Paul Jensen

2012-01-27T05:31:00.001-08:00

2012-01-27T05:29:00.003-08:00

2012-01-27T05:29:00.001-08:00

2012-01-26T05:13:00.001-08:00

2012-01-26T05:12:00.001-08:00

2012-01-25T06:53:00.001-08:00

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2012-01-25T06:52:00.001-08:00

2012-01-25T06:51:00.001-08:00

2012-01-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

Twenty-Four...

(above) At least for a few days I won't take lights coming on for granted...

(above) Some of the daily necessities...

(above) The bed pull-out, as it is, was positioned over the cab and checked for fit and clearances...No surprises...

(above) The other half of the bed platform is now ready for small part to fit inside of larger part with glue and pin-nails holding them together...

(above) Then the piano hinge was rabbeted to the bed slabs...

(above) The bed pull-out, pulled out...The CF panels are dry fitted...Later they will be epoxied in...

(above) Well, lookey there, it works...

(above) Another test fit, then a few filler plywood pieces are custom cut for the right side...

(above) Next, the floor gets worked...First the inlaid areas are belt sanded flush...

(above) The good cutters are readied for action...

(above) The router cuts a rabbet on the rear door end of the floor panel...

(above) A matching rabbeted piece of teak is epoxied, then taped on...Good masking tape has some stretch...Use it...

(above) At the front end of the floor, a teak strip is inlaid...I'll cut the excess end of the panel off at the right side of the inlay later...

(above) I pulled out the back-rest panels made in the mock-up stage...

Guess what you have if you use them as table legs with the removable floor panel on top...???...

Good guess..A 28.5" tall teak table...

Yet another serendipitous dual-purpose outcome...Never planned for, but....Voila...!!!...Outside dining elegance...

(above) The tape on the floor end cap is pulled...Still needs sanding...

(above) A couple weeks ago I put the teak curb up front...Well, I got to thinking that the resulting notch in the floor wasn't the best idea...So I cut the intruding teak out...

Now the floor will be straight, and either side can be up...All wood on this side, copper inlaid on the other...Bling or bland (hardly)...You choose...

My thinking on using the shower is this: Remove the wood floor when you want to shower...The panel weighs less than twenty pounds...Slides in easy and cutting grooves in the wood floor for drainage aren't needed... And lets be realistic, how often will you really be showering inside the Jeep...???...Sure you can, but, really...???...

The last thing I did for the day was to epoxy and pin nail a straight teak 'baseboard' on the curb side...

Tomorrow, I'll do the driver side...

More later...

2012-01-25T05:17:00.001-08:00

2012-01-25T05:06:00.000-08:00

Twenty Three…

The power came back on Sunday night…Seventy-two hours without...Word was it might not come back on until Wednesday…Am I ever glad that didn’t go that far…

During the power outage we went to a coffee shop to check internet…Thanks for the concern and kind words…I appreciate it…

Now where did I leave off…???...

(above) Teak floor panels…I belt sanded the inserts flush to start…

(above) Then I figured an easy way to cut the copper in half…I lock-screwed the copper to a piece of left-over OSB…

(above) Next another piece of OSB was screwed over the copper…

(above) I ran it slowly through the tablesaw…Copper is soft for a metal and the carbide tipped blade went through it easier than some hardwoods...

(above) Pulled the cover pierce off, then released the cut copper…The edge was sanded once, lightly…

(above) Next the rail guided router came out…

(above) …and a dado was cut across the teak…

(above) The copper was slightly off parallel so I cut the teak edge with a utility knife…

(above) Teak is nice to work with if you use sharp tools…

(above) As you can see, somehow the router slipped and a stepped cut resulted…Ooops...

(above) Design opportunity…!!!...Stiffen the inlay with some carbon fiber strips…

(above) Thinking ahead of a way to finish the install, I went though my long lost copper-nail tin can…Maybe I’ll make these into copper rivets…???...Hmmm....???...

