And the great paint debate is over...

We have been really busy with the camper rebuild.   The more we worked on it, the more things kept getting pulled out of there.   I am still surprised at how far down we went to make it right.  Pulled off some skin and replaced some damaged wood.  Removed all the paneling, pulled out the kitchen completely and the gutted the main walls.

So with the windows out and the skin off this side, I said "this is a good time to paint"  Being limited on budget, we couldn't buy paint for the whole camper.  So after much debate we decided to paint with spray cans.  We could buy a few and get this side done. Use a brand name and we will be able to match the other side when we have more funds.  So  I started by sanding the skin that was off, then sanding the skin that is left up on this side.  Washed all the skin to remove the sanding dust, paint and any mold.

We are going red and white.  The gloss bright red that we wanted didn't have primer built in. So I primed these pieces first. 

A few weeks ago, I ordered this hand held can sprayer from amazon. It was under five bucks I think and makes using spray cans so much easier.  It was made by Rustoleum as well.  

The white I used and the primer  I used under the red were ultra cover.  The white had built in primer.  In order to get the right red color. I had to use just regular  red gloss Rustoleum. 

  

With the hand held sprayer. It went on well and covered easily.   I chose to change up the pattern only slightly on the front of the camper and added an angle.   I am sure this will not please everyone as I didn't follow the lines of the original manufacture.  But we are the only ones that matter as far as this project goes and I am very pleased with the  result. 

While painting is an obvious change. We did get some behind the scenes improvements this weekend.  We finished the  repairs to floor around the door. Replaced the steps and now we can get in and out of the camper easily again.  

I also worked on curtains.  Here is a sneak peak of some of the curtain material. 

I found all my vintage looking material on ebay. 

The more we work on this camper, the more I love it.  I can not wait until it is ready to roll and we are done.  I am envisioning some great memories that we will make.

Here is previous blogs on the camper rebuild.

lots-of-work-this-week-demolition 9-21-14

demolition-is-lot-of-of-work 9-14-14

cleaning-not-so-glamours-job 8-24-14

so-this-is-beginning 8-12-14

Lots of work this week . Demolition is almost done!

We have been working for the past two weekends on demolition. Oh my gosh, it is dirty hard work.
We pulled almost everything out of the camper. Pulled out the stove, the furnace, the fridge and the hot water heater. They were all gas. We have decided to ditch the gas. The fridge didn't work, the furnace and stove were iffy and full of dead wasp nest.   We already own a small fridge that we will be putting in the camper and a radiating electric heater that works very well.  

We may get some disapproval for not keeping the camper original and in the vintage look.  But we plan to keep this camper for at least ten years and we want to make it the way we want it and the way it will work best for us.  

So here is some photos of how far we have come this week.   I don't think we knew how much work this baby was going to be when we brought her home. But we will know how solid she will be and how good she will be to go.

We discovered that the little vent door that was used for the furnace is the perfect size for our window air unit.  The previous owner put a window air unit into the back window and did not keep it level enough.  It drained out into the camper instead of outside.  Leaving lots of water damage.   Taking a lot of damaged wood out and replacing it with new wood.   We will also have to replace the missing window.  But we are making progress.    

Anytime you tear into something this old, there is no telling what you will find.   But sadly we have found no money or diamond rings here.  

While we have been working on the demolition,  I have had to use some of my creative energy up and I've worked on the couch seating.  If you remember it was the ugly camo covered, nasty, dirty couch.  I cleaned the cushions and recovered them in black material with white polka dots.  I love this material.   I will use more of it for other things along the way.  I got all the materials so far on ebay.  It is the world's shopping center.  Anything is a click away. 

So the cushions were cleaned.  I bought thin paneling, just laid the cushion on the paneling and traced around it.  I cut the paneling out so that it is the bottom of the cushion.  Then cut the material out and stapled it to the bottom of the paneling.  The seat cushion was strait across.  The camper seats (we actually kept those)  are L shaped so I added cushions to the sides of the bottom seat shaped like the L also.  I will add some other red cushions to it and brighten it up.  

