Its a couple days before Christmas now, all the presents are bought and wrapped, Holidays are such a wonderful time to spend with your family and friends, wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and all the other holidays that are celebrated throughout the world, May there be Peace On Earth !
    The build continues on slowly but surely, I 'm still in the process of adding insulation to the roof, front of the trailer has one layer of 1/8 luan, when the insulation is finished I'll finish the first layer luan then add the second, then 3 coats of Raka epoxy and 3-4 coats of Pettit Topside paint.

Had a partial meltdown on my blog last week, seems OK now. I received my 2 - 40 watt panels last Friday, stainless steel hinge with rivets has been installed, now I'm looking for a couple of suitcase type handles, also need to pick up a controller and 50 feet of 10 gauge wire to connect from the panel to the controller. I have the hatch back on with the taillights wired and working. Also I'm insulating and skinning the roof.

     The hatch has been coated with 3 coats of Raka epoxy on the inside and outside and 3 coats of white Pettit Topside epoxy paint on the outside, the hurricane hinge is on the hatch and I'm fitting my trim pieces for my hatch as well. I also installed a couple of back up lights with a manual switch to turn them on, it's mounted on the underside of the trailer.

     The cabin interior is done except for a couple pieces of trim and the rear bulkhead. All the interior lights, switches, 12 and 120 volt outlet and ceiling fan is working. I'm starting on the exterior insulation for the roof and skinning the inside of my galley hatch. I also bought two 40 watt solar panels that I'll be working on, I'm really excited about that and can't wait to get them and start experimenting with them. I'll post some pictures of my latest progress soon.

     Rear inside cabinet is starting to take shape and should be permanently in place within the next week or so, along with the panel for the light switches, and the  12 / 120 vlt outlets. Carpet is also in place on the ceiling, odd concept to place carpet on the ceiling but it helps to hide the imperfections, 1/4 molding will be put in place from the ceiling to wall transition. it was a major PIA to glue the carpet to the ceiling.
   Next thing I want to accomplish is is to skin the inside of the hatch, and start  insulating the roof.

Electrical has been terminated on  a 12 volt fuse block, everything will be 12 volt except two 110 volt outlets with one in the galley and one in the cabin. Galley top has been put in place so now I can put in the carpet on the ceiling and install my inside cabinets, it has been a productive week.

     Well  my posts are becoming further apart, use to be every couple of week's now it seems to be monthly, work is progressing but rather slowly at times. The details are taking me time to figure out, such as the hatch support, originally I went with 150 lb gas struts but they were to strong and was pulling my hurricane hinge out of the wood, instead of buying different gas struts as so many people do I decided to go with mechanical hatch supports that lock into position once the hatch has been raised, a simple design that works for me. I've also got one coat of Raka epoxy on the hatch, varnish on my inside rear cabinet parts, wiring run for cabin, galley and second set of taillight's.
     Next steps are to finish the rear cabin cabinets, put the carpet on the ceiling, mount the remaining lights, as well as finishing the rear hatch with a couple more coats of epoxy on the outside and put the wood on the inside of the galley hatch and mount the lights, paint and trim the outside hatch, once those tasks are complete then I'll move on the the roof add the insulation, skin and epoxy the top, etc, etc, etc. Still a lot more to do, one step at a time.

Galley hatch has been framed and additional set of tail / stop and turn lights added to the rear most section. I was concerned that  the taillights on the fenders would not be seen from certain angles so I added a extra set just in case. I'm also working on the wiring for the cabin lights and fan using 16 gauge stranded marine wire. Front cabinet will have 2 small red and white LED on the inside and 2 spot white LED swivel  reading lights mounted on the underside of the front cabinet.  I ordered the trim aluminum pieces for my hatch and will be working on that as well.

I spent the weekend working on some cabinet ideals for the rear of the cabin and the galley, I plan to keep it as simple as possible as I have limited wood working skills.

 Its been almost a year since I started the build, my how time flys.  I 've started building the front cabinet and started testing my LED lights, I think I'll have two reading lights under the cabinet then small LED red and white in the cabinets as accent lights. Still deciding if I will go with a LED dome light, but if I do it will be a 5. 5 inch with a white / red  combo light. Also thinking of LED porch lights from SoCal Teardrops. I did a test of running my fridge and 4 LED and 2 reading lights for 24 hours using a PC 1230 Odyssey battery, the fridge was set at 29 degrees F. with a outdoor air temp around 80 degrees average, The battery had 13.33 volts when I started the test and when it ended 24 hours later the battery had 12.20 volts.

Ceiling is in place and temporarily supported until the glue dries, it was a major PIA to get in place. I'm going to cover it with some  gray indoor / outdoor carpet, this will cover up my not so perfect cuts and mistakes.

I've glued three sheets of 4 x 8 luan together using 6 inch wide luan strips and overlapping the panels, once dry I'll cut to fit the glue to the spars and hold in place with 1 x 2's until it sets up. I may need to wet the wood with hot water were the bend is if it is not flexible enough. One the ceiling is in I can decide if I will leave it bare wood with a coat of varnish or cover with carpet. I also picked up a 4x8x 3/4 sheet of birch, this will be used as my bulkhead between the galley and cabin area.

Here are a few more shots of the build, passenger door and trim is on. I started gluing the spars in and testing my LED lights. Next I'll start working on installing the Luan wood ceiling, the rear bulkhead and framing for the cabinets.

