skining begins

In the last post I talked about a grid and nails to mark the points. Here I am doing that to the skin, clamping my 8' ruler to the nails. You can make out the door and window outlines, they are much easier to draw on now while it is flat. Draw the window and door on both sides, trust me. The ply is 1/8" mahogany. Yes the nails go clean through it into the board below (note do not do this on the kitchen table). When you are done with cutting out side one, trace out side two.














Trial fit. Note boards clamped to bottom that do not let the wall slide to far down. When gluing the wall on first get the bottom where you want it and staple. Remember the 3/4" spar, only cover half, the back skin will need a place to attach. Next put a board across it and clamp the wall to the framework (it will pull free of the staples if you do not, trust me), then and only then bend the wall into place and staple the top. Use another board to clamp the top.

At this point in the build, wind is your worst enemy, clamp or tie down accordingly.











Note the upper left corner where the spar extends past the skin, later that will be reinforced and trimmed. If I had to do this over the body would be 6 or 8" shorter, I think making this problem less if not go away. Most teardrops are only four foot (or less) inside anyway. Now repeat on side two.

Next internal frame work for the door.

del

Hinge spar

The hinge spar is a normal spar doubled. I sandwiched two 1 x 2's together for spacing.














I also used a piece of ply (1/2) to space the spars where the hinge(s) would go. At this point I was thinking of putting a door on both sides, but later, being single, made me reconsider. It gets one door. On the subject of the door the original plans call for a 28" wide door, but I wanted a 30" wide door. Allowing for one and a half inches on each side, I spaced the front and middle spar 33" apart. A note, I made the body 13" longer than the plans called for. The front section was 6" longer than the plans.























Now four 33" 1 x2's give my spars a third dimension. Next I install skins on my spars.

del

spars

The internal frame work of the body is made of spars. In Andrew's drawings he gives a profile of the wall in the centre. It gives a point to mark on a four inch grid, I put a finish nail in each point and used an eight foot aluminum ruler to make the smooth flowing curve. I made one this way, and I used it for a pattern for the other five. I made them all about two inches wide on 1/2 inch ply for 4 of them, and 3/4 for the other 2.

Once they were cut out I clamped them together with more clamps than shown here, and sanded the profile till they were all the same. Note to any one trying a project like this, you now own less than 1% of the clamps you will use.


















The middle (3 /4) an rear (1/2) spars get assembled kinda like this. I used 1 x 2 for the top and bottom. Measure carefully and use the very top and bottom to set the distance apart. I did not do it this way, I used the distance at the floor, and wished I had done the other. I found out later when I put the skins on the body, at least it is not 3/16 out of square. Once again I assembled one spar and used it for a template for the others.














They turned out looking like this. Next the front spar that the hinge hooks to.

del

jelly bean

My name is Del and some time ago I seen this drawing of a teardrop trailer that, as far as I know, has never been built. I wanted to build this trailer from the day I first saw the drawing.

Andrew from olde England drew up plans from the drawings that existed (http://www.angib.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/teardrop/tear00.htm)(look at the bottom left corner of the page).

Now fast forward a few months. Mike, of a forum I belong to (http://www.mikenchell.com/forums), ran a contest where the winner received a 4 x 8 trailer. For my entry I used the 1947 Roswell pictured at the top. The part that scared me the most was those fenders, but I had to build the trailer anyway. Sadly I did not win the contest, but out of this came Mike's idea of a wider trailer with wheel wells, instead of fenders.

The amazing thing is Mike drew this on a computer, for little old me, a guy he has never met. Thanks Mike.

One of the problems with this trailer is although large for a teardrop, it is very curvy so interior space is compromised. Making it wider helped, I settled on six inches wider because that made it pretty close to my Subaru's width. Mike made it wider than that, but I did not want to put other mirrors on my 4 cylinder suby. Though now five foot wide at the middle, it is only four foot wide at the floor where the mattress goes.

del