Pretend Grandpa and Real Family

Here are some photos of the sanded Pika in the light of day.

We went to a marine supply store to get fiberglass material. Harold, an archetypal grandpa, helped us choose our supplies. He advised getting more of everything than we thought, saying we could always return what we didn't need. "You'll want to get more of those rollers." Well, if Harold tells us to, we'd better do it.

After our expensive shopping spree (if we would have given in to our temptation we would also have a kayak at this point), we went to Evan's parents' home for a big family bonfire. Both of our families witnessed the burning of the scrap pieces of the camper.

In a Lord of the Flies maneuver Evan emerges from the woods with the bones of the camper.

I spent so much time cutting those curves, now they are just being burned!

Evan thinks this is what we have been working for the last several weeks.

Sanding

This is the day that we turn a bunch of pieces into one unit. There aren't too many aspects of this trailer that we now think that we didn't think through enough, but one of the choices that we would probably change in the future is using OSB plywood for the outside skin of the trailer. We decided to use OSB before we thoroughly researched fiberglass, and figured it would be ok because the fiberglass would add strength, rigidity and waterproofing. Which it will do all those things, what we didn't realize is how we would need a LOT more resin with the porous surface of the OSB. So to help make the surface smoother we sanded the whole outside of the camper.

We ran out of screws of the right size earlier so we had to get some more to  finish the awning door.

Evan tries putting his awning door in place...

It fits!

 Evan's cousin Will came to help with the Pika all the way from Colorado! Ok, maybe he was also coming to visit his Ohio family. We put him to work anyway. First he assembled little work table for us.

Wait, the right side is R, and the left side is S? 

We filled all the cracks and screw holes with wood filler. We may have used Bondo if we would have thought of the fact that wood filler will absorb a lot more of the resin. But we also like that the wood filler blends in, since we decided we might not paint it and just put a tint in the last coat of epoxy.

The belt sander was useful for sanding the large surfaces a lot.

After he finished the work table we had Will sand and round the corners. 

Evan is sanding from the inside.

It has turned into one thing!

So smooth!

"Alright Will, now be our photographer, get the cloud of sawdust that comes off our hands when we high-five"

"You don't need to knock me over Evan!"

"What, why didn't you capture the cloud of dust?"

Yay! Wth the help of Will, our camper is sanded! 

I have a bathroom!

Ok, just a toilet. Oh darn, now I've gone and ruined the surprise of "What's in the box" for you!

First some ultimate adorableness.

Now for the (not so) mystery box: 

                                             

June gives the toilet a try!