Ken and Noels Teardrop

2007-07-08T08:50:00.001-05:00

Howdy all! Well all the electrical is done! finally! Everything we did electrical wise worked out like we planned. I will try to get some after dark pictrues soon. Friday night we had a electrical lock in and me and Noel did not stop till we were done with it.

Nice pic of where it all comes together. It has a lot more connected to it now.

Saturday consisted of a weighted punch list. We got through it as it did take all day.

We even got the Escape wired and ready for action. Wasn't too tough at all. I used to do this sort of thing for a living about 18 years ago. It's amazing how it all comes right back to you.

Noel and her mom were able to get some curtians made. They look great and when Noel get's done with the bedding and all I will get some more pics.

Noel started pulling the plastic off. We've been waiting to do this for so long it seems. It was great to see it come off!

Noel let me do the other side! Man that was satisfying!

Our Daughter Cheyanne got pull off some too! Nice and shiney!

Well it's Sunday morning and everyone is still sleeping. I was able to get the rain gutters installed and did some water proofing of some stuff under the trailer that we noticed were bare the other night. I also got the flag set up installed and ready to go. We will have a Texas flag for the other side but we still need to go get those.

Well that's about it for now. We will be moving out Wed. morning for a five day stay in the tear. I hope it all pans out! :) I'm sure it will. We will keep you updated! I think today Noel will get the bedding in and all that ready. I'm anxious to see how it will all work out. Catch ya'll later.

Happy July 4th!

2007-07-05T12:02:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a GREAT 4th of July. We spent ours on the trailer. Our morning consisted of the actual trailer wiring and Noel finished up her work on the galley door.

I spent about 3 hours on my back getting all the wiring hooked up and stowed away.

Here's the galley lid finished up, still need to put the seal on and few odds and ends. Should have about only a hour or so to finish up. Great work babe!

We also got the radio antenea put on. Took a bit of rigg'n but got it done and works great. We also did a bunch of the wiring inside the trailer but didn't get many pics. So many odds and ends were done today the list would go on forever. The countdown has begun we have 6 days (really a bit less) to get campable. If we don't run into any major problems we should be able to make it.

See ya'll

Lights, Vents and Poly Oh My!

2007-07-03T21:44:00.001-05:00

Hey it's Tuesday! Got to admit they are better than Mondays!

We got quite a bit done tonight. Noel started early this evening with getting the poly on the hatch. I was able to get all the holes and what not filled and it sanded for her last night. She also finished off some pieces on the inside. I was kinda jumping around again.

I was able to get all the marking lights installed. Come tomorrow I will be getting all the electrical squared away and finished.

This one is for ole' Classic Finn over at the t&ttt forums. They were ribbing me on my hatch support. So here I got one made that doesn't consist of a 2xfour.... :P It's actuall a modified Kamp pal from wally world. It worked out pretty good for now any ways. I'm not real sure what we will be doing for this later. I didn't really build the hatch to support any gas hinges so we will have to wait and see. "it's an upgrade" coming soon to a winter near you.

Here's a pic of the vent and one of the lights. We have another vent just like it on the other side and 3 other lights. We were running low on battery in the camera so that's about it for the pics. See ya tomorrow! hopefully with a fully wired tear. :)

Saturday and Sunday!

2007-07-02T08:32:00.000-05:00

Howdy all! We have made it to another weekend. This means I have only this weekend and the next the get this trailer usable. It's time to put the hammer down. As long as my hammer holds out. :)

I still pose the same question. Do we really need doors? We have the other side door made and installed. I would have to say that this has been my least favorite of the build. Anyways, they are built, installed and hopefully don't leak. We still need to finish the wood parts and do some other touch ups but that won't take too long and should be able to wipe that out during the week.

I don't remember just what we were looking at on this door but it was a good pic the door so I included it here.

Here's the other door and we were trying to deside just how we were going to mount the AC. We built a small frame on the AC it self that work quite well. Once the AC is in the window it should be water tight and solid.

