Insulating / Hatch Skin

Well, this project is starting to tire me out. I've been working on it well past midnight every night.

Today I kept going on the hatch. Dwayne and I skinned the inside. The hatch isn't square, because the roof beam that holds the hinge isn't square, and I thought that it wouldn't cause much of a problem if I just adjusted the hatch to fit the roof beam. Wrong. I definately should have squared up the beam. The inner skin isn't flush with the hinge edge, which isn't a big deal since that'll be covered with a bit of trim anyway. However, when we tried to skin the outside of the door it was a bit disastrous. I'll have to start with a fresh sheet tomorrow. I'll attach it first at the bottom of the hatch, which is square, and work my way to the top (which is around 1/2" out), and then trim the top to fit along the hinge. Too bad I didn't fix that before it was too late.

After skinning the inside of the hatch, I finished off all the insulation. I managed to do the whole trailer using the partial sheets of polystyrene that Dwayne had lying around, and didn't even have to break into one of his full sheets. If you look closely, you'll see there's a wire dangling down near the tongue. Dwayne suggested that, even though I don't plan on wiring up any 12V electrical, it might be a good idea to run wires through the walls anyway, just in case I feel like hooking something up later. It only took about 10 minutes to run some wires along the frame, and it's nice to know that I have the option. I marked several spots on the inside where I could drill through the ceiling and get at the harness, just guessing at likely spots where I might want lights, fans, plugs etc. later.

The curves had fairly big gaps in the insulation, because I didn't feel like mitering the polystyrene to fit precisely. Luckily I planned for this and bought a can of spray-in foam insulation. I filled in all the gaps with it, and dang, is that ever messy stuff. I'll be scrubbing my hands for quite awhile trying to get rid of it.

After that came the failed attempt at skinning the outside of the door. No pictures necessary, just picture two rather wiry gentlemen trying to wrestle a sheet of hardboard into a shape and position that is not physically possible. I just hope I can manage to bodge something useable without too much fuss. ugh.

On the bright side, I'm very happy with how fast this project has been moving. I can't believe it was only about 2 weeks ago that Dwayne and I were dragging that ragged old tent trailer out of the bush.

Costs to date:

Last Total: $483.53

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(1) Sheet of masonite - $10

Polystyrene insulation - FREE (Dwayne's stash)

(1) Can of spray foam insulation - $8.49

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Subt: $18.49

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TOTAL: $502.22