Most of the Teardrop
Trailers that I have seen constructed on the 'Net were done from the
outside-in.
That is , the shell walls are erected, insulated, the roof
constructed and insulated. The Interior is done after the shell is
done.
Being a heretic, I am building mine from the inside- out.
When I erect the walls, they will already be insulated, skinned, and
roughed in for the electrical work to come.
The headliner will get
installed after all the cabinets and bulkheads are installed in the
cabin area.
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I used the full sized
template to cut the interior wall panels. I stacked the panels good
sides together, and used the router to cut the profiles. |
| From the same pattern, I traced the door openings. They were cut out with the jigsaw. |

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I glued the skins to the
frame/insulation with polyurethane construction adhesive. I used
everything I could find to "clamp" the layers together.
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| While on the workbench,
I cut the hatch lid sides from the wall panels. The smaller section
will be attached to the lid in a way...I hope!.. that will hide the
seal and give a blended-in look to the hatch lid. |
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I wanted to avoid screws
showing on the exterior of the body. Plugs are too much work, so I
decided to cut another accent strip into the side where the screws will
go. Once done, I will fit an accent piece into the groove. This hides
the screws and eliminates the need for trim. |
| I fastened the sides to
the deck with polyurethane construction adhesive and corosion resistant
decking screws. I spaced the fasteners at 8". |
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My "helper" to hold the sides while I adjust things and then fasten with screws. |
| Remember these? They are the 90 degree fixtures that I made to assemble the frame..Not my idea, I got it from the plans. |
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Here's the result of the
weekend. The shell walls are up, bulkheads are done and the forward
cabinet is started. I'll get started on the aft cabinets this week. |
| I skinned the walls
forward of the closet bulkhead after insulting with foam board. I used
the pieces left from the cabin sides. They were cut from the pattern. |
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For the partition between the closet sections, I laminated oak skins to a piece of 3/4" ply cut to the pattern profile. |
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1/8" oak skin was glued and nailed the wall nailers. The nailers supported the headliner. |
| I ripped 1x4 poplar boards and glued up these 1-1/2" roof ribs. This gave me strong, straight roof ribs. |
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The roof ribs will rest on the headliner/roof system.
I glued the ribs to the headliner, and screwed them to the wall nailers through the headliner skin. |
| The roof ribs installed. |
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I framed out for the roof vent/fan, a 14x14 opening. |
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The spaces between the ribs were filled in with nailers, cut from ply, using another section of the full-size pattern. |
I filled in the front curve area with a foam insulation. R-tech is very flexible, and conformed to the curve easily.
| Areas that have cabling were carved out slightly with a sanding block to allow the foam to fit without lumps. |
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I used pink foamboard on the flatter areas. The small pieces of ply are holding the foam down while glue dries. |
| Here's the body, insulated, rough wired, and ready to skin the roof.. |
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I got so invloved in the
roof that I forgot to take photos. The process was simply gluing and
screwing/nailing the skins in place. I used 2 layers of 1/8" luan to
handle the curves, and give me a firm base to glue the roof stripping
to. |
Text and Images Copyright 2004-2007, Steve Frederick, All rights reserved.
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Last update, Dec 27, 2007