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!

Spacers and Wiring

Ted's been busy re-doing the wiring for the running lights the past couple of days.  It amazing to see this rat's nest of wires just hanging all over the place turn into neatly soldered and shrink-tubed wiring all ready to fit through the holes in the skin!  It all looks very nice!




 My dog, Lucca, is really loving our working outside--she spends most of the day laying somewhere nearby keeping a watchful eye out for intruders, etc..

I've been cutting, gluing and attaching three 2" wide strips of 1/4" plywood for the spaces along the edges that are not covered by other framing.  This gives the aluminum skins and the edge strips something to attach to.

I still have the street side of the camper left, but that will have to wait until Sunday at least.  Between things going on--appointments, day trips, high school reunions (yeah, got that this weekend), and rainy weather--Sunday looks like the earliest I'll be able to get back to work.  I guess that's alright because my body just aches!!!  Why do I feel soooo old???

Covered and framed!

Sept. 29, 2011--I took the one tight panel off and cut a new one just a little smaller--VOILA, it worked!  I made sure to leave a little tiny bit of a space between the two panels and everything worked out just fine!  Oh, Happy Days!  So, it was on to putting the rest of the framing on the outside...

Oct. 4, 2011--It was my first time using the Kreg Jig to actually put the frames together--I'm pretty good at this!  However, it turned out that I had not cut my short connecting pieces square because the circular saw was so heavy and unstable.  When I put the frame all together, Ted showed me that the frame wasn't square.  The frames did fit, though, and I think it will all work out okay.  Ted constructed a "table" to help me cut straighter, but I think it was too late--I was already too insecure with that stupid saw!  I got more than a little reluctant to saw again after my questionable techniques so I handed over the saw to Ted...In fact, he's now in charge of all sawing boards and all drilling--because it turns out that I'm not too good at drilling holes either. 

Oct. 6, 2011--We tackled the front supports, including the plate that holds and supports the dining table.  This time Ted messed up and picked a different piece of plywood than the original one I had kept.  He felt it wasn't big enough and that it was too thin at 1/2" vs 3/4" like the rest of the wood framing.  It turned out that I was right and the changes were successfully made. The table fit just right! 

We also got the wood supports up for the front running lights.  We got a lot accomplished today!  Also learned that I've gotten over my fear of ladders! She's starting to look like a real camper now!

Oct. 7, 2011--Attached the rear running lights supports this morning.  In the afternoon, we added the final cross supports for two spots on the roof--never too much support.  Spent some time cleaning up the inside a little--too much stuff got accumulated in there and so much dirt!!  Tomorrow, we start making the strips to fill the edge gaps--Three 1/4" plywood strips glued together and cut to fit between the supports along the edges.  These will give the skins something to be screwed into.  Can't wait to do this...