I also worked on the curtains this weekend.   I can't wait to get to work to start adding walls and painting the cabinets in the camper.  I am ready to see some adding to instead of demolition. 

Some of the curtain material

Catch up on previous blogs about this remodel:

demolition-is-lot-of-of-work

cleaning-not-so-glamours-job

so-this-is-beginning

Demolition is a lot of of work!

We have been working on demolition for the last couple of weeks.  This weekend as the weather cooled,  I was able to get  a lot done.  Pulled off most of the paneling.  It was old and damaged and came off in layers and splintered.  I was covered in small splintered wood and sawdust.  In fact today I took three showers and I still feel like I have sawdust all over.

While working on the trailer, my husband and I started considering to pulling out the stove.  The person who sold us the trailer never camped in it. He had purchased it with the thought that he would redo it and never had money or time.  He did think that the previous owner had used the stove top but not the heater.  The gas furnace wasn't even connected.   The stove was rusting and I had planned on painting it.  But with a lot thought and debate, we decided to pull it out and do away with the gas.  We will use an electric double burner with flat cast iron burners.  We will store it away when we aren't using it and increase our counter space.  We also will put a slate cutting board into the counter top to allow the double burner  to sit without worry of burning or damaging the counter.   At least this is the current plan :-)

Our plan.

We did find a door frame and window frame that will need to be replaced, along with some frame around the skylight, but over all, behind the paneling, the wood frame is in good shape.  We discovered that the fridge will not work on the electric mode. Not sure if it works with gas like it should but since we are not keeping the gas stove we will not have gas in the camper. (seems safer anyway) so we will pull the old fridge out.  We actually have a small electric fridge already that we take along with us when we camp with the pop up so we will just put that to use inside the camper.  We discovered that the bathroom has no water hooked up. A newer water line was ran to the kitchen sink but that is the only line.  Oh my gosh, the camper was used as a hunting camp. Oh my gosh they must have used the bathroom behind a tree.  

So we pulled out the stove, sink, counter top, furnace all the paneling and ceiling this week.   We still have a lot of work to do.  Hopefully we will keep up the great work and get to actually start adding to the camper instead of taking away soon.

I am going to work on the couch this week and get the covering on the cushions.  I will post an update on how I tackle that so stray tuned later this week.   Meanwhile,  I am always open to any ideas and suggestions. I am learning as we go.  It is a lot of fun but oh my gosh this is hard work.

Previous blogs on our trailer remodel:
cleaning not-so-glamours-job
This is the beginning.

Cleaning the not so glamours job

Nothing glamorous going on in the camper redo department.  We have been so busy with such social children and friends, today was the first time I have had a chance to dig into the camper cleaning.

Of my gosh it was gross.  It was used as a deer camp. Visions of hunters coming in from the woods covered in who know what, sitting down on the couch and not even washing their hands filled my imagination. The grim was an inch thick. Black gross grim.

I also wanted to get the cushions real good and clean. I threw away the dirty ugly curtains and cut the cloth off the couch cushions.  While I cut the cloth, dirt and dust was flying.  It was a ugly camo cloth and it was nasty, dusty dirty stuff. 

My first chore was to get the cushions clean.  I did this once before with the cushions from our pop up camper and it worked great so I am using the same technique on these.   I started  covering the foam with  baking soda and letting it set for a couple of hours. Then brush off the baking soda and spaying the foam down with vinegar mix with water. I used just regular white vinegar and mixed it about half water. With a spay bottle I sprayed the foam and let it dry.  I repeated this technique again in a few days after it dried.  This treatment neutralizes any mildew and odor.   

But noting glamours about this chore. 

Going to recover the cushions with black material with big white polka dots.   Can't you see it?

We have for sure some water damage in the wall under the window ac unit. It leaks inside the camper.  I also noticed some of the other paneling is loose and in poor shape. So I spent some time peeling paneling off.  One good discovery. The wiring was replaced sometime not to long ago. It is newer and in good shape. The paneling, not so much.  There is some mold behind the first layer of paneling and so I will be pulling it all off down to the insulation and metal.  The insulation itself is thin.  Going to put a little extra insulation back in. 

