Fleetwing Camper Build - Cut-Weld-Drive Forums

Scott76 · April 6th, 2009, 10:40 AM

OK. Some may know I have been looking for a Scotty Camper for several years now. Well let me tell you they are very hard to find and still have a budget to rebuild it (they all need restored). I knew one of my old co-workers had a "Scotty" in his back yard. I finally asked him about it and went to look at it. It turns out that is a Fleetwing, not a Scotty. It took me a while but I brought it home Sunday and started cleaning it out. It sat for 11 years in his back yard. My wife and I love camping and are tired of tenting. My in-laws know a Scotty restorer (4hours away from me), and I don't have a big enough garage to tear it down and rebuild. So I talked to him several times and is all excited to tear into this. The deal is that I have to go up EVERY WEEKEND and help to keep the budget inline (plus the wife can see her parents). The plan is to retro it out and do a frame off restore (any other way?). We started picking out fabric for the cushions and countertop, and flooring. We are most likely going to paint the inside because I hate paneling. If you can't tell it was copied after a Scotty, so I plan on coping alot more from them too. I hope to have it done before spring.

No more sleeping on concrete floors at Mike Meet!

Scott76 · April 6th, 2009, 10:43 AM

Once I got it home (early fall 08) it needed some cleaning. Here is how dirty the outside was!

Scott76 · April 6th, 2009, 11:07 AM

Well I had no time over winter to even look at the camper. We took it up to Austin's (Scotty Restorer, who is helping me) last fall (late). It sat outside beside his garage just waiting for me. Well we finally made time for it this past weekend (April 4, 09). I'm am early riser and so it Austin. We pushed her into the garage around 7:30am. We have already talked about what is planned for the future so we were both on the same page. It was planned to keep digging til we hide SOLID material! then start building from there.

We lucked out that it was all screwed together, Scotty campers are all build with the spiral nails. Try pulling those out without dinging the alum. siding

! A 1/4" socket on the drill and off we went. Keep in mind this is my FIRST camper build, so I'm excited to start ripping into it. So let the build begin!

The siding came off from the bottom up.

All the alum. siding and fiberglass are off both sides. Now starting to unscrew the front, roof & back siding (all one piece 4' sections seamed together)

Needed a place to put the roof section without dinging it. So we hung it up!

Here is some of the water damage that happens from leaking seams and misc. nail holes.

The roof above the door way.

The front and back has been taken off.

Now down to the floor. The walls had to be taken off to put the new flooring on. This is where we left it 4:00pm

We looked at everything and measured some stuff. It was a good stopping point for a great days work. It was time for a beer! Tomorrow is another day.

Scott76 · April 6th, 2009, 11:16 AM

Sunday morning 8:00am. We looked at the floor and had a little talk and started to rip up the UGLY flooring. It was a little hard and the wood subfloor was very soft in the corners so up it came. It was a good thing because there was some big black ants in the plywood floor. We took in down to the metal trailer frame.

Like I said before. It was getting ripped down till we hit SOLID material!

Now it was rigged to be towed home with me to get the metal up to standard and finished. So now its home with me and getting ready to get sandblasted, primered and bedlined.

Now we have a material list for the rebuild! I'm pretty happy.

Scott76 · April 13th, 2009, 03:06 AM

We had another weekend. So we started on the walls. Took the driverside wall and removed the inside face to repair the studs. There was a lot of rot and we had to have a strong thought about how to go about it. Austin has a full wood working shop (lucky me)!! He planed some boards down to the thickness of the existing studs and started to rebuild them. One stud at a time.

Existing stud wall:

New stud wall:

Trimming the inside face:

Inside face done and waiting to be primered:

Now the pass. side wall was a little rougher!! We started to replacing a stud at a time. I was hoping to at least use 2 or 3 pcs. but nope. We build an all new wall. We did use the 3 pcs. of plywood in the back corner but thats it. We also beefed up the door frame. The existing was all stapled. We used screws in the important points.

