Sawtooth Unlimited - Off Road Pop Top Camper Trailer

[high-and-dry]

Jess are you going to fill the curf cuts?

I really want to see how you are doing your roof, I know you said hand laying it. I just want to see it.

 

[stomperxj]

Jess are you going to fill the curf cuts?

I really want to see how you are doing your roof, I know you said hand laying it. I just want to see it.

I'm going to put a doubler across the seam where the two panels meet and I'm most likely going to carpet the inside of the front cubbies and the bed platform and back wall to cover the kerfs.

Are you talking about the roof panel or the fiberglass pop top?

 

[high-and-dry]

Pop top. Well your whole roof in general too.

I meant with the curfs to bend the front wall, are you going to fill them with teroson or just hide with carpet or both?

 

[stomperxj]

Pop top. Well your whole roof in general too.

I meant with the curfs to bend the front wall, are you going to fill them with teroson or just hide with carpet or both?

I'm going to start working on the form for the roof panel soon. Once that is done that form will get built on to make the positive for the pop top.

I'm not too worried about filling the kerfs up with Teroson. It doesn't stick to the foam all that great anyway. I'll just double the seam and carpet it.

 

[stomperxj]

Got a few things done this past weekend. The fender trim is half done. I did both but the first one didn't turn out very good so I am re-doing it. I also got all the wires fished through the conduit. What a huge pain in the ass. It worked but in hindsight I should have used either bigger conduit or done a better job of smoothing out all the corners/transitions. New vid up

 

[high-and-dry]

Fender wells look great.

I am an electrician ( now office puke electrician ) so I was going to do conduits like you did. I do have a few 1 inch ones for wiring that I decided to abandon, and I just carved a channel in the corner joints and epoxied the wires in place. Yes if I lose something I will have to go back to the conduits, I decided to do that after fighting the wires in the frame. But I ran everything as a separate wire with the ground so I should not have issues. I only used the conduits where I needed to, but that was also taken in to my design with keeping almost everything in the power wall. My running lights run in the frame, which sucked because I changed where I out the tail lights afterwards.

I do feel for you on trying to pull those wires, esp around the 90 degree turns.

I found out about the sharpie trick with aluminum when I did my fenders, it seemed to go much faster on the trim than it did on the 1/8 diamond plate, lol.

Its looking great, get it done then relax while camping.

 

[stomperxj]

Fender wells look great.

Its looking great, get it done then relax while camping.

Thanks Scott

 

[ITTOG]

It is coming along nicely. I can't believe it has been three years. Time is flying by. It looks great.

A quick question on your rivets. When you put them in are you using anything to help seal them? Torosen, silicone, etc?

 

[stomperxj]

It is coming along nicely. I can't believe it has been three years. Time is flying by. It looks great.

A quick question on your rivets. When you put them in are you using anything to help seal them? Torosen, silicone, etc?

@ITTOG Thanks I haven't put anything on the exterior rivets but the majority of them will get covered in Raptor when I do that along the bottom. I shouldn't have any exposed rivets on the exterior at all after the Raptor is on.

 

[jwiereng]

Rivets on tin boats seem to work very well.

Only might leak after being bonked.

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

Looking good sir... watched your last YouTube vid this morning. Wiring and lights look great. Man I love those BlueSea power/ground distribution blocks. They make great stuff.

 

[stomperxj]

Looking good sir... watched your last YouTube vid this morning. Wiring and lights look great. Man I love those BlueSea power/ground distribution blocks. They make great stuff.

Thanks Greg. I was pleasantly surprised by the Blue Sea unit. Very well made

 

[stomperxj]

Got the roof panel form built. Also got more wiring done. Tail lights, license plate light and 3rd brake light are mocked up. Had to order more hardware from McMaster for the marker lights. 3 stores within 5 minutes of me and none of them had the stainless screws I wanted. They are expensive anyway. Same price for 8 as it is for a box of 50 from McMaster. No video this week. Not enough footage

Last pic is a side by side with the model

 

[high-and-dry]

Is the roof panel a positive to make a mold from? If it is, you really meed to add 2 or 3 inches in height to it, you will never get glass to lay nicely against the table, It will be some much easier to do if taller.
Also light weight drywall filler is you friend, the stuff made by red devil is like marshmallow topping until it drys. It does not shrink, but dont try to sand it until its dry. It sands and drys very fast, and it a great base for starting you filling. Its will stick to the wood like its going out of style. When you get ready to start putting the smooth paint on it for the final surface finish, just use sandable primer, you can actually polish it to a shine with paper towels.

Then use car wax to coat it, then a final spray of pva mold release from something like a prevail sprayer. I would recommend putting a 1/4 inch hole thru the positive in 2 or 3 places once you get it all smooth, then put tape over the holes. It will allow you use an air gun to blow air in between the mold and the panel and get them to separate. YOU REALLY want to do that. Yes you might have a small spot you need to sand, but it will save you an hour of fighting it apart.

Fiberglass Evercoat PVA Mold Release 8-OZ : Pva Mold Release : Sports & Outdoors

Fiberglass Evercoat PVA Mold Release 8-OZ : Pva Mold Release : Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.com

 

[stomperxj]

Is the roof panel a positive to make a mold from? If it is, you really meed to add 2 or 3 inches in height to it, you will never get glass to lay nicely against the table, It will be some much easier to do if taller.
Also light weight drywall filler is you friend, the stuff made by red devil is like marshmallow topping until it drys. It does not shrink, but dont try to sand it until its dry. It sands and drys very fast, and it a great base for starting you filling. Its will stick to the wood like its going out of style. When you get ready to start putting the smooth paint on it for the final surface finish, just use sandable primer, you can actually polish it to a shine with paper towels.

Then use car wax to coat it, then a final spray of pva mold release from something like a prevail sprayer. I would recommend putting a 1/4 inch hole thru the positive in 2 or 3 places once you get it all smooth, then put tape over the holes. It will allow you use an air gun to blow air in between the mold and the panel and get them to separate. YOU REALLY want to do that. Yes you might have a small spot you need to sand, but it will save you an hour of fighting it apart.

Fiberglass Evercoat PVA Mold Release 8-OZ : Pva Mold Release : Sports & Outdoors

Fiberglass Evercoat PVA Mold Release 8-OZ : Pva Mold Release : Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.com

That form is for laminating the roof panel. I have to build the positive for the fiberglass top after the last panel is laminated. I've been studying fiberglass procedure for a couple years so I think I have it all worked out when I get to that point. Thanks for the tips.