Micro Camper Overland Build | Part 4 | Exterior Trim & Interior build out

What's up guys welcome back to the channel. This is micro camper build part four and in this one we're going to be getting the exterior trim on the corners of the trailer so it gets all sealed up from the weather and then also we're going to start wiring it up and then start on the interior finish as well. If you're new to the channel in part one we actually made the frame in part two we coated it wired it up got the fenders on everything like that and then part three we got the walls up got all the panels on the body and also mounted the door in the fan. First thing we're going to do is run around with the Sikaflex 221 and we're going to fill in all the cracks all in between all these panels and make sure they're sealed up nice and tight. All I'm doing here is basically running around laying a bead with the caulking gun and then using my finger and some paper towels to kind of smooth it out. It can get a little messy but I found this is the best way to evenly spread it throughout everywhere. You can see this is what it looks like after it's applied there's no more gaps for water to get down in and our outside trim is also going to protect us from getting any water intrusion as well as make these corners look nice and pretty and not show any of this sealant. What we're going to be using to seal the corners is this aluminum angle so basically it's got spots for self-tapping screws it's just an angle that you can stick right on the corner and then we're going to have to make some miter cuts with the saw to make it conform to the shape of our camper but I think it should work pretty good and also we're going to be using some butyl tape in there to help seal things up even further. And where I got this aluminum trim from is from teardroptrailerparts.com that's the same place I got the windows and doors and they have some great prices on that website and also fast shipping. Seems like a good company if you're looking for to buy some trailer parts I recommend them. I'm not sponsored by them in any way just a happy customer. What I'm using to cut the aluminum is actually a steel demon blade made by Diablo. This is the same blade I was using to cut steel for other parts of the trailer and having it on a miter saw like this is a great way to get the exact angle you want and have your cuts nice and precise. So after doing some mitered cuts on our trim here we did a 22 and a half degree cut here and then also a 22 and a half degree cut here because when they meet it's going to give us this 45 degree slope that we want. Seal up the edges here. Obviously I ran around and showed you I did the Sikaflex on all the seams and then also this is butyl tape that you can choose to add when you go to buy this from that website. Butyl tape is some it's kind of some weird stuff it never dries up it's always kind of putty feeling and it's a really good sealant. It can be kind of hard to work with at first but you can get kind of used to it. Put a little bit on this edge right here and that is mainly going to be to seal up where these screws are going to end up going through. So then once you get your pieces cut we're going to line this up. This ends up being about 17 inches. Yours may vary depending on how your frame turned out in previous construction. We're going to run a leg from here down to here and then that'll be what closes in all these sides. To secure the trim pieces all I'm using is three quarter inch long self-tapping screws. You can go buy them in bulk at a store like Tractor Supply or another hardware store. There's predetermined holes in this trim so I'm basically running around putting a screw in each one of these predetermined holes and then if I were to have it cut a little too long before one of the predetermined holes I actually drill a new hole closer to my end and then go ahead and put another screw in there because we don't want any part of the trim to not have enough clamping force. After it's all said and done you might end up with a little bit of butyl tape kind of squished out of the edges or something like that. I found the best way to get rid of this is to just take a razor blade and lightly kind of trim it off and then it just kind of peels up right out of the way and it looks nice and flush after that. Alrighty we got all of that aluminum trim on all the way down to the back across this top edge here and I will say that this stuff isn't the easiest to line up once you make your cuts because you put the butyl tape in there and then it kind of distorts everything even if you've matched it up to try to you know get it to fit perfectly. So if you don't get it to fit perfectly don't worry about it because mine definitely didn't fit 100% perfect. Just do your best and it'll end up looking all right. When I originally planned this trailer I intended for these seams for right here here and then in the back to not even exist. Turns out that this material cannot bend that far without failing so I had to do separate panels. Because of that I kind of had to improvise and find something that would work for it. I will link it in the description of course but this is a piece of aluminum angle. It's like a 16th inch thick and then an inch off each edge so inch here and then inch up top and I got it from this website which I will link in the description but basically we're going to use some 3m and double side tape this to this after it's painted black. So we're going to use some steel it we're going to go ahead and coat it. Obviously you can also