REMOVING THE SKINS on our 1956 Calcraft VINTAGE CAMPER
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- Опубликовано: 16 сен 2024
- It's officially day 1 of our second rebuild - this time we're tackling a 1956 Calcraft - what surprises are in store as we take the skins off? Let's find out together ; )
I’m puzzled by RUclips. I see people with 500 thousand subscribers and your step by step videos and attention to detail is equal to if not better than these super popular channels. Thanks for sharing your adventures, I have a rotted back wall I need to tackle and your videos will help tremendously
Thanks! It's taken a year to get to about 1500 subscribers, so it's a slow process, but it picks up some speed over time. Really though this just started as a pandemic project to pass the time, and I hope to keep it up while going back to work regularly. Glad you find the videos helpful!
i know you posted this a few years ago, but i just recently bought a '72 shasta 1400 and i'm a young woman who has no idea what she is up against, but is so, so excited. your channel is exceptional and i'll be using your videos along with Vik's trailer manual to help me loads. thank you so much!
You're welcome! I'm always happy to answer questions if you have any, and one of these days I might have a minute to post some new content too!
Excellent video! Thanks so much for sharing the experience. You’ve pulled back the mystery and given me the courage to venture into vintage camper-land...
Ha ha, well thanks! Vintage campers are really simple little machines, but they're smartly designed. Make sure you understand how and why they're put together the way they are so that you can take the right notes to put it back together. It's fun and not too difficult for a reasonably handy person!
I am a bit of a camper junkie and to see one come apart gives a lot of insight, I have built one stick built camper and many teardrop campers with plywood sides. SUBSCRIBED
Thanks for subscribing! I've always kind of wanted to do a teardrop, but the opportunity hasn't presented itself yet.
I was equally surprised on how clean the inside of that wall looks. Can’t wait to see the other side
Yeah, I expected things to be bad, but the material was in reasonably good shape overall. Of course, the wood really needs to be good in some key areas for any of the rest of it to matter.
I really look forward to seeing how you rebuild that curve. I have this exact shape in my 1960s winnebago travel trailer and need to do all 4 corners completely.
I look forward to seeing how I do it too, lol! But no, seriously I don't think it'll be too hard.
I’m about to embark on a 1966 utopia camper over haul thanks for the tips and the video helps for sure .
Your welcome! Sounds like a fun project, let me know if you have any future questions!
I caught bits and pieces of your first rebuild and was very pleased. Glad I found this one early on. I'll go back and catch up on the previous project. I have a 68 Aristocrat Lo Liner that probably needs the full works but, right now I'm just working on getting the ice box out and a small frig in. So it's a hi from Calif! and carry on...
Good luck with your camper, and thanks for following along! I think there's going to be some interesting projects that go into this one.
Thanks alot Brotha'. Godspeed and blessings.👍💪🤟
Thanks, it can be a test at times!
I used to have the exact camper and sold it before I knew enough to attempt to restore it myself!
Ha ha, evidently you did have the exact same camper!
Cool mate.
Thanks!
I love your videos, I cannot believe that you haven't blown up in views and subscribers.
Well it's been a slow few months for content between illnesses and an extreme uptick in our business the last two quarters, so we probably haven't been able to push it like we could when we had more free time. But we are still slowly growing in subscribers! Thanks for watching.
Where do you draw the line at preserve vs remake? Regarding about the 9 minute mark where you see most of the wood is decent.. Lets say even the curve is nice besides the very bottom. Would you advise splicing to repair?
I have a '61 Lil Loafer. I have yet to pull the skin, but will need to repair at least the bottom door side. I hope to pull that apart soon to assess. From what I can tell by observing all over the camper (I can look behind the front cabinets and see the frame) is that it may just be the very bottom wood that has some decay, not too bad but not great. The interior is relatively immaculate. I feel like with my current work space, if it comes completely apart it may never go back together. Advice?
This is all of course stemming from a cracked frame. The tongue is cracked on one side, bent on the other. So I started poking around at hopes of removing the cabin part, sliding the frame out for repair/replacement and putting it back together. I've had it for 4 days now, just seems very intimidating.
I've been watching your videos for a few weeks, btw. Fantastic channel!
Oh, I mean I don't really draw the line, but I honestly prefer the rougher campers to the nicer ones, because anything I do is an improvement. It's also usually quicker/easier/cheaper to just take the measurements, knock it down, and start from scratch! Now, if I'd stumbled on something really rare or in a really good condition I'd probably work to preserve as much of the original craftmanship as possible, but on this Cal-Craft basically everything was toast in spite of the generally "solid" framing.
From your description of your Lil' Loafer, I'd say you're going to have to disassemble it all the way down to the frame to get the frame fixed. Now you might be able to remove the walls in one piece and repair them depending on what's left, but it's not a great idea to piece the floor back together so plan on building that from scratch. You might be able to salvage your cabinets though, but be aware that they are likely attached from the exterior (and possibly the interior) so you can't just yank them out easily.
Regardless, get those skins off and see what's really there. Then you don't have to speculate about what you're going to need to do.
You've said in other videos that as long as the siding seal is good, there should be no rot. Why do you think the perimeter of the wall rotted out? Is it because the butyl tape back then wasn't as good as today's? If not, should walls be resealed after a certain period?
Screws loosen up over time, and you do need to reseal these campers every seven to 10 years or so, which was their expected lifespan anyway.