The existing pass. stud wall:

All new stud wall:

Inside face done and waiting to be primered:

We had a little time before Easter dinner. So we planned some more steps and material list for the inside cabnets. We did build the front benchs that go with the table and the back of the camper/bed bench area.

I am trying to save and use existing wood as much as I can but thats a hard task! Theres not much to save. How many people can say they have a brand new 1969 camper?

Scott76 · April 16th, 2009, 05:50 AM

Early Atwood actuator info.:
There is an "ATWOOD" hydraulic brake actuator on the frame. Remeber its a 1969. Well the master cylinder has been dry for who know how long and its so rusted I wanted to replace all the braking systems on the trailer (going all back to stock!). I have been looking since Oct. '08 for this master cylinder (high, low, everywhere

). Well last week I saw this one master cylinder and that was it, but it was a "Dico". I searched and measured everything on this "Dico" master cylinder. I'll be damned it was the right cylinder. So I looked at the shock absorber and couldn't find anything in "Atwood" or "Dico". It is a freaking "Toledo". So in the early "Atwood" brake actuator there are parts from 3 different companys and NO WHERE on the interet has any info about this. I got it all from reseaching and measureing. But hell thats part of the fun SOMETIMES!!

The old master cylinder / new Dico model 6 master cylinder:

The Toledo shock absorber:

The rain finally stops and I had time to start to work on the trailer frame. I had to strip everything off so I can sandblast it. So I removed the brake actuator and the axle from the frame. Looked at the brake assembly/hub which may need replaced or refreshen alittle.

Brake assembly:

Scott76 · April 20th, 2009, 05:40 AM

I sandblasted the frame and primered it. It took sometime to get the sandblasting done. It isn't no easy job, but it needed done.
Before blasting:

I found the VIN#. I had an idea where it was but with all the coats of paint on the tongue no one would have found it. Really there was 2 places were the VIN# are at.

After blasting waiting for primer:

Here its primered waiting for bedliner:

The tongue is wrapped up to get painted white. I didn't want the bedliner on it. The orig. tongue paint was white to match the white siding. I cut all the Pressure Treated wood to finish the frame work and all the cross braces. I use a sandblasting gun (that sucks up the sand) and modified it to use with the bedliner. I punched a hole in the gal. lid and shoved the hose in and just strayed the bedline on. It worked GREAT. I'm VERY happy how it turned out.

Now I have left to sandblast is the step, axle, the rest of the hitch, my buddy's rad. support for his Nova and a little side project for me (you'll see it later). I hope to have the blasting done with in 2 days. Something about sandblasting isn't fun. I'm thinking about getting a pet monkey and teaching him how to do it!

I'm working on getting new brake assemblies. I'm going today to match up my old ones with new ones at a local trailer shop. I'm getting new u-bolts too but I'm trying to find the right size. I'm thinking of putting a 1" block under the axle to get it to sit a little lower.

Scott76 · April 29th, 2009, 03:07 AM

I was alittle busy over the weekend with Spring Carlisle & Campbelltown VW. There was no work on the trail till Monday. But the bedlineing is done for now. I put the second coat on the axle & the step. Now it was time to put it all back together. Spraying the bedliner on was the key. It was fast & easy. What ever over spray was dry by the time it hits you. Anyhow I upgraded the jack stands so I don't have to store them in the camper somewhere. I needed to weld an extra brace to the frame to get them to fit. I do wish they would have been a little wider by we'll make due. I put the axle back on and was going to put the new brake assembly on but the drum wasn't ready to cover them and it was going to rain lastnight. I cleaned the bearing and repacked them. I need to pick up bearing seals today and we'll have it sitting on wheels tonight. Then I need to put the tongue back together. The spindle isn't painted. It is elec. taped up.