(above) For now, I'll just epoxy them in place...Epoxy was mixed, the CF was laid, then saturated…Finally the copper strip was dropped in the dado and spring clamped in place…

(above) With the snow melted from the Jeep, and no rain in today’s forecast, I silicone caulked the last leak source…The one at the front of the roof lift-up…Did it on both sides…

(above) Next, inside the floor was insulated…

(above) Back in the shop, the other copper inlay was routered out…

(above) C.F. again used to reinforce…

(above) By now the first inlay was set-up and the clamps were pulled…Still needs to get sanded…

(above) After a trip to the store for hardware, the second set of clamps were off and the panel is further along in the process….Tomorrow the end teak caps will go on…

More tomorrow…

2012-01-25T04:31:00.003-08:00

2012-01-25T04:31:00.001-08:00

2012-01-25T04:19:00.000-08:00

Twenty Two…

(above) Thursday morning…Clamps holding tight in the heated shop…

(above) Outside the snow dump exceeded anything I’ve seen up here as long as I’ve lived here…Beyond a couple of decades…A good day to stay busy in the shop…

(above) The bed panels are dry enough to cut to size on the tablesaw…

(above) First I need to clear the work table…The clamps are now off the teak panel that will be the floor…

(above) I have a piece of copper I've been wanting to use…Something with the teak might be nice…

(above) With the teak possibilities not yet ready to execute, I cut the CF panels to size…

(above) Head panel and foot panel…

(above) Back outside the snow has stopped…Replacing the snow is freezing rain…Two words that hate…Freezing rain can be absolutely destructive…This episode turned out to exceed my greatest fear by a magnitude of ten…More on that later…

(above) Back in the shop I cut the plywood components for the bed pull-out, the box jointed ‘em…

(above) Some quick and fast gluing and pin nailing has them assembled…

(above) Uh huhhh…Bed panel # 1…

(above) And fitted between the drawer guides…

(above) Keeping the progress going on a couple of fronts, I got the teak panel and set up the router to cut a dado centered on the glue joints…

(above) 3/16” deep x ¾” wide…

(above) Some teak off-cuts are ripped then epoxied into the dados…The theory is to spread out the load on the glue joint to a wider, backed-up joint…Not have a single, through glue joint…At least that’s the theory…

With that done I then focused on getting ready for the sure-to-follow power outage because the ice storm was growing with trees (and we have plenty) breaking with the sound of gunshots…Bad…

Sure enough the power went out a couple hours later, and stayed out all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday…72 hours total…The destruction to trees, plants and power lines was significant…Our home is fine, our yard is a disaster…During the days the power was out my wife and I cleared debris…yesterday a hauling guy filled his 18 cubic yards truck with twenty yards of our debris…

Life goes on…

2012-01-19T07:31:00.001-08:00

2012-01-19T07:30:00.001-08:00

2012-01-19T07:29:00.003-08:00

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2012-01-19T07:27:00.001-08:00

2012-01-19T07:26:00.001-08:00

2012-01-19T07:25:00.001-08:00

2012-01-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

Twenty-One...

(above) Overnight , it snowed...Eleven inches...The most I've seen here in twenty plus years living here...

I opened up the Jeep and was pleasantly surprised how cozy it was...I ran the space heater overnight and thought the escaping heat would lead to trickles or seepage of water and found none from the roof side-wall fabric, or the areas I already fixed...There is still that trickle on the cab-over sidewall...But from where exactly...Hmmmm...???...

(above) Back in the shop, the carbon fiber / foam panels had hardened overnight in the 80 degree temperature...Love a heated shop...

(above) I sanded the bed 'foundation'...

(above) Next I flipped the CF panels over and prepped, then epoxied the panels just as I did yesterday...The plywood foundation also got another coat of epoxy...

(above) Between checking out the ongoing snow and making sure that some outside sheds had enough support for the heavy snow load, I settled into the warm shop to start the teak floor...

The teak stock I bought was a full 1" thick...I had it bandsawed in half...The surfacing planer came out and the teak was planed to just under 7/16"...

(above) I needed to work on the big work table , so the CF panels were put over the heater to cure overnight...

(above) With the work table cleared off, I first cut a straight edge on the teak with the Festool rail saw, next I ran the boards through the tablesaw to fine tune straight, parallel edges...

Prepping teak before gluing is vital...First the edges were hand sanded with 100 grit on a hard wood block...Machine sanding or machine planing can heat the teak which can raise the oils to the surface that can prevent the epoxy from penetrating the wood cells...You need penetration to get the epoxy to bond...

