My Trailer Redo - Day 110 - Starting Interior Walls

 
Here's a new definition of insanity for you. "Thinking that you can take flat, semi-rigid sheets of paneling and cover an irregularly curved surface."

Yup... that's what I'm going to do. Sort of. I just did the easy part today. But I started working out the problems of the harder parts.

First, I cut foam insulation board to fit the flat spaces on the door side. That was pretty easy, as I'm sure you can figure out. Let's get one thing straight. The curved area above where the insulation is, and across the ceiling, has to be covered in a totally different way. I have a plan, but that's not even on the radar yet.



Then I started cutting the beadboard. The first piece is narrow, because I want the full 4 foot wide piece to work around the curved corner. This is not ready to fasten in place yet. But you can get a sense of how it looks.

Then I started testing to see if my idea for the corner is going to work. The masonite paneling is a little flexible, but not enough to bend around the corner. My theory is that if you score the back with vertical lines you should be able to carefully flex it to fit the space. You can't force it too hard because masonite will shear into layers, so I want to be sure I know I can make this work before I start messing with the actual piece.

I started experimenting on a scrap. I thought I was going to do very shallow cuts with the circular saw. Nope. You can't set it shallow enough. Then I tried my Dremel hobby tool. Nope. I don't have any kind of wheel that actually cuts instead of just a grinding wheel, and there's not much of any way to control making a line. Then I tried my wonderful oscillating saw with the half-round blade. OK. Now we are getting somewhere. By using a piece of 1 x 2 as a depth guide, I was able to make cuts that are pretty straight and not too deep. I put one about every inch, and was almost able to bend this piece around the corner. I'll try again with cuts more often, but I think this will work.

The sample is a mess, because of all the experimenting, but you can get the idea. If I can't make this work, I'll have to cut narrow vertical pieces and work my way around the corner that way, but I'll have to buy a lot more trim pieces for that. I'm still optimistic on this plan.



I did some other trailer stuff as well. I sealed the vent with the black auto adhesive. The weatherman says it will get a test on Wednesday. I made quite a mess, but if it works... well, paint is good.

My friend Dick, who is also going to do some other metal work for me, will shorten the table rod. So, I spent some time figuring out what size piece of wood I need to fiberglass to the back wall to screw the table hinge fittings into. But the thickness of that piece of wood depends on how well I can fasten flat paneling to a curved wall, right? So I need to keep working on the wall covering.

And I hunted on line for trim pieces for the paneling. What I want exists. Lowe's may have it. Or not. One search said they do, and another said they don't. Does that make sense? Not to me. At least it's not a long trip to actually find out. Maybe that will be my rain day project.

And the morning was spent doing yet more errands. Do they ever end? No, of course, no. But, progress was made. Oh, and the mower is fixed again- new ignition switch this time (I did not do that job).

See Door Side Bench Seat