Camper Renovation - Lucky Charms and Steel

Remember when we first started this project? Oh you know, we had to pull back some outer skin to rip out the rear framing and I was getting a little freaked out. Well that was nothing. Anyway, thanks to Callie cat missing and a gung-ho attitude we gutted the front of the camper. And since the subfloor was really rotten in certain areas, well guess what... we decided to just replace the whole floor. Of course.

Before we oh/so/carefully pulled out the vintage oven and sink... the guys kept putting tools on top of that stuff. So my dad told me to get some cardboard and cover it up. Hence the Lucky Charm boxes. Yes, I like Lucky Charms. Oh and then we took the wheels off.  !!!!!!

Um, yeah.  This was probably a freak out moment.  I can't really remember now which means either a) I totally trusted the force or b) it was so traumatic I'm blocking it.

Let's see, the places I've starred... were places where it was wood (or in the case of the middle beams, non-existent.)  Basically my dad is Superman and welded new steel framing to the existing structure. It rocks having a dad who can weld. Now this floor is solid. 

Well kids, you've got a lot of catching up to do with Camperrrr! We're already at the point where I need to make decisions on lights, hardware and what to do for the countertop (among other things.) The original countertop was too rotten underneath to keep. That is a sad, sad thing. Anyway, it's looking good so I'll be posting a lot more pretty quick!

Camper Renovation - Sledgehammers and Starburst

I sorta kinda had this idea to rip out the closets and make more room in the front of Camperrrr. Bigger fridge, yeah? Of course that would be a stupid amount of work and I wasn't about to push my luck. Then my cat went missing. And the first day I was this pathetic, bawling mess. And my dad felt sorry for me. Or something.

So at some point I mentioned what I really wanted to do and dad gets all happy camper on me and says, "LET'S DO IT!" with this gung-ho/get the sledgehammer/cheer up attitude. So we spent the rest of the day tearing out the front of the camper. And we found more starburst and rotten wood. Crazy hua?

Oh that's just my dad. Standing on the ground. In the camper. 

So the interior of the potty closet had this ugly 80's paneling and as it turns out someone had covered up original starburst paneling with it! It's too bad they used glue all over... it was totally ruined. At least we saved the bit of starburst that was above the sink and stove. And check out that rotten paneling. It was not fun taking out the original built in closets - there were only a gazillion nails/staples holding the structures in.

Yay for starburst! Btw, there was a giant pile of fire ants under the paneling just under the starburst - thank goodness the starburst was ok. So this is when the renovation gets crazy and it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Camper Renovation - Rear Framing and Stormy Weather

Stormy weather was in the forecast (and boy, did it rain!) Thank goodness we rigged up a makeshift shelter. It was a bummer that the camper would not fit in my dad's shop. This worked well though...  p.s. I referred to our first batch of rainy weather as monsoon #1.  Not quite expected for this time of year in North Texas.

New subfloor in progress...  as well as the bottom rear framing.  We painted it with some type of rubber coating to help prevent dry rot (hence the grayish color.)  We also painted the bottom of the subfloor (the part that is exposed to the ground) with the same stuff.

The camper is now decked out with all new wiring. There's even an outlet in the loft bed for twinkle lights and what not.

Camper Renovation - Let the Games Begin

So here's the thing: I knew what I was getting into before buying a vintage camper. I like style, my dad likes efficiency. Charcoal vs. gas?  Been there, done that. My dad wanted me to get a little Casita, a Scamp, a new RV. Something fiberglass with better towing gas mileage, less leaking, yada yada yada. But I would have none of it and bought an old camper much to my dad's dismay.

The goal from the start was to fix what needed fixing and to learn to do most of it myself. I honestly expected to spend a few weeks fixing minor things and decorating. My husband would help, but he's super busy with school and work. So it's pretty much just me and my dad. For me, it's a labor of love.  For dad, it's a labor of hate. How did he get suckered into this?  Oh you know, daddyyyyyyy I loveeeeee youuuuuuuu.

My dad is the best dad ever. Just thought you should know.

From what we could see there were two places to start. 1) the back window and 2) the floor by the door. You could tell there was some dry rot in both places. Only a couple of teeny tiny spots indicated damage by the back windows. There was a soft spot in the floor by the door as well as some obvious rot around the door edge. So we started with the back. Now to find out what's under the paneling you have to take down the back panel. And to remove the back panel you have to remove the bed framing. May the odds be ever in your favor.

So I learned how to use a drill. And we started taking Camperrrr apart! oh. my.

As it turned out there was an extensive amount of dry rot in the rear of the camper.  Specifically the framing under the windows, in the corners and the subfloor. When you're buying a vintage camper, remember... what you see isn't always what you get!

Actually, with an old vintage camper it's never what you get. The only part of this damage that we could actually see was very small. I got into this thinking we would just patch / rebuild the small areas that needed it. However dad pointed out it was just faster to rebuild certain sections and then we'd know it was solid. So the rear bottom framing would be completely rebuilt. And um, we ended up deciding to rebuild pretty much everything else. And this is when my 3 week project turned into a 8 month re-build.

We've used this SoniCrafter a lot during the rebuild. It's been quite helpful with cutting down and removing small / tight rotted areas. Of course we also happen to have a plethora of other tools as well. I picked mine up at Lowes - but you can also order them online at Amazon. 

We think that the original floor was just painted particle board. When we ripped up the old carpet it was there and it just looked like it was meant to be the floor. Very odd! I'm pretty sure it was the original floor but who knows...

The particle board subfloor had a honeycomb / cardboard layer underneath. My dad said it was designed to be strong but lightweight. It also served as a type of insulation for the floor. The honeycomb stuff was glued solid on the bottom floor of the camper. It was horrible to try and remove but then we decided to just go ahead and replace the whole floor so we just cut it out. Then we could see the ground. Yay. This just gets better and better! We have since replaced this with some supports and new insulation.

Here's the extent of dry rot damage in the rear of the camper. The subfloor was on top of the honeycomb stuff - then another layer of particle board was under that to make the base of the camper.  My cousin fixed a couple of spots under the camper, near the wheel wells where it obviously rotted out - but we went ahead and ripped it all out as more was on its way to rotting out. To get to the bottom corners and sides we had to peel back the outer skin. I was kinda freaked out and overwhelmed at this point.

So far we have been working on this camper for almost a month - spending anywhere from 60-80 combined man hours a week.