To further reduce an oily glue-face, the teak edges were wiped with lacquer thinner...Next I got the table set-up for clamping... Plastic sheeting cover on the table, clamps made ready, plywood strips for edge clamping, screws to put the plywood hard to the table, epoxy measured and mixed...

Next the teak edges were wiped with denatured alcohol, then brushed with epoxy on all the glued edges...The boards then were placed edge to edge, the plywood clamp strips were screwed at the ends to the table and then clamped on the ends...Just a pair...Then I screwed additional screws through the plywood to keep the assembly from moving or lifting...The clamps were set between where the screws were placed so the plywood would flex under the pressure of the clamps and draw tight the teak...With a big dead-blow hammer the boards were beat on to make sure they laid flat to each other...

Finally the excess glue squeeze-out was wiped off with alcohol...

(above) Good enough for now...

(above) The epoxy for the bed 'foundation' had dried so I disassembled the OSB mock-up and set the drawer guides with T-nuts...

Tomorrow with the CF panel cured enough to work with, I'll get the bulk of the bed work done as well as making the underside of the teak floor more secure...

See y'all later...

2012-01-19T04:46:00.001-08:00

2012-01-18T08:14:00.001-08:00

2012-01-18T08:12:00.003-08:00

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2012-01-18T08:07:00.001-08:00

2012-01-18T05:25:00.000-08:00

(above) It continues…

(above) Yesterday at the end of the day, I rolled out some paper with the expectation of it identifying where the latest leak is coming from…Looks like this one is originating on the wall on the drivers side…

(above) I’m thinking it’s from the wrap-around awning mounting bracket…???…

(above) Driver side fabric overhang…

(above) Up front…The leak is not coming from up here…

(above) Rear corner…It’s not getting in here either…The new gasket is working fine…

(above) The curb side is fine…

(above) Lifting up the curb side front flap…Dry, but hardly sealed…

I’ll get to the leak later…

Next it’s back to the inside…

(above) Spray foam insulation was shot in to keep the wires and pipe from shifting or moving…I put clear packing tape over the hole to keep the foam from expanding up too muck…I’d rather have it spread down and inward…

(above) It was then time to start on the slide-out bed…First I made a pattern of the base length, then I hot-glued on vertical and roof line pieces…

The bed support design will use the cab-over roof as an element in the resistive up loading once the bed is extended and loaded…The roof is sturdy and a great way to help distribute the overall bed load…

(above) I pulled out the mock up to help me remember how the design works…Not so complicated…

(above) The pull-out and drawer guide base is built…1/2” ply for the sides, 1/4” ply for the bottom and back…

(above) I scribed and trimmed the top edge a few times to get the fit just right…

(above) Next was the lamination of the scored foam panel with carbon fiber cloth…An all plywood pull-out would be pretty heavy so the foam / CF panels are built to reduce the weight that will be moved in two directions when the bed is unfolded and set-up to sleep…

(above) I slowly roll out the cloth along a ‘score line’, then tape it along that line…

(above) After that the other edges are carefully aligned then taped…

(above) I need two panels…Notice the nails tacked through the foam to the work table…That is to keep the panel from being anything other than flat…The back plastic is great to work over because cured epoxy does not stick to it…

(above) I measure and mixed the epoxy then used the foam roller to spread the epoxy, always rolling out in one direction…Back and forth leads to wrinkles…After the epoxy is saturated, the squeege (made from a cut vertical window blind) the carbon cloth is pushed down onto the foam…Just using a roller will not get the foam down hard and flat to the foam…

(above) Two panels laminated up front and the bed base is coated with epoxy in the back…Everything is designed to be leaked upon…I hope not, but build for it…

More bed work tomorrow if the power is still on…The weather forecast is calling for record snow overnight…I hope they are wrong…

2012-01-17T07:49:00.001-08:00

2012-01-17T07:48:00.003-08:00

2012-01-17T07:48:00.001-08:00

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2012-01-17T07:44:00.001-08:00