Scott76 · April 30th, 2009, 04:30 AM

Picked the bearing seals up yesterday (upgraded the seals too). I cleaned the spindles off and put the new upgraded brake assemblies on. The have galv. backplate and stainless steel springs and the cylinder is coated. Yea its over kill but the price difference between the standard and the upgrade was like $5. Thats a no brainer to me. I'll never have to worry about them. I cleaned the huds and put the bearings in. Mounted the hubs and adjusted the brakes. put the wheels on. Installed the step to see how it looked. I bedlined the step with low air pressure to get a rough coat, so no skid tape is needed.

Scott76 · May 11th, 2009, 02:50 AM

Well I finally got done with the frame down here at home so now I had to tow it back up the Potter county (thats where Austin lives and where we have the rest of the camper). It towed pretty good after I had teh tires balanced. They were pretty bad!

We got up there Friday afternoon and didn't waiste any time! We did all the brake & gas plumbing on the frame, plus that means we had to add the wood cross bracing to brace the gas pipes.

Since the under side was done we added a new front splash alum. and the laid the old alum. that goes between the wooden floor and the trailer frame (it came that way) and lined that up with the frame. Then we laid the 3/4" tongue & groove flooring. We drilled pilot holes through the flooring and into the trailer frame. We took our time and cut the holes for the wheel wells I made. The orig. wheel wells were plastic (from what I could tell from the little pieces that were left on the underside of the floor) since there were NO wheel wells left.

Since the flooring has been laid it was time to under coat the whole trailer now! How would you do it? Well some of you wonder about me!!!

My engineering skills kicked in. I wouldn't advise anyone to try this. But I thought it out and had a first aid kit nearby!! Anyhow I got the whole underside bedlined now and it done. I took some pic for you all since you wouldn't believe me if I didn't take any pics.

Scott76 · May 11th, 2009, 04:02 AM

The wood dlooring being down its time for the overlay. My wife took a pic of me working, yeap in a tye-dye. we glued the overlay down. I even picked it out too! Try to fine an overlay that has that ugly 70's green in it..

It was time for the walls. We are going to make it easy and paint the stuff before we put it all together. But we didn't pick the fabric for the cushions, so that means we didn't pick the paint color either. But at least I primered the wall first. We mounted the walls to the floor and put the lower back on to support plus a couple of braces across the top to help hold the walls the right distance apart and so they don't flop over.

Scott76 · May 13th, 2009, 03:10 AM

Since the frame is done and up north I have time to start on all the alum. trim (door frame, windows, trim around the all the edges). It has never been touch since it was put on the camper in '69. I need to freshen it up alittle! I set up a buffing operation in the garage. It's mighty fun!

Before:

After: (not totaly finished polishing it yet, its just buffed)

Now imagine ALL the alum. trim like that!

Scott76 · May 26th, 2009, 04:23 AM

We had a great holiday weekend and worked on the camper 4 days. It may not look like we did much but we didn't stop at all. We made the cabinets and the back couch/bed. Plus there was a lot of painting. The wife & I agreed on the color last week after several long days of trying to agree on the fabric first! Its easier to match the paint to the fabric instead of the fabric to the paint. The fabric has been ordered and already at the house. I'll post more about the fabric later.

So we painted the walls and all the cabinets. We are painting all the cabinets before we install them. It will give it a cleaner look. We made the cabinets. It is a little harder than I thought. Did you ever try to put 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag? Its a close & tight area. No room for errors. Its one of those things you measure 3 time then write it down and then cut. Its not an easy thing to do. So there isn't many pics but we did get a lot done/made. (plus I forgot my camera).

Heres the back couch/bed plus you can see the color in the shade alot easier.

the front benches drying.

The kitchen area sink, stove top, icebox, & cabinet. It needs patched and sanded down to smooth over the front face. Need to patch the top screw holes before the formice is put down. Some of the sliding doors are sitting ontop of the cabinet.

The over head cabinet thats above the kitchen area. It need alittle patch and sanded again.