powder coat it if you'd like. If you're familiar with painting anything proper prep goes a long way. What I'm doing here is actually sanding down the aluminum with 120 grit and then once it's all sanded down I'm going to go ahead and clean it up with some acetone and get every little particle and every bit of debris off of the piece of aluminum before paint and then after that we go ahead and do two to three coats of steel it with proper drying time in between each coat. While our aluminum pieces are drying we're going to go ahead and do our pvc insert for our aluminum trim. It took me a little bit to kind of figure out the best way to install this stuff but as you see I'm using this kind of like a blue card and starting one side and then using the blue card to push the other side in and I found this is the easiest and fastest way to do this. What you saw me installing there is this it's like a cover basically that slides into the channel on the trim and what it does is keep water and stuff from being able to run in this channel. So let's say if it's raining on top of the camper basically the water is not going to make it past this pvc barrier and it's just going to run in the channels and then run down the camper like that so it has no opportunity to try to seep in through where all your screw holes are and it also helps seal where you have your miter cuts and helps seal it up right there for you as well. Pretty easy to install once you get a trick down to it. It's basically I get one side started and then you could use like a credit card this is actually for vinyl wrapping. I just run it like this and it just pushes in the opposite side while your other one's already sitting in the channel. It's super easy to install just like that. While we wait for our paint to dry on that trim there we're going to start working on getting this box. If you've been following along this whole time you will remember seeing this box when we did the light wiring and I told you I was going to figure out where to mount it later. Well I have finally figured out how and where I'm going to mount it. Basically I'm going to mount it sideways right here. I'm going to use some screws and I'm going to put it just where this wall starts because there's that three quarter inch by three quarter inch metal tube on the other side. So basically I'm going to screw into that. Instead of screwing into the frame and allowing a place for water to get in it'll be a lot easier and I'll feel a lot better about just screwing into that three quarter inch piece of part of the body. And once this is screwed right there our trailer harness will be able to just run right over here and run into the box and then as well as our trailer lights we'll be able to run right into that box too and power our lights. So it should be pretty straightforward and we're going to go ahead and get it mounted up. The seven pin wiring harness that I bought was actually way too long so I did have to kind of shorten it up to get it to just the right length. So I got the box mounted up, figured out how long I needed it to be, and then went ahead and cut it and started shortening my wires by putting new eyelets on them and then placing them on the correct studs based on what they were supposed to power. If you're looking for some wiring diagrams or anything everything's going to be a little different. There's actually a web page that I will share in the description. There can be a kind of a few different color codes depending on what product you get. So instead of telling you exactly how I did it I'm going to go ahead and leave that web page there because depending on what you get yours could be different than mine. Now that our aluminum trim is all painted and dried I think I did two coats and 12 hour dry time in between each coat. So once that's all dry went ahead and we're going to use some 3M double-sided tape just like we did to stick these walls on. And if you haven't seen the other videos this is 3M VHB tape. I highly recommend you look it up. It's some great stuff with some very very strong holding power. Alrighty all of our exterior trim is on. I really like the way these turned out. The only thing I will say is I had, might be kind of hard to see, there was kind of a gap between the panel and the angle over here. I'm not really sure how that happened. There might be a bow in the in this panel. I'm not really sure. But anyways the beetle tape, I filled it up all with beetle tape so it should still be nice and waterproof. This corner was already waterproof even before this so it should be just fine. Just want to show you guys that happened because not everything goes absolutely perfect when you're building something like this. So don't beat yourself up over little imperfections like that. Just as long as everything's functioning the way it does, nobody will probably ever even notice that gap is there. Alright so we got two final pieces to get on this trailer before we're completely sealed from the weather outside. And those are our windows. We're going to work on getting these installed. They already kind of have this foam here but I'm not going to go ahead and assume that's waterproof. So we're going to go ahead and do some beetle tape just like we did for the door and also for the roof vent. I'm going to run a stripe of that around here. We're going to get it all set in place and then I'll show you how it attaches to the trailer on the inside. You may or may not want to tackle this part with the help of an extra person. When you're on the inside installing these screws