'76 Shasta rebuild

[hoppydawg]

Effierover-Can you share some info about your portable garage? I just picked up a '69 compact and she needs a snow rated shelter. Thanks!

[cowcharge]

What portable garage? I wish! It's outdoors with trees and snow fallin' on it, lol.

Oops, missed the "Effierover", lol.

Replaced the stink vents yesterday, since it's going to be raining/snowing for a couple of days and I've had enough water in there. That makes 4 leaks from the tree hit that I've fixed. I still can't believe all the crap on the roof, and I don't think it was put on anywhere it was actually leaking, except maybe the fridge vent. The only good thing was that the stink vents were original, so there was no butyl tape to fight. The old, yet still soft, putty tape came right up in seconds. Most of the piles of "sealants" on and around the vents came off in chunks with a putty knife. I only cleaned off enough to get outside the perimeter of the vents, because the farther out I went the harder the crud was. Getting all that off is a job for another day.

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[cowcharge]

And here are the new vents, very inexpensive on Ebay, and they feel flexible enough to be nice and strong, not brittle. You can also see the new roof vent, and the silver-painted bondo patch where the hole was, between the stink vents on the right. Once I've let everything settle, and tightened the screws down as far as I decide to, I'll trim the excess putty and aluminum tape off. As usual I squeezed a doughnut of sealant around each screw head and into the holes in the vent flanges.
There were two 7 inch stapled square stacks of 1/2" plywood under the aluminum to support the vents, with a hole through the center for the PVC stink pipes. The wood was rotten on the top layer, so I replaced them. But since the pipes protrude above the roof line, I couldn't slip the plywood squares over the end of the pipes without removing the pipes, so I had to make my stacks out of halves and assemble them on the pipes. I cut some of the squares in half from side to side, and some from corner to corner, and rotated the cuts so none of the cuts were lined up with each other, and screwed them together into half-stacks before I slipped them onto the pipes and screwed them together. It was like a puzzle.

I spent the rest of last night with the shop vac, sucking up all the sawdust, paneling shreds and insulation chips that had covered every surface for the last 3 months, picking up and sorting all the screws and nails I've pulled out, and re-organizing my tools and materials. Made it look a lot more like indoors than outdoors.

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[cowcharge]

The first layer of insulation's in place, mostly. That stuff's 1 1/2" thick, and you can see there's room for another layer that thick in the middle 2' or so of the ceiling before the rafters taper down. The two flush pieces are in the roof vents. Off to the right by the corner of the fridge is one of the stink vent plywood supports, before I replaced it. There's also a dead 120v outlet hanging there that I haven't messed with yet. And the bathroom light fixture in the background.

Time to go out and work some more, it's 30 outside, it was 32 in the camper when I turned on the furnace an hour or so ago. Hopefully it's up in the 60s by now. The other night I couldn't quite get 60 degrees inside, but it was 15 outside, and it's nowhere near all insulated yet. Yesterday I had it about 75 in there hehehe. I'm trying not to tear anything apart unless I have the insulation ready to go in.

I noticed a lot of steam coming out of my furnace exhaust today, but it's a cold, humid, on-the-verge-of-rain day, so maybe that's normal... There's a little growing stalagmite of ice on the ground under the vent, and signs of water running down the side of the camper... Maybe rain got in the vent and puddled in there, and now it's boiling off? I hope it's not getting into the blower or the combustion chamber, I'll have to check that out. Anybody winter camp with steamy exhausts before?

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[distant75]

Dec 2, 2010 23:25:16 GMT -5 cowcharge said:

Where cheesy paneling goes to die.

HAHAHAHA!

[cowcharge]

We haven't gone a week this winter without at least one snowfall. Every time I try to tear into the roof it starts snowing again.

I took the furnace apart again because the sail switch was sticking every time the furnace started up, keeping the gas valve from opening. Every time I wanted to start it, I had to take the front cover off and poke in there with an old piece of ceiling molding until I hit the sail switch. The top corner of the sail was catching on the top of the blower housing, so I bent it down far enough not to touch. Only took me about an hour, having taken it apart before, and now it fires up perfectly

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[cowcharge]

Nasty, nasty, nasty (and still leaky) seams. I curse you, previous owners! Since the tree fell on it and sprung a seam or two and forced me into roof repair before I was ready and I can't think of an effective way of re-crimping and sealing those old stretched seams, I've decided to use Roof Seal tape over every roof seam. It's either that or replace or coat the entire roof, which I may do someday but not now. From what I've read, as long as the surface is well prepared, the stuff sticks forever and stretches so it doesn't crack. I'm planning on using many, many bad words during the removal of the old tar. I've printed out a list of new internet swear words in order to cut down on repetition.

