Been a long time/All together now!

Time has a way of getting away from you.  I didn't realize that I had not put a blog post together for almost 5 months. A lot has happened during that time and this will be a long post.

After getting Lucy boxed in, I spent some time finishing all the roof supports and insulating her roof.  I used 1" silver faced polystyrene foam insulation.  This ended up causing a little problem later since I only had 3/4" recesses to put it in.  To keep water off of her roof, I created a domed roof.  I don't have any pictures of this, but what I did was take 3/4" plywood strips and created a 1-1/2" tall arc that went from side to side on the roof supports.  The center of the dome is at the roof vent.  I ended up adding these extra dome strips to 4 of my roof supports.  I tried to make the outer two a little shorter to let the aluminum flatten out evenly.

I stained and poly'd the ceiling, but first I had to sand it.  I used a flexible plywood for easy installation, but this material had a horrible surface finish.  I sanded it for at least 8 hours and there are still some machine marks.  Staining over your head is difficult and tiring, thankfully she is only 10' long.  It took 2 coats of stain and 2 of poly before I was happy with it.  Pro Tip: make sure to sand between coats of poly.  I didn't because I was tired of sanding and I have a slightly rough finish when it could have been smooth.

Next up was paint.  Since I was building Lucy in my garage, I didn't have a lot of extra room.  Luckily I have a small workroom in my basement.  I bought a lot of plastic sheeting and created a paint booth.  I hung a box fan at the one window in the room and used a respirator as I painted.

I started out trying to strip the paint off of the aluminum but I found that it really didn't want to come off. Instead of stripping, I ended up using a wire brush to scrape the paint off.  It worked well on most of the panels. Where holes appeared, I used JB Weld to fill the small holes.  I painted for weeks.  Bringing one panel into my basement paint shop at a time.  Each panel was cleaned, primed and painted.  It took about 3 days per panel.  I used spray paint for all of the aluminum and it came out pretty nice.  One thing I didn't account for was how little a can of paint actually covered. I went through probably 30+ cans of primer and paint in the end.

As I completed panels, I installed them on Lucy.  Here is her road side. This side has all of my services.  I added a new 30 amp input, cable input and water inlet.  The old water inlet was too low for my new 15 gallon tank.  The old inlet is still there to cover a hole in the skin.

Work continued on the interior.  I built the back gaucho bed and also the dinette seats.  Since the camper is small, I tried to create as much storage as possible.  Under the gaucho bed, I have 2 large drawers.  The dinette had a big drawer and also under seat storage. 

 For my kitchen drawers I wanted to do something special. I have a CNC milling machine so I cut out some Scotty shapes for a nice detail on the drawers.

As I got closer to completion, we finished little jobs like wiring up the outlets, painting the furniture and touching up some damage I did to the paint.  I also completed a really big job. Lucy's original roof was a 3 piece one that caused many of her water problems.  I decided to put on a one piece roof.  This was a big job, but not too difficult.  I bought the metal from an RV outlet online.  The shipping was almost as much as the metal.  I bent the channel on each end of the roof myself using some wood strips and a hammer.  The hardest part was cutting the metal to size.

Painting the roof was interesting.  I masked off the entire camper and hung plastic.  Painting took 2 weekends and was difficult because I have poor lighting in my garage. It did come out nice in the end.

After paint, I installed the windows and the edge trim.  I used butyl tape on everything and the installation went smooth.  I did miss a bit on one aluminum panel install.  When I put the front side window in, it did not cover all of the holes.  I ended up adding a few eyebrows to fix that issue. I painted and repaired the rock guard on the front window.  The last project was repairing the door.  I was able to repair the original Bargman lock.  The door was a mess when I took it apart.  Thankfully there was enough left that I could get some good measurements from it.

All under roof.

Made some real good progress the last few weeks.  I installed the last pieces of the ceiling and front. Most of the ceiling supports are in and I have cut out the fan hole.  I have also started insulating the top, but it is not done yet.

The upper kitchen cabinet has been painted and installed.  I also have gotten some of the electrical hooked up.  I am putting in a few 110V and 12V outlets. 

USB and Lighter outlet in black. 

 I love the ceiling lights we found and they look really nice when they are turned on. We decided on these lights after going to our local RV show last week.  They are nice and flat and they put off just the right amount of light. Plus the under cabinet lights work and look nice too.

At this point, I am trying to get the last of the ceiling supports and insulation in.  I have started running the power for all the exterior running lights. In the next few weeks, I will be prepping the ceiling for stain and building out the dinette seating. If all goes well, I will be prepping and painting the skins in March.

Cheers!

Lookin' good

I am still behind schedule on my updates.  Over the last few weeks, the floor has gone in. This was an adventure.  I didn't buy much extra so I had to be careful with my cuts.  Luckily the only place I shorted the vinyl is hidden by the back gaucho bed. The trim cleaned up nicely with a little soap, water and steel wool.  I did not go for bright aluminum, just clean. You may also notice the walls are painted.  I know may will feel this ruins the camper, but we wanted to it feel open and light.  The ceiling will be stained, so we are mixing the old with the new.

Cabinets are painted to match the walls.  The drawer fronts will be an accent color but I am not sure what it is yet.  

Getting plywood that will bend easily has been a challenge for me.  I special ordered some at Home Depot.  The stuff bends very easily, but the surface quality is ok at best.  I am going to try and sand it smooth once it is all in but I believe I will have to get some veneer if I want a stain-able surface.  I am sure there is 1/4" plywood out there with a nice surface, but I couldn't find any locally and I did not want to deal with wetting and warming the wood to bend it.  The Gaucho Bench is now in.  There will be 2 drawers in the middle for storage. I have the sliding top planned but I will wait to put it in after I get my skins on and the new water filler installed.  I am pretty sure that I am going to need to put a bump on the right side wall for the filler.