Here's a pic of it from the inside on some trial fitting runs. Looks like it will work.

Me and Noel were able to get our daugher Cheyanne, out Sunday morning. Man getting those teenagers out of bed is a chore in itself. While Noel was out taking care of some items we needed for the trailer Chey came out and helped me get the fenders mounted. Then we took them off again and painted them and once dry she helped me with putting them back on again.

See we are having fun, that is what it's all about right?

Here's the fender all mounted and ready for action but needs a bit of decoration so see pics below to see how the turned out.

Getting started on the trim. This wasn't too tough but very time consuming. Did I mention it was getting hotter by the minute.

Almost done with this side.

Well, there it is with all the trim on. Come out really sharp. We think it did anyways. The other side is complete also. I started with the under trailer wiring and decided I had over heated a bit and quit for the night. Noel worked on getting some curtians made and the bed ready go in also so we got quite a bit done this weekend. We have about 8 days to go before we will need the trailer. One more weekend and a holiday on Wed. We don't have any plans for the 4th this year so I'm sure we will spend the day working on the tear.

See ya'll next time. It's time to go to work and recover...hehe!

Doors! Do we really need doors?

2007-06-29T08:31:00.000-05:00

Howdy all once again. Well building this week seems to have come to a crawl. We have been working on the doors. Oh so much fun! Long story short I just knew I should have cut that extra 1/8 inch off. I knew it! After some frustration we finally just un-did everything we did and re-did it. All is good now and the door seems great. We will need to add a spacer to the hinges on the trailer side in order for it to work like it should.

My trim work isn't the best in the world but doesn't look too bad and think after it's all cleaned up it will be fine.

Still adjusting the doors here. We also lost a couple nights due to thunder storms so all in all it really wasn't a bad week just a slow one. The door on the other should be a bunch better and faster now that we know what we have to do.

A Look see from the inside.

Hung and ready for action. Well almost still need the spacers but that won't take too long. ( I don't think). Tonight we are taking a night off to enjoy some family time but Saturday morning we will be hitting it hard.

Till then.

Another fast weekend! They seem so short.

2007-06-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

Another weekend is upon us and we were able to get a good start on things Friday night. As soon as both of us got off work we headed down to the county office and obtained our tags and what not. Quick and painles just the way I like it. Well not completely painless because we still had to pay for the tags but close enough. Then we headed over to Young's Trailer to see what he had in fenders. Pat suggested these so we took his professional opinion and took them. Not a bad deal either $30.00 for the pair. They are raw steel and need to be worked but they are in good condition so it shouldn't be too tough.

I was taking Noel though the steps for painting raw steel and she wiped out the prep work in no time. I told her she needed to come to the shop and do this for me. She kinda giggled and then gave me a "eh right"hahaha. Here's the fenders after the primer.

We spent the rest of the evening deciding on our plan of attack on the galley hatch.

Saturday morning, after a couple cups of joe We dug right in. We trimmed out the galley walls right off the bat. Next was to hit all the wiring in the door and set the latches up where they need to be.

Well I screwed the pooch on this one and was in no mood to change or fix it. I measured twice but still managed to flip the latch when I drilled the holes. We had already cut the lock bars and would have to order new ones to change it. So what all this means is our handle will be 2 inches to the left. aggghhh Noel kept joking all day. "qouting That 70's Show" "We moved every thing 2 inches to the left" " It's art man" :)

Here we set the door back in. You can see the wiring for the lights and speakers.

The first piece of aluminum is kinda on. Just checking and double checking. It's warming up and is quite humid so we are moving a bit slower now.

The lights and the plate holder are installed. I double checked all wiring before getting to this point but for good measure I checked again. Yup they all work. Let's hope it stays that way.

It's getting late Saturday night. Storms are moving in. It's kool to watch them build right over head. Lot's of lightning and thunder. Just kinda a slow even roar over head. It's still hot though. working on getting that second piece of aluminum installed before we call it a day.