you're actually putting some outward force on the window which could actually make it fall out. Luckily the beetle tape is pretty sticky and there were some kind of holds I could hold on to on the inside while I was putting in my screws to keep it from falling out because obviously if it falls and hits the ground you may end up with a broken window. So on the inside of the trailer once the window is seated there's kind of this sandwich ring that you end up bolting up. They use some, these are some three quarter inch self-tapping screws that tap into the channel of the window and then that actually compresses the window against that outside edge and creates a weathertight seal. This is actually after the trip so I installed these windows. I just put these rings on temporarily because we're going to take them off for our inside walls. Went on a trip and it rained and stuff like that and I pressure washed it when I got home and there's no leaks anywhere which is really what I wanted to see because now I feel comfortable finishing out the interior of the trailer. So we do want some sort of insulation. Still as is it's going to be better than a regular tent but we might as well just put some insulation in here make it hold heat better and also keep the heat out in the summertime. What we're going to be using this is three quarter inch foam insulation board. As you guys know from the other videos the construction of our frame is three quarters of an inch so that should fit perfectly in there. Basically what we're going to do is cut it to size to fit in all of our little spots and then we're going to use some liquid nails, just construction adhesive, put a little bit on the wall and then stick the foam up there and then it should hold it on there nice and securely. As far as our floor goes we're going to go ahead and we're going to instead of a three quarter inch we're just doing half inch because there's also going to be engineered hardwood floor on top. So it'll be half inch foam insulation board and then this is the vinyl planking floor. It actually all clicks together so it'll be nice professional finish and make the floor look really nice. It's really nice working with this foam board because it's super easy to make it into the shape you want. Basically just score it with your knife and then you can break it in half by hand and it breaks right along where you scored with the knife. First thing I'm going to do is run around and put each piece up and all the holes without glue. Once all the pieces are all filled then I'll run around with the caulking and put it on the back and re-stick it back in the place where it was. Alright guys we got a three quarter inch insulation board all installed. I ended up using uh right at about four boards. So four four-way boards and that covered the whole inside of the trailer. I actually bought five because I wasn't sure how many I was going to need. It only ended up being four. It's like twenty one dollars a board or something like that. Next we're going to put down the half inch on the floor and then we can go ahead and get our engineered floor on top of that. Alright we got our half inch insulation laid down. If you guys are wondering the R values on this stuff it tells you right here on here. So our half inch for our floor is R value of three and then all of our walls are going to be R value of four. Which obviously isn't crazy high or anything like that but it's going to be a whole lot warmer than a tent and keep heat and keep heat out. So not really too worried about the insulation it's not like this thing's a house or anything like that. This is going to be plenty for me. If you're really geared towards insulation you may want to go with a thicker structure. So you can at least get an inch. You can see an inch you can get R value of five and then obviously there's certain materials I think you could probably even get better insulation than this but this insulation board is going to work just fine for me. I didn't actually put any adhesive down for this. This is just laid down and then the floor actually has a little bit of weight to it. So I'm just going to go ahead and click together this floor right on top of it and I'm not really too worried about coming up or anything because then I'm going to put the walls on and the walls are going to sandwich down on top of the floor and it's not going anywhere. When you're doing your floors you obviously have a few options. I only went this route because I was familiar with how it worked and I've done some floors in my house using this method. There's tons of options out there so I recommend just do some research and figure out what works best for you. Alrighty guys with our floor all installed. Pretty easy process if you've never done anything like this. YouTube videos are obviously a good source to learn. Now that the floors are in we're going to start working on our walls here. So what we're using is this wall paneling stuff and it's kind of like an imitation uh shiplap which a lot of people do in like bathrooms and stuff like that. It just kind of looks nice and clean. Now these boards this is like an MDF material which isn't the best to water resistance. Obviously we don't plan on getting any water in there and you could do some more higher quality stuff or you could even just do quarter inch plywood and stain it or paint it or whatever you want to do but this kind of seemed like a good option for me and I can always change it later if it ends up not working. Comes in a free primer white finish. Should still paint it after