Just bought a older Casita, Blue Shag........... So not styling! LOL....


So I am wondering if you have changed out the carpet and what you have used when remodeling your Casita as an alternative to the Blue Shag (or what ever color you started with) Do you have to use carpet? Or have you used other options? Any input on what you have done and what you used to create your walls and ceiling would be greatly welcome...... Thanks Robin



Pic's would also be really Welcome!

GOOD FOR YOU!

Retro! I can see a totally 1960s-1970s theme here. Tie-dyed curtains, lava lamp, old poster of Big Brother and the Holding Company hanging on the bathroom door (snicker). I looked at a 1986 16' Casita that had the blue shag, almost bought it but the price was too high for the value.

My opinion... I'd live with it for at least this camping season. It might not be your taste in anyway, but camping season is on! You'd sleep in a tent even if it were the wrong color, right? I wonder if it could be dyed? Disguise rather than replace..... hummmm. Might be worth checking out. Maybe a flooring store would know.... Other than that, Scamp sells rat fur by the yard and I know Escape uses a headliner material (go look in your car) in their trailers. Headliner material comes in nearly every color of the rainbow. Anything is possible with enough time, money and effort, you just have to decide where that point is. I know I'd certainly look to disguise rather than replace... use the money to buy fuel to go places, use the time to camp, use the effort to make sure it's towable and to increase other creature comforts.

Now, where's the pictures?

I agree with Donna D. How cute would a blue and yellow country theme be? I can see it now, cute little yellow curtains with blue and yellow tie backs and some quilted blue and yellow throw pillows. With the right covers on your cushions you have saved yourself a tremendous amount of work, aggravation, and money. Good luck! Terry R

Robin,
I would definitely replace the blue shag with synthetic flooring (tiles of one-piece.) Carpets can never be really cleaned.

Ami, the carpet is on the walls. I don't think tile would work there...

Yeah Ami, Donna is right. It's on the walls and ceiling............ The floor has another nasty blue carpet. That is going for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will not camp with carpet on a floor. As you said, it's hard to get carpet clean, two seconds with Dh and the wienier dogs it's already got stuff tracked in. I think we are gonna pull it out this week. Have to decide on what type of flooring to put down. Something cleanable.



Donna and Terry, I know what I should do. Just not sure I want to wait. Donna, your right the retro thing would be cute. I told a friend before he walked into it yesterday to enjoy his "Trip" down memory lane. He looked at me like huh? When he came out he was laughing (he got it). I am thinking of checking out what a custom car guy could do with it. Just thought I would see what others have done to get more ideas. Also wanted to get some sort of direction for design so that when we put in new flooring I pick something that would go with the future revamp. The revamp won't get in the way of camping season. I know one thing the walls and ceiling are getting steamed clean this week, infact the whole trailer is getting a good scrubing. Robin

Robin!

Congratulations! I am glad you found a trailer after finding so many for others on this forum!
We don't have carpet on our walls, having a VT, but we have blue carpet on the floor. We turned it into a Southwestern theme. Except a few VW accents are finding their way into the trailer lately.

CindyL

Thanks Cindy! That's the problem, I was finding so many trailers out there, just not near us. But finally! Not what I wanted, but will get us back out there. And cheap enough to let it go, if something better comes along. Just seems like the newer ones are selling sooooooo fast. Within hours of being posted. And since none were within a few hours of us, I was finding they were sold before I could even get in the truck and on the road. I jumped at this one, again not new but a start. I would love to see pic's of your decor. sounds cute! Can't wait to get to the point of decorating it. Soon. Robin

You gotta post a picture of this rig...............please

Robin:

Our VT is an '86 too. For pix, check out this thread: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/index.ph...2&hl=CindyL

Decorating is fun.

CindyL

Bill, I will get some pic's today. And hopefully I can figure out how to post them......... It's something to see thats for sure! I will run over and take pic's here in a minute then see if I can get them to post.



Thanks Cindy, That's so cute! Love how the outside looks. Did you guys paint yours? It looks like brand new.




