Two months to street ready

It's been a LONG time since I've updated, but I'm working every day on Francesca and don't get enough time to upload pics and work on this blog.  I'll try to play some catch-up.  I may have to divide this into multiple posts until I get there.

Came back from my RV trip to Virginia Beach end of January and hit the road running on Francesca.  I've got 2 months to get her ready to take out for a shakedown trip before my Sisters on the Fly trip to Natural Bridge the end of April.  Man, I'm starting to feel the pressure!!

First step is getting the door finished.  I used all new wood except for the top piece.  They really used trashy wood for this camper!  Fill in all the spaces with styrofoam.  Reattach the aluminum skin and paint with a primer.  Finally, paint with the rusty brown, paint the trim parts with a hammered black, and install.

While Ted works on hooking up all the exterior running lights and rear lights, I decide to start on the galley cabinet--I just LOVE to tear things apart!!!  It was great to start rebuilding the cabinet to fit my needs better than the original!

Well, that's about it for tonight.  Will have to finish another time. 

Outside is done! Onward with the inside!

With all the nice weather this month, things are moving along really fast now!  Ted got his belated Christmas present--a sandblasting box--so he finally got the brake parts cleaned, painted and put together.  And the brakes are beautiful!!





In the meantime, I did the "woman" thing and changed my mind on some of her interior stuff.  I started making her slipcovers for the dinette out of a cranberry cotton stuff.  Went to Joann's fabric and saw some upholstery material that I just loved and thought it might work well with the cranberry, but there was too big a difference between the two fabrics.  And the stripes didn't go with the grape curtains.  To solve the problem, I just decided to make all the cushions out of the stripe and use the cranberry material to make new curtains for the dinette windows.  Just a little change in the "menu"!  



The really big news, though, is the outside painting--IT'S DONE!!!  On the 27th, I started the final side--the one with the most problems.  It was finally finished today with the last window being installed.  I just LOVE to stand back and look at her!!  And all the work and patches on that door side don't even show up!

Before with patches

After--Can't see the patches 

 

 

        

              

Today I finished the wood frames around all but one window.  Just to see how it'll all look, I installed one curtain rod in the bedroom and hung up a set of curtains. 

            
We're heading off for a couple of days in our RV--just across the river.  When I get back, I'll have to tackle the door rebuild--finally.  Then it'll be time to build the new cabinet.  One thing at a time, day by day.  April 1st, here we come!!!

Enjoying those warm winter days

I'm rushing outside to paint every time the weather gets around 60 degrees.  I've now finished painting Francesca's front end and installed the large front window.  This time I decided to use a primer paint first.  I followed this with the darker peach and then ragged on the lighter colors.  It was a great success--but it took me two days to get this done!



In the meantime, Ted was finally getting around to repairing the wood under the entrance.  This also took two days, but it all came out great in the end!




He also patched all the holes on the door side that were left from things that were removed--like water lines, vents, furnace cover.  So many holes!!!  But now they're all covered and sealed!  Go Ted!!




I had a great time using a mitre box and cutting out, painting and installing my wood frames around the windows inside.  Looking good!!



Really big news--Francesca's new tires on rims came this week!!





 One thing after another, one thing at a time, she WILL be ready to roll by spring!!

Francesca is looking great!

I haven't been posting because a bad cold followed by the holidays kept me pretty busy.  And my son's fiance was visiting for a week--which was a wonderful time for us!  Many of my friends and family have asked when I'm going to post some new pictures.  So much has been done since the middle of December--at least, Francesca looks more and more like a real camper now!  I'll try to take this progress in some sort of order...



We left off with Francesca having most of her street side painted--everything except the top strip which is normally Scotty blue.  From there,  I installed her two larger windows on that side. 




Next, I prepped Francesca's tushy--sanded, washed, and wiped down with acetone--and painted.  I had some slight color problems here--no matter what I tried, this side came out more of a rose hue than the peachy color on her street side. The only difference might be that the back side is a silver where the street side was the white and blue Scotty colors.  Well, I got it as close as I could!  I finished it up by installing her back window.   

