saDgit's flat-faced pop-top

[Phoenixsp1]

Sounds great to me. I don't want to hijack your build thread, but do you live in your demountable when you're in the Uk or do you have a motorhome as well? Just wondered how you find living in a small space for a few months at a time?

[saDgit]

Sounds great to me. I don't want to hijack your build thread, but do you live in your demountable when you're in the Uk or do you have a motorhome as well? Just wondered how you find living in a small space for a few months at a time?

Yeah, at the moment we have a van-based motorhome but before that we had a S.Karrosser demountable and we've lived in both for at least six months at a time. But we are used to it - we spent five years living/travelling full-time in a motorhome and, though we've got a 'house' again now, it's really just a cabin and is not much bigger than an A-class motorhome! We just end up spending most of our time outside.

[Phoenixsp1]

Sounds brilliant!!! Is the demountable you're building going to replace the motorhome?

[saDgit]

Is the demountable you're building going to replace the motorhome?

That was the plan but let's wait and see how it turns out.

[saDgit]

What have I started? I hate decorating at the best of times but this is really doing my head in!

This Epifanes yacht varnish that I'm using is a real bugger to work with. I saw quite a lot of stuff on the web that indicated that that might be the case. Guess I should have paid more attention!

It builds a gloss brilliantly and produces a surface that's beautiful to the touch - it feels almost like satin - but on a vertical surface I'm finding it's almost impossible to get rid of the brushmarks. The problem is that it's really gloopy stuff (it's meant to be thinned) which ideally should be applied quickly, from a full brush, and allowed to flow with very little brushing out thus getting rid of the brush marks. That's fine if you're working on a horizontal surface - gravity will work with you - but try doing that on a vertical surface and gravity becomes your enemy. You'll just get lots of runs and sags. Believe me, I know! Through trail and error (lots and lots of error!) and further research on the web I've discovered the only way to overcome that tendency is to thin the varnish right down. I'm using pure turpentine and, although I'm not being particularly scientific about it, I would guess I'm putting in somewhere around 15% by volume. This is giving me a varnish which is thin enough to allow me to brush it out thus avoiding the sags (or 'curtains' as I've learned they're called in the boat varnishing world ) but that also means it's not flowing and so the brushmarks remain. Catch 22!



Anyway I'm persisting, sanding between each coat with 220 grit, and the surface is gradually improving. I think this is after four coats - I'm not sure, I've lost count - and the gloss is building quite nicely. Hopefully the next four coats, and a move up to 320 or even 400 grit, will see the mirror finish emerge.

[Phoenixsp1]

That is looking really nice, personally I hate painting because I'm so bad at it but you seem to have mastered that varnishing.

[zildjian]

An unfortunate brand name all the same though Martin.


looking really good though all the same, I wonder if we'll ever see this camper here in the UK I'd like to have a look at this all finished up and in use

[saDgit]

I wonder if we'll ever see this camper here in the UK I'd like to have a look at this all finished up and in use

I don't know about "all finished" but maybe at next year's social

[saDgit]

Put on the last coat of varnish today before I have to quit and wrap it up for the summer. I still haven't got to the mirror finish but at least I can now see my face in it.


Two or three more coats when I get back to it in the autumn will finally see the skin finished and I can move on to other things.

[zildjian]

You know of course you can see the face of Jesus in that finish,

they'll be beating a path to your door now, epihany hmm, right enough Martin