prime paint coat....managed to sneak in two coats inbetween rain and sunshine on friday and saturday....currently working on cabinets and back shelf area......camping next weekend.

trimming with pvc and water based paint

Trying to meet a July 4th Deadline

This simply does not look like a camper that's on it's way to camping in two weeks......Let me rephrase....Actually it does look like a camper that will be ready to go camping in two weeks but if you put my job and three kids in that picture then that's when the whole thing becomes a bit blury.

roof III

yet another sketchup of the roof

here is the teardrop roof design....one porthole window.....looks like a fish....I favor this one and it might be a little lighter.

This is a freehand sketch of what I have in mind for the roof. Not to scale but the idea is to have a roof that is a deeper box than the typical with porthole windows in the side.

Camper Exterior door Redone

So I got the camper door done....the door was always looking bad. I took the side trim off, removed the exterior skin panels and found plywood under which was wet and failing apart. There was so much rot that the wood was pretty much the consistency of dirt.

Here is the new door which is made of 3/4 inch pine, with 1/8 luan glued over. Then I floated a piece of aluminum diamond plate. The side trim was reused and fit nice and tight. I think it's a big improvement from the original.

fold down bath hutch

Rained all day today so I setup shop in the dining room to finish the fold down hutch which serves as a cabinet/counter/tub housing. This was the most complicated furniture for the project so I'm glad it is almost done.


so if you are familiar with the older colman popups you know how the kitchenette hutch folds over for packing up....This is the same concept except we have decided to do something different with the stove and put a tub under it. Below is the rough up when it is folded down. Fold it down and it becomes a set of steps to get into the shower tube. Still have to finish the deck on the top step.

removing the trunk hatch, refacing with aluminum

I was never very much for the storage hatch on either side of the trunk. The idea that you could ever pull anything out of a 12 inch hole is pretty ridiculous and I'm not much for the look. Certainly there are better uses for the trunk like clothing storage. And with good planning we shouldn't need to access clothing through a storage hatch cover. I've removed the bulkhead panel separating the interior from the front trunk so now that entire space is wide open from the inside....the way it should have been from the start.


Take a look at that outlet and tell me what is wrong........GFI.....Exterior outlets should be ground fault protected. The original owner's handy work. From the inside the romex wiring was not made long enough so the exposed wire is just tangling in the middle of a cabinet with not enough slack to get it out of the way....another electrical safety no no.....we'll fix it though.