that so I'm going to go ahead and these are going to get painted white after I get the panels all cut exactly how they're supposed to be. Basically I know that one 4 by 8 sheet will fit in that wall. Obviously we cannot fit a 4 by 8 sheet of wood through this door so what I'm doing is I've kind of split it in half here. It's about 46 inches tall right here so I put this one right at about 23 inches right where one of the lines are. So the cut for the line should be kind of hidden where this transition is here. So basically you can see a little bit of that transition is still left and when I put the other board back on top of it it'll kind of look like nothing ever happened like it was never cut and even if it does maybe once I paint it it'll kind of you know cover it up and everything like that. But basically I just cut it so the 45 in the back so it fits. Next up we got to cut the rest of this for our window to fit. As you can see I got the pencil mark that goes around the shape of the bottom of the window and how I did that is remember earlier in the series when we cut out the side panels for our windows well we ended up with these cutouts left and I kept them because I knew it was going to be a good stencil for when I was doing the interior wall. So once I kind of I used a piece of grill tape to kind of hold it up in place and then I stenciled it up right there and then traced around the bottom so now I can remove this panel go out there and cut exactly what I need for the window to fit right. So I'm sure you're curious how we're going to attach these panels so I'm going to go ahead and give you a rundown. So this is represents our steel frame which is three quarter inch by three quarter inch 16th wall. This is a quarter 20 thread rivnut and then this is like a beauty washer and then a quarter 20 thread screw. All together they end up looking like this. So basically you can see it's going to secure the panel to the frame with the threaded insert and that will also make these walls removable if I ever have to chase down a leak or if I want to take them out and repaint them or anything like that I really wanted a removable and not a kind of a permanent bond. So these screws are going to allow me to do that also they won't look too bad either. With our panel cut to the correct shape to fit inside of the camper we're going ahead and measuring where we're going to put our holes. I'm basically just doing one on the top and one on the bottom of the panel because then when I do that with the top panel it'll create kind of an even look. The nice thing about doing the panels in halves like this is you can see exactly where your structural bar is and it really helps you easily line up where you're drilling with your frame. All right got the first panel got all the holes drilled the rib nuts installed and as you can see this will be like the finished look and I'm going to paint this so it'll look all nice. I only got two screws in this for now just to hold it up so we can get our other piece put up there and then I'm going to have to pull this stuff back out so there's no use in putting the rest of them in right now but us drilling those holes like that makes everything line up nice and perfect there's no guessing no measuring on where you're going to have to drill holes to get it to line up with the rib nuts that are on the back side in the frame. Moving on to the top half of the wall here it's going to be the same process and once you get rolling after you get that first panel done the rest of them seem to go a lot faster. You can see here on the driver side that one part of the panel got a little thin and I didn't have it supported correctly but that's okay because a trim ring that actually is going to go around on the inside of the door will hide that completely and you'll never see it. Also that being in separate pieces kind of makes it easier for install. Moving on to our front and rear walls when you keep in mind when you're cutting these panels that we want these lines to line up so for your front wall you want to start from the bottom of the panel like you did for your side walls and then on our back wall you're actually going to start a little bit up from the bottom that way when you put this back wall up those lines correspond with the lines on the side walls. Alright guys that's about it for the paneling I originally was going to do right there with the paneling and also this part but then the more I got looking at it and the way everything's kind of laying out the paneling wouldn't really work really well right there I guess without the lines finish out so what I'm going to do is actually do the tongue and groove that I'm doing on the ceiling. I'm going to do a little bit right here and then also continue it onto there so it'll be kind of cool to kind of break things up a little bit like that and I think it'll turn out pretty good. Alrighty guys we're moving on to the tongue and groove that we're going to do on the ceiling and those spots over there what we're using it's uh it's like 0.6 of an inch thick and I think it's about three inches wide not including the tongue on the tongue and groove comes in eight foot sections like that all I've done there that's obviously not the correct length what I've done is I've laid them out because I was trying to figure out where I wanted to start on my ceiling to make it work the best so basically I figured out if I start by lining my two boards up directly in dead center of the trailer it ends up I get about a half board on each side and I didn't want it to end