After yesterday’s long day framing the hatch, today went by quite fast. The first layer of skin on the hatch was in place, glued, and stapled by about noon. So while the glue was drying a bit, I took some time to clean the garage.

Then after lunch, it was back to the tear for the second layer of hatch skin. Yesterday, when I was out at C&O picking up the Baltic birch for the ribs, I also picked up a piece of 1/8″ Baltic birch for the outer skin on the hatch. One of the nice things about the BB plywood there is that it comes in five foot widths. So, the entire skin is a single sheet. All we had to do was trim it to length, mark the rib locations, add glue and tack it in place.

In a couple of days, I will take the screws out of the sides and free the hatch. That will be the moment of truth when we first get to see if the hatch went together without any twisting or “springback”. Until then, my fingers are crossed (which probably explains my poor typing tonight).

On a side note, it seems that it is customary to name a teardrop camper during the build. So far, I haven’t come up with a name yet. Not to say that I haven’t called it any names, I have. But I still don’t have a name for it on good days. Any ideas??

Today is a picture free post. The main reason is, the picture would look almost exactly like the last one. Not that we haven’t made any progress – we have. It’s just that this weekend was devoted to putting on the second layer of exterior skin. So, even though we have reached another milestone, you couldn’t really tell by looking at a picture.

The compound curve for the sun roof is in, and it looks like everything came together as planned. But I won’t really know until I get the final trim done on the sunroof opening. It was every bit as painful as I thought it would be, but the final result is ok. Time will tell if it was worth the extra effort though.

The next major project is the galley hatch. To that end, I ordered the “Better then hurricane hinge”, latches and T-handle from Li’l Bear Tag-Alongs this weekend. Grant (the owner) was super friendly and helpful – as usual.

Well, we have been making some progress over the long weekend. So far, the first layer of skin is on the roof and the basic shape of the fenders have been drawn up and cut out. I hope that before the workweek starts, I can get the second layer of skin glued up.

To make the sunroof work, the roof needed to have a compound curve that you cannot get with full sheets of plywood. To overcome this, I decided to use construction method that is usually used to build wooden canoes. However, instead of using thin cedar strips, I am using two layers of 1/8” plywood cut into narrow strips that can follow the contour of the roofline.

Because the fenders are so narrow (under three inches), they had to be custom made also. After drawing up several shapes I finally settled on the shape you see in the photo. They are simply made of several layers of wood cut to shape and glued together. Before I install them permanently, I will sand them smooth and round the corners a bit. Finally, Depending on how the surface looks, I may also apply a layer of fiberglass to protect and smooth them a bit more.

I’ve been skinned! Ok, the tear has been skinned (at least on the sides) and the doors have been cut to fit. Everything took a long time to get together, but it all fit (well enough). I had a bit of a problem measuring to the wrong side of the saw blade, so the interior fit on the passenger side door is a bit looser then I would have liked, but, it’s a camper (at least, thats what I keep telling myself)

This weekend, we added the 4 main sections of the exterior skin to the Tear. After we finish the side skin, we will move on to the ceiling insulation and the roof skin. I really like the woodgrain on the plywood that we picked up. To bad it will be covered by the epoxy.

When, it’s time to seal the exterior, I have decided to use Uniflex 255 for the exterior as others have used it on their tears and recommend it.

UNIFLEX 255 Aliphatic is a two-component elastomeric, abrasion resistant polyurethane finish/final coating. It is formulated from an all-aliphatic, light stable polymer which allows for a wide range of UV stable colors. UNIFLEX 255 Aliphatic possesses high tensile strength as well as an excellent balance of elongation, hardness and abrasion resistance, resulting in long term wear and impact protection. The dense finish is also resistant to staining and dirt pickup, which aids in cleanability.

From the Rot Doctor web site