Exterior Painted

As many of you know, which have been following, the weather here in eastern North Carolina right now is a touch on the cool side for ideal working temps of polyester resins, epoxy resins and for painting.  I have managed however to work around the elements gain some progress. 

A couple of days ago, the day time temps rose to 56-62 for a couple of days but the evening and nighttime hours were really getting cool (cold).  The camper exterior had been primed a few weeks prior with the Petit Undercoater.  I began painting the exterior at about 11 am because I needed at least 5 hours of 50 degree temps for the paint to cure properly.  At around, 545-600 pm, I heated up the inside of the makeshift workspace I have for the camper build with a propane, forced air blower heater.  I must say I was pleased with this type of space heater's performance, kept the workspace temp approximately 50-55 degrees until the paint completely dried around 11pm.

I painted the camper with Marine Grade, Petit Easypoxy - white, using a short nap 3/16" Mohair roller cover.  Past experience of working with this type of paint provided me with some ease.  I knew if the can of paint was approximately room temperature (68-72 degrees) and if I allowed the camper surface to warm up to the touch prior to painting then the air bubbles introduced through roller application would work themselves out.  The brush 'tipping' did not even have to be used in order for me to obtain a professional looking "orange peel" effect.  Those air bubbles all worked themselves out perfectly.  I was pleased with the end result. 

 

On to the door next

Onboard battery compartment box

Building a battery compartment box that will hold one of those heavier marine grade deep cycle batteries.  Will be a vented space to ensure Ol Harrell boy makes it out of nightly rests alive.  I have more posts I'd like to share with you all.  Built to accommodate the battery and incoming and outgoing cables and for connection accessibility. 
   

Cutout for the battery compartment

Battery Compartment storage box

 
Now that the box has been built and glassed, time to install.  I laid out for the hinge location and will be removing some of the polypropylene honeycomb to create a cavity that will accommodate fiberglass structural compound to be poured into.  When cured out and hardened, it will readily accept drilling and provide structural support to hold fasteners.

Laying out for hinge and bolt locations

chisel out comb to accommodate compound mixture

 Removed comb down to approximately 1-1.25" deep, then scraped the bonding agent off the fiberglass skin.  The bonding agent (green liner) is an agent that allows bonding of the glass skin to the polypropylene comb during manufacture.  Removing this, will allow bonding of the compound that i will pour into this cavity, to bond to the fiberglass. 

 

Removed enough comb to create a cavity conducive for accepting enough compound to structurally support 4 fasteners.

 

You can see that I added quite a bit of 1/4" fiberglass strands to the mixture, a good glass to resin ratio is imperative to prevent brittleness and cracking.  Also contains 1/32" milled fibers (are homogenous in mixture), and cabosil.  Preparing to apply glass cloth over this region and also the raw edges of this cutout.

 

Ok now the battery box has been installed.  Needing to glass cloth over the corners after the fill-in cures and is ground accordingly.  Turned out to be very sturdy after glassing the box in.  The protruding box sidewalls which protrude below the bottom of the box (see second photo from top) serve as support legs. 

now all sanded and prepped for primer

** update**
  The camper has been painted and the battery box has been completed.  Not the most aesthetically pleasing but it should work for me.  Upper and lower vents installed to ensure hazardous vapors can find a means of egress.  Please don't judge...with every facet of this camper, please keep in mind that I was having to get this built and on the truck.  It is needed as my home while away at college.  I need it built and need it now. 

   

The compartment door was crafted from a piece of 3/4" plywood and covered in a coating of clear epoxy.  Painted with marine grade Petit-EasyPoxy.  It should fight off water and be here for a while.  Mounted an aluminum hinge and pop riveted a battery tray onto the fiberglass skin...should be in business

Hopefully no shifting in transit.

little reinforcement strip out of aluminum to ensure the door latch, does indeed stay latched.

Priming the camper for painting...looking good!

Been priming the exterior of the camper preparing the shell for the Petit EasyPoxy paint.  Using the Petit EasyPoxy undercoater primer first then will apply Petit EasyPoxy with a roller.  Decided against spraying with air gun and will settle for a roller application.  The close nap roller will leave the 'orange peel' effect which I have no issues with.  I have painted a few other things with this paint and have always been super pleased with the results.  This paint is some really good quality paint. 

The 'orange peel' effect created by the roller hides the imperfections better than a flat paint facing from a spray gun.  Plus, cleanup takes significantly less time as opposed to lengthy cleanup times associated with air paint guns. 

One coat of undercoater primer (white) looks really good. I purchased my Petit EasyPoxy Marine Grade Topside paint from Jamestown Distributors.