I've seen you build complete walls. Amazing. My situation is the front 5 ft to the door is wood rot. I'm removing skins. If I mark on back of skin the placement of boards and build it then attach luan then attach section to frame, does that maje sense? Any better suggestions I would appreciate. TIA
Marking the skin probably wouldn't be that beneficial to you. Most partial repairs would be done by replicating the framing bit by bit and replacing it one piece at a time. The panel, so long as we're just talking about the walls, can be added once the framing is in place, but you may need to remove cabinets in the area to do so.
There is more than one way to do a partial repair, so as long as it makes sense to you and it's within your ability to accomplish give it a shot.
Building a section of wall might be the easiest approach though. Every camper rebuild is a unique job.
So a 72 Shasta could be worth a go at 350$ ?
For $350 there's almost no camper I'd pass up, but I like a challenge, lol!
I have a ‘63 Yellowstone camper and don’t feel comfortable taking the skins off. Can it be fully reframed without taking the skins off?
So the short answer is, no.
The longer and more qualified answer would be to say, there are SOME repairs that can be done to the walls without removing the skins, but the ceiling or "wrap" has to be repaired without the skins on. But even those repairs that you can do to walls with the skins on, are FAR easier done with the skins off.
If you think about it, it's a little like asking if you could repair the roof of a house without taking the shingles off. Even if it could be done, it'd be a million times easier to do it correctly.
Regardless, there are a few reasons why you really need the skins off to repair a camper, but when it comes to the ceiling panels those have to overlap the walls and be nailed down into the top edge of the walls. This is not only the easiest and quickest way to attach those panels, but it is critical to the overall strength of the box of your camper. I talk about it a bit in this video:
ruclips.net/video/7gz5LtxrZRo/видео.htmlsi=Cwd5Mdl_nYSoAoLu&t=559
Trust me, taking the skins off isn't difficult, and neither is putting them back. Building a camper from the inside out is far more difficult and time consuming, and it isn't as strong and likely to continue leaking.
Here's a recent-ish video of me taking skins off:
ruclips.net/video/YnynjBVn3vc/видео.htmlsi=aYkDRilNI0nk-VyJ
Good luck!
I echo Mckenzie's curiosity as to how you're going to recreate the curved walls. I assume you'll need to laminate strips, but will you try to use the entire existing wall as your template or make a full sized pattern of some sort from it?
Well, I haven't really decided what to do yet. I was thinking that I'd build directly on top of the old walls, but I'm finding some things that might prevent me from doing that. I'll have a 3D model to use as a plan once all the measurements are taken, but I'll also have to decide if I'm going to make changes to the original design. The curve will definitely be made of thin laminated strips of plywood like the original though.
What size clutch head bit did you use for those screws?
These weren't clutch head, just regular old Phillips #8 if I remember correctly.
Help, please… I bought a Play-More 1970 travel trailer. Inside was remaid in a scrappy way with bright fabric and paint to attract attention. Need to know whether to scrap it or if I could build something simple from the inside out vs. a total remodel. It needs reframing. Want to lift the shell , replace floor and supports and then build frame inside. Bad idea?
Hey Sally! Not to put too fine a point on it, but yeah that's a bad idea. :) It'll take you far longer, and it'll be much harder/impossible to do a good job of putting it back together.
Now it's a little hard to say without seeing your camper and knowing what your plans for it are, but the way to repair anything on these is to work backwards from the way they were built. So if it's the floor you need to repair, then you need to take the skins off, take the ceiling off, take the walls off, take the cabinets out, then you can get to the floor. It's important to note that the way these were built, and the order in which they were constructed is part of what gives the camper its strength to hold up as it rolls down the road at highway speeds. But if your walls and cabinets are in okay shape, you should be able to reinstall them once you've rebuilt your floor so long as you keep everything very exact to the original sizing.
But trust me, once you take the skins off and start taking it apart, you'll see why it's better to do it this way. These things are really easy to build and put together, but the order and the process for how you do it is part of what makes it easy.
Good luck!
Seems like when I get the nerve repair the skin on my old camper, it decides to rain!
Well I swore I wasn't doing another camper without a carport or something, but here we are! Tarps work okay temporarily.
We’re you able to save your j channel? I am struggling to get the nails out of mine and am not certain if I can find replacement j channel. Trying not to damage mine any further but it is already in pretty bad shape. Working on a 48 Kit Compnion
I've got a local shop that stocks J-channel so I just replaced it. If yours isn't too beat up, it can worth it to keep it and reuse it, otherwise you can order it from several online places. I think Hemet Valley RV stocks it, and Vintage Trailer Supply.
Do you know anyone who would be looking for a 1955 mercury canned ham. I found one in Idaho and she isn't asking much for it and the body is in great shape. Just thought I would as. I want to go with an aristocrat or similar. Really enjoy your videos.
Well, I don't know anyone near Idaho that's looking for one, but I'm sure she'll find a buyer if the price is reasonable.
@@TrailerTrashtoTreasure That is probably right. Just thought I put the word out to you in case.
Never hurts to ask!
Doorbell?
Hard to say. Looked like it was wired to a buzzer under the floor. Maybe an alarm system?
Wouldn’t it be great to actually find out the original owners name?
It'd be fun to find out, for sure!
That little thing you found looks like a switch to turn on a light when the door opens, like the one inside a fridge.
Yeah that's another thought, and I thought that at first when I found one in the side hatch, but I didn't find anything that looked like a light fixture inside. I'll trace the wiring back eventually and figure it out.
What size pls..???
This would've been what they would've called a 15-foot model.