2012-01-17T07:43:00.001-08:00

Nineteen…

2012-01-17T07:21:00.001-08:00

(above) Guess what we got over the weekend…???…

I better double check that the space heater is plugged in…Check…

Time to get stuff on the ‘To Get’ list…

(above) After an hour or so of mix and matching at Lowes, I have the the components to run the LPG gas from the propane locker to the driver side cabinet where it will supply the stove and heater…I also picked out a few things electrical…

(above) For connecting and allowing easy disconnect of the 120 volt wiring, I’ll use this block…There will be two additional sets of wires tying into the block, thus the jumpers…All soldered as you might expect…

You can also see the T-nuts for screwing the outlet to the wood panel…Wood screws aren’t good enough…

(above) Next it was time to get run the gas line…

I did a lot of research yesterday about what to use for this propane gas line inside the cabin…

Rubber tubing although much easier to install, has greater potential to leak than solid copper…Rubber tubing is meant to be used in well ventilated areas, like outside, connected to a barbeque… Although (some say) that copper is not recommended for natural gas (due to sulfur in the NG) all the sources I researched say it is excellent for LPG…

I used 3/8” soft copper tubing so there will be a continuous pipe run from just outside the propane locker, along the inside of the curb-side cabinet, through the battery compartment, under the floor, into the driver side cabinet, then up to where it will tee for distribution to the stove and heater…

This was seriously hard work…A lot of twists and turns with the pipe in tight areas…And though it’s called soft copper, it was reluctant to go where I wanted it too…The pulling and pushing was in 1/2” hard fought increments…My primary concern while muscling it into place was to not kink the tubing…

The soft copper pipe is initially flexible, but over time gets more rigid…Just what I want...

(above) To feed the tubing up along the cabinet, I needed to open up this panel to gain a way to pull the tubing…

(above) Where the tubing goes through the battery compartment I made sure (x2) that the copper pipe would be absolutely isolated from any contact with the electrical components…First I positioned the tubing in the neutral zone, then covered the copper with that cheesy plastic flex stuff…Later I’ll put foam pipe insulation over the gas pipe everywhere I have access…You just have to do this right…

I also put an 1/8” plywood panel on the sidewall to isolate the tubing and to lock it in place…Additionally it is positioned to further prevent the top battery from a shift backwards…The bottom battery has a plywood stop screwed to the floor…Both batteries are nylon strapped as well…

Through the whole installation of the gas pipe, I was putting the inverter panel in and out, checking and re-checking that the copper tubing and the electrical components have zero chance of movement…

(above) Looking down into the under-floor compartment…

Later I’ll put spray foam insulation at all potential chafing points…

(above) At the propane locker…

The copper connections are all soldered…

The threaded connections are Rector Sealed…

The solenoid will be connected to a propane leak sensor / kill switch…

(above) The whole tubing thing is softly tucked under the plywood rim…Again, I’ll insulate the pipe and strap the whole thing to the body…Safety with gas lines is everything…

(above) Next, I wanted to see if all the electrical work I did worked…Or at least see if I could raise the roof…

With some apprehension (hey, I’m human), I reconnected the vehicle battery… Next, while holding my breath, I turned the switch that turns on the house batteries aand, Nothing … I love the sound of quiet…!!!… Smoke free is nice too…

I started the Jeep (it’s been weeks since it was last run), then turned on the compressor switch to pressurize the air tank that puts air into the pistons that raise the roof…As you can see, it worked… Whew…

But… There is a leak in an air hose fitting, so the roof start to lower after about five minutes…Should be easy to fix…I’ll get new fittings…To keep the roof up until I replace those fittings, I cut two pieces of wood that fit next to the pistons…Good enough for now…

(above) With the roof lifted, I was able to get back into the cab-over…

The first thing I did was swear bad words over and over and over…It was still leaking…!!!…I got the water out, dried it with a towel and worked on getting the light ballasts off the floor…There were tall screws coming out of the lights and I bolted the ballasts to those…I also tied up the wiring …

(above) Better…

(not shown) The last thing I did was put a 3’ wide piece of brown paper on the cab-over floor to see where the leak in coming from…I’ll know tomorrow because it is snowing again tonight and I have a heater inside and it will warm the roof enough to melt and drip…

More later…

2012-01-15T07:27:00.001-08:00

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2012-01-15T07:21:00.001-08:00