It cracked me up yesterday driving home from Glenwood. People just react to egg's............ Wave, etc. After stoping in Denver to show MIL, driving out of her subdivison two old guys sitting on a porch sipping cocktails raised their martini glass'es at us! It was a hoot! Can't wait till I have it looking good and see what the reactions are. They are all waving and thumb's up-ing a dirty Casita. Robin

Robin:

The hubby cleaned the outside but repainted most of the details. Some is tape. We found some tent tape that was the right color and is holding up pretty well.

We had a couple of people who stopped by at our campground last weekend. They did not tour it, but they talked at length to us about getting one of their own. We always have the comment, "I didn't know UHaul rented trailers." I wonder how many UHaul dealerships get a phone call from the people who see us driving on the road and want to rent one.

CindyL

LOL.......... Cindy, yours looks like new so I bet people do think it's something being rented out. How funny. U-haul gets a ton of calls after a weekend of you guys on the road........ . You need one of those "Not for hire/rent" signs like those big freight liner haulers have on their trucks that let people know it's a private truck. I would love to know if they do get calls. After enough calls they may just have to add to their fleet again. What a riot! Robin

Robin, I searched +carpet +wall and found an old "Legacy Post" (which means the pictures are long since gone). It links to another thread which includes a reposting of instructions from Lanny Webb, who completely re-did the carpeting in (I think it was) an older Casita.

I'll keep looking for some pics to go with the explanations. The originals were lost in the big hack of Nov.2005.

Carpeting the Casita Interior, 13 Foot Casita

Robin:

I just read a web site that said that UHaul lost 17 million dollars on their fiberglass rental and that the big guys were so mad that they took all the CTs under production and dumped them into Lake Erie. There is supposed to be a picture on the wall at headquarters of the trailers with a comment about never making such a big mistake again.

We do have a sign on the tongue that says it is not property of UHaul. They also covered the large UHaul name on the outside with orange tape, although lots of things inside are still embossed with UHaul. We just put UHaul back on, using reflective tape. So you can see it even in the dark

CindyL

Ok, here are some pic's...... None of the inside shag came out. But will run back over and re=take them a little later. These are two of the outside.
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and another!
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Thank You Mary for the link. That will be a great start! Thanks again, Bella

Ok Bill, heres the inside........................ LOL. The blue color dosen't come up over my cell phone, But I swear it's really blue! Robin
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Robin,
I own a '91 Casita SD that I completely gutted and refurbished in the spring of '05. My camper was in horrible shape, the floor was rotted and the carpeting on the walls was coming off and smelled like mildew. I researched every carpet manufacturer and the foam backed carpet that Casita uses in the new trailers is manufactured by Shaw Industries Carpet Co. My '91 fortunately did not have the blue designer shag, but had the beige foam backed variety. I contacted Shaw Ind. and I was informed that they only manufacture the foam backed carpet for Casita and no one else has it and they told me I would have to buy directly from Casita. I live fairly close to the plant in Rice Tx. so I went by there and they sold me as much carpet as I needed to recarpet the entire trailer front to back. Let me say that recarpeting the walls/ceiling was the hardest part of the refurb. I'm glad I did it, but I don"t think I would ever try it again! The carpet is very hard to cut and work with around the curves inside the trailer and I spent nearly $200 just for the 3M spray adhesive to glue the carpet on. But before I did anything, I scraped every last bit of glue/foam/carpet fibers from the fiberglass and I went to Lowes and purchased the foil faced bubble pack insulation and I covered the entire inside of the trailer with it and used heavy duty construction adhesives to glue the foil bubble pack insulation to the shell. This material not only reflects heat that comes through the fiberglass shell,but it provides a dead airspace between the fiberglass shell and the foam backed carpeting. Once done with the foil insulation I proceeded with the foam backed carpeting and let me tell you, I have probably the best insulated fiberglass trailer there is. I put a 10K BTU Frigidaire to replace the old Emerson unit and I can keep the temps inside the trailer during the day in the texas summer heat in the low 60's. In the winter, I set a small electric bathroom heater on the lowest setting and it keeps the trailer toasty warm. The reason I am stating this is to possibly help you out if you do decide to tackle the job of replacing the carpeting on the walls. Make no mistake, It is a HUGE undertaking if done properly and it is not something that can be done in a few hours. Also if you decide to do this please make sure if you are using any type of spray aerosol adhesive that you have proper ventilation and a respirator on, the fumes nearly overwhelmed me when working in the back of the Casita, I had windows open and a respirator and it was still overpowering. I don't want to scare you away from upgrading your Casita, just wanted to pass along some experience from my refurbishment.

