The second attempt at the galley hatch is going slowly but surely. I no longer needed the old hatch as a reference, so its last act of service was to provide some warmth and entertainment.
The main failure of the first galley hatch attempt was that the pressure from the interior skin changed the curvature of the ribs, so they no longer would make a watertight seal with the sides of the camper. To mitigate that this time, I’m trying a few things. In the old design, there was an interior and exterior skin on the hatch (much like how the rest of the roof structure is built). This time, I’m planning on leaving the interior exposed. This will make wiring (and one day, re-wiring) that much easier. It should also reduce weight. And it will reduce the forces trying to make my ribs go out of spec by 50%. I also added a few more ribs and reinforcement to the new hatch to really reinforce that curve.
No skin in the interior means that I want to make those exposed ribs on the inside look nice. So the big steps over the past week have been to apply a facing to the ribs from thin strips of poplar. This will cover the exposed plywood of the ribs, and my hope is that once glued in place will actually add another ply to help hold the rib shape.
I focused on making sure the exterior side of the hatch was as even and consistent as possible. 
The interior side, however, needed some wood added. Note the gaps where the ribs meet the perpendicular supports. Here you see one of the new rib facings being fitted. 
I made temporary braces to keep the curve of the hatch from changing due to the forces of the rib braces. 
Here’s another view of the braces. 
I soaked the rib facings in hot water for a few hours. 
I then clamped the wet facings onto the ribs and let them sit overnight. 
It worked! The next day the facings were mostly the same shape as the ribs, so there will be little pressure pout on the shap of the hatch. 
I glued the facings one at a time to make sure everything stayed in alignment. 
Here’s a closeup with the facings in place. They will need to be sanded to finish.
Meanwhile, work continued on the main body of the camper. The big achievement during this spate of work was getting everything finished in the “basement” – thats the storage area under the bed platform. The storage hatches are lined with a rubber gasket (sorry, I didn’t take a picture of that for this series). The hatch doors seem to fit well, though I guess we will get our real test once we hit the road. I also used butyl tape on the through holes for the lights, and coated the screws that hold the lights with 3M 5200 marine sealant. I’ll use this for all instances where screws enter the wood from the outside. Hopefully that will keep water and rot out.
I still need to paint the inside of the storage hatch doors and do some finish work on the outside, so you’ll be treat with more pictures of that work in a later post.
Here’s one of the storage hatches with all the equipment installed. Those latches are super cool, but the latch and clasp have a very low tolerance for variance. 
I added another 3/4″ strip of poplar around the edges of the interior. This is provides the base for the bed platform. It gave me an opportunity to use and old school approach to getting the top surface nice and even. 
Here you see an interior view of how the storage hatches lock. Rather than making a key access outside, this simple gate latch slides in place from the inside. 
I had originally planned to glue the bed platform in place, but I have enjoyed gaining access to the “basement” by sliding the two pieces of the bed platform around, so instead I put in threaded brass inserts to hold the bed platform in place. It makes for a very stable base. 
Bed platform in place. I had enough birch plywood around to use for 2/3 of the platform. The other 1/3 is just plain old plywood. It won’t matter – all this will be covered by our mattress.
Dear M & K, Holy moly, I have little understanding of what you are explaining but a serious big appreciation of the artistry you are doing. That thing ought to be in a museum somewhere in France or Venice or?? On this side of our continent, I am in Juneau visiting with Hazel and Amelia. Hazel asked me yesterday if lips have muscles? They do, I googled it. Happy Holidays to you and yours. Aloha, Jeff B
Thanks for describing your process. The writing must have taken as long as the hatch.
Well done Matthew. Looks great and should function perfectly.
Very impressive! Your engineering and “figure it out” attitude is so inspiring! And coming up with the words and vocabulary to describe what you have done is just as impressive 👏👏👏🎉🤩