Cabin Roof | Making & Test Installation

With the completion of the Dorade boxes it would soon be time to fit the cabin roof so I needed to assemble and finish it, ready for installation.

First I made the butt block to join the two roof panels together, and then I did a dry fit to find out how to support the components when glued up. Here is the test outside the workshop - there isn't enough room inside.

The sawhorses and a piece of ply provided a solid base to support the join, and the picnic tables and some blocks held the roof panels at the right height.

Next I moved the entire thing into the house to glue the panels together. As here.

Clamps held the panels in place and blocks of lead pressed the butt block into place to make a solid join.

That went well, and when cured I applied the requisite second and third clear coats of resin to the inside of the roof - both panels had already received one coat before assembly.

Here is the third coat.

Next, the assembled roof was taken outside and sanded to a matt grey P80 grit finish with the big 150mm Festool sander. Here it is.

This is a large area and you really do need a big sander to get it done effectively.

The next task was to mark up the roof to drill holes for the the temporary screws which would hold it in place at installation.

Here the roof is held down with just a few screws while the location of the sheerclamps, carlins and cleats was pencilled in from inside the cabin.

And here the roof has had all the holes for temporary screws marked up and drilled in readiness for a test fit. All screws are at 6" intervals, or closer.

I suspected that the Dorade boxes might need to be faired a bit more if the roof did not make a fair curve over them, so I did the first test installation on the cabin only. As here.

The temporary screws are 4x30mm, strong enough to pull the roof panels into place and fitted with plywood 'washers' to prevent damage to the roof surface.

I clamped the roof to the Dorade boxes to test the fit and all appeared to be fine, so I went ahead with a second test installation for the Dorade boxes only.  This is it.

That completes the cabin roof test installation. The next time we encounter the cabin roof will be its permanent fitting, which will be very exciting!