Well its been awhile since my last post, life has kept me busier than usual and I have not been able to spend much time on the build lately. I do have my other wall finished and mounted on the trailer frame. I still need to mount the door, trim pieces, and window, after  that I'll start on the galley and cabinets. I'm starting to collect some LED lights for the cabin and galley area as my goal it  to cut down on the amount of power being used by eliminating the standard filament type bulbs. All my lights will be LED, these will draw less amps, the two main things that will draw the most power will be my Fantastic fan and my ARB fridge. I'm also looking at adding a couple of 45 watt solar panels to charge my batteries as well as to provide constant power when dry camping.

The drivers side is complete and back on the frame, it has  three coats of Raka epoxy, four coats of Pettit primer and four coats of Pettit Topside on the outside and four coats of varnish on the inside wall. Wall was attached to the edge of the floor with construction adhesive  and screws and bolted to the fender using elevator bolts. Door trim was the most time consuming drilling and counter sinking each screw. Window was put in using butyl tape between the window frame and door. Next I will repeat the process for the passenger  side. I'm also starting to layout the placement of my battery, charger and fuse panel.

No new pics to post, but I've have my doors, door handles, and molding fitted to my liking, with that being said I have removed the moldings, hinges, door handles and locks from the trailer wall and the trailer wall from the floor and have put my final third coat of RAKA epoxy on the drivers side outer wall and have 3 coats of satin varnish on the inner wall. The platinum gray Pettit Topside Marine paint is due to arrive next week, that will be my final outside finish. I'll post some pictures once the paint is on and the wall mounted back on the trailer floor / frame.

I've been working on my doors over the weekend, received my t-moulding and other cap moldings. I also picked up my door hinges as well. It is quite time consuming fitting the door, hinges and molding together but I'm getting there.

Soft aluminum door trim has been ordered, this consist of 1 inch x 5/8 leg T-molding and 5/8 end cap molding for the doors and 1 1/4 for the door jams. Still need to buy the hinges, then I'll be able to get the doors mounted, along with this will be painting the outside walls with Petitt Marine Topside paint, color will be platinum gray.

Both walls and doors have been skinned inside and out. I'll be adding another coat of Raka epoxy to the outside walls. Doors have been test fitted with aluminum trim and hinge. Next step will to paint the outer walls with Petitt Topside Marine paint and seal the inside skins with a clear sealer.

Passenger wall is somewhat complete, inner and outer skins are on, door has been cut, framed and skinned. I picked up a few aluminum trim pieces from So Cal Teardrop to test fit along with a sample of there door hinge. Now I'm working on the drivers side inner skin and door, this will take me about a week to complete. Then will be decision time for the outer finish skin, which I want to finish before permanently mounting the walls to the body of the trailer.I'm also not sure if I'm going to go with the paddle door or the old school type handle.

     Insulation for the walls are complete, Raka epoxy has been applied to the outside walls to seal out moisture, one coat should be sufficient but I'll apply two just to make sure I have good coverage. I'm sitting on the fence about the exterior finish, I really like the look of aluminum, but the cost of using a topside epoxy paint is very attractive price point. 

     For the 12 volt electrical system, 16 gauge stranded marine grade wire will be used along with a 12 position Blue Sea fuse block for powering the cabin and galley lights, cabin fan and 12 volt outlets.  This will be tied into a marine grade type battery along with a battery charger. For the 120 volt system I will have a couple of outlets in the galley and one in the cabin with a external 15 amp outlet to power the battery charger and 120 volt outlets.

   One outside wall has been cut a glued to the wall frame along with insulation cut and dry fit. I will work on the second outside wall and frame tomorrow and cut the insulation and mount the walls temporarily to the trailer to see how everything lines up. I also picked up some 4 x 8 birch for my inside walls. After I'm satisfied with the alignment of the walls I'll epoxy the outside walls and end grain of the walls, cut out the outside door skins then glue on the inside birch 4 x 8 plywood panels and mount to the trailer and put in my roof spars. I also found some 1/4 aluminum u-channel that I'm thinking of putting on the bottom edge of the outside wall, I think this will help the wall from absorbing moisture into the wall. I also ordered a 15 AMP power inlet plug, couple of inside reading lights that I'm going to convert to LED.

I took a drive down to San Diego with the trailer to pick up a couple of 1/4 - 4 x 10 ACX sheets of plywood, little pricey at  $54 dollars a sheet, . but this will allow my outside walls to be one solid piece and hopefully stronger than splicing two sheets of 1/4 ply together. The trailer pulled really easy, we'll see if it pulls as nice once the build is complete. This weekend should be a productive one, I'll router the notches for the ceiling spars on the wall frames and hopefully have the 4 x 10 ply sheets glued up to the frame as well. Then I'll insulate the walls and put the inside skins on, which will be 1/4 oak  or  birch.

My trailer is now registered and licensed in the State of California. The process was quite easy, a fellow teardrop builder posted a link for licensing his trailer with the California DMV and I just followed his recommendations. First I went online and printed out the forms I needed, filled those out, made an appointment online, then went to the DMV today. The whole process only took about 1.5 hours and that includes the wait time. Inspection consisted of a someone looking at the trailer and asking how much it weighed and having me sign a couple of forms. I thought they would at least check the lights, but guess not. Since I had all my paper work filled out prior to arriving, all the clerk did was go through my receipt's, had me sign some more forms and issued me my registration and plate for a mere fee of $165.00 which is for 5 years. Now I'm legal !

So its the New Year and all is well, moving along on the build, walls are on the frame to see the profile and how the fit is, I like it ! I'll have to drive down to San Diego to pick up a couple sheets of 1/4 inch 4 X10 ACX, thats the closest location I can find it. Also have an appointment to register the trailer at the DMV next week. Ordered the Hurrican hinge and the original style door latches, I'm leaning to keep it old style as much as possible, with the use of modern LED for lights and a 12 volt refrigerator instead of an ice box.