Sovereign Redux

[Love shack]

Originally Posted by Zeppelinium

A little more progress. All the doors have latches, etc., all the small stuff that I always put off and then hope I can figure out how to do them. The bathroom door took five days just to polish it a little, fabricate the sliding hangar, and then get it mounted so the vertical edge of the door fit precisely into the receiving groove in the opposite wall.

Not to mention the closet door didn't fit quite right--it was off 1/8" in the vertical and about a 1/16" in the horizontal (the frame made by the partitions wasn't quite square), so it had to come apart be rebuilt. You can just see the bath door--looks like a dark line near the corner of the shower--that's just the shadow between the door and the partition. The door hangs totally exposed--not in a pocket. It has guide rail at the bottom to ensure it doesn't swing.

<img src="http://www.airforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=125218"/> <img src="http://www.airforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=125217"/>

Did I mention somewhere in this thread about 6 weeks ago that I thought I'd be done in a couple weeks? ...

There's still some work to do. The toe kicks under the kitchen drawers, the over the sink eye-level cabinet, a few other things. But the hard stuff is finally done.

Zep

This is so nice, can't wait to see it finished.

[SilverHoot]

Originally Posted by Zeppelinium

A little more progress. All the doors have latches, etc., all the small stuff that I always put off and then hope I can figure out how to do them. The bathroom door took five days just to polish it a little, fabricate the sliding hangar, and then get it mounted so the vertical edge of the door fit precisely into the receiving groove in the opposite wall.

Not to mention the closet door didn't fit quite right--it was off 1/8" in the vertical and about a 1/16" in the horizontal (the frame made by the partitions wasn't quite square), so it had to come apart be rebuilt. You can just see the bath door--looks like a dark line near the corner of the shower--that's just the shadow between the door and the partition. The door hangs totally exposed--not in a pocket. It has guide rail at the bottom to ensure it doesn't swing.

Attachment 125218 Attachment 125217

Did I mention somewhere in this thread about 6 weeks ago that I thought I'd be done in a couple weeks? ...

There's still some work to do. The toe kicks under the kitchen drawers, the over the sink eye-level cabinet, a few other things. But the hard stuff is finally done.

Zep

You possess huge skills! Thanks for sharing the great pics.

[Zeppelinium]

As I've said previously, I don't like the mechanism for the pull-out beds. Here's the finish of the couch conversion--first photo is the bed when it's in the couch mode. The lower compartments pull out on wheels. The leftmost compartment is just an open storage area that can accept all the couch parts when it's converted back to a bed.



The following three photos show how the back of the couch works. The vertical part of the back is in two pieces that slip apart. Each of them has a hinged support that extends towards the front window--you can just see the two supports in the middle photo where the middle cover piece has been removed (you can see the interleave pattern that allows all three covers to rest on the two support arms). The area behind the couch backrest can store pillows and blankets, all nicely concealed. Plus, you get a sofa table-like area behind the couch. Yes, the piece in the foreground fits in the open space--it's the wide angle lens that makes it look too big.



Thos photo shows all the wood pieces disassembled and folded, ready to slide into the storage area at the left side of the bed.



The couch "seat" still has the problem of being flat (not comfortable). I was going to do something like the gouchos, the sliding wedge mechanism, but I think I'm just going to put an removable two-piece wedge under the front edge of the mattress.This way I can store it with the rest of the parts and the wedge will provide a suitable slope to the seat.

Zep

[Aage]

Wow! I would love to have a set of the plans to make that beautiful seat/bed. In fact, I would pay for them, since you probably just did sketches as you went along,I imagine.

Tremendous design and follow-through on a quality build, too Zep. I think I see that the white "headboard" (the piece that follows the curve of the front windows) is cushioned? And it stays there through all positions of the seat and back, correct?

If you ever take any detailed close-ups, please put me on your distribution list.

Thanks for showing it.

Aage

[Zeppelinium]

Originally Posted by Aage

... I think I see that the white "headboard" (the piece that follows the curve of the front windows) is cushioned? And it stays there through all positions of the seat and back, correct?
...

Yes, that's really just an "insulation surround" that keeps you from freezing your hands/arms when it's cold outside (and it's really a side-board--I can see the foreshortening makes it look like it might be the head of the bed, but the head is to the street side). I think my Caravel came with an item like that as original equipment and I have copied it in all my remodels since. It's just a piece of hardboard covered with 1/2" upholstery foam covered by cotton duck. The duck is folded over the back and just stitched together with string. If you could see it, you would think Fronkenstein was at work.

Zep

[perryg114]

Nice job Zep. So how long does it take to get your tan in the kitchen with all the lights on? I think we need a movie of you converting the sofa into a bed. I am not sure how all the parts fit together. It looks really cool though.

Perry

[Zeppelinium]

The last major piece of aluminum cabinetry is about half finished. It's the over-sink kitchen cabinet. All the other cabinets are 100% metal, but I got real tired of trying to maintain angular rigidity in them, so this last one has a wood interior and frame. It's sooo much easier to fabricate the metal cladding. In addition, the wood interior will allow items to vibrate around a little without making black oxide.



This cabinet is identical to the wooden one in the Overlander and is the model for that one. This one allowed me to experiment with getting the corner joint correct, since it would be concealed--I'm glad I had this one to experiment on because the joint is a mess, but it allowed the Overlander's cabinet to turn out perfect. Not that the exposed metal corner was any picnic, mind you. Most of the edges are 1/2" "L" channel, but the two edges shown here are odd angles, 34° and 58°. I bent these on a Harbor Freight 18" hand brake, but the stiffness of the brake is not sufficient to obtain a consistent angle along the whole length. I needed to manually adjust the angles along part of their length using a plastic mallet and block, very carefully so as not to put noticeable bends along the edges (hey, I only threw a few parts away).



The finished panels are all buck riveted together, except for one seam at the bottom. This allows me to take the metal cladding off to buck the rivets. The final installation will have one row of pop rivets along the bottom edge at the end. The opening in the end face is for the tank monitor and volt/amp meters. I still need one long angle to form the edge along the bottom of the front.



I polished each of the edges (channels) before riveting them on with a kludge polishing setup.



Net step is to make the aluminum doors.
Zep

[truckasaurus]

Neat plan Zep. I've got to make 2 runs of 10 feet for my Overlander, mine have a large radius bend between the horizontal and vertical faces and the longest slip roller at the shop is 48" so I'm struggling with ideas. I don't fancy making 6 cabinets 3'4" but might have to!