It's Sunday morning. Thinks look a bit better this morning. We finished the trim, hinge and got the t-handle installed. The door still doesn't fit quite like I want but after some tweaking this morning it does fit, close and open a lot better. Still need to install the seals but will wait on those until we get some of the finishing details done. This was the only pic we got on Sunday. Wished I would have gotten more. We also trimmed out the doors on the cabin side. The battery, switch and charger are installed.(and work!). We ran all the wire from the galley hatch inside. We also finished priming the underside of the fenders and put on a couple coats of automotive undercoating. They are ready for paint now. We will take care of that this week some time. We are up to 21 tours of our TD so far. It's amazing it's never been any farther than our drive way. Can't wait till it hits the road.

See ya next time!

Raise the Roof!

2007-06-22T09:59:00.000-05:00

Howdy all! We avoided the roof for as long as we could. It wasn't too bad. We set up the EZ-up to get the sun off us as it was pretty dang warm today. Also the metal gets hot fast and makes it hard to handle. The way our garage faces we get the full brunt of the afternoon and evening summer sun. So the EZ-up helped a lot.

We temp screwed the back side down. These screws will have to come out once we are ready to install the galley hatch.

Also installing the diamond plate aluminum on the front. We did this so that our trim will cover all edges.

Here it is with all the aluminum on and ready for trim.

Test fitting the trim and getting it all bent in the shape needed. We took it slow and steady. had a few buckles to work out but didn't come out to bad. We will pull it up at a later time and seal it all up real good but for now we are just getting the pieces cut and shaped. I actually shorted myself by 6 inches. GEEZ! So I have to find a 3 foot piece to take care of that. I knew I would be short on some of my trim pieces but I was sure I had enough of this trim. I guess not! oh well, were not ready finish up this part yet so we have some time to get more in. We are going to try and get our fenders tonight. They will have to be fitted and painted. Gave a couple more tours too! It's just amazing at the number of people that will stop and want to check it out. I've lost count but I think that makes 18 tours already and we’re not even done yet. The road you always see in the pictures is heavily traveled and we run into people all over town asking us how the trailer is going. It's crazy how many people are actually watching us build this thing. I always tell them to stop and take a look. Maybe we should sale tickets and give a show every half hour. :)

Side aluminum is on!

2007-06-21T14:56:00.000-05:00

Howdy again, a bit late with some pics but this is the right side aluminum all glued up and ready to go. I know by the pics it looked like we already had this done but we only had the aluminum clamped up for storage. But now it's on for good.

This is the last time to see the wood on the other side. Don't think this stuff will be coming off any time soon.

The bottom of the aluminum will be covered with a strip if diamond plate. I elected to go ahead and install some rivets just for good measure. We were able to get or sun to help us on this. He likes using the tools so every chance we get we let him. He did good work. Scratched up the aluminum less than I did. :)

I was able to borrow some metal shears from a good friend of ours. We needed to make some of our trim pieces and I was cutting them by hand. uh! not any more. Made quick work of it tonight with these babies.

Here I'm installing some of the trim we cut. These are only here for filler. My trim does not quite cover the gap. So after looking around at a lot of other trailer builds I decided we could do it this way and all would be good.

Noel just having fun with the camera. I guess I shold take more pictures of her working. She really is working.

I don't remember what I was doing here!

We also installed the shelves in the front cabinet. Sure would have been a lot easier if we would have done this earlier. oh well gott'er done! Noel really like the use of space and thinks it will make some nice storage.

Still have a long way to go and with a deadline. we have about 3 weeks if we want to be able to use it for our family reunion coming up in July. So we will be bust'n it to get done.

2007-06-20T09:02:00.000-05:00

Tonight we were able to finish off the insulation. May not be the purtiest job ever but I really don't have much paitence for this type of thing. I taped around some of it to make sure it stays in place. The wind blows around here all the time and first time I roll it out of the garage it will all go away.

