Construction..as opposed to destruction..

I finally feel like I'm doing something constructive on the camper. After a month and a half of taking things apart, I'm actually building / improving something.

We are still dealing with cold snowy weather here in NH so I've continued to clean up the windows and some aluminium trim I moved to the basement, but over the last couple nights I've been able to work on rebuilding the rotted sections of framing in the front half of the camper.

I picked up a Keg pocket hole jig kit at Lowes and that is proving to be invaluable. It allows you to attach wood together with a very strong joint and is perfect for tightening up the existing stapled framework and building new frame sections. This will also be crucial in making the new dinette area, the kitchen and the closets / cabinets as I rebuild the interior. I really can't imagine how I'd do all that without this little tool.

Amazon, Lowes and ebay retailers all have this kit for under $40 dollars. Its called the Kreg R3.

I made a little demo video of how it works.. Very low budget.. no special effects..  Here it is :

Here's an updated picture of the interior where I'm working..

The Starboard side of the dinette area is done and the port side is almost done. 

Next I need to rebuild the entire front wall framing floor to ceiling.

Windows Before and After..

I've used fine steel wool with great success on other projects involving aluminium but apparently, its a little tougher to get great results with 40 year old window trim that hss been exposed to the elements that whole time. So while not quite as polished as I was hoping for, they certainly look better.

Keep in mind that this camper 'refurb' was never intended to be a restoration to new condition, or a show trailer..Just something in nice shape with a bit of a retro feel that my family can enjoy for a few years on vacations and long weekends.

That said, here's a shot of the 2 small windows I took off the drivers side of the camper. The one on the left was cleaned up using only fine steel wool and windex.

It took about 20 minutes in total to go from looking like the one on the right, to the nicer one on the left. I removed the screen and cleaned the glass inside and out and I also used the steel wool to 'polish' up the parts visible on the inside of the trailer once the window is reinstalled.

I have seen some other Shasta blogs where people have taken apart the window frame, removed the glass, drilled out rivits and polished all the aluminium parts to an almost mirror shine before reassembly. I think the work they have done is stunning, but in my particular case, that would be overkill and not worth the hours of time per window. Cleaning them up quickly with steel wool has made them look way better and I'm good with that.

One (small one) down, 10 more to go plus some other trim parts~

Still darn cold..

Overnight temps are still down at zero and daytime is barely hitting 20..
We got some more snow last night, only another 5 inches or so.

In order to feel like I'm accomplishing something while I'm waiting for it to warm up to at least 'freezing', I took out the windows on the drivers side so I can work on them in the basement where its a balmy 60 degrees. I'm not going to completely take them apart, just clean up the aluminium with fine steel wool and clean the glass inside and out. I tested a little spot using the steel wool and it looks 100 times better.

I also ordered the new butyl tape to seal everything back up as I reassemble the windows and vents etc..
After seeing the nightmare silicone job on our 68 trailer, I knew it had to be done the right way with butyl.
It won't harden over time and crack like silicone will and should prove to be 100% leak proof if I apply it right when I reinstall the parts that need sealing.

Its really cheap.. I got 1/4" by 3/4" by 20 foot rolls for less than $1.45 shipped each. Can't go wrong there~

Next update will be a 'before and after' on one of the windows..

Till then, here's a couple updated pictures..

Some windows out:

Windows in the basement ready for cleaning:

While the '71 is in the garage, The '68 is outside in the mounting snow:

Finally ready to dig in to wall repairs..

No pictures today but I did accomplish a couple things that I needed to do in order to start the rebuild process.

1. picked up 1x2 and 1x3 wood
2. picked up an angle grinder on sale at Lowes for $14.97 (not 'needed' but helpful)
3. picked up 500 #8 x 3/4 hex head screws (to replace the nasty ones on the exterior)
4. borrowed a large pipe wrench and wrestled the water fill cap off so I coule remove the water tank.