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[cowcharge]

This is what I'm replacing on the left side of the roof. I've replaced the wall plate everywhere that it's filled in with red. It was ok fore and aft of the red part, so I made a scarf joint back in the bedroom and a butt joint on the frame above the front left side window (foreground). The entire edge frame of the roof, that all the rafters attach to, is being replaced. I said to hell with it, since there was such a big chunk rotted out above the fridge (where the gap is), in addition to one back behind the bathroom, might as well do the whole thing and get all new wood to screw the edge gutter into. So I took out all the screws, pried out all the staples, removed the two layers of putty tape, and used rafter leftovers as wedges to open things up while I chewed the old wood out. If it's not raining too hard tomorrow, I'll get the last pieces of wood in and button that seam back up. Then I'll be able to reinstall the fridge vent and be done with the leaks there. THEN I can tear up the bathroom floor and get the rot and bees nest out. Right now, every time it snows, the melt runs into the fridge vent hole and soaks the floor under the furnace, which is where the worst rot of all is, so I can't finish the floor until the roof is done. Damn that tree, the roof wasn't leaking before it fell.

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[cowcharge]

I couldn't open the side seam up enough to get at the very ends of the longitudinal frames, so a facelift became necessary. I had to lift the entire front of the roof metal down to the window, in order to get the metal lifted high enough up top to fit my hand in there at the very front. It wasn't too bad, because after unscrewing and prying loose the window and de-stapling the seam between the side siding and the "forehead" roof where it runs down over the front, the only seam between the roof aluminum and the front siding was two little bits outside of each side of the window, and they are male/female seams like the siding, not permanently compressed seams like the roof. The rest of the roof aluminum just butted against the top of the window. So far, what I've seen of the frame around the window looks good, although I haven't looked underneath the window yet. There's a counter or windowsill inside between the dinette and the window that hides everything below the window. It's supposed to shower tomorrow, but with the 10 x 20 tarp I bought the other day, I ought to be able to keep my new wood dry until I can reseal the seams. Today I also got most of the framing for the fridge vent replaced as well, so once I seal the seam up I can reinstall the fridge vent, tape the roof seams and be done with the leaks. I've got some wood to replace in the roofline on the starboard side too, mostly above the kitchen counter, but I don't think I need to do the whole side like I did on the left.

I bought a generator on Ebay! It's an All Power America, yeah I know, but it's a cool-looking 2000 watt suitcase/inverter type, basically a Chinese copy of a Honda, not some rattletrap contractor type. It's rated at 59db, and retails for $950, on sale for $799 here: www.toolsoutlet.com/99013012.html

I got it for $300 with free shipping
It should be here early next week
I love waiting for something big from FedEx

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[cowcharge]

Hi all, bought me a slightly-used inverter generator off'n Ebay. It's a 2000 watt, California-tree-hugging-approved, 59 db-rated (if you can believe any of those ratings, I don't have a db meter yet, but it's pretty quiet), 4-stroke All Power America (yeah I know, but ain't no way I'm payin' two or three times what the camper cost for a Yamaha). It's an APG3102C. Retails for $950, online for $799, but I got it for $300 with free shipping.

It has been used some small amount (it's still all clean inside the case, air cleaner, all the wires look spotless etc., just slightly scuffed up case and tires), and I think it was probably returned due to the absolutely-refuses-to-do-anything-but-cross-thread gas cap (traces of silicone sealer around the filler), and then it somehow made its way to Ebay I ran the OD of the cap threads on the grinder for a minute, and it spins right in now, and it's got a big fat o-ring up inside the cap, so all good.

