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POD: Homebuilt foam core fiberglass skin pop-up camper build thread


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#11 DLN

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Posted 17 April 2011 - 11:59 PM

Go pods, go. Can't wait to see more progress.
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DLN Ex- 2006 Eagle - 2002 Tacoma TRD - Ride Rite Air Bags Current - 2004 17' Casita SD

#12 pods8

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Posted 18 April 2011 - 01:30 AM

Can't wait to see more progress.


Me too. :P The fact I got a bit more visual progress done was a good mental step, I was getting a little concern that on my 4th weekend I was still only going to be looking at a floor... Fair amount of work went into the floor w/o much visual payout but ideally it'll serve me quite well as a stable foundation.

I would have liked to knock out a bit more but I need those dimensions for the cutouts and I also need to sit down and sketch out a few more hard point blockings I'll need. However I think the wall cores will come together quicker in the long run (hopefully :) ).

Freeing up more working space is a definite plus and I'm starting to pull from the big stack of foam in the garage too which will free up more space to work on multiple pieces at once (while others cure).
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2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.

#13 pods8

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 02:45 PM

Update 5 (43.5hrs in) Received the rear window and propane hatch and completed the rear and drive side lower wall core framing out. Still waiting on the front window so I can wrap that wall up. Have some questions in my head on the door so I'll probably sand bag that wall for now.

I glued up the driver and rear wall to get it all tied together, I'll likely have a couple quick sessions of filling in the gaps on each side still present after the initial assembly. Also will need to get in the water hatch hole (wanted to glue in the blocking to the core first). I think I might wait to drill in the water drain and waste drain ports until later on.

I'll likely turn my attention to the cab over section next for core work. Also I need to get the bulk fiberglass order placed so I can start splitting my time between core work and glassing up structures.

Driver side wall (exterior) mocked up, large hole is the propane, to the side of that is the furnace exhaust. The recessed blocking on the upper left is for the water fill (it will be under the overlapping hard wall when the top is down). The other wood blocks are for drilling in drains (and possibly the electrical connection, haven't decided on this wall or the passenger side yet so I included a block) and having something to screw them into.
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Rear wall (interior), fairly basic with a 24"x24" rear window framed out and some wood hard points for attaching a mount for the bottom of the actuators to (the side wall interior had similar blocking).
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The epoxied up cores clamped & weighted down (one on top of the other).
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2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.

#14 pods8

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Posted 30 April 2011 - 11:53 PM

Mid weekend update: So the foam I'm using only comes in 2" thick pieces, but I wanted some 1" thick stuff so here's my DIY "Hot Wire Foam Planner". :)

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2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.

#15 pods8

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 04:25 PM

Update 6 (68.5hrs in): Been a little harder to work in time lately so no update until now. I've now glued up and surface sanded the front, driver side, and rear wall. I've remounted them so I can fit them to each other (and the floor) and do additional fairing sanding to the cores now before I go glassing them which will make any future sanding much harder. I need to turn some attention to how I'll do the door/latches so I can at least do the fixed wall portions so the passenger side can similarly get faired in.

I've started putting together the floor portion of the cabover as well with the 1" thick material I "planned" with the hotwire. After running the calcs on the siderails I've formed a plan of action there which I need to get some supplies on order for so I can build those and fit the rest of that up as well.

After all that is just a bit of sanding/router work to make round corners and smoother transitions between pieces. Then it gets broken apart and glassed up.

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(Note the cab through window is inset on the inside due to what I was able to readily source. The rest are flush inside/out. )
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2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.

#16 pods8

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Posted 23 May 2011 - 02:22 AM

Update 7 (82.5hrs in): The cabover floor has all the wood inserts I was planning to add cut in and installed, still needs to be sanded. I cut/fit the two passenger side wall pieces that form the door jambs and glued them together, still need to fill/sand them. I was a bit zoned out while building the cabover side of the wall and only built it to the height of the front wall rather than the cabover rail height actually needed. It's not that big of a deal since I can just extend the cabover rail piece with the only extra aspect being I need to continue the door jamb up the edge of that.

Although I'll be out of town over memorial weekend I should have the supplies for the cabover rails when I get back and I hope to quickly knock those out and sand/fair out everything and then break it down to start glassing in early June. Here's hoping...

Passenger side wall/door jambs cut/fit prior to gluing up.
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Passenger side walls glued up. The cabover floor is standing the in background.
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2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.