Noel did some more painting. These are the shelves that will go in the front cabinet and she also finished off the spacers we made for the speakers that will go in the galley hatch. We did more electrical wiring tonight also. I figure if we do just a bit of the electrical a night it will be done in no time. Storms rolled in so we couldn't work on the TD long. It was a bit cramped in the garage but we did get some done. We called it early due to rain and sat on our duffs for a evening. Quite enjoyable too! See ya tomorrow.

Monday Again!

2007-06-19T09:19:00.000-05:00

Mondays! yuck! It's plenty warm here now. We were enjoying the coolness for sure. We have very high humidty which is very unusal. So yeah, I'm complaining!

We started tonight getting that front cabinet installed.

It went fairly smooth other than getting off the carpet glue. My advise to anyone would be to try and be very neat when using this stuff. It's a pain to clean up!!!!!!!

Here you can see it with the doors open. We will be putting a shelf in for sure. We got the pieces cut and ready to go just didn't get them installed.

Here it is all trimmed out and ready to go, minus the shelf of course. We spent the rest of the evening running a few wires and trying to decide what, when and where all the other wires need to go. Most of the lighting is LED so last night in the dark we hooked a few up to see how they were going to look and just where we wanted to mount them. We have 12v plugs in the front cabinet and the rear cabinets. More stuff in the galley. Not sure what we will be doing tonight but we will do somthing.
Till next time!

Happy Fathers Day!

2007-06-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there! Me and Noel did quite a bit today. Not much on the pictures but a lot has gotten done. We started our morning trying to the the carpeting all done. Here I'm putting carpet on the front cabinets. Can't stand that icky sticky glue. We were glad when we finally was able to be done with it.

The Front of the TD, don't mind the staples they are there to hold the carpet while the glue dries. This seemed to be the easiest solution. The staple were short enough that they don't go through the other side.

Here's the back side all sewed up too. We also were able to finish inside the cabinets. All the hardware is on and ready for action. It's amazing how much time you spend on the little details. It's true when they say 80% of your time is spent on the last 20% of the build.

I also managed to get the tail lights altered. I bought these on the net and liked the way thew would look. I went by the dimensions on the website and I shouldn't have. The websites dimensions did not include the extrusion containing the bulb assembley. So we had to chop it off and move to the side so that the lights would fit inside the galley door. The first one took a lot of time but the second one took just a few minutes. Isn't that the way it works?

Front cabinets all covered now. Just waiting for that dang glue to dry.

Noel picked up our matress also. This is going to be nice. She picked it up at wal-mart. 8in thick with some kind of fancy foam stuff. Queen size with a cover. We will have to save off a inch or so on the width but shouldn't be too bad.

We were able to get quite a bit more done but don't have pics of any of it. Some of the electrical components are installed and ready for wire. Loomed up the the trailer wiring that plugs to the tow vehichle. Cut some trim pieces out of the left over alluminum for the roof. Insulted the roof with just a bit left over. Now we will have to buy another piece just finish it. Did some sealing here and there. There was a lot more done but it is just as tedious to read as it was to do it. :)

till next time,

Saturday. These weekends tend to go by way to fast!

2007-06-17T07:11:00.000-05:00

Howdy all, First thing Saturday morning we put in the rest of the roof spars. I think we were just avoiding cutting all the metal.

The yard looked like a junk yard while we had all the metal strung out. With the cost of alluminum now days we really wanted to make sure we cut it right. We picked up 2 new pair of snips and some metal jig saw blades. They all did thier job well.

Here is some of the roof metal sitting on top. We are not ready to install it yet but we had to get this stuff down to a manable size. With limited building space cutting it all down to size was the best option.

Here's the other side skin all cut out and ready. Man it sure does make a difference.

After a trip to Silverton for our nephews 1st b-day party we came back home and dove back in. Noel is hinging up the front cabinets. These are not very big but will be very useful in storing al our junk.