Scott76 · June 8th, 2009, 05:33 AM

Well let me just tell you how much this sucks that this project is 3.5hrs away from me. It would have been done by now if it was at my place or I lived closer!!!

I had a full day of painting and trimming one of the holes for the tongue jack. So all the cabinets that are made are fully painted and are ready to be installed. There is one more cabinet that needs to be built that goes over the table, but that will be built in place since we are going to build a front wall and frame the front window in at the same time. I haven't touched the alum. in a month because of wrapping up some loose ends on other projects. We ordered new foam for all the cushions and are waiting on it to come in. I need to get the piping chord and fabric to start making my own piping (welting) for the cushions. Just wait til you see the fabric. Its cool!! I picked it out and the wife liked it too!!!

Anyways. The cabinets are painted and are ready to be installed which will be this coming weekend. The fomica will be on the kitchen cabinet and the backsplash. I ordered a little extra flooring so all the bottoms of the cabinets will be covered. I have always hated that sticky paper you put in there. Theres not much of the work this past weekend but I did remember the camera.

Whats a Scotty for? Thats an all orig. Highlander that has not been touched. Still have the ladder & orig. cushions. Its really nice. But I needed a place to lean my parts so they can dry!!!

My beautiful little hard worker!

Scott76 · June 15th, 2009, 04:24 AM

Its finally looking like a camper now. The last couple times it was hard for me to see anything being done to it since most of it was just painting and making cabinets. But this past weekend really paid off! We installed the closet, kitchen, cabinet over the kitchen and started the front wall. I also worked on the tongue jack hole again BUT I burnt out my 2nd dremel now. I have to check the bushings and dig into that. That blows. Here are some pics.

The closet in:

the wheel well thats going to be covered with the floor in the closet. (I made those wheel wells out of galv. duct sheeting).

The kitchen area. There is a wall that gets put up inside the cabinet area.

We put the Formica on. It was the first time ever doing that. The glue is fun to play with but don't think you'll pull it back off. We (she) picked a nice formica. Its look pretty close to the 60's. We also covered the table & backsplash with this too.

Then we installed the cabinet over the kitchen. And made the backsplash with some of the 1/4" ply and formica. You can see the "ice box" & the draw in the kitchen. The draw needs a face yet and I brought the ice box home to get the cleaning & buffing to freshen it up a little.

Since those were all in the next step was the front wall. We need the front wall in so we can place the table & benches. The only thing that was on the front wall from the factory was the window frame. It is hard to explain how it was. But we modified that alittle to make it stiffer. We framed in the whole front wall from the floor up to above the window. We measured the sheet metal from the bottom to the bottom of the window. This way we know where to place the window frame and know that we don't have to cut the alum. siding. We (Austin) had to make 4 legs that curved with the curve of the front wall.

Then we tried to apply the 1/4" ply to the inside of the front wall. I NEVER thought curving 1/4" ply would be that hard. We clamped and pushed, pulled & hammered and my fat ass barely got it in place! I would have never thought!!! You learn something everyday. But I'll be damn we got it! I hope it stays thought. We glued & screwed it. We're leaving it like this for 2 weeks (til I get back up there, have to go to a VW show next week in CT). Once I get back there the wall has to come out in one piece to be primered, painted & the molding put between the walls. Thats going to be a bitch!

Scott76 · June 29th, 2009, 03:39 AM

I had another work weekend. Not to much to report. It was really just another painting weekend. We did make the cabinet that goes over the front table & benches. I took the front wall out and painted that and put the molding on it. My wife & I put it back in after the paint was dry. I painted the ceiling sheets (I have to do one more sheet, I miscounted). We installed the the the cabinet and stiffened the front wall up. We (Austin) made the drawer front and a cabinet door for the kitch area. Freshened up the slider part of the rear couch/bed. That was really it for the weekend. Austin had a cruise to go to Sat. and I was at a fair type of thing up there (Snake Hunt, long story if you don't know what that is).