Wheel Well After

Wheel Well Before

TIn the meantime, my husband was busy making the final repairs of the biggest "boo-boo" on Francesca--her butchered wheel well.  All we were missing was the infamous "swoop"--turned out that it was just a shaped edge strip.  I got a piece of edge strip just the right size from Ben--another wonderful member of the National Serro Scotty Organization--and my husband did the shaping.  I don't think I could have done any of this rebuild without the people in this wonderful group and the Serro Scotty Camper Enthusiasts group!  Thank you to all of you!!  Doesn't it look beautiful??

I also tried painting the top part on the streetside a brown.  I was originally thinking of having it look like a terra cotta roof--painting the "roof pieces" over the brown.  It only took a few minutes for me to realize that this was NOT going to work so...I repainted the same color as the rest of Francesca, leaving just a small strip of brown.  Much better, don't you think?


To finish it all up, I installed the two small top windows.  Now, half of Francesca is completed--officially!  (Okay, as you can see, she's still missing her little cargo door, but that will be done very soon.)  I'm so happy with the way she's coming out so far!!  Now to finish the other half!  Just pray for a mild winter and she'll be all done in time for spring camping!

Getting some color

Another milestone for Francesca this week--one side painted!  Well, mostly anyway.  I spent the week preparing her streets ide for painting.  It's the side that doesn't have any holes or any other issues still needing to be taken care of.  I sanded; washed and dried; cleaned off old adhesives from near windows with acetone; wiped the whole side down with acetone; put painter's tape on all the edging.

It turned out that it was still too cool to paint--only 50 degrees, barely.  So I spent the rest of the day tearing out the fronts of the galley cabinets and taking measurements to re-do them and to build the new cabinet.  I have to figure out how many sheets of plywood/paneling I need to buy.  Man, they really did use junk wood for the cabinet frames--it looks like the stuff they make pallets out of!  I think I'll use something just a little better for the cabinet I'm building.

Today, I did the painting.  I painted my darker salmon peach first with a roller. 






Then I took a white sport sock inside out and ragged on the light peach over top.  Still not quite what I was trying to do. 



So I used a combination of my dark color with a little of the light peach together.  It looks AWESOME!  Kinda reminds me of Italy at Busch Gardens.  Francesca is looking good!
 

 

 I haven't decided yet about the bottom panel--to paint the same as the middle or to do a darker ragging?  I guess Francesca will tell me when she's decided what she wants.

 

A Taste of Sunshine

If you remember, back to July I had borrowed the carport from our Boy Scout troop to cover and protect Francesca.  I knew that they would need it back in time for their Feast in the Woods to use as their dining fly/kitchen space.  Silly me, I thought I'd have her all put back together by then!  I mean FIVE months--how could I NOT be done with her after all that time???  Yeah sure!

Friday morning, we went out to the backyard and disassembled the carport.  This was the first time since mid-July that Francesca was out in the wide open with the sun shining down on her--and she LOVED it!!  I think she was kind of sunbathing!  She looked a little strange to me out in the open like that...

However, the Boy Scout feast was a huge success with a very large turnout.  And the carport spent a couple of days being a dining fly in a different woods.

  And being a witness to a very special ceremony--a retirement ceremony for an American flag.

Sunday morning we woke up early and headed over to the campout to take the dining fly apart, bring it home, and turn it back into a carport for Francesca.  Everything is back to normal!!

Francesca's Gettin' Gorgeous!

Francesca now has all her interior paint done, the floor is done, the strips to cover the panel seams are on, and all the edges inside are caulked--AWESOME!!   She's looking like a real camper now!

