Part Nine: "Seemingly Seamless"

"Sometime in the Fall, 2015..."

When we left off, the entire coach was covered in a protective, fiberglass skin.  Some things we need to address is all the seams. 

There are seams where the roof meet the walls, seams around the tail lights and more seams around the license plate recess.  We want the coach to be skinned in 100% fiberglass, so the next step is to mold all the seams in.  To do this we decided to use carbon fiber. There will be a certain amount of stress and flex on the seams and carbon fiber is by far the strongest and lightest way to go.  With several hours invested in the lay-up and epoxy process, here's what we've got:


Now remember, sometimes you have to make it look ugly before it will look good.  This is one of those times!




 


After all the carbon was laid up and the epoxy has set, it was time to start grinding and shaping all the corners.  This is a very tedious and time consuming process to get it right but very worth the effort in terms of longevity and durability.





























Getting the corners perfectly square takes a lot of time and patience!

After all the carbon fiber seams were shaped, the next step is to apply a high quality, lightweight filler to make everything perfect...





As you can now see... the corners are becoming very square, sharp and seamless!











It takes many, many hours of body work to make those seams completely disappear.  The goal is to make it all become one piece.






Look Mom, no seams!  










 

Crisp and Clean!



By this stage of the project, we are well into the Winter of 2015. All the body work is complete and it is time for several coats of Urethane Primer...



(Hey look... it's another one of our many projects going on!  My brother's 1937 Chevy Street Rod Project! And this 'ol girl is a Beast!  Nova Sub-Frame, Nova Rear End, Small Block Chevy, Chopped Top and Shaved Hardware!)

Back to the primer coats... Many, many coats of primer.



 



Look how smooth it's become!  



And now the Primer is done!



We don't know about you... But to us this baby is really starting to look like a bona-fide camper!

That's about it for now... Thanks again for following along with this project!  Please leave us a comment we would love to hear from you! 

Happy Creations!

Michael and Carrie





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