It's got a 105cc, three-horse OHV 4-stroke, made by Yancheng Jiangdong Gasoline Engine Manufacturing Co., LTD. ;D

I filled it with synthetic oil with the cool little angled funnel that came with it (along with a typical cheap steel-tube plug wrench, and a nicely-made-and-polished long skinny 10mm wrench with a u-jointed socket at the other end, and little 12v jumper cables). I replaced the spark plug with an NGK before I even tried to start it, and it started first pull once I remembered to put the plug wire back on... It sputtered and ran, sputtered and ran, and stalled when I started my chopsaw. The new plug was fouled already too. After some research I dumped all the 87 out of my new gas can and replaced it with 91 and an anti-ethanol additive and Seafoam, and it runs better now, but still too rich. It makes a puff of black smoke when a load comes on, and still sputters a little, and doesn't like to idle when I push the throttle linkage down. I'm thinking that maybe the float got shaken and bent into the wrong height during shipping, 'cause a couple of times it made a long slow acceleration like it was running out of gas, then it would slow back down and sputter again.

I'll check the needle valve screws first if I can find 'em, before I go taking the bowl off to look at the float. I'd be doing that right now if it would stop snowing... I wonder how it would run with all the emissions crap off it, I don't live in CA...

After I changed the gas I could cut a 2x4 with the chopsaw if I went slow (and it's only half "good" gas so far 'cause I didn't run it dry before, I just added a lil extra additive to what was in the tank, as it's rated for 1600 watts continuous), and that was with my converter running, and the 30-amp camper cord plugged into the generator and the chopsaw in an outlet inside. Long wire run there.

When I started the chopsaw the generator immediately "dug in", but the saw was way louder inside so I couldn't really hear how fast the generator was running. I'll try it later just plugged into the generator, I'm sure that'll help a lot. It started my skilsaw, but I didn't cut anything with it. I ran my 3/8 drill, sawzall, jigsaw, shop vac and palm sander all without a problem (no sanding, drilling or cutting load), two or three of them and a couple of cfl lamps at a time, along with the converter on boost. I don't have AC, so I think this will be plenty of power for anything I need. It should even run my big 1400 watt microwave if I decide to put that in the camper.

A couple of preliminary things that I (sorta) don't like:
There's no "ECO" mode (or at least no ECO switch, maybe it's always in ECO who knows), and while the manual is great for including exploded drawings of every sub-assembly and part with numbers, it isn't so great when it comes to explaining how everything works, lol. There's not even a picture of the control panel. So I'll have to play with it a bit once I've got it running just right to see what it does with different loads. I'm assuming the green "directive" light means it's ready, lol.

The other thing is that the engine shut-off switch is combined with the fuel shut-off valve under one knob, so I can't turn the fuel off to run it dry. I'll be changing that very soon, I'm not leaving my carburetor full of that damn ethanol gas. Either I'll separate and remount the engine switch or I'll add another gas valve to the fuel line.

I know it's February, but the only place the thing ever got noticeably warm was around the exhaust, the top stayed cool, although it melted its feet a couple if inches into the ice in my driveway. The spark plug was cool enough to pick up very soon after I shut it down. Seems like a nice little engine, once I get it tuned right. It pulls over easily and starts right up. It isn't anywhere near uncomfortably loud kneeling next to it, but I could hear it inside the house from 20 feet (easy to ignore it though)... I'll get a db meter one of these days and do some more scientific testing.

It weighs less than 50lbs so it's easy to pick up and carry around, but it's also got wheels and a handle like a carry-on bag. All in all I'm happy, I think I got a good deal.

I'm also planning on experimenting with enclosures, I'd like to make it as quiet as I can. Got some ideas, one of which is mounting the generator on the back, in a rumble seat-shaped box made for running in place. I'm going to experiment with cardboard to get the right shape for making a draft duct around the generator for cooling.

I figure, like our furnaces and their duct-size-critical airflow requirements, that if I measure how much clear space the thing needs around it to stay cool, I can build a chimney in a shape to draft air, as long as I maintain the square inches of cross-sectional area.

It's like moving your heating ducts, you can move them around on the furnace and change what rooms they supply, but the area of all the ducts added together has to be the same or bigger than it was, or it chokes off the furnace air. So I should be able to build a "chimney" that tapers toward the top to make a draft, as long as the shape allows as much room for air above the generator as the bottom area around the generator contains. No choke effect. I ordered an infra-red thermometer that I can use to point at different spots inside the cardboard ducting. I can also add exhaust fans in the top if needed and run them off 12v. Once I get the right shape I can build it with sound-deadening materials. Maybe play with the engine exhaust, too. My goal is to get as close to silent as I can, so I've read every "quiet yer gennie" thread out there, and plan to use everything that works and nothing that doesn't. That's the plan, anyway...