I guess I'll be looking at redoing and building cabinets next.  So many decisions!  My galley cabinets--both lower and upper--are in reasonably solid shape and the doors and drawers are good.  However, I need to rework the one tall cabinet (which holds the fridge).  First off, I don't like the way previous owners sectioned it off to hold a larger fridge and the microwave.  It lost some storage space.  I want to add some storage space in there with maybe a smaller fridge and put the microwave elsewhere.  I tore up the panel facings on this cabinet so I need to replace them with some new plywood.  Also, I'm planning on building a new cabinet between the one tall cabinet and the dinette.  I'm trying to decide whether to make it a tall cabinet, a short cabinet, 24" wide or 36" wide.  Then there's the decision to paint all the cabinets or stain them...Time will tell!

I also realized that I have the cushions from the gaucho that I can use for my bed mattress.  It has 3 pieces, but I figure that I can take the foam out of the covers, top them with a mattress topper and make a cover for the whole thing.  That would save me the money of getting a nice thick pad which I haven't really been able to find yet.  More on this experiment later... 

Now to the inside!

I've gotten just about all the outside stuff done that I can for now so I'm heading inside for my favorite stuff--painting and decorating!!  I'm waiting until the late spring--after the pollen is over and done with--to paint Francesca's outside and turn her into a proper Tuscan Villa.  I figure this is the time to do some of the painting and laying floor tiles before the temperatures bottom out. 

I spent yesterday painting the Masonite panels with Kilz to prep them for paint.  Man, I don't know what hurts more--my neck, my back, my hips, or my hands!  You have to be a contortionist to paint this ceiling!  After two coats of Kilz, I stopped for the day.  It'll be good and dry by tomorrow...

Today I headed out with paints in hand--and rollers and brushes and trays and newspapers!  I decided to give the center panels (aka Masonite) the same beige that I painted the side walls.  However, I thought that the entire interior done in that might be too much.  As I'm coming up to the ceiling, I think "Hey, this center part would look nice just left white!  Kind of breaks up the whole thing a little and marks off the dining end and the sleeping end a little!"  Not real sure about this, but I can always paint over the white with the beige.  And I'll have strips covering the seams to add some interest.  It's all trial and error!

I rummage through the paints to see if I have anything white-ish that will work--everything was white white, the whitest whites!  I figure I can add some of my beige to the white and make a white that has the same color family as the rest of the walls.  It worked!!!  Okay, so I'm officially getting excited again! 

Door, Edge Strips, Campout, Oh My!!

Just baby steps right now, so I'm going to lump several things together.  November began with my brilliant idea to take apart the entry door--despite the fact that I've seen what others have found inside theirs.  It really wasn't as bad as it could be.  The door is filled with a honeycombed corrugated cardboard--most I've seen have large sheets of the stuff.  Most of it was disintegrated which is okay with me because I'm going to replace it with styrofoam anyway.  The door handle/lock is in good shape and works.  The window is a different type than the older models of Scotties and was not hard to remove or repair. Most of the wood framing was okay, but should really be replaced and this is where the problem comes in. The wood they use for the frame is 1-3/8" by 1-5/8"--and it doesn't exist anymore!  I'll have to come up with pieces glued together to make it right, but I decided the edge trim was more important to getting Francesca closed up so...

Before

After

 

I'm spending a few days cleaning up the edge trim strips that close up the top skins to the side skins.  Ted already spent a couple of days working on them, but I'm trying to make them shine!  One more day and I'll be done and ready to get them back on Francesca!!   The work is tedious and is really taking a toll on my hands--especially my right hand.  I think I'll get a manicure after this is all done!

I've had Francesca for almost 5 months now and I've been working on rebuilding her for 4 months almost non-stop.  I've done no camping since I started working on her, but have taken two RenFaire trips with our RV.  I REALLY miss just going out camping!!  Getting my Scotty camper was supposed to be for me to head out camping at a moment's notice.  The weather this week is so beautiful--warm days, sunshine, cool nights--just right for camping.  I couldn't take it anymore!!!  So I cleaned her up a little inside--put away tools and vacuumed the sawdust--and brought out my air mattress, a lantern, my heater, a radio, and all my blankets. 



  Last night Lucca puppy and I slept in the camper.  It was a little chilly even with the heater--the windows, door and vent aren't in yet.  But it wasn't too bad at about 41 degrees. I think Lucca is planning on taking over my bed! 

