Camper Renovation - Drawers and Closets!

Heck yes. Now we're getting somewhere! So before the roof issue, dad said I could go ahead and prime some stuff. Well my priming skills must be the bomb-diggity cause he got kinda cranky when his marking lines or something were all covered up. After that they took my paint brush away. So yeah, Camperrrr's rocking the part white / part natural look. At least she's put back together again.

With the tarps back up over the exposed roof, we started working inside. Yes, the time had come to build some furniture. And wouldn't you know, I really thought this part would be easy. When it comes to fixing up vintage campers, some say you just need to measure, and measure again.  But it's more of a measure, compare, measure, cut a piece of wood to fit, measure again, trim off a 1/4", check it, trim a little more, rip your hair out, measure, trim, give your daughter that look, ok that looks good, get the nail gun kinda deal. Oh and in these pictures the floor has a protective gray coating.

New bed / seating area. Totally had to have a couple of cat holes for the kitties to hang out. The rest will be storage.

A view from the seating area to the front (aka our new, bigger kitchen.)

So originally there was a cabinet with a counter top by the seating area and door. Since I really wanted more closet space, I did some research and decided to go ahead and make a second closet where the cabinet used to be. Let's not forget my ghetto mock-up of how it might look in Photoshop...

Ava loves her Camperrrr! Can't wait to share the next batch of photos when we start building the kitchen.

Camper Renovation - And Then This Happened

So the last time we checked in with Camperrrr things looked like this. It even got to the point where dad said I should go ahead and start priming some of the wood. So I did. Yay! So exciting.

What's that hole? Oh, just the place where the air conditioner goes. It's all fine and dandy except for one thing: that itty bitty piece of metal.  See it? It's about an inch wide?

So one day I'm bopping along and Camperrrr looks like this...

and. then. this. happened.

!!!!!

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

Gee, how to explain. Well... from the beginning my dad has been going crazy about how there's not a single straight line on this camper. Awww dad, she's just vintage ok? This issue has been well and good (besides driving my dad banana pants crazy) until it came time to put the roof back on. Because guess what? There was just this 1" gap where the roof wouldn't cover the side! AHHHH. I ask my dad why, oh why?!??  And well, as my dad likes to say: this camper's crooked as sh*t!!!

Touche

Yes, we've had the joy of taking the entire roof and front off to figure out what was causing the problem. And after trying to come up with a solution there was finally a general consensus to replace the roof. More $$$$ yayyyyy! Just kidding... my immediate response to this problem was to just buy a new roof. Dad finally agreed. Good thing, because I was going all kinds of crazy.  I mean hello,  look how nice and spacious the the camper is. Look at all that natural light! OMG. 

But that's no biggie. Still love my Camperrrrr!

Camper Renovation - It's Like Magic

So here's the thing: B's a lucky guy. He gets to run away with the spoon while we slave away in Camperrrr Land. Okay so maybe he's just at work. Or writing term papers. My dad likes to say, "he's no fool!" The running joke is according to B, this camper re-build just magically happens. Each week he comes bopping along and sticks his head in and stuff is different. Then he grins and laughs that laugh. Sure, he'd love to help but the boy isn't crying buckets about it. Hey, he's no fool... that's for sure!

And I just so happened to be taking pics when he stuck his head in.  This guy cracks. me. up.

Yes, we have paneling. Yay!

New framing in the front section. 

So there was this hole in the skin that was from the old water pump and someone covered it up with a vent. We decided to move the circuit breaker to the rear of the camper and turned that hole into a new place for our electric cord. Even better, we added an exterior plug for lights and such.

New 50 amp circuit breaker. It's located in the back of the camper under the seating (there will be a hatch to get to it.)

Hey look at that, an original piece of paneling.

Stay tuned for another update!

Camper Renovation - Oh You Know, The Usual

Guess what? It's Christmas-time around here. More or less anyway. My mom's decorated her house all ho-ho-ho... we have a string of white lights in our room. I've been cutting out snowflakes galore (right now I'm just hoarding them in a box.) Today seems like a good day to put up our vintage tree.  And it looks like my Christmas present may be getting to start painting and decorating Camperrrr. Not quite, but maybe.

So before I go all holidays up in here we need to get this camper show on the road...

Just messin' with the outer skin. You know, the usual.

Yep.  Totally camper ready.

Put up paneling, take down paneling.  It happens.

More fun cleaning up old silicone. Yayyyyy.

More camper renovation posts to come!

Camper Renovation - A Little Bit of This and That

As promised here's another Camperrrr update! Now if I had a dollar for every time my dad has said "if this would fit in the shop, I'd just have stripped it down to the frame and rebuilt it from the ground up" or his favorite answer... "do you have a box of matches?" then I'd have... wait, scratch that. I suck at math. Oh, you get the idea.

Since tearing the whole thing apart at once wasn't an option (and I surely would go coo-coo for cocoa puffs) we had to work in sections. So it started with the back of the camper, and progressed to the front. Otherwise if we started taking apart framework in the back, some in the side, some in the front... well ya'know. Humpty Dumpty had a big fall and all that jazz.

Just more rotten wood waiting to be replaced...

OMG! Cleaning off old caulk and sealer is the BEST!  Said no one, ever.

New caulk.  Still a work in progress...

New framework for the door and ceiling. Just fyi, we've replaced every single piece of wood framing.  Except for maybe two or three small pieces? Yeah.

The next challenge... starting the framework in the front (aka the curve.) Yayyyyyy.

Since vintage campers like ours weren't designed for rooftop air conditioning, my dad decided to weld a small frame that would support the unit instead of what little wood framework someone else had put in. 

Stay tuned for more photos.  Have a great weekend... guess what I'll be doing?