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[cowcharge]

Went on an Ebay spree over the last couple of weeks, tax refunds are cool! However trying to prioritize things in order to properly allocate my very limited funds is a chore. Couldn't resist the CO detector, 'bout $6 less than at the hardware store. The instructions don't mention height as a mounting factor, but I could have sworn CO was heavier than air, so shouldn't it be placed fairly low?

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[cowcharge]

I guess I have to go ahead and buy a tire, sigh... This tire's been kept alive by heroic measures all winter, 2 cans of Fix-A-Flat, super glue, but the leak keeps coming back. I suppose the giant bubble on the inside sidewall, and all the wires sticking out of the tread are also indications that it's time for a new one. At least I got this nice, hefty li'l compressor out of it though. It's got a steel screw connector instead of the flimsy bicycle pump lever type, and it's very fast and quiet. It sounds like a 4-stroke compared to those plastic-y cheap ones from VIP.

I also ordered a 1000/2000-watt Xantrex inverter ("on the vehicle for delivery", don't you love it when you know the FedEx truck is coming to your house?), a 50' roll of RoofSeal tape to do all the roof seams with, an infrared thermometer, a decibel meter and a wicked 1000A clamp multimeter.

Oh, and I bought another sheet of plywood for the floor and a 4x6 to rip into framing, it's finally time to tear up the bathroom counter and floor and evict the (hopefully dead) bee colony. I expect it be completely rotten and nasty under there, since it's right under the biggest old roof leak, the fridge/stink vent area, and under the furnace (that seems to give off a roasted rot smell from heating up the crappy floor). The bees are probably roasted on top and frozen on bottom, as well as having been poisoned and then sealed up in their hive.

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[cowcharge]

Nekkid pic of Gennie! (facepalm) It turns out that my greatly overfilling the engine oil is likely responsible for the rough running and plug fouling. The picture showing the proper oil level in the manual was for a model without the extended filler tube and longer dipstick that mine needs to clear the "fairing". In my dumbassedness I filled it up to the bottom of the threads like in the manual pic instead of the top of the dipstick crosshatching, which in my long-stick model is a good three inches below the threads. Seems to run better without the extra oil, lol. I ordered a decibel meter from ebay, so eventually I'll be able to report on how loud it really is, and start silencing it.

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[cowcharge]

Picked up this meter on Ebay. Turns out my furnace blower takes 2.2 amps to run, but the dual-bulb light fixture over the dinette takes 2.8... And on bulk, my converter was jamming 27 amps into the (old) batteries, but it rapidly diminished, getting down to 10 amps in about 5 minutes.

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[cowcharge]

Man am I a mess with wood glue. This is the new framing behind the fridge. It was a bit tricky getting the proper angle for the fridge vent framing, due to having to match the slope of the roof. Almost ready to button up the left roof seam.

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[cowcharge]

Took out the port side of the dinette in prep of tearing out the rest of the floor on the left side. So far I've replaced the bedroom floor and half of the hall floor just to be able to work inside, now in order to use single piece joists going all the way forward from the bedroom through the bath and the dinette, I'm going to do the left half of the floor as one section, then the right side under the kitchen and the right side of the dinette. With no barn to either shelter the camper or hold removed things like appliances and cabinets, working in there is like one of those sliding letter puzzles with one empty square. I only can work in the empty square, and have to move all the letters every time I work on a new place.

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[flyingham]

You need one of those "pods" storage units to move stuff into!

[cowcharge]

I'd love a pod Flyingham, but I don't have the budget for anything like that (If I did I'd probably live in it lol, my old boss has an insulated cargo container that he uses for parts and tools, and he said I should get one of those when I first started looking for a camper). I agonized over buying the tarp and the rope, lol. It's been a poor winter this year. My rebuilding this camper to live in is sort of like grabbing at a scraggly old bush as I slide toward the cliff of homelessness.