Next weekend (July 4th weekend) is going to be another painting weekend, hopefully the last painting weekend since I'm getting tired of that.

We did start looking at the wiring layout. I got all the plumbing stuff. So now it starting the wirng and the gas line layout.

I do have a couple of pic of the front cabinet & the painted wall but the camera is at home. I'll save the pics for next weekend. We are getting closer.

Scott76 · July 6th, 2009, 04:19 AM

Another slow weekend. It was the July 4th. I worked a little but my helper was getting ready for his clubs car show all weekend. I managed to get some stuff done.

Last weekends pic.
Front cabinet & wall painted and placed back in place:

This weekends pics.

I started to run the wiring for the trailer lights. I have in mind how and where to run them. The original ground was run to the alum. siding and the lights were ground to that. But everyone usually has problems down the road with the lights. I figure if you run a ground to each light that problem will be solved. What it one extra wire? If your going to do it just do it right.

I cut the front window out of the inside ply:

It was another painting weekend. Not as bad as before but I'm really getting tired of painting! Theres going to be another paint day but its going to be touchups and finishing. We'll save that for later. But I painted the slider part for the bed, the drawer face, & the cabinet door. Plus the piece I miscounted for the ceiling.

One this I'm very happy about is the tongue jack. Its finally in!! Its not bolted down yet but the hole is big enough to get the jack down in now! It just cost a new dremel and several grinding wheels for the drill. I burnt a dremel out working on the hole, then I rebuilt/fixed it, & burnt it out again. I'll have to see if its fixable this time. But who cares. The jacks in!!

We need another good weekend and the ceiling is going to be on. I'm trying to figure out when that is going to happen. It looks like the next 2 weekends aren't going to happen though.

Scott76 · July 27th, 2009, 03:12 AM

Well its been killing me that I haven't touch the camper in 2 weeks. This work weekend was a long time waiting!!! We finally got the roof on. It pretty much took the whole weekend to just do the roof too!! I still can't believe it takes that much pressure & force to bend 5.2mm plywood!! There is some tension on that roof. But we got the roof on, and started to insulate the walls and got the 1/2" plywood on the roof too.

Here is some pics of the weekend!

As you can see we had to use alot of water to help relieve the tension in the plywood. It really took 3 guys & tons of clamps to get that ply in place.

The insulation is 3/4" foam with R4 rating. We'll stay warm with a candle in the fall.

Look closer at the last pic. We put the 1/2" ply on the roof. We glued the 1/2" to the 1/4" to get them to be a little stiffer, but we needed to added some weight. There is 3 cinder boxs, a block of 4x12x30 cherry wood and a 3ton floor jack up there.

Heres some pics of the inside

I also scored bigtime! There is a late 70's Scotty Highlander up the road at a campground that is a parts trailer and we got the go ahead to take what ever we want. I scored the elec. box. We are going back to score a ton more. Theres all the lights and other stuff. Lets just stay theres not going to be anything left after we are done. We are talking about even taking the alum. siding to future patch panels for other trailers.

Heres the really cool part. I'm taking the Wed.-Fri. off of work to go up and have a solid 5 days to work on that camper. The hit list is all the elec., plumbing, gas lines, & puting the alum. siding back on and start prep for the paint.

Scott76 · July 31st, 2009, 03:55 PM

OK since it the last day of July (CBOM). I figured I'd post a little update. I have been working on the camper for the last 3 days pretty good. We are getting it to the final stage and ready for prep for paint by the end of Sunday. There will be another update for the weekend.

I just want to say once again, getting Crazy Bastard of the Month is an honor. Thanks again!

Any how here some pics and what we did.

We plumbed the water system. There is a 10gal. fresh water tank (all new hose & stuff). The tank is under the front bench.

Then we wired all the outlets and lights. They aren't all in yet but the wires are run. We got the box out of the parts Scottys in the field (score).

