Yes! Finally this little camping trailer is a little less, erm, blotchy? Here it is in all its current grandeur:
It's just primer, but it sure feels good to cover up all that Bondo. It ties everything together and lets me see the shape I designed in CAD some 2 years ago!
Goodness me, has it been that long? Well, I suppose great work takes time. Some terrible work takes time too. Let's all hope for my sake it's the first one.
I've been over this monster with sandpaper more times than I care to count. This Interlux PreKote marine primer needs sanding too (of course it does -- boat people like to sand things almost as much as they like to argue) but that's all been done as of 4:00 today! Sanding the primer was nothing like the epoxy. I took great care to clean the epoxy before applying and allow lots of drying time. By the time the grit hit the walls, it came off like chalk. Beauty. It still took a few evenings to get through it all, but that's better than the nearly 3 months for the epoxy!
Neat stuff, really. It's classed as a one part filling primer, which means it does the last little part of the fairing process for you. It feels as smooth as glass already, and there's paint and polishing left to do yet!
I do complain that this stuff did "sag" a little on the vertical walls. I'm sure I put it on too thick or committed some other infraction. This is something I need to watch for the paint coat, as I'm fairly (get it?) uninterested in sanding that, other than to scratch out the gloss between coats. According to the wise Internet, rolling a thin coat horizontally and "tipping" with a brush vertically should help.
I primed last weekend, and I'll get the first paint coat on tomorrow. Overall, the finishing process is hurtling ahead significantly more quickly than I thought!
Here's another view. I need to turn the doors and hatch, of course, since I can't paint the top and bottom at once:
"Will you be done soon, then?" people ask wearily, all no doubt tired of hearing of my efforts ad nauseum. Well, yes. Soon, but not immediately. There is still a hatch to seal, a frame to touch up (whoopee ... more paint!) and doors, windows, fans, plumbing, tie-downs, caulking, and electrical to install.
For all who were waiting with bated breath, the aluminium from last post went swimmingly. When installed, the doors still closed as they should. It has been removed for painting, and I'll pop it back on (replete with sealing silicone to prevent water seepage) after paint is complete.
But (barring disaster) the Egg should be on the road this summer! It might be a little "half-baked" this season (for example, I won't get time for curtains, and the final version should really have a light-weight canopy of some sort), but I'm sure it'll be more than acceptable! The goal is June 1, and I do believe I'm well on track!
Tomorrow -- paint!
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