3 replies to this topic

[philos65]

I finished adding wiring and insulation to the roof of the camper.  The prep work took hours.  I decided to peel back the roof edge to add the headliner and then the arctic pack strip and sideliner.  As you can see from the pictures, it's really rough.  I did my best not to destroy the thin aluminum, and wasn't totally successful.  I feel confident that my concern will go away once the final trim is installed, which hides the aluminum skin. 

 

I tried pulling out the 100s of staples, and gave it up as fruitless.  I got out the grinder and ground off most of them.  The old glue from the headliner need removing from the roof frame and I got out the drill and wire brush and spent a LONG time gently massaging the aluminum. 

 

 

I used blue foam I had lying around and original insulation I saved from taking everything apart.  There are four wire drops for LED lighting.  There are also wires for two fans, a new Maxxifan and a used fan with motorized lid.  That fan took four wires. 

 

 

Because the original camper didn't have fans, just screened vents, I had to drill holes in the roof frame for them.  They'll run straight down to the edge of the 48" bed edge and down into the utility area underneath the window under the bed.  That went pretty well.  I installed appropriate sized grommets on all the new holes.  I paid $4.97 for the 15/16" grommet for the solar wires from Napa.  I didn't care I was getting ripped off - $5.00 for a piece of rubber.  I am using a 1/2" conduit clamp screwed to the inside of the frame to hold the eight wires for lighting and fans in place. 

 

 

 

 

Now it's a big gulp and installation of the headliner. 

 

Jeff...

 

 

 

Edited by philos65, 26 March 2018 - 10:10 PM.

[philos65]

So two friends volunteered to come over andhelp me install the headliner today.  It was 41 degrees and breezy at 1PM.  The garage felt colder.  I was afraid that the temperature would slow the curing process of the spray glue so I put an infrared heater under the roof for a couple hours. 

 

I unboxed the headliner - a year and more after I bought it - and unrolled it to cut it in half. Here's the invoice for headliner and spray glue. 

 

 

 

My friends arrived and I showed them Poky's pictures as part of preparing them.  I'd studied them, and Tim Morrisey's, a bunch of times - spending way more time on WTW than actually doing it. 

 

We humped the two rolls of headliner out to the garage and spent 20 minutes going through the steps we would take to glue down the two halves onto the center fore/aft frame strut in the roof. 

 

I couldn't figure out "exactly" what Poky or Tim did, so figured I would lay the two halves out, wrong side up on either side of the center fore/aft frame member.  I left about half an inch on either side of the strut.  I don't have pictures of what we did, so I'll try and be as clear as possible. 

 

Picture two halves, wrong side up, on either side of the center aluminum strut.  The roof is 12' long.  The headliner was 30' long, cut in half, so I had 3' to play with fore/aft.  I shook the spray glue for a bunch of minutes, after putting it over night in front of a heater supply vent so it was nice and warm.  I wanted to spray the 1" wide strut, a half inch on either side of it, and then about an inch and a half on both halves of the headliner. 

 

After practicing how we would rotate each half, and then flip it to install it, we put the two halves back on the roof, ready for spraying. 

 

Because it was cold, I figured it would take pretty long for the glue to come to a tack.  I sprayed the two halves and strut and waited a minute, touching the glue to see how quickly it was setting up.  Damn!!!  It came to a tack within two minutes. 

 

Luckily, as soon as I was done spraying, we put the first half in place, picking up the headliner fore/aft, and reversing positions.  We then flipped the piece and lay it down.  The glue was setting up and we realized things were happening faster than I had anticipated.  If you look at the first picture below, you'll see a little bow in the headliner.  I tried to slide and adjust it, but after only about 90 seconds, it was set to much to move sideways.  I calmly ignored going into panic mode and lifted up the offending end and tried to reset the headliner so there was no wrinkle/bow/looseness. 

 

 

Realizing that the glue didn't care that it was cold we quickly lifted up the second half, reversed positions fore/aft, and flipped it over.  We'd learned something in the last minute and managed to lay it down so there were no wrinkles or bowing. 

 

 

The second piece was in place.  Damn...

 

Then we all saw that the edge of this piece wasn't glued down, and no amount of rubbing it would make it adhere.  The glue had gone beyond tacky to setting up, and we'd lost it.  The whole edge was lipping up, a kind of mocking smile.  Grrr...

 

I calmly, ignoring the panic mode, worked my eyes around the garage for something flat to use to shield the headliner from more spraying.  My 8 1/2 x 11 spiral notebook had pages that would mask the overspray.  We leaned over the roof.  Lynn lifted the edge while holding a piece of paper to to shield the headliner from overspray, and I slid a piece of paper up to the gluing surface and sprayed.  We waited 15 seconds or so - the glue came to a tack that quickly, and rubbed the headliner pieces together.  That seemed to work.  It took five minutes or so to peel back a half inch, spray, wait for the tack to appear, rub, and move on. 

 

 

The first gluing is not perfect.  Rather than an 1 & 1/4" wood strip, the center strut will have a 2" strip to hide the bubble/bowing/wrinkle in the headliner. 

 

Lynn and her sister had other things to do, so we decided they would come back tomorrow at 1Pm and we'd finish gluing the headliner to the roof frame.  I have to cut holes and string the wires through before then. 

 

The one thing I didn't get from Poky's or Tim's pictures was the specific sequence of gluing.  What I found so far, is that it is ok to just glue the two halves of the headliner material to the center fore/aft strut and then relax.  I think that within 15 minutes in 41 degree temperatures, I could have started stretching and gluing the headliner to the outside part of the roof frame.  As it is, I like that my two women friends are willing to spend a half hour participating in "a guy project" and I'm in no hurry.  So tomorrow we'll stretch and glue. 

 

They were already talking about the best way to stretch each half - by thirds, two people pulling at right angles, or starting in the middle long side, spraying a foot or two, stretching from three sides - two people fore and aft, and one in the middle where the glue is.  ]

 

It'll be fun to see what we decide.  The whole project is not "craftmanship" in a woodworking, furniture making sense.  I remember one comment Tim Morrissey made about his work in one of his videos.  "It's good enough." 

 

I'll take pics while we're doing it tomorrow to make the narrative more exciting...  LOL

 

Jeff

Laramie, WY

Edited by philos65, 27 March 2018 - 09:51 PM.

[PokyBro]

Jeff,

It’s awesome to see the progress you’re making. Reading your description of the process sure brings back memories. If you asked me specific questions about how to best tackle this, I’m not sure I’d have exact answers now that it’s been awhile since I did mine. So the pictures and comments in my post are probably the best info I can offer. Many things one has to figure out as you go along, and be satisfied with your best effort.. I did find I could peel the headliner material back if needed to re-stretch it a couple of times to get everything tight. When you install the wood slats, it does seem to come together and look nice. You’re fortunate to have some helpers, it was a struggle doing it alone on my build. Anyhow good luck, and thanks for sharing your progress.

Poky

[kmcintyre]

Wow.  Nice job.  I did mine while it was still on.  I didn't want to mess with taking the roof off.  I guess in some ways it would have been easier.  Later I had ATC replace my push boards and the roof came off.  That would have been the time to do the headliner but alas, my "planning' was off.  

 

Nice work.