Finished Camper

 1969 14 ft Aristocrat Lo-liner. Vintage trailer complete overhaul and remodel.

Done diggity dog and we've been enjoying her for weeks, but I'm just getting around to posting pics because... obviously we've been spending so much time in our camper!

 All canvas upholstery is salvaged from a friend's actual boat sail canvas. Sturdy galore and white- two things I wanted but doubted I could get. But get, I did. All fabric has been treated with moisture and stain barrier- you can read about it in previous post.

 

Yes, indeed, that's a gilded gold framed Starry Night painting.  High falutin' camping going on in these her parts.

 

 Love these curtains and huge mega bonus is that when you follow me from behind it looks like my camper's sporting a tramp stamp.

 Just for a review, here are a few of the "Before" shots.

Clementine looking pretty spiffy

 She's not done, but we did take her camping for Mother's Day and had such a great time! It rained and she didn't leak :) Hooray, Clementine!
  We got her a kitchy pink flamingo thing going on.

Here she is without decor so you can see the seats( storage for sleeping bags beneath those seats!) painted and aluminum edging reattached.

 Here's the back end. Lights went up moment before we left and I'll get pictures soon. This just gives you an idea of the direction we're heading.

Happy TRAILS, little campers!

Priming the interior

 There's some actual, concrete, VISIBLE progress today. Taped and began priming.

I've ordered new tires and wheels which will come next week. Also, all TWELVE of the reflector/light caps have to come off and have years of paint removed to get them sparkle-y again.

 The first mistake of the remodel! I painted the door what I thought would be a sunshiney yellow. Next to the vintage toned colors, it didn't come out as planned. Harvest gold appliances, anyone? It's now white again.
  Every drawer and door needs a latching handle so that they don't fly open every time you drive over a bump. I chose a casement window latch that reminded me of a ship.  The problem is that the drawer and base must be flush for them to work. Below picture shows that my drawer fronts are raised= problem for my pretty hardware.

 I chose to add wood pieces to raise the base.

 Here's one installed. Woops, the wood cracked a bit when I neglected to predrill my screw hole. Nothing a little caulk won't fix.

Happy Trails!  I'm camping in TWO DAYS!

Fiberglass cleaning and prep of everything

The weather finally got better!

EXTERIOR       Here's what Clementine is looking like today and this is how we've got here:

This is the flap of fiberglass that covers the front windows. It's called the rock guard. Pretty funky! Also pretty gunky. It has all these fibers coated in dirt.I took scotchbrite and sanded the dirt and fibers right down to smoothness. (I kept thinking that this was like the closest thing I could be doing to shaving the old girl's legs- I know- creeeeepy!)

Here she is mostly scotchbrited to smoothness. Next I painted it white using my favorite rustoleum. I chose white again, because it would keep the interior bright when sun shone through.

REAR EXTERIOR- 
 Here's the before:





Clementine was dirty. I scrubbed her up with a wash, a wash with TSP, a rinse and then some scotchbrite sanding, a rub down with a tack cloth and then a coat of paint. The pic below shows some of the progress. (sorry, I only painted the top half for this pic)

the aluminum edging is covered in grit and grime. Scotchbrite shined it right up.

INTERIOR--

This is the hatch to the electrical access. This is where Clementine can draw power from a car battery. in the lower picture, lower left, you can see that this geriatric gal is still sporting glass fuses and some REALLY sketchy looking wires. I'm going to remove all of this and next week outfit her to draw power from solar. And she'll do it with nice, friendly, new wires.

Also, structure of this box is shot. (Lower picture, bottom of wood is rotten and white molded)  I tore out old and built in new supports.

 Above is the picture of what that electric access box buts into on the interior. It's actually the support and base for the front bench, so it had to be rebuilt to be very solid.

I taped off interior and dove into painting the closet. White will be much better than poo brown. Notice the shelves- the walls of closet are mere paneling. To make the shelves strong, I put in horizontal supports and drilled them in from the outside in so that screw ends wouldn't be poking out of closet. Wire shelf was $5 for a 7' section. I cut it to size using massive bolt cutters with really long handles.

 Here's the back seat all stripped down and ready to be built back up + receive a coat of paint.

Happy Trails!

More research and Cushions :)

It's been too cold to do much physical work so I'm planning. Clementine's side seams leak. I need to strip the aluminum of old paint and get a clean surface to work with and make it all super watertight.

Aluminum paint strippers
     best- Eldorado PR 2002 for aircraft
     better-  auto body methylene chloride
     good-   nitromoors

-paint thinner, goof off and paint strippers should work in small areas.  Paint on, let it work and scrape off. Use scotchbrite and it must be between 65-85 degrees outside.


Tires.  My tires are P155/80R13. Not many places make or sell them like this anymore.  Pepboys in Brooklyn Center, MN has them for $38 each.
      - If I want to go thicker, the local Tires Plus has P 175/80R13 for $45 each.