I finished insulating the outside walls and trimmed for the wires. Then we started to Tyvek (house wrap) the sides. The front needs a piece of the ply yet (waiting on a brace/support to dry). Then the top insulation, Tyvek, and aluminum siding can be placed on the camper.

We did run into one problem that scared us. The ceiling/roof ply wants to kick out where they butt up againist the each other in the back area. I did get some old panelling molding (H molding) and thats how we joined the plys together. But it still wanted to kick out. So we used 3/4" wide metal band and strapped the whole camper. We have 3 straps that run from the front to the back and 2 straps the run from the top to the bottom in the back. I torq. them down while Austin screwed them fast. Problem solved!

Theres more done then that but thats the main stuff for this post. More to come after the weekend.

Scott76 · August 3rd, 2009, 03:04 AM

It was a great work weekend on the camper. I think we did pretty good but I still wish we would have done more but I'm beat! I did take off most of Saturday to relax a little and have fun. But before I did that I did get some work done. I closed up the front wall, insulated the roof, wrapped it, fished the wires out (did forget to wire the rear marker light, but we'll fix that). Heres some pics from saturdays work.

Sunday was a good work morning. I finished up the wraping and sealed it up. My wife did come over and help me clean the underside of the roof alum. (it was really dirty) and lower it down onto the camper. We have it just resting on the camper. We have to center it, run the rear clearance marker wires yet and fasten it down. We didn't get to the side alum. yet. I will need a hand lining up the first piece and go from there. Here some pics from Sunday.

Heres a good pic of the name decal of the camper. I took all the measurements to remake them. I'll see today how that will work out.

Oh yea. We did go score some parts off a late 70's Scotty Highlander. I got the interior lights and a license plate light!

Plus some other little pieces too. Theres still more to get off of it yet. We'll be back.

Scott76 · August 17th, 2009, 02:46 AM

Well it was a great weekend. We got the siding cleaned and hung. Its finally really looking like a camper again. It feels good to get the siding up and to have that floor space back. Heres the pics.

We looked at the door. Well it wasn't the best shape and it felt a little weak. So we opened it up and to find that it was rotted and it was just loose stapled together. The door would twist. It had to go! So we rebuilt it and made it a little stiffer.

Well after digging for more info. about Fleetwing I think I might have found a true starting point now. No one knows where Fleetwing was build. I lucked out and finally could read the one sticker that was on the side of the camper. I tried to get a pic of it but its with my phone. It has "Fleetwing" & "Wakaruse Indiana" on it. I'll be digging in that town now.

Scott76 · August 24th, 2009, 02:54 AM

It was a great weekend. I took another 2 days off work to have a long weekend working on the camper. I went up hoping to get some paint on it. Now let me give you a little background on me. I have NEVER painted before in my life. Besides spray bombing parts here and there that is it. Spray bombs are a little different then auto paint. So needless to say I really didn't want to paint it myself. But after a while I decided to go for it myself. Whats the worst that could happen? Right?

Thursday we pulled the camper out to get the rest cleaned and washed down. Since its was out we build our "paint booth".

Then we went for it with the primer.

We left that flash and cleaned my gun for the white coat. Then it was time for the the white.

We left it set for a full day with out touching it. We did have some problems with fish eyes and orange peel but hell I'm not perfect and I'm not looking for a perfect paint job. With the weather we were having its the best we could get.

So Saturday morning I went over to tinker around and get some stuff done. Well its was dry enought to tape off so we hurried and prepped the area and got everything in line for the blue. We painted the blue on Saturday.

I'm really impressed on how it turned out. It looks great in person.

Scott76 · August 31st, 2009, 03:29 AM

We didn't go up and work on the camper this weekend. But I have been very busy with life and trying to get the alum. trim finished. It took some time but I get the trim finished lastnight. Now I got to start the windows. Boy this polishing & sealing is mighty fun!!!