We finished up the inside ceiling skin.

Another shot of the inside ceiling. Minus the cabinet. We will get some pics of that today for everyone. We had to take it out to be able to finish up some other stuff on the front.

I think in this picture I just like to look through the door. With the alluminum on and the ceiling in it just looks so different.

More pics come for todays progress. See ya then.

Friday Night

2007-06-17T06:58:00.000-05:00

We have gotten quite a bit done in the last couple nights. Will do my my best to sort it all out.

This is the second hatch. I'm affaid I broke the first one. I was a bit heavy handed with it. Thing went much better with this one.

This is our roof alluminum. I was able to get this locally at American Trailer. The folks were really nice over there and very helpful.

We also have our alluminum for the sides and the diamond plate for the trim and front rock gaurd.

To make all the alluminum managable we decided to go ahead and get it cut. Here we started with one of the profiles. The pretty side is down so I don't mess it up. The next pic is after it's cut and test fitted on the trailer.

It's amazing how different the trailer looks after some of the alluminum is up.

That was about it for Friday night we had a friend, Harold come by so Noel gave him the tour. He is really wanting to build his own teardrop. Maybe he will now after seeing one built.

2007-06-15T08:23:00.000-05:00

Howdy all, Todays update will be short. I don't have any pics either but will have a bunch this weekend. As you can see in earlier posts I had the galley hatch started. Well I broke it. oops. I was going to blame it on Noel but don't think I would get a way with that. :) So last night was spent rebuilding the galley hatch. Long story short it was for the better. This time I think it was a bit better. We also were able to get it skinned so tonight we will get it set on the trailer with the hinge and all and get it so we can finish it out. Most all the parts I've ordered are here and will pick up the last of the aluminum today. Stay tuned should have some big updates and pics starting tonight.

Later all!

Clean up!

2007-06-13T14:26:00.000-05:00

Well I was all ready to dive in and decided we would be better served if we did some clean up so Tuesday night was spent taking inventory and taking out the trash. Granted it's not anything anybody wants to do but it seems we have to at some point and time. Today I was able to get the aluminum ordered for the sides and the roof. It will be coming from 2 different place but will give us plenty to do this weekend.

Till then.......

Crazy Mondays!

2007-06-12T10:20:00.001-05:00

Howdy all! It's Monday...whoo hoo I know it's everyone's favorite day of the week. Hey if it weren't for Mondays, Fridays would mean nothing.

It's always a mad scramble around our house on Mondays but we always manage to get through it. Chey has to get school, Kade has scouts and we try and squeze a family supper in there too. It's important to us to all sit down at supper time. So we manage it no matter how busy everyone gets. After all the crazyness settles down I made my way out to the garage to see if I could get anything done tonight. Noel still has a bunch of errands to run so it's just little ole' me for a bit. I was able to get the stero facing installed and the bottom cover plate. Don't have any pics of the cover plate but it's carpeted and Noel drilled it out for ventilation. Came out very nice. The cover allows access to the radio wiring and what not with ease. Also the facing itself is easily removable if we decide to make changes or add to the system later. Noel had the doors all finished up so I decided to go ahead and get those hung. Came out real nice I think. I'm not sure where to start tonight but I'm sure we will figure it out.

We've ordered all our trim, electronics and wiring parts, tail lights and side markers. Battery charger is on the way along with all the interior and exterior lighting. More on all that as it comes in. Oh yeah we also have our hinges and door handls and locks all coming too.

Saturday Afternoon and Sunday! It's all a blur!

2007-06-11T17:43:00.001-05:00

Well it warmed up just a bit today that's for sure. The way our garage faces we don't get much of the breeze. When there is one anyway. Here we got the cabinet facing in and bottom of the cabinets. Doors have been started too.

Just sizing everything up. Gotta be able to take the good stuff with ya. The laptop will not ride there but we will be taking it for movies and what not.