My faucet leaks. I found an RV supplier that has them for $5. You have to order by phone and so far there's no answer, but I'll keep trying. They have tubes of sealant for $0.50 each. I just don't know what this sealant is for. Hopefully anything RV related. Here's hoping.

toilet essentials-
       - RV toilet paper that will totally dissolve
       -- deoderizing chemical, or cheaper would be pine stove pellets- they absorb 20x's the liquid they touch. $4/ 40 lb bag in the heating section of a big box store.  You'd need to plan on using 2 cups a day.
 THE CUSHIONS---

 Though I didn't want to pick out fabric for the cushions until after the interior was painted, the clock is ticking so I went with what I normally like in homes- white. I picked up around 30 yds of off-white canvas at a fabric store going out of business. It cost me about $15 and I'll use this fabric for everything including some extra slip covers for the seating areas. That way, when the inevitable stains happen, I'll be able to remove and wash. I have treated all the fabric with Rustoleum's NeverWet, that I mentioned in yesterday's post. So far, even crisp white seems s'more proof.

Cushions took about 1 hour each. I mention this, because I paid my way through college working as a seamstress. I own a few industrial sewing machines and I am here to say that these cushions were TOUGH. I know my way around the fabric rodeo and these puppies took time and skill. Just be prepared.

The quick tutorial is 1) remove fabric from cushions.  2) repair holes.

3) cut new fabric to wrap overtop of old. Leave zipper exposed.

4) restuff with foam, treat with stain preventer.

With the weather too cold to work outside, I also made us camping pillows. 5 matching, easy to wash pillowcases, and see that pocket on each? 

That pocket contains a sleeping eye mask cover and a set of earplugs. I decided that this camper can be as sturdy and watertight as... well, a water bottle- but if we can't sleep, we'll be hating it.
    

Camper DAY 4

Still SOOOO cold that I can't even use most of my supplies like primer because it has to be above freezing for anything to work.  The clock is ticking because I just reserved a campsite for Mother's Day weekend.

All about how to solar power- GOOD!   http://www.otherpower.com/popup.html

http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Panel-Starter-100W-Monocrystalline/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1398713145&sr=8-3&keywords=solar

Look at the "frequently bought together section: $330 rather than $1000 we were ready to spend at Menards

 Below is a diagram of supplies you need in order to get usable energy, either 110 V or a normal plug- we're going with normal plug- I don't want to buy all new stuff that would work on 110V
 

My water tank has a crack in it. Replacing the entire box will cost $100 + shipping and I'm worried I'd order the wrong thing. Luckily, my genius husband pointed out that the tank is plastic and can likely be repaired. Yes, indeedy, youtube- the authority on all things- confirms that I just yank it out, find crack, heat up soldering tool and fix it.  We'll see how that goes.

needs:

 -new tires, since we have no idea how old these are and don't want to deal with a flat right away.

 - wire shelving in closet. I'll measure my bedding and food supplies so I can make shelves just the right size.

-new portable toilet

On the upside, with it being so cold, I haven't purchased any new supplies, so I'm still sitting at $25

Happy Trails!

Camper Day 3

FREEEZING COLD! My hands were freezing everytime I held a tool, so today was a big research on the computer day. Here's the results:

 This metal trim on the camper actually leaves me a bit weak in the knees with honest-to-goodness-love. I researched J-channel for mine and it comes to about $1/foot. I need a bazillion feet, so most likely I will just learn to strip aluminum this weekend.

 I want Clementine to have some bling and so have priced out some diamond plate like the above picture. "Oh, how do you get such connections, J?" Well, the truth is that I am conniving. With the weather sitting at frigid and unworkable, I made cookies and visited my local mechanic. I did the same thing last week before even owning a camper, in order to lay the groundwork to the friendship. This time when I showed up with cookies, Mike was all too happy to see me again and answer a few of my questions.
  Things I learned-
1) Never wire brush alumimum- use scotch brite pads
2) diamond plate supplier just north of me-  Metal supermarkets, BP 9210 Wyoming ave north, st    275 (s of hwy610) 763-315-4042  ask for Jim.  6.5’x 2’ 100 diamond plate aluminum =$95.83

3) rustoleum can be tinted at Menards
4) good campsite links (gull lake, MN is a pristine army corps of engineers fishing mecca)



I also researched Awnings- I think one will really elevate Clementine from trashy camper to destination.  Like this picture:


 

Making an awning - http://girl-camping.blogspot.com/2012/02/awning-for-your-vintage-trailer.html

I can buy fabric, but poles, securing it to the camper and making it weatherproof are my next challenges.  

Fleetfarm sells steel awning poles that fold down and extend to 8’ for about $13.  I add the awning and some tie downs and figure out the wire in the channel way to attach it to my trailer and I’ll be all set.

NeverWet is a Rustoleum product that sprays on and I think will do the trick.  I will also use it on the trailer's couch cushions which I plan to recover in off-white canvas.

 The floor will be scraped and peel and stick linoleum will be placed. I'd love to go with a bleached wood look, but I'm not having much luck in my price range of Cheap. Menards has:

And if you've read this far, then I'm hoping you're a friend and I can now dive into the ickier parts of camper updating. The toilet.

 Oh, you don't see it? Clementine's toilet is hiding behind that low cupboard door to the left of the above picture.  Its a pull out box with a toilet seat glued to the top. GEEEERRRROOOOOS!
I'd like to upgrade to a portable chemical toilet.

 here's my research on toilets and how they work: 

Toilet info  http://girl-camping.blogspot.com/2012/01/indelicate-but-necessary-discussion.html

Chemical toilet info video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhELPhb--Lg

I need new lighting for Clem's interior. I'll go with LED bulbs to conserve the energy. Did I tell you that we're going to set her up to be solar powered? I'm going to learn a lot this summer about living off the grid like a hillbilly.

 Happy Trails!