"Free Willie": A camper build

GotWood

GotWood

Sayer of Fact
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Location
Maiden, NC
I did some work for a new builder recently and when I finished the job he paid me in full and gave me this as a bonus! (truck not included!)


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After a little cleaning, it started looking a hell of a lot better

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The real problem was the water leak that had not been fixed in over 4 years, and the fact I plugged it in and the door shocked the crap out of me.
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Except for the front overhang, everything else looked pretty decent, until I started digging.
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This is what I found when I started removing the paneling in the rear corner.



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Wait.. this ain't done yet? I was gonna borrow it this weekend.. :D
 
After a little more destruction, this is what I found.


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I pulled out the wiring, rebuilt all of the wood structure using pocket screws (kregg jig) and a bunch more glue.

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cleaned up and new wood on the bottom side.

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Finally got the seating area back together too. I'll finish the walls later, for now I just want to get the structure back in place.

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There is an amazing engineer somewhere in the camper world. They have figured out a way to make chicken salad from chicken shit. The door is made up of only 3 pcs of wood and aluminum channel down the lock side. The rest is glue and styrofoam with a couple staples for good measure. I found all of this when the door fell off in my hand.

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Glued, screwed and clamped together for the night then hung back it now works better than my dads new camper. Luckily, its not hard to improve the design of this thing.

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Now its on to the kitchen sink. Every window in this Damn thing has leaked causing a majority of the damage. The only good part is every thing above them is still good. BTW, did I mention these things are built CHEAP!

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:fuck-you: I've seen people livin in better maintained refrigerator boxes.

Why didnt you just buy some chicken wire and build a dome on the back of your truck?:lol:
 
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Well, this

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Now looks like this.

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I didn't get a chance to pick up materials Sat before the store closed at 2 so mostly just tear down and some light repair. This thing is going to suck up several sheets of 1/8" luan. I plan on using it to panel all the new walls and use house paint instead of regular wood panel.
The other major cost is going to be puddy tape to seal all of the openings. $10 for 30ft, and that's enough for 2 windows!

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Well the camper has been neglected all week and been busy with work so I didn't work much at all on it. I did manage a couple hours today to at least do some structure work though. Started out with all of the bad wood pulled out.
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This was the front corner that has leaked forever. Because I'm trying not to completely gut this thing, I'm only fixing what I have to. I will admit it bothers me to patch things up, but if I fix them the way i think it should be this thing would weigh 4 tons.

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This was my fix for the corner. It spreads the stress and is attached with pocket screws and glue of course.


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When the corner was assembled the factory couldn't manage to attach the leg securely or properly. Add the rusted lag bolts and you have a mess. The entire set up was just lag bolts screwed to the aluminium frame and 2 of them completely missed the mark.

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The only fix I could do was weld all of the original holes and drill new ones.

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I employed a system of measuring and strait lines to attach the bracket to the frame with stainless bolts. I dont know how I came up with this revelation but I maybe should share my epiphany with the factory.


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The only other thing I got done was some cleaning. The old puddy tape is a total sticky mess. After a couple attempts I finally figured a system that was both effortless and kept the sticky off of my hands.

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Got a little fab work done tonight before it was too late. I had to cut a piece of 1/8 plywood to go back in as the bottom of the camper and kitchen sink area. It was a little tricky because it has to be slid in from the bottom and over the grey tank.

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Now the frame is laid out. I will remove it, set up the pocket screws, and re-assembled with the usual glue and such. Once dry and secure I'll insulate the cavities and lay another sheet of 1/8 over that.


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Didn't get a lot done this week due to work. I did however finish out the bottom of the sink, re framed and insulated and mounted the grey tank back under.
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I also finished the wall and filled voided with expanding foam. Wall feels solid again. Once again, no finish work just structure.

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More demolition today. Things got worse as I moved to the overhang. I knew it was bad but got my hopes a little too high. It's a good thing I've done as much repair as I have because I may have given up had I started here. Too far to stop now!

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At any point, did you consider that it would be less work to build one from scratch? LOL! I have been there!
 
damn...
 
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