Mike & Deb Camper Rehab

2009-11-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

All sealed up. Only the door needs to be put back in place.

Zach was the new floor inspector.

The first piece of furniture we put back in place was the kitchen counter. Now maybe we can get the oven off the floor an out of the way.

View of new floor toward the back of camper. The small space heater really kept us warm.

We spent a day putting in the new floor. This is a view toward the front of camper.

Now that whole exterior of the Camper is sealed it is time to move to the inside. We spent a few hours reconnecting all the trailer lights. Luckily all we had to do was replace a few bulbs. We then moved inside to determine what we wanted to accomplish next. We decided to install the new floor. Then we can think about reconstructing the walls and furniture. A new bathtub has been ordered and we are waiting for delivery. That is the next area we have decided to work on.

2009-11-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

Once repair were completed the siding was put back on. Now the whole exterior of the camper is sealed.

View of left back corner after repair.

View of the left back corner before repair.

View of same right corner once the wood had been replaced and the floor set in position.

Back right side corner of camper area where the tub goes. You can see the rotten wood that needs replacing.

2009-11-19T09:45:00.000-08:00

View from inside facing back of camper. AS you can see most of the floor has been replaced except the last section in the back.

Side view of camper with lower siding removed.

New frame along the back side of camper .

All the siding around the bottom needed to be removed, the extent of the damage and rotten wood has caused the camper to sag on the frame

Just found the time to update our site. We have been working hard to get things sealed up before it got to cold. Here are a few more pictures of the progress we have made. We now have moved on to the back side of the camper. This will be the final section that needs repair, once this is completed the floor can also be finished.

2009-11-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

New corner

Finally decided to remove the last piece on counter and stove..Hope to keep the fridge in place.

View from the inside. Half way done.

Looking Good

2009-11-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

View from the door.

A closer view of the frame.

The corners are now very solid.

View from the outside of the front section.

We were very lucky to have good weather this weekend and made alot of progress. The light at the end of the tunnel is looking much brighter. Once we completed the first section of new flooring the we continued to work on finishing up the front section of interior wall. We had to remove the window pull off all the siding. This was so much easier then then our original plan of reconstructing from the inside. We learn something with each step so we had to backtrack a little but it was well worth the effort. Now the front side of the camper is completly restored and ready to be put back together.

Not bad for a days work

2009-11-02T12:18:00.001-08:00

Break Time

The garage is becoming a mess

One section completed

Moving right along

2009-11-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

The weather outside was favorable 54. So we spent the weekend moving right along on our project. A big thanks to Chris from Ohio who shared his insight after taking on a rehab of his own. He not only provided valuable information/insight but gave me some encouragement to continue with our project. Mike an I created an initial material list of what we thought would be enough material to get us through the weekend possibly repair from frame to ceiling at least a 4 foot section at a time.. We headed out to Home Depot. Along the way we debated which section to work on first. We decided since the roof had been repaired on the back side the damage couldn't possibly get any worse. So opted to move to the front on of the trailer. Living in the country you have to drive an hour just to get to the store. so by the time we got home, less
$185.00's on a few materials we did not have much daylight to get much done. In the dark under lights from the inside out we were able to fix and replace some of the structure of the interior walls but we would have to wait until we pulled off the aluminum to get get a better look around the corners and remove all the flooring to the frame.

Saturday morning bright & early we removed the aluminum, and took out the floor. We ripped off the rusted galvanized underbelly and braced up the walls. Ants Ants & more Ants were everywhere. They had tunneled through the original foam floor insulation and were hiding everywhere. Thank god for shop vacs! Armed with Max Home Defense, I sprayed a perimeter around the trailer to keep them from migrating toward the house if any got away. Once the underbelly was removed and we were down to the frame of the unit, it is much easier to visualize how you put it back together. We decided to use FRP board to replace the under belly followed by 2 inch foam insulation, then covered with 1/2 plywood. There are never enough hours in a day...but we tried this is the progress we made this weekend.

Moving along

2009-10-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well after that set back.. I decided to move to the other side of the camper (mostly because there was no floor to stand on)... This area took on water because the side seam was separated I figured I might as well get all the disappoint over at once... I am sure I will get an even bigger once the interior paneling comes off. Right now my garage it housing the guts of the trailer. I am still researching..... Here are a few pictures an video of the kids using their own innovation to take down a wall. That one had to be rebuilt anyway... We had to add a little humor to this project..

Digging deeper

2009-10-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

Needless to say I began to research Camper Rehabs on the web, to see what others had encountered. Many people posted trials and tribulations of their experiences and this info was extremely helpful! Since I am home during the day, I put on some old clothes and a pair of gloves and started to take things apart. One thing I learned was the deeper you dig the more you will find. How True! I decided after about 2 hours ino this I really hate square drive screws with a passion. Guys with really small arms an mini drills put all these screws in just to piss me off. I figured the more space I cleared on the inside the easy it would be restore. So the kids an I worked together and out went the tub, the toilet, the bunks, the table, the cabinets.. When Mike got home we removed the water heater, the pump anything else that got in my way.. Now at this time we were only 3 days into this project. The weather had been less then favorable rain , rain and more rain. I just needed one day of no rain so I could get up on the roof with a heat gun to removed the nasty stuff around the vent and reseal it. At least that would be a start. The roof is in releavtively good condition. But for now we will continue to work from the inside out....So back to the floor...What I came to find I did not expect...We contnued to remove the rotten whatever it was on the floor hoping along the way we would eventually find dry anything. This was not the case. once we hit the foam insulation that that to was saturated when that came up so did the underbelly on the rv...It was very discouraging I was no standing on the outside ground from inside the rv....I didn't know wether to laugh or cry... Mike assured me that we would be able to put it back together I was very doubtful...Back to the web for more research.. Here a are pictures..

The interior

2009-10-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here is what the interior damage looked like before we started to take anything apart. As you can see the floor was severely damaged from a leaking roof vent. Most of this was located in the bathroom extending out into the main cabin

Cleaning up the Exterior

2009-10-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Once we got it home, it really looked like a piece of crap parked out in our drive so we decided to see if we could at least clean up the exterior and access the the outside structure. Still trying to decide where to begin..Once it was cleaned it looked a little more promising..Don't get me wrong some the seams in the corners were separated and you could see where the source of the leaks on the side of the aluminum shell.

Bring home our new project

2009-10-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

This TT was a family owned camper that was used as extra sleeping space for the kids at Grandma & Grandpa's lake home. They spent many summers as children hanging out in their own little space. When they became teenagers and no longer went up to visit as often the camper began to deteriorate, the roof sprung a leak that went undetected from lack of use.My parents wanted the camper removed, it was to big and they could no longer take care of it. We had thought of giving it away. However, when we all went for a visit we decided to take a look inside to see exactly how bad it was and if we could restore it. Well the kids talked us into bringing it home and fixing it up, So initially our cost was $500 to replace the tires that were so badly dry rotted just to get it home. We were able to get it home but along the way the side canopy decide it no longer wanted to be attached an flew off..Thank god it was a on a side country road and the kids were far enough behind us and paying attention as it flew threw the air.