So I finally got to camp in my Tuscan House for the first time!!!    Man, I can't wait to get her roadworthy!  Just what I needed--some motivation!!

Francesca's got skin!

First off, the Maryland Ren Faire was AWESOME!  My son proposed to his wonderful girlfriend there--with all their friends and family in attendance.  Of course, she said YES!  And we had a wonderful day of running around playing pirates--I LOVE that part!  But all good things must come to an end and home again to work on my Tuscan girl, Francesca--yes, I've finally decided on a proper name for her!



The BIG MOMENT has finally arrived--Francesca is getting her skins back on!  All the framing is on and the foam is in place.  We got right back to work to get her covered up since winter is knocking on the door.  I scrubbed down all the skins, taking off all the stickers, etc., and making sure that all the old putty tape was off.  Thank goodness we had a few warm days!  Then one by one, each piece is put back on and stapled in place.  Everything is lining up pretty good.  We have a little extra space on the edges--I sure hope this doesn't mess us up when we go to put the edge strips on!  And more importantly, that it doesn't cause a leak problem further down the road! 

After

 

Before

 

The roof skin is a little stretched out in the spot where it had been sagging for so long.  I came up with the idea to slide some Reflectix (a silver coated bubble wrap insulation) in between the framing and the skin where it sags to lift it up a little.  With a few small pieces and moving them around just right, it seems to have made a really nice difference--not perfect, but acceptable.  Once we solved this problem, it was time to screw down the edges of the roof to the front and back skins.  I used putty tape--I guess I could have/should have used butyl tape--and 5/8" stainless steel screws with rubber backed washers.  Comes out looking pretty nice!

The final task for the week was to cut out the front and rear windows and the vent hole up on the roof.  Ted cut out the vent.  I tried my hand at using the saw to cut out the front window--a little shaky at first, but I did get better.  The hour got late and rain was in the forecast so we had to wrap her up without getting the rear window cut out.  That's the first thing that will get done when the rains pass...

I ended the day with Francesca looking more like a camper than she has in over 3 months!  It brought a tear to my eye to see her looking so good!

A Major Milestone!!

It's been a busy week!  I've been sick for all last week and felt just good enough to attend one night of my high school reunion so Sunday was the first day "back on the job."  Even though I'm still not 100%, I got a lot of work done.  In fact, we're ready to tackle the skins!!  Man, I NEVER thought I would see this day come!

I finished putting all the spacers in.  Up and down the ladder so many times!!  First you measure; then you cut one, take it up and check it out to make sure it fits right; back down and cut 2 more and up again to make sure they fit right; back down to drill holes and glue the 3 pieces together; up the ladder to install them!  I think I finally got over my fear of ladders/heights!!!



Next, got painted all the edges with Herculiner--a truck bed liner stuff.  We couldn't get the can open at first so Ted turned it upside down and used a can opener on it--hey, it worked!  That stuff is a real mess to work with, but I'm really hoping that it helps seal my camper up nice and watertight! 




Ted has spent days working on the aluminum skins--pulling out staples, hammering down the old holes from the original nails, and removing all the old putty tape.  I'm WAY too ADHD to sit and do that stuff!!  All that's left to do on the skins is to scrub them down real good.  Ted also finished all the wiring for the outside lights--the wiring was a mess to begin with, but he fought his way through it!


Today was the "Big Day"--I got all the foam insulation installed and duct taped into every empty space between the framings!  She looks really strange right now--all blue insulation sheets and silver duct tape--but she'll be warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and hopefully VERY dry!  And the insulation sheets add some rigidity to her structure.  WOW, I just can't believe it!!

Now for some time off--rain tomorrow and then a short trip to play pirate!  Next week, we'll clean the skins really good and start putting them on.  Keep your fingers crossed that it all fits back together again in the end!!  Could you even imagine if it didn't????  No, I won't think that way!!  And I can't wait to start working on her interior!