Robin,

We bought a '84 Casita with burnt orange shag carpeting everywhere and I was convinced that it HAD TO GO!!! We realized it would be a really big job though, so we put it off and worked on other renovations first. Getting rid of the orange carpet on the floor and the dark brown cabinet doors really transformed our trailer, and we were surprised to discover that the carpeting on the walls that we once hated was now actually perfect for the trailer! So my advice is to wait before tackling this huge job... your other mods may change your mind about your blue carpeting.

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Scott, it sounds like you did a great job on your carpet replacement - I'd love to see photos of your "new" interior!

Jeanne

Scott, Thank You for your input. I was afraid it was going to be a big project but I like some of your ideas about extra insulation. I am sure it's going to be a mess. I am not hot on putting carpet back. I would love to come up with an alternative. I was thinking of talking to a custom car restorer and seeing what ideas he might have. But haven't gotten that far. Do you have pic's of your re-do?



Jeanne, Your's is soooooooo cute! I figured that other inprovements would help. But I hate carpet, cause it holds so much dirt. That's why I posted to see if there where others that came up with other options. I may just clean and wait and see. But I may get a wild hair and just go for it. Well see! Robin

I don't know how similiar your trailer is to the scamp but, I have a 13' Scamp that had old, ugly carpet in it. I just went to Lowe's and bought indoor/outdoor carpet and a pint of glue made for that paticular carpet and went for it . I pulled out the old stuff, sanded the floor and then did a good cleaning and it looks great. All for about $40. I was told you could put in a wood floor. ??? I wasn't sure how that would do in colder weather.
Good luck!

Sherry, did you put it on your walls? I would love to see pic's. See with the Casita, the walls are carpeted. That's what I am trying to find an option for. As far as the floor, I am putting in wood or bamboo. For me carpet and camping don't mix. I am just stuck on what to do for the Casita carpeted ceiling and walls. . Thanks, I will just have to go look at the indoor outdoor carpet options. Just might find something that would work. Robin

Robin,

You can get the foil insulation and rat fur that Scamp uses from Scamp.
I think the rat fur is a Marine product and you can probably find it at Marine suppliers as well.
It would still be a big job but not too bad.
You could probably take the materials to an installer and they could remove and install.

I like Jeanne's idea of doing the wood floor and some of the mods and cleanup, because you might like the blue once you tone it down and it's not all blue.

Robin,

I apologize, at the time I did the refurb, I did not even own a digital camera, so the only pictures that exist are in my memory, and trust me, I wish now I had taken pictures to share with everyone. I encourage you to take your time and explore every possible means of upgrading your Casita. Once mine was completely gutted I entertained the idea of spraying it with bedliner coating, as I have a good friend that owns a spray in bedliner co. and he would have done it for only the cost of the materials. They can make the bedliner material into a wide variety of colors, and I really considered doing it until I looked at an enclosed utility trailer they had done and I got inside and put my hand up against it and it offered zero insulation from the outside temperatures(the walls were hot). I looked at every conceivable fabric(even auto headliner material) but nothing I researched would offer the insulation capabilities of the foil faced bubble pack and the foam backed Casita carpet. The only drawback to having carpeting on the walls and ceiling is that if you plan to cook in your camper the carpeting will absorb the odors and it will be very hard to get out, but I never cook in mine and therefore I made the decision to go back with the carpet. One thing that I researched and you may want to consider is the antifatigue rubber matting that is used for various applications. It is soft,durable, and would have been easy to cut and glue in, just not very pretty to look at. Once again, I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide upon and I look forward to seeing the pictures of your mods. If you have any questions, let me know, I have seen every square inch of my trailer, and I also got to watch the production line in Rice Tx. on the several trips I made to get parts, and I saw how they are put together, which greatly helped me during reassembly of my '91SD. Good Luck!