Centralia…

2012-01-14T21:04:00.001-08:00

2012-01-14T07:50:00.001-08:00

2012-01-14T07:49:00.003-08:00

2012-01-14T07:49:00.001-08:00

2012-01-14T07:48:00.001-08:00

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2012-01-14T07:47:00.001-08:00

Eighteen…

2012-01-14T07:27:00.001-08:00

(above) Getting another early start… When the work is this fun, it’s hard to stay away…

(above) Starting easy, scrub sand the epoxied drawer from yesterday…

(above) Now, time to work on getting the electrical system closer to back up and running…

(above) Today’s field of play…

(above) The inverter has the gauge and outlet removed from the unit and they will be relocated to the plywood cabinet… The push-on connectors in the middle of the picture are the 120 volt power leads to the newly extended outlets… I solder 99.9% of all my electrical work… It takes just a bit longer than crimping connections but is without question the better way to make shorter wires longer, or to join two (or more) wires together… I like doing things better…

(above) The inverter is mounted to a piece of plywood… The fit of the plywood to the cabinet with the inverter mounted is tight…

I put the factory yellow face plate on the inverter and it would not swing into the cabinet with it on… Missed by 5/32”… No way, that way…

Take it back to the bench… Remove all fourteen miniature screws that hold the cover plate on, remove and set aside the yellow plastic thing, go back to the Jeep, hold the plywood / inverter close and figure out what’s needed to have it fit… Typical for this kind of work… Frustrating…???… No… You just accept it to be this way and you do what it takes to make it work, whatever…

To have it work, the leads for the gauge and the ‘power out’ need to go out the top of the case…

Bring out the step drill, get a plastic sleeve, get the wires through and test fit, again… Works…

(above) Back to the bench, tape and heat shrink the wires together, then get the cover plate and all fourteen of the fruit fly size screws back into the inverter… Fun, with fingers the size of hot dogs… Just for laughs, try it sometime…

(above) This side of the ‘power lead’ will go into a small screw clamp connector (that I don’t have yet)… I have three sets of wires that will connect together and want a simple way to remove the connection, so the inverter panel can be removed semi-easily if it ever needs to come out… I solder the straight ends of the wires, so the screws in the connectors get a better ‘bite’ into soldered wires… You will not find an un-soldered wire-end in my work…

(above) To get the 120 volt ground back to the inverter case (as it was when the outlet was case mounted) I stripped the insulation off the middle of the green wire, twisted it hard, formed a loop around needle nose pliers and soldered the loop… That’s what you see screwed to the inverter case, the ground wire leading from the outlet mounted to the plywood then going up to the other outlets up high… If you look close you’ll see that this is in the middle of a wire, not just an end loop…

(above) The new wiring harness has multiple soldered connections with shrink tubing insulators, then taped together with friction tape…

The space within the battery / inverter compartment is Tight with a capital T… Loose wires going all over the place are bad, so these minimal wiring connections is something that will be much appreciated later by me putting it back together and to whoever might have to work on it in the future…

(above) Another look at the wiring… Notice the ground lead from the case to the outlet, to the other outlets… What I was talking about above… There is enough loop in the wire for the outlet to still come off the case, but not too much to junk-up the interior…

Again, this is what custom looks like…

(above) I want to put a 12 volt outlet on the back plywood panel as well, but the mounting nut for the outlet is too long given that I’m using 1/2” plywood, so the extra mounting nut is cut away with shears… Once that was done the connection went together easily…

(above) Then it was back to the Jeep to connect the loose ends…

(above) Then the inverter panel was put in place… This is looking down into the compartment…

(above) See what I was saying about tight…???…

(above) Stepping back, you see the new outlets… 120 volt AC and 12 volt DC off the back… Nice to have for when you really want easy power access to the outside… Not part of the original scope of work, but I saw the need and just did it…

The T-nuts are for mounting, without worry, the inverter… Wood screws might loosen and having that thing loose would be bad… Avoid the bad I always say…

For your information, that electrical work took about six hours…

(above) Back inside Jeepster… This just looks wrong… The frayness of it all… So I sanded the fiberglass, wiped it wet, spread some Poly-U adhesive then…