Another galley pic. Noel did a reall nice job finishing these out.

I think we are into Sunday now I'm not real sure. I know a lot of things have gotten done I just don't remember right at this point. We've finally decided what to do the with the radio, speakers and what not. Now just have to build it all.

Closer look inside the inside cabinet. The radio piece above goes up in the top of what you see here. Will have that in a day or two and you will see what I'm talking about.

nice picture of the inside cabinets and part of ceiling.

Like we didn't have enough to do all ready. I "jumped" on the galley door too! Noting like doing a hundred things at once.

One of those parts I'm dreading for sure. It seems to be this way for other builders too. OH well we shall overcome!

I don't think we have pics of everything we have done this weekend but we did manage another full weekend of work. This was meant to be a longer project but me and Noel decide we wanted to use it as soon as a possible. So we have put the hammer down. See ya next time.

More Saturday Morning

2007-06-11T17:34:00.000-05:00

This is still Saturday morning and we are trucking right along. I've started about a dozen different areas for the trailer so I jump around like a old bullfrog. Here I've started the cabinet facings for the interior cabinets.

Noel finally made it out this morning. She didn't get as a early start as me but she hit the ground running. She was able to finish up the galley cabinets and what not. All is painted like she wants and all the poly is on. Looking good babe!

TADA! all done...well for now anyway. Still have some work to do back here but for the most part it's ready for the gear. It looks mighty empty but once we have everything loaded that will be in there it will all be just right.

Bright and early....Bring more coffee please!

2007-06-11T17:13:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning 7am bright and early...I was able to get the raceway built. A nice little cubby hole to have all our electric components come together. Later that day I had to come back and cut the door and hinge down. I forgot to leave room for some speakers we will have in the cabin...grrr..things happen I guess.

Remember Ziggy?

2007-06-08T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hahahaa! Well do you? Well it's friday night and it doesn't really seem like we did much. Lot's of sanding...YUK! Being in the custom paint business sanding is the norm but that doesn't mean I like it. More paint went down also and reall cleaned some stuff up. A few pieces of trim here and few there. All in all it's taking shape.

We also sat down for a bit to figure out the cabinet layout for inside the cabin. That always makes the brain hurt. We also spent a a lot of cash today. Most of all the electrical parts and wiring, door handles and all the parts that go with them, Battery box and charger, side markers and tail lights. I told you went went nuts today. Looks like we will be able to put in a full day tomorrow so hold on there is no telling what we will get done.

Still working on the galley

2007-06-08T08:45:00.001-05:00

Howdy all once again, We are making progress but it has slowed down quite a bit for now. The galley area is critical to get everything we want in it. It's taking shape and we really don't like much to be done.

Noel has been slinging paint almost every night and has just about got most of it done. Well the things that need painting at this point. Most of the black that she is painting is in places that will not be seen by most or very much at all. Atleast it will have a finished look to it when it's all said and done.

I finally got the drawer in and working properly. Some may laugh but I hate building these type things but it's done now. Some cabinet makers would look at and say "so why did you do it that way" hehehe oh well they will just have to get over it. When it's done it will look good, last a long time and be functionable. Lot's of sanding, painting and poly application to go and more was done just didn't get any pics so tonight we might just be able to post some pics on a galley that is just about ready and done. Hold tight more to come!

Hump Day!

2007-06-06T14:13:00.000-05:00

Humpday is here! Whatever that means. I should be working but taking some time to catch this blog up. I've been working on what I need for all my trim. I was able to get all I needed from Grant at Li'l Bear Tag Alongs. That is after I was able to figure out what all I was going to need. What a mess trying to figure out all that trim and I'm still not sure I got all we need. :)

I'm sure we will be building some tonight so will post again soon!