Jeanne and Steve,

Just now saw your post... Burnt Orange shag carpeting!!!!!!!! Wow, wanna trade campers? I wish they still had that, it would be great down here in Austin(Hook 'em Horns). I guess at the time Casita was trying to show its true Texas UT colors,.....now there's a marketing idea, Casita Collegiate interiors and matching exteriors, I gotta go call Casita now and pitch my new million dollar idea, hmmmm.... maybe they need a new marketing director.
Robin,
Problem solved! Instead of yellow curtains go with the silver/white curtains and blue carpeting and call Jerry Jones and tell him you have the official Cowboys tailgate party camper! He may even send you some free tickets to haul it down here and watch Romo and company in their new stadium next season. LOL

Scott in Texas

Scott, Thanks for the encourgement! I keep going back and forth. But I think in the end my decor style sense will win out. Even my lazy Daisy side gets overridden by the ewwwwww, it's blue! I am truely thinking the removal of the blue shag will be one of the hardest parts. If I can figure out what to replace it with, keeping in mind the insulation factor first. I will post pics's if I don't screw it up to bad...... LOL







Geeeeeeeee, Great idea Scott ..................LOL But I am from Colorado, major rival with the Cowboys! So actually I could use Jeanne's orange carpet as well. Robin

Robin,
Don't forget that the carpeting runs behind all the overhead storage areas, and to totally get rid of it you will need to remove the cabinets by drilling out the rivets. In the beginning phases I tried cutting the carpet around the edges of the cabinets/dinette seats/etc., it was a no go, and thats when the decision was made to strip the '91 completely down to the shell. On the plus side if you do this, all interior attached pieces can be reattached to the shell using stainless steel bolts,fender washers and lock nuts, which I believe has been done by others on this forum, and you will never need to worry about broken rivets.

Also, I was just kidding about the Cowboys, I really don't care much for them myself. I am a college football fan first and foremost, because I feel that most of the pro players are overpaid/overhyped prima donna's. just my .02, and incase you're wondering I was born and raised in Dallas, but I used to root for Denver when it was the good old days of Shanahan/Elway/Davis...those were the good 'ol days.



Scott in Texas

I still think you should look into dyeing the carpet.. what can it hurt, if you don't like the way it turns out, then you can still yank it out.

Here's one website/information Google turned up: All About Hand Dyeing Q&A > dye & fiber choice

And here's a place that sells bulk fabric dye... once you know what you might need:
Dhama Trading Company

Scott, I was kidding as well. I am soooooooo not a football fan for exactly what you said. People are weird here, they decorate their Christmas Tree with Bronco stuff. (huh?) LOL...... You sound like a good friend of mine, she's always sayin Hook em Horns and flippen the sign. I so didn't know what that was about till Dh explained it to me. Alrighty then! bul

Donna, years ago I helped my Mom dye carpet in a Class A. It was so lite and she was like it will never stay clean looking, so we dyed it. It was actually really easy. I just don't know what I am doing yet! Thanks for the link to the bulk dye. Heck I may still go retro for this season, and make the carpet a winter project. Who knows! Robin

Ok, just got an email from a someone who restores travel trailers. I had sent them an email asking if they did Casita's. He said they hadn't but would be glad to do one. So I asked for ideas to replace the carpet on the walls and ceiling. He of course gave a whole host of ideas, But one he suggeted I kinda liked. He said they could do leather................. Hmmmmm. so what do you think about having a leather ceiling and walls? Of course they would insulate then do a leather finish. Just wanted to get your opinions? Robin

Leather scratches pretty easily. I have it in one of my rigs. Although I'm not rambunctious in my trailer, I'm glad it has easy care walls. And can you imagine what would happen if you sprung a leak I have a pair of Frye boots that have highwater marks from walking through a rain storm, and they were "waterproofed."

But it sure would be unique!

Donna I hadn't thought about the possibility of a water leak......... Something to think about. But I think like anything else water is going to effect even carpet. Maybe pleather! So you don't get rambunctious in your trailer? Ah come on............ not even just a little?

I like unique! But he also suggested fabric, like tuck and roll/ quilted ................. Kinda makes me think casket! Not ready to go there just yet......................... Robin

Actually the Minit has a quilted interior: Interior Vinyl/Insulation Stuff

Fake leather yes; actual leather no -- Mildew... The double foil that Scott used is what Scamp uses between the rat fur and the fiberglass, but the extra foam on the carpet would be good.