On the plus side, I do have a fairly firm commitment, from a lady friend with a 78-acre organic farm, to rent a patch to me at a "reasonable" rate. Is it just me, or do people think that charging $1000 or so a month for a parking spot (to live in a campground where you bring your own building) is a little much, considering that you could get an apartment for that price? We haven't discussed the details yet, but it's a very nice, quiet (except for the insomniac rooster), rural, mostly-forest-covered piece of land, and only 15-20 minutes from Portland, Maine's largest city, and maybe ten from Walmart, lol. It'll technically be boondocking I guess, since I'll be on my own electrically, although I expect to get water-refill rights, and perhaps maybe sewer dump rights if she has access to her septic by other than just dumping into a toilet. If not I'll buy a blue rolling porta-tank and find a dump station. I'm also hoping that she will let me set up a wireless router in her house so that I can pirate her internet, but we'll see about that (above all, I don't want to be a PITA). I believe I'd have to be in line of sight of her house, or raise a can antenna above the trees, and I wasn't intending to do either. We haven't picked my spot yet because there's three feet of snow everywhere, but my plan, if I have my way, is to pick a private spot where neither of us will be in the other's way. Or I can always leave the computer set up in my van and use McDonald's wireless, but that would mean no more all-night insomnia internet... Or maybe shell out for a new phone with wireless internet (doubtful, this year anyway). It's cool because I can continue my rebuild while living in it, running saws and my generator whenever I want with no fear of disturbing anyone. Try that at a KOA, lol. Deer on the lawn will be cool, too

I got my laser-aimed remote infra-red thermometer from Hong Kong the other day. It cost $6.14 (!), with $9.92 shipping, lol.
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230432578010&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I'm going to use it to adjust my furnace burner air to get the highest temperature I can without kicking off the limit switch (in an attempt to maximize my propane mileage), and to measure the temperatures inside my future generator-enclosure experiments (along with using the remote, K-type wired thermocouple that came on my multimeter), and to calibrate the thermostat on the oven, and just to point at things when I'm bored.

It's very cool (I do love a well-made gadget). It reacts very quickly to temperature changes like shifting it from the furnace to my hand, and then holds the last temperature recorded for something like 30 seconds before it shuts itself off. It has a switch for degrees F or C, a switchable backlight and a switchable aiming laser to save the 9v battery, and measures from -50 to 986 degrees F. It has an 8:1 coverage ratio, which means that if you aim from 8 inches away, the temperature will be measured in a one-inch circle. Move back to 16 inches and the target is two inches in diameter, or to four inches to measure a half-inch spot, and so on. You can watch the display change as you move it around the front of the furnace to different hot and cool spots. Great for measuring the temperature of just the limit switch, and I can check the temps of different rooms just by aiming it down the hall. The case is molded from some very cool kind of plastic. On the inside, it's smooth and shiny and hard, like any normal polystyrene or PVC electrical device, but on the outside it's been treated somehow, to make it appear sort of like the "armored" binoculars you see sometimes, and to somehow feel like it's rubber-coated, even though it isn't. It looks smooth but grainy, kind of like an anodized surface. It isn't "squishy" or anything, it's still clicky-hard on the outside, but it FEELS rubbery. It's hard to explain, but it feels cool and comfortably "grippy". I love when a manufacturer adds "unnecessary" details, that while maybe not THAT crucial to its function, show time taken on design and a desire to add "something extra". I think it's classy when a manufacturer adds a technically unnecessary process, without raising the price, to put their product above the average. Hong Kong seems to be a bit above the rest of China in quality when it comes to manufacturing, as well as in their English...

Like a cheap aluminum no-name AA flashlight I bought off the auto parts counter once. It only cost a few bucks, but it was so well machined and shaped (the threads are like silk and there are molded finger grips) and so well finished and polished in glossy blue that it looks much more expensive than it was, and I couldn't resist buying it just because it was so well made (admit it Howard, it was because it was shiny and blue). I have an awesome little solar-charged LED flashlight now so I don't use the blue one any more, but it's still cool to fondle, lol.

The other pic is of the edge of the floor where the bathroom counter was, between the furnace and the wheel well in the thermometer pic. And the rot goes on, and the rot goes on. I've taken out the bathtub, toilet (thank god for empty, clean tanks with no odor, I could vacuum the sawdust I made right out of the tank through the toilet hole) and bathroom counter, and have almost got all the floor out on the left side. It's tricky trying to squeeze a skilsaw under and around the plumbing. I left all the plumbing in place, only disconnecting the water supply lines (the sink and shower traps even still have water in them). The furnace is sitting on a little remaining island of plywood, surrounded by bare aluminum belly pan. I've got it dismounted, but I'm keeping it running up until the last minute, since it's still only in the 30s and 40s 'round here in the daytime, and it'll have to be out of the camper until I get the new framing and plywood in, so I'm trying to do as much as possible while I still have the heat. The snow's melting fast though, thank god. Can't wait to smell the Earth again, that's my clear sign of Spring. Maine only has three seasons, by the way: Winter, Mud, and Fourth of July.

