Vintage Camper Transformation

December 2019 we picked up a vintage camper they called “Nancy” I figure it’s common to name your vintage RV, however, I’m not a fan of Nancy and here’s why…………..

Nancy looked real fine and pretty in the picture, but you know the old saying….pretty as a picture or something like that. Here’s the picture I’m talking about.

 

This was “Nancy” when we picked her up.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking, the old girl doesn’t look so bad. But again, let me remind you, this was a picture, taken at a good angle I might add because truthfully well……………………

The upper center picture is after we tried a little sanding to get off some of the horrible paint. Watch the videos below for a good close up look at all the ugly this gal had to offer. Close up of all the caulking is almost so bad it’s hilarious. To top it off there is not tile, the seller has no idea of the year, make or model.  Looks like the frame and skin was redone at some point because there are no wheel wells as you can see in the bottom picture.  We have nothing to help us identify where she originated from.

 

Oh and that huge chunk of wood there was covering up a nice 2 pane Jalousie horizontal window, with a broken bottom pane, but that is going to be replaced and the window will add much welcome light to the place. Some home made curtains and cute vintage decor in Red and white will be the perfect touch this little girl needs. We plan on renaming her and getting her a proper title and registration then it will be for sale.  I will probably be sad to see her go by the time I get her finished, but, we have another one in much better condition that we are going to fix up and keep.  That will be in another blog post.

Now who tapes up over stuff and then paints over the tape???? Seriously, taping over small holes and dents then slapping on a coat of paint is like putting lipstick on a pig. Trying to get screws off of molding that has been covered with caulking and paint is difficult to say the least. This is just a few of the things we had to deal with.  Watch the next video to see more hilarious caulk talk, LOL

This is the inside as I started to demo. I am probably going to praise my Ryobi battery charged drill the entire time we work on this project. This drill is a beast and I didn’t need to recharge the battery after a good 9 hours of removing screw after screw to take out all the stuff on the inside. I didn’t experience any slow down or loss of power from the first screw to the last. And there are hundreds more to go. Who ever tried to fix this camper up didn’t know the difference between a wood screw, sheetmetal screw or a sheetrock screw. There are screws of all sizes and lengths as well as colors. Black screws, brown screws, and stainless. No rhyme or reason except for the fact that the person or persons responsible for the building must have thought if one screw holds then 2 will hold even better.

We plan to try to take her back to the good old vintage time, with a few modern additions like a water tank with pump and a mini on demand hot water faucet. We are not going to add any propane appliances however we are going to go fully electric with a few plugs, a double hot plate, toaster oven, mini fridge and coffer maker.

For dining and sleeping we are planning a U shaped sofa/dining unit that converts to a bed and an overhead fold up bunk. Under the sofa will be a few storage cubbies, a small floor to ceiling closet will be added as well as new flooring. As for the walls, I plan to try my best to remove the little bit of paint that they started to put on the beautiful brand new birch sheeting and do a full honey stain inside. I’ll try my best and if no, we may need to paint the whole dang thing white. I sure hope not, wish me luck! Stay tuned for updates here.