We don't have the money to buy it all  or the place to store items for the camper so we will just be buying as we go. This afternoon we went to Lowes and went window shopping for new walls and new ceiling materials.  Where the walls are in sad shape. The floor, (other than around the door) seems to be in good shape. We picked out some wood looking flooring that is neutral. Going to do the walls white. 

The cabinets seem to be sturdy and in good shape. But the handles are the kind that have little plastic tip you pinch to open. It is supposed to keep the door shut, but they don't work anymore.  We haven't figured out what we are doing with those.

I am eager to get new walls up. Impatient is what I am.  Next weekend I will be out of town half the weekend. The other half, well I see more demolition coming then.  I want to twitch my nose and have it done and glamours already! 

Previous blogs about our Fan camper remodel:

Fantasticfanrvremodel 8-12-14

So this is the beginning.  Hopefully the rough start is not an indication on how this remodel will go.  
You see, we drove almost two hours to pick up our vintage fan.  We got her for a bargain but I paid a little more than money and it came with an ouch.

The camper was at the shop of the seller in Ark.   Living around the  camper, under or behind it, was a nest of hornets and yes they found me.   I have had a lot of bee stings in my time but I can't remember the last time I have had an hornet sting.  I was rewarded with stings on the knee and the eyebrow.  My face swelled and my eye was almost swelled shut.  Lots of steroids, zyrtec and three days later, I think I am finally ready to move on and tackle this job ahead of us.  (we have lots of ongoing jobs already but are under a deadline with this old girl)

She is a 1971 Lee Liner 18foot Fan.   It was a sweet price but there are so much work to do on her. Where to start?   Right now I can hear my friends say "Didn't you just remodel a pop up camper?"  Why yes, we did.  Gluttons for punishment maybe.  But the pop up has an axle issue, and it is just not enough room for the four of us. So here we go again.  Ok, I made a list of things we have to do. Starting with number one CLEAN.  Oh my gosh the camper was previously used as a deer camp.  It is inches deep in dust and dirt.

We are planning a camping trip to the mountains in Oct when the kids have fall break.  So we have a deadline and a lot going on between now and then.

Looking at a lot of examples and we have decided to go with red, white and a little black both inside and out.  Fun colors for vintage camper rebirth.

So here is what we start with, she is a mess.

So right now I am just in the investigation stage, trying to find out the best way to go about this remodel.  And looking for inspiration. Reading lots of how to blogs, doing some research on how to.   I can see the end results,  now to just make it happen. 

Here's some of our inspiration.  And some ideas Dave and I both can agree on.  

We like the lines in this one and red.  But we will stick to white and smaller black line 

Love the red..  Also love the stone cover on the front window.  One of the things on our girl that needs some attention. 

See how pretty she can become?  Going to take lot of sanding, sanding  and did I say sanding?  Then we will paint.  How you ask?  I have done lots of research on the best paint to use on aluminum.  Oil while it goes on well,  will not give and will crack when it dries.  Latex on the other hand, gives some and will stay on the aluminum well.  For those who do not know me,  I know a little about paint but usually my canvas is a canvas or wall and not aluminum.  BUT  Stay tuned I will post more info on how we handle this part of the challenge.  

Another major challenge?  The dirty, dusty interior.  We will need to replace the two skylights. They have leaked at some time and the ceiling around them will need to be replaced as well.  Along 

with some work on the far end wall near the air conditioner.  Going to be getting a new paint sprayer and will put it to work painting the inside too.  

Here is what we have to start with.  ugh 

I pulled out the cushions tonight.  Will rip off the covers and clean them.  I learned how to get them clean when we did the pop up remodel.  Stay tuned to see how I handle this job. 

I  threw away these gross ugly curtains.   Got to make new ones. :-) 

Here is a little bit of our interior inspiration.  Use a little imagination. 

Yes this is a big job,  I think we can handle it.  Then when we are done,  we will enjoy our time together in campgrounds.  We love, love, love to go camping and plan to take this baby all over the country.  

It will be a couple of weeks before we can really get into this project.  But stay tuned for updates on our journey to a fabulous fan!