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Has anyone else had difficulty fitting the cabin shelf into place after installing the door sills? It appears that there is no way for it to fit, given the shape of the shell. Do I just need to be a bit more persistent trying different orientations, or is the solution to trim the corners off the shelf?
@ArtisticAdam mentioned that he figured that out here. Maybe he can share his video with you.
Below is the video in question for installing the shelf. Just make sure you round off the back corners of the shelf to accommodate the fillet between the bulkhead and camper shell. The 4 holes that the shelf slot into also needed some cleanup from epoxy drips. I opted not to install the fiddle rail so hopefully this process works for those with the rail. No additional sanding on the shelf was required for me to fit it in place.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w8z3zm4yd8h1hw0/VID_20180328_212408356.mp4?dl=0
Thanks @artisticadam! Actually, as it turned out, the rail was the part that was hitting the door sills. So, I wound up having to trim the edge of the shelf. I simply routed/sanded it to seem as if I meant to do it that way!
By the way, I like the stain on your camper. I considered doing something similar, but was hesitant because I thought any scratches or blemishes in the plywood would stand out. However, once the epoxy resin gets into these scratches, they stand out any way! Here’s a shot of the build thus far ,after about 10 days of pretty constant work. I won’t be able to finish it (had to move for work), but the goal is for my fiancé to finish it in the next month, in time for us to take the teardrop on our honeymoon! Fingers crossed that the conditions will be good for varnishing later this month (unlikely, given the location….Florida).
I ran into the same problem installing the bulkhead shelf. I gave it a trial fit after installing the bulkhead. It was a very tight fit and it looked like it would interfere with the door framing so I held off on the shelf until after the framing was glued in place. Of course there was no getting the shelf in place without risking damage to the TD skin once the framing was in. I wound up shaving 3 or 4 mm off each end of the shelf. This left a pretty large gap between the shelf and skin to bridge with an unsupported fillet. I thought about adding some fiberglass tape but just put an extra fat fillet where the shelf meets the door frame. It looks solid but I will keep an eye on it when I get on the road. IMO the manual needs to be corrected to showing the shelf either tacked or filleted in place before the door frames are installed.
“Assembling and Installing the Cabin Shelf” begins on page 229 of the manual. “Assembling and Fitting Door Sills” begins on page 224. The bottom photo on page 226 clearly shows the cabin shelf, already installed. On pages 232 and 233 the respective top photos clearly show the raw door opening in the camper shell as Dylan diligently tacks and fillets the shelf.
I installed the cabin shelf prior to fitting the door sills, following the order of operations in the photos rather than the text; shelf installed (without any alterations/trimming), the door sills went in just fine. If you’re a little particular (like me), prior to filleting, jigging the shelf in place with 6″ clamping squares and a couple deep reach clamps from horror fright assure the shelf will be reasonably square to the bulkhead.
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