up with like you know a board like maybe this big it would have been hard to secure and stuff like that so I really wanted to kind of lay this out here kind of plan it first so just like we did with the walls we're going to be using some rivnuts and then another quarter 20 bolt this one is actually an allen with a flat head of course I will link it in the description I kind of thought these would look cool for the ceiling I may even try to find uh some correct length ones for all the walls because it'd be cool if they'd all match so what I've done is I've started in the center and I've taken two of my boards here cut them to the length that I want and I actually wood glued them together and I did that because I had to drill directly in the center of the board there which made it a little tricky so wood glued them together clamped them went ahead and drilled my hole once I lined it up and knew that my rivnut was going to be in my metal bar there and then simply just screwed it right up to there and I did the same thing for the back there because these are my starting boards these are going to determine how well the rest of this ceiling turns out I'm going to kind of start adding more boards and seeing if it still looks straight and if it's not I can kind of adjust this a little bit by loosening the bolt and kind of sliding the board to the side or forward or backward or so on and so forth on this front side I did a 22 and a half degree cut right there because when I put boards on this part I'm going to I'll do another 22 and a half degree cut and then they will meet perfectly flush up there in the corner on the back side it's just going to be a standard straight cut on front and back because it's meeting to a flat surface the fan will have a shroud that'll go around so you don't have to worry about it being butted up tight against the fan itself doing this tongue and groove ceiling was a little tricky and actually a lot more time consuming than I expected just having to drill the holes make sure they line up with the holes and the metal and everything like that and of course you're drilling above your head so you got shavings falling on you metal shavings falling on you and everything like that and you're working in a confined space if you do decide to go this route it's definitely a little bit of work but I think in the end it is definitely worth it for the outcome that you end up with to make things a little easier I ended up wood gluing two pieces together at a time and then that kind of made it into one larger piece and helped me kind of cover more ground faster and also it allowed me to drill a hole dead center where those two boards meet and then secure them with the large head allens tongue and groove ceiling is all in and secure we'll have to stain this and that'll be in the next video but for now this is kind of the mock-up so now that that's done we can start working on our front piece here and then also our back piece just like I talked about previously on the edges there I actually had to rip the boards down to a smaller size with a table saw to make it fit but starting in the center seemed to be the best way to go about putting the ceiling in and glad I did it that way for this part we're going to do the same thing that we did with the ceiling I would glue two pieces together and then we're going to do some rib nuts and our screws to hold it we'll just have one screw here one there and then one there and that should hold this plenty well it's also kind of wedged up in between with these other boards those kind of hold it you can see we cut our angles here it'd be a 45 degree angle on this and then obviously 22 and a half to match our ceiling and then put an angle on here we'll kind of make this give it a nice flush look when all these are in and it's finished doing the tongue and groove on these parts was actually fairly simple and went a lot faster than I thought it would of course we had to rip some boards for the edges just like we did the ceiling and in the end I think it really tied in the whole look of the inside of the trailer alrighty guys we got all the tongue and groove in I think it turned out pretty good I'm really glad I did the tongue and groove down there and also right here instead of some panels I think it just really really kind of tied it all together and had some contrast and then next I'm going to actually have to pull all these all this stuff out besides the floor pull these out pull the ceiling off that front piece all the panels I paint the panels white and then going to stain the wood I'm not really sure what color I'm going to go with maybe something kind of pretty close to the floor I'm thinking alright guys I think that's where I'm going to wrap this video up it's been a while since I had to upload about the trailer and I don't want to keep you guys waiting too long it's been almost four weeks but I've been super busy trying to work on the trailer and just doing a bunch of other things and also taking time to enjoy myself as you can imagine balancing all those things can get a little hectic so I really appreciate your patience and your support for this build and all the other previous builds and I just kind of wanted to go ahead and extend that gratitude to you guys without you guys watching really none of this stuff would be possible so stick around for the next part we'll be doing the finishing touches on the inside and doing some electrical system stuff and some other cool things to the camper to really kind of seal it up and finish it off so we'll see you next time