First I have to clean the it with a red 3M pad with comet & water to get the rust and caulking off (use a razor blade for the hard caulking). Once the trim is cleaned then I buffed it with the red polishing bar (hold on to the piece it will twist and wear leather gloves because it DOES get very hot). Then use the Zoop metal polish. Then clean it with the Zoop cleaner. Then apply the Zoop seal (let it dry pretty good in the sun). Then apply the Zoop final sealer (final polish to buff the seal to a shine). It is very long and hard work. I would hate to see what it cost to have some one do it for you!! I'm hoping it last the 2 years they say it does. You can reapply the final sealer polish as many times as you wish. Any way its long hard work but it needs done! Heres some pics.

This is what I started with. You can see the rust and piting in the alum.:

Here is what it looks like now:

Here is what I used. This stuff is NOT cheap!! I odered it from Summit Racing. They were the cheapst that I could find shipped:

Scott76 · October 19th, 2009, 05:34 PM

Well it been a long time since I had a chance to work on the camper. We had some free time this past weekend and got up to place the trim on it. It wasn't an easy task. I think it was the hardest so far. Because it has to cover gaps and corners and thats might not fit perfect. It was close, but we got it to work the best we can. I'm happy with it. I want to get it out of Austin's garage for the winter. So we have to make it all weather proof. The windows aren't polished but I have to spread the polishing fun out a little. I don't want to have all the fun at once. Well less talk more pics.

The orig. vent was just a mushroom cap vent. I went with a 14x14 vent. Yea thats right. I cut a hole in a perfect roof.

We plan to go back up in 2 weeks to get all the lights on and really weather prrof it solid.

All i realy have to say is that the trim really pops the camper now. It looks just unreal!!! I love it.

Scott76 · August 1st, 2011, 03:51 AM

Its been almost 2 years since we last did anything to the camper. We moved and had other stuff going on in the meantime. So it was stored away in safe keeping til now. We really want to go camping so the camper is pulled out to finish it. It was been in a nice new garage for the winter so it hasn't seen snow yet.

We finally had the cushions made at a upholstery shop with our fabric. I haven't cut the foam yet. Maybe this week. Laura is going to her gram's this coming weekend to help with the curtains with our fabric along with some pillows too. I know I haven't posted the fabric up but we had it since we painted the interior. Just keep in mind that we wanted to to a 60's-70's retro feel to the camper. So the fabric was picked for that reason.

The cushions fabric:

The fabric had other patterns in the color series so we picked the stripes for the curtains and the crazy pattern & dots for pillows.

The last things I had to do to finish the outside was to buff & polish the windows. I really didn't want to do it but it had to be done. I'm so tired of buffing & polishing alum. that I just want it over with. So I just did it over the weekend. I started Friday morning at 5am and I got done polishing Sunday afternoon. What a pain in the ass. But its done! I started out buffing the window as 1 piece but I knew that was a stupid move. So I sat down and studied the window. I had to drill out 4 rivits and the glass came out and 1 screw per corner and the frame came apart. So now I feel safer to buff the pieces.

Here is what I started with:

Buffed to this:

What the window looked like before I took it apart:

What the pieces look like drying in the sun after they were sealed.

While I was sealing the windows, Laura was painting the original window inside wood trim. She painted them the white to match the ceiling. I got new alum. screen to staple to the back before installing them back in the camper.

I started working inside now. I got the electric fuse box wired to the plug. I have 1 light to install above the table but I have to wait to see how far out the curtains stick out before I mount the light. Plus I have 2 Scotty lights that are going to be mounted to each side of the cabinet above the sink. Had to cut off a couple of long bolt that extend through the back wall that hold the tail lights on and painted over them. The sink need a little patch in the enamel and that is ready to be installed too. I have to get all the supplies I have for it out of storage yet. So stay tuned because this should be fast moving to get this on the road before the fall.