#17 Mark W. Ingalls

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Posted 23 May 2011 - 06:10 PM

Mid weekend update: So the foam I'm using only comes in 2" thick pieces, but I wanted some 1" thick stuff so here's my DIY "Hot Wire Foam Planner". :)


Too bad that would't work for veneer.
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#18 pods8

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Posted 13 June 2011 - 04:34 AM

Update 8 (101hrs in): Little slower on the progress due to some travel over memorial weekend and going camping this coming weekend (that is why I'm holding onto my FWC currently ;)). But some good visual progress was finally made. The cabover pieces were assembled, filled, and sanded. I fit up the cabover today. Honestly it didn't go as smooth as I'd have liked as the floor wasn't quite fitting up right, something got out of square (likely a cumulative of tolerances in the assembly). I ended up trimming off a wedge from one side and epoxying it onto the other to work the floor into fitting.

Next stage is break out the sanders/router to radius various corners and smooth each piece into the next. Then they will be disassembled and glassing begins. I had hoped to finish this portion off today but the fitment issues burned up too much time. As always I just gotta roll with the punches and keep my timeline flexible.

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2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.

#19 pods8

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Posted 05 July 2011 - 07:16 PM

Finished off the other side off the floor over the weekend. Things went much smoother this time but it definitely is still time consuming. My floor is ~7'x7.5', I put two plys of cloth on the bottom at +/- 45deg and they wrapped over a radius edge to cover the sides as well. Took about 5.5hrs from start to finish for the 2 plys of glass and a layer of peel ply over top of that (all fabric was previously laid out and cut).

The wall sections are less area to cover but will have a bit more work in wrapping over edges in various spots. I'll be interested to see if I can pick up some speed on them. I've got the fabric cut/staged for two wall pieces but I didn't make any progress beyond that with the holiday weekend.

Here's my finished off floor, I've got plastic on it since I'll be using it as a work surface going forward most likely. The appearance is a bit hazy due to the peel ply, not that I don't have a bit of air here/there, just don't want anyone freaking out thinking that is what you're seeing.
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A window into my snug garage workshop setting

Next two pieces set out so I can fit the cloth to them:
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Three cloth plys of one of the pieces "staged". (Loosely rolled up the pieces by hand and then placed in some plastic to keep them clean and easier to handle in the meantime. When I'm actually laminating I'll grab the pieces and lay them out and position by hand and work out the wrinkles. I found it easier to just do it this way rather than trying to roll the multiple pieces onto a rod or such).
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Cloth stand to spool the glass off, I tossed the dolley carts under there so I can push it around a bit:
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Resin, hardener, stir sticks, squeegees, mirco ballons, dried residue (put a layer of plastic down on your bench ;)), etc. the tools of the trade. I should note for smaller quantities I usually use metering pumps with 8oz and 18oz plastic cups (ie party cups) and just pitch them after use. If I'm mixing up a larger quantities or needing to measure something out differently I'll use the traditional plastic mixing tubs.
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2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.

#20 pods8

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Posted 18 July 2011 - 06:18 PM

Update 9 (150hrs in): Getting a into the flow of glassing these panels now. I think I've shaved some time off how long it takes per area but it is still time consuming over all. I'm past the halfway mark and on the down hill side of getting these lower core panels glassed up.

Floor: Both sides glassed.
Front wall: Both sides glassed.
Rear wall: Both sides glassed.
Driver side wall (including cabover rail): Exterior glassed, interior still needs to be glassed.
Cabover Floor: Exterior glassed, interior still needs to be glassed.
Cabover front rail: No progress yet
Passenger side wall front portion (including cabover rail): No progress yet
Passenger side wall rear portion: No progress yet

So the bigger panels / panels with openings in them (takes a little more work to cut and wrap the glass around window opening and such) are almost complete. The final three panels are the smallest and aside from wrapping glass over the door jambs should get ticked off the list fairly easily in comparison.

Shot of the driver side exterior I glassed this weekend (prior to trimming off the excess fabric after it cured a bit).
Posted Image
  • 0
2003 Dodge 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto w/ ride rite air springs and 1999(2000?) Hawk

2007 Dodge 2500 quad cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi auto and slowly progressing build.

FYI: I've got a bunch of extra 14ga wire in red and black. Its a thick jacket 41strand wire (likely MTW wire) verse typical 19strand automotive wire. It has good flexibility but factor in the thick jacket. I'll ship out 100' coils for $18 (I can go 50' of ea for that too) if anyone is in need of wire.




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