Yesterday I got the upper cabinet built.  Here you can see it in temporary position.  I need to add a shelf in the right hand side door.  I will be filling all my staple holes and painting it this weekend. If you are wondering, I have been building the cabinetry with pocket screws, glue and staples.

I have also started on my electrical wiring.  My power center is at the floor left of the fridge.  The 12V wiring is run around but not hooked up yet.  I still need to install the 110V wiring.  Next up, I will be adding all of the cross member framing to the roof and deciding where the roof fan will go.

Cheers!

Been a long time

It has been a long time since I updated Lucy's progress. A lot of work has been done and she is beginning to look like herself.  This blog entry covers about 2 months work. 

After the floor was completed and fit to the frame, I removed it and put the wheel wells back on. Thankfully I didn't damage them when i removed them. Some primer and black paint and they were good as new.  Thanks to all the helpful people on the NSSO Facebook page, I decided to coat the floor with Herculiner.  This is a roll on bed liner product.  Many people recommended covering all of the wood with it but I decided to only cover the framing and edges.  My reasoning for this is that I think the plywood needs to breath.  The top will be completely covered with glue and vinyl flooring.  Leaving patches of un-coated plywood will allow it to dry out if it gets wet.  

I added a new wire harness and then bolted the floor down. I have also removed the wheels and re-packed the bearings.  This was necessary because one of the hubs did not spin easily. However, once the job was finished, the other hub does not spin well.  I have not repacked that bearing again yet.

We attached the outer walls on both sides, paying close attention to put them back where they go.  All of the openings were cut small so that I can adjust them to the aluminum skin when I put it back on.

To give Lucy some extra strength, I am laminating a second layer of plywood on the inside.  This will make her 1" smaller inside but I believe it is worth it.  I staggered the joints and used two different layers of 1/2" plywood.  I have used Heavy Duty Liquid Nails between the layers along with countersunk stainless steel screws on the outside.  These walls are sturdy now.

Once the glue dried, I used my router and a follow bit and trimmed the interior panels to size.  The exterior is a OSB grade and the interior is a Birch paint/stain-able grade.

Laminated Layers

Flush Trimming with Router

The cabinetry is coming along too. We found a refrigerator that replaces the old icebox perfectly.  We are not going to put a stove back in because I can't imagine cooking in a 70 sq ft camper.  This gave us some extra room for a bigger fridge.  On the opposite side the cabinet went floor to ceiling before.  We shortened it to make the camper feel bigger on the inside.

The flooring is in now and I have ordered flexible wood for the ceiling and I expect it in anytime.  I can't wait to get her under roof.

Cheers!

Starting to Rebuild

Things have slowed down a little bit with Lucy.  Swim practice and soccer started so we are running kids around a lot more. This being said, we have made some good progress.  I took the frame over to my uncle's house to get a hitch receiver welded on.  While I was there, he reinforced every weld on the frame.  Lucy is stronger than ever.

Once I got the frame back home I prepped the frame for painting.  I used the Por15 system.  It took most of the day to complete.  The degreasing went quickly but the metal etching took a while and was difficult to wash all the way off.  I had to use a rag to wipe off residue before I could paint. Por15 is awesome stuff.  It paints on super easy and leaves a smooth finish.  One downside is that if it is not removed right away, it sticks to skin for a while.  It took me over a week to wash off everything I got on myself.

You may have noticed the red rims in the picture above.  I ended up getting my neighbors son to clean them up and paint them.  He did an awesome job and he only had them for 26 hours.  The tires were removed, they were stripped, primed, painted and top coated.  After I got them back I had new tires put on them.  They look awesome now.

 

Once I got her back in the garage, it was time to start on the floor.  I took a lot of measurements off of Lucy before I took her apart.  This is a very important step if you are doing a rebuild. If you have the space, you should keep all of the parts you remove.  Unfortunately I don't have the space.  Anyway, I am putting her back about the same as before.  I am adding a slightly different framing structure below the plywood.  I am using pine 2x4's for support that I rip to the correct thickness.  The floor is simple 1/2" sanded plywood.  I will add some kind of coating to the underside next.  I was all set to use bed liner material, but now I am not so sure.  More research to be done.

Cheers!

Where's Lucy?

We have spent the last few weeks stripping Lucy to the frame.  It is a little sad to have to take all of her original wood out but there was so little left that was any good, I decided to just start over completely. It is also a little hard to call her Lucy since all of her personality is now at the dump.

Before tearing the sides down, I hung up new plywood and traced the old wall. I am using 1/2" OSB for the outer layer of the camper wall.  Luckily I had some help hanging the boards.

After that, it was a simple matter of removing the rest of the wooden structure.  Once it was all down, I used a wire wheel on a grinder to remove all the paint and rust from the frame.  Make sure to wear safety glasses and a mask if you do this.  Grinding on the frame puts off a lot of dust.  Tomorrow I am taking the trailer frame to my uncle's house.  We are going to strengthen the frame in a few spots, fix a few cracked welds and add a hitch receiver to the back so we will be able to mount a bike rack.

 Cheers!

Tear down continued

We have now removed all of Lucy's aluminum. The skin is in really good shape with just a few dents and only one hole. Jill helped a bunch removing the corner trim.

With the sides off you can see all of the damage. The curbside front has disentegrated from all the water damage. 

The roof came off fairly easily. Just had to remove the froward overhead storage and bang on the beams to loosen them from the walls. 

The next step is to remove the rest of the roof and then get the street side wall off so it can be used as a template.