The camper as we found it. Sourdough, Alaska. 2016.
It had spent the last 30 years as a fishing camper for my wife’s grandpa and his buddies.
Roof has been crushed by snow. “No big deal. I’ll just push it back out.” I laugh now at my naivete.
Original propane oven still worked. So did the propane light.
Nice yellow shag carpet. The contact paper on the back wall covers all the water damage and mold.
This is what the back corners looked like. Totally rotted out.
Front end didn’t actually look too bad.
We kept all the original cabinetry. Including the super cool magazine rack.
Here you can see the collapsed roof from the inside.
The original pump faucet is still there, but someone installed a second faucet hooked up to a hose fitting.
Got it into the shop to start replacing the damaged wood ceiling. You can see the Beetle in the foreground. I must have been abnormally motivated that winter.
So, now I know… campers are built from the inside out. The ceiling is sandwiched between the side walls and the nail strip. Which, by the way, can only be accessed by removing ALL of the exterior sheet metal.
Well, once the sheet metal was off, I was forced to deal with all the rot in the back corners and bottom edge. You can see the new wood along the bottom edge.
There’s not much to the walls. 1×4’s laid on their flat side with 1/8″ plywood on one side and sheet metal on the other. The only thing giving this camper any rigidity is the cabinets.
The front wall was also eventually removed. This was farther than I meant to go with it. Par for the course.
New birch plywood on all the walls. Wrapping the top ceiling down to form the back wall.
Amber Shellac makes the birch grain incredible.
This is the finished wood.
New floor installed. Combined with the new birch walls, this camper’s starting to look good.
In the back looking forward.
The new front area. Still have the original seats up front, but had new cushions made by Devlin at Custom Canvas.
Inside basically done. Time to start on the outside.
Holaday Parks sold me 4×10 sheets of aluminum. The camper is 17ft long, so each side is four sheets. They put the break lines and locking seams in it for me.
The process was pretty straight-forward. Attach a sheet to the outside, go inside and mark the edges and window openings, pull the metal back off, and cut it.
For the top, I started at the back…
…and then pulled it as tight as I could from the front.
Roof is on and the overlapping edge has been folded over the sides (with a mallet).
Walls were stuffed with insulation to keep out the noise.
And then covered with the last pieces of sheet metal.
Final piece of metal attached.
Windows were dry-fit before paint.
Everything fits well. Now to pull it all back out and paint.
Scuffed up with Scotch-Brite and masked off. A lot of measuring went into getting the ‘Z’ just right.
Aluminum primer applied.
1975 Plymouth Trailduster blue. Glad I had a few days of beautiful weather.
Top painted 1975 Pymouth Trailduster white. Looking good!
Wasn’t sure how the totally raw, uncoated aluminum stripe was going to hold up, but it still looks good.
Most of the windows are back in and this is the first appearance of the new wings.
A better look at the wings. Tyler Bisset makes these in Connecticut and they are awesome.
The door was so rotted, I had to make a new one completely from scratch. The only reusable parts were the hinge and the latch handle.
Joshy testing out the hammock holders before I built the bed.
Mostly done. Notice the rear storage doors aren’t cut out yet.
Still need to fab up rear storage doors, a propane rack, and a battery tray.
Doors are made.
View of the back of the door with some more of that awesome birch.
All done. Time for camping!
Seldovia, Alaska.
Permanently installed some jackstands and put a new axle under it with some trailer brakes. Then we took it on a road trip to Newfoundland. This is about halfway across Canada. Everything holding up nicely.
Made it all the way to Newfoundland and then down to Boston to visit grandparents.
Total 2018 voyage of the Shasta. 16,500 miles. No problems. I feel like I’ve got my time investment back on this one.