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[58packardwagon]

I just bought the twin to your camper today. It is almost 100% original. It too needs a little
work......don't they all. I love your write-up. I have learned a lot and loved the detailed pics. Thank you for posting

[cowcharge]

Hey Packard, thanks for the kind words, and good luck with the Shasta. There's way more damage than you think there is...

I'm getting ready to move within a month or two, so I have to kick it into high gear on the camper (seein's how that's where I'm moving to). I'm cramming my entire life into two metal boxes, the '76 Shasta and a '94 Ford conversion van with 176,000 miles on it. A lady farmer friend is allowing me a bit of land to live on. It's on a little hill, with about 400 yards of fields in all directions. I'll post a pic once it greens up some.

I turned off my cable internet, and installed my computer (with USB wireless adapter) into my van, which is now the nerdmobile. I don't have a laptop, so yeah, my whole desktop, 17" monitor and all is now in back. I took a 20 year-old monster of a chipboard computer desk that was destined for the burn pile and did a Frankenstein on it, then put it behind the driver's seat. This van is old and tired, so I didn't want to spend any money on nice wood, so recycling the desk was easy. Got a file cabinet drawer and a small junk drawer under the printer... 75-watt 5.1 surround with a subwoofer under the seat... I removed the two captain's chairs that were the second row and moved the fold-down-into-a-bed rear bench seat up to the rear edge of the side door opening and bolted it into place. When I fold it down into a bed the forward edge just fits under the edge of the desk. For the moment at least, it can't be used for passengers because it's bolted between the two positions of the previous two rows of rear seating, and neither set of seat belts lines up with it.

And yes, I'm posting this from the van, while parked outside my local library.

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[cowcharge]

Ghetto nerdmobile.

The stupid little "new" battery that the PO put in the van (that looks like it came out of a Toyota, it's way smaller than the tray and will be replaced some time) only gave me about an hour's worth of surfing before the inverter's low-voltage warning would go off, so since I'm now tearing the front of the floor out of the camper and they were in the way, I decided to put the camper batteries in the van. I used one of the "walls" of that old corner desk as a base (because it's got slippery fake wood grain on it that makes it easy to slide those 110-pound batteries around), some old wood from the camper, and some newly-ripped stuff to build a battery box in the back of the van. It's bolted through the floor with 1/2" bolts like the ones that hold the seats down. The two 8L-16 6v golf cart batteries are in the center box, you can just see the tops. On the left is my Xantrex 1000-watt inverter with a surge protector plugged into it leading forward to the computer, and on the right is my Progressive Dynamics 45-amp converter. I just plug the converter into an extension cord when I get home. I also bought a battery isolator switch that will switch the van's alternator over to charging the camper batteries after the car battery's charged, but I haven't installed it yet. Everything's wired with 8-gauge stranded wire.

Those golf cart batteries are old and tired too, like the van, lol. They were part of a solar installation in an island cottage for probably 20 years, and then while all 16 of them were being driven to the dock on tractor forks and a pallet, they all fell off, lol. The plates shifted upward from the impact, pushing one connector on each battery up out of the case, leaving a gap. But hey, they were free... I doubt they have a quarter of their original 370 amp-hours left, but I haven't done any testing.

I'm almost done rebuilding another third of the floor, under the bathroom and the left half of the front dinette where the old electrical bay was. I'll post more as I go.

Yay, stuff's turning green!

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[cowcharge]

Finally got the bathroom and left side of the dinette floor replaced, doubling my workspace, thankfully. Now I can start paneling the bedroom. I'm using an old boatbuilder's trick to mark the panels. I taped a rectangle of old masonite from the bathroom over the bedroom window, cut to the size of the window frame. Then I took a notched stick and laid it down with the point on various key points and corners along the edge of the wall and ceiling, tracing around the stick onto the masonite for each point.