(above) … put this 1/8” plywood and Teak curb in place…

(above) Then it was fiberglassed / epoxied it in place…

Now the back cabin floor is isolated from the front… Forget about water or other stuff rolling forward to fall under the seats… now the rear cabin is like a big shower pan…

It also will be a natural curb for the teak floor (which will be removable) to bump up to… Hit the brakes hard and it won’t shift forward…

I also fiberglassed the floor to cabinet base-line… Now it is waterproof and further makes the new work tie seamlessly to the existing cabin / floor…

(above) At the end of a long day, a long week, I slowly closed up Jeep Earth Roam Deluxe, and thought about all that happened this week, and smiled a tied smile…

Time for a beer…

More later…

2012-01-13T06:49:00.001-08:00

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2012-01-13T06:48:00.001-08:00

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2012-01-13T06:43:00.001-08:00

Seventeen…

2012-01-13T06:07:00.001-08:00

(above) Another day to get closer to the finish…Pre-dawn I headed to the Really Big Hardware Store to get the final bits for the propane regulator / switch…Getting things like this done in America is so easy…

(above) Unavailable was the exact hose I wanted, so I configured my own…The blue stuff is Lock-Tite thread goop…It’s what the factory regular had on the threads…

(above) Where the gas line exits the box, it was siliconed air tight…

(above) Frankenregulator…

I’ll install it after the space heater in the Jeep warms up the 23 degree outside air temperature to something close to 70 degrees…Probably take an hour…

Meanwhile….…

(above) …...the Porta-Potti pull-out needs a couple of things, both involve epoxy… The face of the pull-out needs a plywood piece added to it (see Post #16), and the inside of the pull out needs fiberglass cloth reinforcing at the bottom / walls…

(above) You have to look close, but there is a layer of 1.5” fiberglass tape and epoxy on the inside bottom corners… That should strengthen the pull-out bottom to easily handle the weight that it’s designed for…

Next a thick layer of epoxy was put on both the drawer face and the added-on piece of plywood, then a few finish nails were used to join them together…

(above) The epoxy joint line was smoothed out with just one of my ten fingers…

(above) I moved the pull-out over to the wall heater in the shop… Accelerated curing is nice… More can be done in a day…

(above) The inside of Jeepster was now nice and cozy… Time to get this thing finished…

(above) The box was glued on with caulking gun Liquid Nails Heavy Duty Adhesive… It is not the ultimate in strength, but it is more than strong enough for this application…I like it here because it sets pretty fast and with that, you can get more done in a day…I also put some screws and finish nails to the existing propane locker…

(above) I missed the black wire being on that side of the elbow… I had to “dental floss” it to the other side… Yeah, that close…

(above) Now on the outside of the locker door looking in…

The gauges can be monitored, the fuel tank switch can be reached without moving anything and the hoses coil in over the tanks easily, and are long enough to allow tank connection with the tanks on the ground…

Close to perfect…

(above) Lastly, a new plywood top was added…

(above) Returning to the shop while the adhesives set in the Jeep, I want to add plywood spacers onto the bottom of the curb-side cabinet to get the height of the cabinet right for when the finish wood floor goes in… I figured 1/2” should be just right…

Part of the bottom of the cabinet prep is to have the bottom edge of the cabinet at the shower pan fiberglassed because of a small overhang that I don't want to dam in… You’ll see what I mean near the end of this post…

I use small quantities of epoxy for a lot of these projects and the easiest way to get the resin to hardener 2 to 1 ratio right (critical) is to get a small plastic cup, then with a big syringe pull 20ml of water from a big cup of water, push that 20 ml into the small cup, then mark the meniscus(look it up), go back with the empty syringe to the bigger water cup, pull 10ml of water, push that on top of the 20ml that is already in the small cup and mark that line…

Empty all the water from the small cup then fill to the lines with epoxy then hardener… Mix well, then mix some more… Ready to use…

(above) Bottom of cabinet with plywood fillers and fiberglass cloth and brushed on epoxy…

(above) To accelerate the cure, again I add heat with a heat gun… Constantly moving the gun on high, I go over the epoxy for a couple of minutes… It seems to help the epoxy to set in about half the time it would if no heat was added…