Now the interior is gutted and I can begin rebuilding :)

#3 might not seem important, but in order to replace the framing at the front of the camper I have to remove dozens of these hex headed screws from the outside as they grab in to the framing to hold the skin on. Right now, there are a bunch just poking through where wood used to be.. so they need to come out, wood needs to go in, and new screws need to go back in place.

It was minus 9 degrees this morning.. zero degrees at 5pm.. too cold to go out tonight and work on it.
Hopefully the temp will be back up in to the 30's in a couple days, I'm anxious to get going~

Toilet? What toilet..

Turns out the potty was not so bad to get out. It was put in place very much like a home unit with a collar, a wax ring, and a couple studs sticking up that the toilet base bolted to. Once the nuts were off the studs, it lifted right out. Then the collar was held in by 4 screws and it lifted right out leaving a 6 inch hole in the floor.
I'll patch that up prior to putting down the new subfloor.

Once the toilet was gone I picked and peeled at the old flooring a bit to see if it was going to crumble or if there was a chance of getting it out easily.. ('easily' being a relative term, I wasn't expecting it would just pull out with zero effort)

I spent about 25 minutes with my prybar, a wide chisel and a hammer and was able to remove about 20% of the flooring. The area I removed is where most of the curled up edges were and now that its out I'm pretty sure I'm just going to subfloor over whats left. I have some leftover thin green underlayment that goes under pergo type floors from a previous project that I'll use on that side where I removed the vinyl. Its the same thickness as the vinyl I removed so the floor will remain relatively level when I put the new subfloor on top of whats there.

So here are the latest pictures with the toilet gone.. Just a little bit more panel removal up front and I'll be ready to strengthen up the framing.. then the real fun begins.. window removal, rewiring, insulating, repaneling..  eeesh.  Little by little, it'll come together  :)

Quickie update...

Between having a cold and dealing with a foot of snow on Monday I really didn't have much time at all to work on the Shasta this week. I did manage a couple hours on Thursday to remove the fridge, the original heater, the closet and more paneling. I still need to deal with the toilet.

I also removed a bit more on the front wall and was a bit discouraged to see the framing under the front window is just gone.. crumbles to dust as you touch it. I knew I was going to have to remove a few of the windows to reseal them but was hoping to not need to touch the front one. Oh well, at least I know now to put that on the 'to do' list~

Just a couple pics today of the interior now that the larger closet is gone..

Oh yeah...  More Bees :)
(not sure what this vented but it was up above the fridge area)

Almost done with demo..

I had hoped to finish the interior gutting while I was on vacation last week but unfortunately we had a blizzard on Monday followed by 3 days of bitter cold. By Saturday it was almost 50 degrees out so I did get a few hours in then.

I removed the rest of the kitchen area and the front wall that I was scared to look behind.. Turns out I didn't need to be afraid at all as there was nothing there. Seriously.. nothing. Framework on both sides was rotted completely away, I just pulled the panel away and threw it out.

I also was able to remove the propane tanks from both the 71 (old style) and the 68 (new style) so I can put the better stuff on the 71.

I did some searching for vinyl tiles now that I'm getting closer to that stage and showed my wife what I think is a good combo for a checkered floor, she likes it and thinks "60's greens" is a good color scheme to go with. Since I plan on paneling the walls and ceiling with birch, I wanted the floor to be something other than wood that would be a good contrast and somewhat retro. Just today I found a great site that has materials for the dinette and rear couch/bed that will match great too..

So, here are some updated pictures showing the progress, as well as a couple color scheme samples~

These 2 might make good curtains or throw pillows-

And here's the floor tile mockup I made-

Quick shot of the propane stuff removed..
Oh yeah, I took off the rock gaurd since the one on the 68 is better-

Here's where the kitchen used to be.. I don't think it's going back in the same place-

Some of the front is stripped now too..
(How about that color difference on the floor!)

Well thats it for now.. Hopefully I can figure out how to take out the toilet by the next update :)