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[cowcharge]

Then I taped the masonite onto the new birch panel, and by realigning the stick with each of its tracings, I marked each point onto the panel for cutting. Makes for a perfect fit, as long as you properly locate the masonite on the panel. Got a new Skil saw and a nice plywood blade too, so I think the panels will come out nice.

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[cowcharge]

Bought me a mini Kreg jig ($24 at the lumber yard for the single hole, no-frills model), I love it! I'm framing the interior with 1X2 poplar, which is 3/4" thick of course. So all I have to do to get the proper screw hole depth is to line up the front of the Kreg with the end of the wood, clamp it and drill. It's also come in handy with a few of the loosely stapled frame cross pieces in the walls. By rotating the piece of wood in place on the loose staples, I could clamp the Kreg to the frame, drill the holes, rotate the piece back where it was and drive the screws in. It really tightened up the wall.

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[cowcharge]

Yay, finally getting to the pretty part of this inside-out rebuild! I am so tired of replacing framing (though I'm not done yet, I still have to replace the stretch of floor under the kitchen counter, the door, and the right half of the dinette. Maybe 10' long, x 45" (edge to center line). Along with a rotted out rafter/wall joint above the kitchen window, and I suspect the bottoms of all the studs under it, since all the other side wall studs were rotted out at the bottom. It's a wonder the whole thing didn't pancake on me. The intake/exhaust through-wall fitting for the furnace sagged about 1/2", or else my floor's too thick, because it didn't line up with the furnace any more and I had to lower it a touch

The walls are birch ply and the trim/ interior framing is stained poplar 1x2. I like how the original gold window screens go with the birch, so I think I'll leave them that way, also the corner trim around the bathtub is gold aluminum. That's the framing for my now-vertical water tank in the pic, my first attempt with the Kreg jig. The first square in the section is a removable cover for the water pump, that's why it isn't lined up, it's just on crooked. The water lines from the kitchen will run between the tank and the facing, out a hole and along the back wall. I'm using tung oil for all the interior finish (except probably the bathroom), because I like the warm glow of oiled wood, and I like the thought of never having to sand anything in the camper ever again. If it gets beat up, I'll just clean it and oil it again. No worrying about getting trim paint on the walls, trying to invisibly re-varnish a gouge, or any of those headaches.

The floor is self-stick vinyl tiles from Lowes. I think I may regret getting glossy tiles some day, because they seem pretty easy to scratch, but nothing else affordable that I found looked any good with the trim color (including the "Shasta" pattern, and of course the tiles on sale for 25 cents each sucked too). The stain is water based stuff from Samand that's supposed to be eco-friendly (http://www.samanwoodstain.com/saman-wood-products/wood-stain), but I bought it because of the color. It has no smell, is easy to use, and cleans off your hands with soap and water. I mixed about 3 parts raspberry with 1 part paprika, trying for a cranberry/burgundy kinda color, and ended up craving a pitcher of sangria. It still came out rosier than I wanted, but the tung oil adds just enough yellow to kill the pink effect a bit. It's a sort of dusty burgundy color. I painted the ceiling a semi-gloss white paint, and will do the same for the bottoms of the cabinets when I get around to building them. Haven't decided on the countertops yet, but one idea is to use the same black floor tiles, sunken in a half inch of that pour-on resin they use for bar tops.

Started painting the bathroom sink and tub, too. Bought a can of Krylon in burgundy, and it turned out to be much less red and a lot more rosy-pinky than the cap. In the sunlight I hate it, but inside the camper it seems redder, maybe from the yellow of the birch, who knows? It looks a lot better inside, whatever the reason. So that spray paint color determined my stain color, and thereby the whole color scheme of the camper. I knew I wanted a dark red of some kind, but Krylon picked the shade. I used it to paint the original brown plastic light fixtures as well. So burgundy, tan birch, white, black and gold will be my colors.

It finally feels like I'm getting somewhere, thankfully, because I thought I'd have it moved by now, and deep down I'm feeling the pressure. It all comes down to budget, though...

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[cowcharge]

Here's my new water pump mounted next to the verticalized tank. The pump has rubber mounts but I added a second layer, made of old rubber/canvas laminate, to dampen the vibration even more. The pump switch, drawer pulls and cabinet closures are original.

