mentioning it in case it helped out your efficiency at all. I don't really intent to mess with it at this point.

I just re-read your post and the info I had on peel ply was different to yours. I had read that it is a finishing process for the final coat. After a quick search again it seems that it is for what you described - a way to leave a textured surface between coats. :Wow1:

I just read of a boat guy who leaves the peel ply in place until he has finished all his other jobs so it acts kind of like a drop sheet for the bottom of his boat.

I still think for the size of my camper I'll stick with a bit of sanding when needed but for a bigger job, peel ply could be real time saver. Thanks for the heads up.