(above) As the epoxy was getting hard, I got this stuff out…

(above) I do not want this insulation on the floor directly under the cabinet since it would not be a rock solid installation with it there… So I cut it to fit between the spacer ply…

(above) Then it was back to the Jeep…The peel and stick installation is easy…

(above) On top of the cabin / steel body rim, I added ply blocks (glued and screwed) to get the height close to where the back rim of the cabinet will be… I’ll add a final shim or two between the blocks and rim after the cabinet is fastened to the floor…

Getting close to install time, I sanded under the cabinet with 40 grit on the orbital to have a scuffed, clean surface to bond to…

(above) The cabinet is now in the Jeep and on it’s face…I pushed a whole tube of polyuretane adhesive to the riser ply…Again, I wped all bonding surfaces with a wet rag before pushing the adhesive on…

(above) Flopped over, pushed hard against the wall, pushed hard to the floor, then screwed to the body where I could, screwed to the plywood build ups under the shower area, and machine screwed, washered and nutted to the foam fiberglass floor… Then the glue line at the cabinet and floor was cleaned up…

(above) How it looks at the shower… The entire length of this cabinet will be fiberglassed to the floor… Tomorrow…

(above) Put the batteries back in…I put a piece of the insulation under the batteries… Glad that moving the batteries is finished…

(above) And that’s Thursday…

Same time tomorrow…

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(above)   Today is one I’ve been looking forward to… The day the drawers get set…

(above)   After the drawer guides (these are rated at 300#) are positioned, a pilot hole is drilled at the front and back screw mounting holes, then with a spade bit a shallow counter sunk hole is spun…
I’m using T-nuts on all the drawers in this build…They will resist movement significantly more than using wood screws…For heavy duty guides like these, it’s important… I’ll also add some wood screws later, but the T-Nuts are the fail-safe way to go…

(above)   Sometimes shimming of a drawer guide is needed… I cut some squares of 1/8” and 1/16” plywood and P-Lam for shims…Once I establish how much shimming is needed, I use pressure sensitive adhesive tape to keep the shims attached to the drawer guide…The drawers are being installed accurately, but will be removed later for more finishing, so the shims on the guides help to keep the right shim in the right place…Confusion eliminated…

(above)   Guide, shims, cabinet side…

(above)   Now both guides are installed…
I make sure the case is on a flat surface and a 40# weight is placed on the top of the cabinet…Load it down as if it was installed…

(above)   To set the drawer I do it this way: I put a piece of scrap plywood that is the thickness of the bottom plywood of the case in front of the case… Next a piece of 1/4” ply (the space needed between the case and the drawer) is placed on the cabinet bottom and the scrap piece in front…

(above)   The drawer is placed between the guides and held pretty far back in the case… Deep enough to still have access to the front holes on the guides…I use a wood screw to set the guide to the drawer…
See the blue thing in the drawer… It is a 10# weight that is put in there to hold the drawer down flat …Sometimes plywood will flex enough to tweak the drawer… Little things like weighing the drawer make a difference in accuracy...

(above)   The drawer is now extended, the weight is at the back and pilot holes are drilled for the rear screws…

(above)   T-Nuts are hammered in place on the inside the drawer…

(above)   Next machine screws are threaded into the T-nuts…These stainless steel screws have a lower head than regular steel, so I prefer them…

(above)   The Potra-Potti fitted and checked for placement…
(If Mike wants to carry extra passengers in the rear, this is now an option…Joking…)

(above)   The Porta-Potti flares out so I’ll need to add a piece of 1/2” ply before I make the drawer face…I’ll also need to reposition the T-nuts…This is why test fitting is important…

(above)   Fast forward to the drawer guides for the fridge… Installed… This set is rated at 150#…

(above) No flare out on the front of this one… Installation is fine…

(above)   The power cord is loosely positioned…

(above)   Pulled out and checked for smooth movement…

(above) With those two pull-outs 99% done, the case is put back in the Jeep and checked for fit…I do that a lot…In, measured and marked, out, cuts made, back in…

The shower floor cut-out is fine… I’ll need to add 1/2” spacers to lift the cabinet to have the teak floor work out …

(above)   The excess fiberglass subfloor was been cut away… It’s good now…

(above)   A scrap is put in the floor access hatch…

(above)   Back in the shop, the guides for the driver side case are installed the same way as I showed before…