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[cowcharge]

This is the camper's (and mine, as soon as I find some work) new home, on a friend's 77-acre farm, looking North. My brand new tarp got half the grommets yanked out of it by the wind, practically the first night. It's a windy spot on a hill, with hundreds of yards of open land everywhere but to the North. I ended up tying it down close to the roof and the ends again, like my old tarp was, and stretching the leftover out back to form a bit of shed roof under which I can cut plywood. It's really only there to protect the cross-roof seams, which I have yet to finish de-gunking and taping.

Had no problem towing it the 12 miles with my old 6-cyl wreck of a van, although it did sway a bit once or twice on the faster stretches, probably because it's front-heavy with all of my tools up front and and an empty water tank, along with no "furniture" having been built in the rear end yet (I think). I did have to run to Walmart and pick up a set of trailer lights, because we were having an October snow storm that night, and it was my only chance to drive in there until spring (thanks for the curveball, Mother Nature), and after three hours of trying to diagnose the taillight problems, I ran out of time. I got there at 5pm, backed it straight in Northward (barely threading my way among the stumps and trees), and got the van stuck on a stump whilst trying to pull forward and turn the trailer left to align it with its curbside facing South. Soft forest ground and a 2wd conversion van with running boards don't mix. The van was sitting with the front of the differential up against the stump, and the camper backed up to within a few inches of a tree and aligned with the North-South line. The only way out was forward. It got too dark to see almost immediately, so I was glad I had brought a tank of propane in the van, because my landlady was more keen on finishing cooking dinner than getting her tractor out in the dark. I spent the night, listening to wet clumps of snow falling off trees, sounding like I was under snowball bombardment. The next day the landlady's brother brought the tractor up to tow my van out. Took me about three hours to jack the thing out of its tire-hole enough to get some planks under the wheel and tow it over the stump. Every time I'd lay blocks down, jack the axle up the full travel of the jack, and block up the axle, the whole thing would sink back down to within 3/4" of where it started. Must have jacked the thing up 12 times at least. In the wet snow, which quickly turned to slush, which in turn turned all that forest soil into mud. I was a cold, muddy mess, I'll tell you. Got home all set for a long hot shower, just to find out the power was out...

It's campable, I've spent a few nights aboard, including Christmas Eve. Although the oven is only propped on a quick frame I knocked up out of leftover KD stuff (haven't built a kitchen counter yet), and I've been using a jerrycan of water because I didn't want to fill the tank when I wasn't heating full-time. Christmas Eve, I spent the day getting the oven in and hooked up so I could cook a big bunch of Shake 'n' Bake chicken (I've loved that stuff since I was a kid), rice, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and biscuits. Yum! Oven worked like a charm, and the thermostat is pretty damn close, according to my multimeter's temperature probe. I ate like a pig that night and the next day (Christmas), haha.

I tried to avoid using the toilet until I was full-timing too, but nature and eating too much finally won, lol. It was more comfortable than I expected, and the plastic seat stays nice 'n' warm. While I had it all apart for cleaning (wasn't bad, just sorta unused-dirty, very little odor from the nooks and crannies and none from the tank), it seemed to me to be a very strange/poor design, in that the waste is not confined to an enclosed tube into the tank, but allowed to free-fall through a rather large space before going through the narrower hole into the tank. Wonder why they made it possible for waste to splash around in the base of the toilet like that? The blade valve also leaks, so the toilet won't hold water... Maybe I'll look at a new toilet down the road. Isn't it funny how much more disgusting the thought of someone else's used toilet seems, compared to an identically-dirty toilet of your own?

Christmas Eve it got down to about 14F, inside it was 70+F, although the furnace would only shut off for about 15-20 minutes at a time. Still, not bad for not being totally insulated or having storm windows yet.

Is it really February already? It'll be two years in May...

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[lopo]

Almost 2 months with no updates! Don't leave us in suspense! Are you living in it full-time yet?
And I'm dying to see more interior photos!

[boandsusan]

Me too! I`m waiting for more interior pics!

[cowcharge]

Haha, I need more interior before I can take more pics! Not living in it yet. It's been a rough winter work-wise, haven't had any money to spend on it, just been using up the materials I already had. Hopefully that will change soon, though.

I have finished the floor, the insulation, the ceiling and the paneling up to just beyond the door, though. Still have the front dinette walls-left, right and front-to insulate and panel, and the ceiling forward of the door. In the pic you can see the repainted tub back in place with the new fake-tile Masonite walls. The sink is just sitting there on the pipes, no counter yet.

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