how much did it cost to re-skin your camper?

[universalexports]

well My POS Camper does not have a single straight piece of skin on it,
I am looking at different options for the outside, like factory type aluminum, or smooth finish (filon), etc.

and a big decision maker is cost, so I was wondering, how much did it cost you to reskin your camper

key points,
did you just do the sides?
did you do the roof?
did you do it? or pay for it to be done?
how long is your camper?


thanks in advance

[safetybruce]

I'll try and send you a PM with some thoughts on the different questions you have mentioned.

[universalexports]

Joking, thanks bud ;D ;D ;D

[Gone Kayaking]

All good questions. Cost depends on what your comfort and skill level is with doing the work yourself vs someone else. I went for leaving the top and top part of the skin on. Re used the bottom sides, but had no choice but to get new skins for the front and back. It has been a process. Skins actually, Shasta Trailer goddess willing, go on tomorrow. Depending on how canned your ham is or not....the bends can be quite complicated. I initially took the old skins to our local sheet metal place and though they are quite skilled, had zero experience with trailers....so they didn't quite get what to do in those critical path moments involving release cuts, etc... So I had to have one piece redone. They were able to do the 6 inch brake. The tool for bending the the canned ham shape is a bender/shrinker and is a very specialized tool that at least I could not find for rent.

I was quite in a pickle for a little bit til I found an underemployed high end coppersmith who had all the tools, a keen interest in the project and the time to come out and take a close look and help me. In the end the money I paid him was well worth it.

So how much....including the mistakes....nearly $950. Sheet goods 325, labor for braking bending etc... 650. I'm in the SF Bay area, so labor ain't cheap. You will likely to do better on that part.

[evanbee]

Hi I'm in the SF bay area too and I'm looking for a good place to reskin my '65 Cab-over Camper. Where did you go? & did they offer vintage skins?
Thanks!

[Gone Kayaking]

Hi Evan
I got the metal from Moose Metal (in concord)....It's just sheet aluminum. I got .040, I think original shasta skin was .025 they had .023 I think and it was too thin so I went beefier. It's only like $75 a sheet but that doesn't include any fabrication. I found a great guy to do the fabrication but he's expensive ($100 per hour). He probably charged me for about 2/3 of the time it took him to do my work. I paid for 6 hours. His name is Chris Mast, and he's in El Cerrito. If you google Chris Mast Sheet Metal you'll find him. Tell him Marguerite referred you.

[Hamlet]

We'd have done the skin on our '59 Compact ourselves, but we ran up against a deadline and had to have the skin and the painting done. It turned out absolutely gorgeous, but it set us back $3600. We'd looked into getting the aluminum, with the 6" break already done, and it was pretty expensive, about $2k for the whole trailer. I guess $1600 for labor, three colors of auto grade painting, and all the finishing touches really isn't too bad. Sigh.

[elewayne]

Hi, I'm a total nube here. I do have a question though. Can you buy panels with the pattern, like a slight bend every 6 in or so , or something like corrugated metal from a supplier of does one have to have that fabricated? I'm talking of aluminum, of course.

[Gone Kayaking]

you have to have it fabricated though some have done the brakes (6 in bend) themselves. If you have one of the old canned hams you also have to bend the front and back to match that curve which requires as special tool. The sheets themselves are not expensive, but the labor can be deadly so (4:1 in my case). Depends where you are....call around to your various sheet metal places locally and see if there is someone you can work with.

[Hamlet]

Before we decided to re-skin the whole thing, we had purchased pre-primed, pre-fabricated (with the 6" break) from an RV repair place. It came in just a couple days and the breaks matched our '59 Compact perfectly. It was easy to attach to the existing pieces. When we were trying to decide how to go with the full re-skin, we got several bids. Just the skin was around $1800. We wound up with the full meal deal, but are really happy with the results. Would have done it ourselves, but we ran out of time.