(above)   Rock solid install…

(above)   Both cases in place… Checking the depth extension of the drawers…Pretty much as planned… Not ready to install yet… Still a lot to do on them before that day is here…

(above)   Plenty of clearance here too… I love it when a plan comes together…

(above)   I cut and threw in a scrap floor cover… That changes how it feels in here… Ohhh, how the teak will look…!!!…

(above) Back to the propane locker…The pressure regulator / twin tank switch has to get in there, so I cut away the flat side of the locker and made the plywood box to mount the reg…

This build-out is more than anything, using every available inch and fraction of an in that is possible…Building in place, then modifying is pretty much the only way to gain this kind of space… Think about it: Twin tanks, a dual tank regulator and hoses, fit in there…???…!!!… There is not an extra 1/8” of space wasted…

I love this kind of work…!!!…

(above)   The regulator box…I had to get a couple of elbows to get the guages to read from the face…They came as top-read…

The brass elbow at the bottom is where the gas line will exit (air tight) to the wheel-well, where the hose to the stove and heater will connect…

I’m glad that is resolved…Tomorrow it gets installed…

See you then…

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Fifteen…

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(above) Overnight in the heated shop, the epoxy set-up nice and hard… A good first coat…

(above) Both cases got a decent scuff sanding with 120 grit on an orbital sander…

(above) Inside the Jeep, I removed the temporary supports… The back of the propane case is flat and straight… The curb-side bench case will be set hard against it…

(above) I want to see how the curb-side case fits against the propane locker,so I bound the loose cables with stretch wrap to make threading the needle easier…

(above) Curb-side case in place…

(above) Looking into the wheel-well… The propane locker fitting tight with the C-S case… I see room on this side of the propane case to mount the regulator… I’ll need to remodel it a bit, but I have the space… Getting the two propane tanks to fit is pretty important, so the time to get it right is worth it…

(above) At the foot of the Porta-Potti case is the shower pan… You see that the cabinet overlaps the shower pan… Not good…

(above) The tape line is where I’ll cut the bottom ply… The case will get fiberglassed to the floor for a seamless install… Even though there will be a teak finished floor, I want the shower pan to be fully open, specifically at the Porta-Potti space… Just covering it up isn’t an option, it has to be done right…

(above) Holding the bench seat / bed extension / drop leaf thing in place…It swings into place as planned…Good enough for a head or foot rest…Not for sitting on…

(above) At first I thought there would only be a few wires coming through here… How things change… I need to grind away the subfloor a bit more at the keyhole…No chafing points allowed…

(above) Back in the shop with the big door down and the heat on… I added the 12 volt outlet up here for the fridge power… It fits up high because the house batteries are on the other side, down low… Up here it is out of the way of the top of the fridge and will let the pull-out extend without the cord getting in the way… Hopefully…

(above) Box joints & 40 grit… Put on the headphones and turn the volume to eleven…

(above) Hours later…

(above) After a quick sweep then a big blow out of the shop with the leaf blower, it’s time to get the first coat of epoxy on the drawer boxes… dense foam paint rollers work great for that…

I only use Resin Research epoxy…It is too thick out of the jugs, so after I pour out the right proportions of resin and hardener, I add about 25% denatured alcohol to thin the mix enough to roll on easily… They soak into the wood better if it’s thinned… And that’s what these coats are for…

(above) I like it…

(above) Here is where a piece of steel was welded on…I cut it away already, but the rough welds were still there and were scratching the side of the cabinet… Grinder time… Sparks flew… It’s always a good day when you get to make sparks… Primal… “I am man, hear me roar”…

The two bolts on the right side of the wall got a grinding too…They might hit the far back of a drawer…

(above) The propane locker needed some tweaking… The plywood on the wall on the left side just hit the tank enough to keep the right tank from sliding in…So I “whittled away” with a couple of power tools until the twin tanks fit… I also had to grind away at a bit of the inner body metal at the low side of the right tank… Little bits make all the difference…

(above) At the end of the day, I added some subfloor support where I opened it up for the big wire “splices”… Again, I want a solid subfloor even though it will have a solid wood finish floor…It only takes a few more minutes to have it done right…

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