The Weekends Building

2007-06-06T13:46:00.000-05:00

Greetings again! Well I'm a bit slow on the updates but here's the whole weekend in one post. We forget to take pics when we are so engrossed in the build so we've missed a few here and there. Saturday morning was great. Nice and cool outside and now time to get to work. All the bulkhead pieces are in place and secure and Noel painted a few of the pieces while they were easy to get too. I decided to leave the counter top in and build around it. Like I said I'm not a cabinet maker by no means so this weekend is going to be tough. Well, for me anyways.

This is late Saturday afternoon. Told ya I missed a few pics here and there. Oh man my brain hurts now but think we got it nailed down.

Now what was that old saying?

Measure once cut twice!

Wait! I think that's measure twice and cut once! That's where it all went wrong but got in a groove soon after.

It's coming together slowley. I move pretty fast at times and this tedious stuff just kills me. I've been keeping Noel busy with lot's of sanding and poly application.

Hey another door done...WHOO HOO! Noel and I really like the mission style cabinet doors and are planning on doing the same type of thing in our kitchen. I think they will work nice here too.

Cabinet framing is in place but not permanent as of yet. Still have more work to do on it. But we wanted to see if it fits. This was late Saturday night and I couldn't go to bed until I new it fit. Had to shave a saw blade width off but hey it fit GREAT! I was considering a bigger hammer but after all that work I though I just better cut it and make it fit right.

Look at those joints! nice huh! Trust me I was surprised too. This is not the norm for my woodworking skills.

Sunday morning and We got all the doors hinged and hung. THEY ACTUALLY WORK! Noel did some more painting, sanding and hole filling. Looking pretty dang good!

We quit kinda early on things on Sunday and this is how we left it. We have given a total of 9 tours this weekend also. Crazy huh! Nothing like a teardrop trailer build to pull strangers in off the street. Met some really nice folks for sure.

Friday night Build with a light show.

2007-06-02T11:24:00.000-05:00

Howdy all! Thanks for all the encouragement via comments, PM's and email. It really helps! It's Friday night and we decdided to jump right in and see what we could get done. I guess they would be refered to as the bulk heads. Well, whatever they are called you can call them glued and screwed. We checked and double checked and really tried to make sure we're Square.

See what I mean...just checking for square one more time...

Aww..what the heck...let's check it again...hehe

After all the the bulkhead pieces were in we decided to to go ahead and see what that counter top was going to look like. Looks good. I think Noel has figured out what she wants to do with colors and the finishing of some of the wood. I'm going to leave all that to her for sure. Tonight it was awesome working kinda outside. (half in half out) Storms were building to our west and there was one heck of a light show with some awesome sounding thunder. We ended our night with a nice slow rain which is quite rare in this part of the country. We have had great luck with rain this year let's just hope it stays this way.

I'm not a cabnit maker by no means but I'm going to give it a shot. Saturday morning I'm diving right in. I've also started the wheels in motion for all the trim, latches, locks and what nots. Not real sure on what all I need but hopefully we will figure it out. The metal for the sides is not a problem but the roof metal is another story. See what we can find. See ya tonight with todays progress.

That dang coffee cup seems to make it into a lot of pictures...!

The walls go up!

2007-05-29T10:21:00.001-05:00

It's early monday morning and it's nice and cool ...for now anyways. We have had 98% humidity now for a couple weeks. We are just not used to that. I don't mind the hot days we have but it's usally dry! Oh well we will adjust I guess. Here are the side walls waiting to go up. Nows the time to get them up and keep the whole trailer squared up also. I usally don't do so well with keeping things square but to avoid issues later we have to.

One side is up..whoo hoo! Now the hard part. The other side has to

match!

Stop for some coffee and think about this for a minute.

Yay! it's up. After this we double checked and even triple checked that everything was in place and square. There are a few more brace in now but this was the last pic we took for the day. We found a piece of counter top we wanted for the galley so we are off to the store to get it. We are done with this project for today we are going to kick back, have a few friends over and cook up some old fashion bar-b-que for Memorial day! Where do we go from here? Not sure but stay tuned I'm sure we will figure it out. See ya'll

Sunday!

2007-05-29T10:02:00.000-05:00

I think we were able to get a bunch done today. We are able to get both wall framed. It's funny in a way, one side took us 3 hours or so and the second side was done in 20 minutes. Figures huh? After all the framing was done we inserted some pink foam board insulation in the voided areas. Then we moved on to the inside skin. Most of our electrical work will be in the galley area and we will only require a few wires to the front of the trailer for some reading lights so I decided to just run those wires via the roof. We made the decision to go ahead and skin the inside while the wall were laying flat and to be honest it probably was a bit easier that way. We did a lot today and we are both feeling it. We called it a good and cleaned up the joint and took the evening off. Our plan now is monday morning while it's still nice and cool is to get these walls in a vertical position and mounted to the trailer. See ya then!

Noel glueing the frame pieces in.

More glue!

One side skinned and one side framed...almost there.

Both sides skinned and waiting to be stood up...tha'ts in the morning.!

Good progress today!

2007-05-26T21:26:00.001-05:00

Howdy all! good progress today. Me and Noel got the floor attached and good to go. The bottom should be well protected and wheathered in.

It tested out well! Not sure how else to test a floor.

We were able to work out the profile we wanted, got it drawn and refined. Now the fun part to get it all cut out. What a chore it ended up being. Not so sure my little jigsaw had enough gumption for the job but we finally were able to get done.

I wished I had a belt sander at this point but we got the job done.

we also cut out both doors and started some framing on one side. Tomorrow morning after a cup of coffee or two we will finish up the framing and by the end of the day we hope to have somthing that will start looking like a teardrop trailer. We are getting some strange looks by the passers by but just wait till the sides are up they will really be looking. Hope everyone is haveing a great Memorial Day weekend. We Are!

Black Ickey Stuff!

2007-05-25T20:16:00.000-05:00

I'm actually going to get this entry in on time tonight. We put the icky black stuff on tonight. We decided to go with a automotive undercoating. I've had good luck with this stuff on other projects and have used it for many years on motorcycle fenders that have left my store. So I hope it does well here. The only downside to this is I'm sure that we will have to get under the trailer at some time and re-apply the stuff. Only time will tell. The seems on the basement have a generous dose of Gorilla Glue so I'm confident it will hold up well to the road and at this point not sure how we will handle the other seems but will find out in the morning.

The "basement"

2007-05-25T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well we had fun with this. The "basement" storage begins. It went together quite well and in no time we were done.

The space is big enough to hold 2 of our folding tables and 4 folding chairs plus a bit more room for whatever we need to squeeze in. Good idea babe!

Started Floor Construction

2007-05-25T12:15:00.000-05:00

Well we finally got started on the floor construction. After an hour of discussion of what we wanted and how we needed to get there this is what we had done. I know we are slow. The rest seemed to fall into place and we called it good for the evening. Here's a second pic of the floor with all the pieces cut and ready to go. Nothing is mounted permanately as of yet but will be soon.

We decided we needed a bit more storage so a basement, as Noel would call it, was in the works. Not tonight though!

Adventure Begins!

2007-05-24T12:29:00.000-05:00

Well the adventure begins, Me and Noel have been looking at building a Tear Drop Trailer now for about a year. We have finally started. Our frame is ready to go with some possible modifications to come but for now it's going to be started as is. Thanks for stopping by and we should have updates often so come back soon!

Pat at Young's Trailer here in Amarillo did us right on this frame. I really didn't have a choice as I was threatend with my life by Noel if I was caught with a welder in my hands. Long story and will save the details. So Young's it was. 5x10 frame with axle, wheels, tires and baby moons. Also the jack and hitch along with the leveling jacks, oh don't forget they painted it for us too. We paid right at $650.00. We may have been able to spend less building it ourselves or working with one of the smaller trailers available from Harbor Freight and such but we felt we wanted to go this way, so we did.