If one doesn't have a/c and one's insulated egg is sitting or traveling in the sun, it may get 'heat soaked' and take a long time to cool down at night because it's insulated - Duhh, Pete. A fan (fantastical or endless breeze or whatever) would help tremendously.

Pete, it does have air............. and yes a fan. I was surprised how quick it did cool down with just the fan going. Hadn't thought about heat soaked. Thanks Robin

I searched high and low for this quilted foam that Chris73 was looking for his Minit a few years ago and finally gave up after contacting most of the foam and headliner companies I could find online. Many of the companies never even bothered to return my emails or phone messages. I even sent them photos of the stuff! Numerous others on this forum have tried to find it without success as well. The last time I posted a request for information on this forum seeking out the material others asked that I post where it could be obtained if I located some. My suspicion is the stuff was custom made for a few trailer companies and when these companies folded, production of the quilted-foam-vinyl material ceased as well. And from the FGRV responses I received on my original inquiry, it does not appear that the material was ever widely used.

Although carpeted walls may help insulate your trailer, it is not an option for me since I have 3 very hairy dogs that shed. Personally speaking, the thought of dog hair sticking to carpeted or rat-furred walls does not hold the least bit of appeal for me. I've decided to insulate my Campster with Reflectix and cover it with vinyl. Dog hairs won't stick to vinyl and I appreciate it's wash and wipe cleanability. I'm just waiting for it to go on sale for 50% off at Joann's Fabirics.

Robin, good luck with whatever you decide to do. . . keep the carpet, put on ensolite, or whatever. Your decision will be perfect for your personal tastes and lifestyle!

Lisa, I am so with you on cleanability!


But! I may put the wall and ceiling carpet project on hold....................... Someone had suggested (Sorry can't find who suggested it) that we go check out a rally and see how others re-vamped theirs. Well I think we are going to try and go to the Oregon Rally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pm-d Mike, he has to cancel. He pm-d me back that his site is still available He is sending info. And we are trying to free up the time to go............................. So if this works out. I won't be starting the project till later, I will just have to give it a good cleaning. I am sure we will have the junky-est egg there, But I don't care! I wanna go! They will all just have to forgive us for being newbies. Getting soooooooo excited about going. Our first! So everyone who wanted to see the blue shagy stuff......... You will get your chance there.

Robin

What about ensolite? Many of the other trailers have this on their walls. It also has an insulating value I believe. You could probably put insulation on first then this...

Sadly, they don't make it any more and I haven't heard mention of any replacement product -- One would thing there would be a market for soft, pliable but dense foam like that besides egg shells...

Sure looks like the stuff is still made and available to purchase. If you search for ensolite you'll find a bunch of it available.

It looks that way. Or is this a different product?

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I also found some links of foam-backed vinyl in different colors and styles. These would work for eggs. Maybe they should go in the resource area:

http://www.garysupholstery.com/foamback.html

and

http://www.sailrite.com/Headliner-Perforat...am-Backed-White

and

http://www.t-topkit.com/VinylHeadliner.htm

Camilla, I love the first link! Hmmmmmm, given me some idea's! Thanks for posting them. I bookmarked, cause as I said, if we attend the Rally in Oregon I think it's a project to big to take on before trying to get there. But Thanks for taking the time to find those outlets. Robin

Very interesting links! I can't imagine the foam would be anything BUT close-celled foam, however that's something that absolutely needs to be confirmed. You wouldn't want to add foam that acts like a sponge... just in case of leaks. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned on the first website...

I dunno Donna. I would think it would be ok to use since it's made for boats?

Certainly doesn't hurt to double-check. As I said, "I can't imagine the foam would be anything BUT close-celled foam." But we all know what happens when we ASSUME.

Is the Inside of the Casita sort of a "Robin's Egg Blue"? Ironic as you now have "Robin's Blue Egg"!

When I was looking for an egg camper I saw one with a Blue Shag Interior and one with a Burnt Orange Interior. Since I was so desparate to get an "Egg" (any egg) I even considered ways to make it work-I had a whole theme going that incorporated the strange colors (sort of a jungle/tiger theme for the orange and an ocean theme for the blue)-but then the sny-pers got them away from me at the last minute on E-Bay! That's fine now that I finally got some "glass" last week when I picked up my camper in Arizona-YAY!

This is probably a long shot, but some carpet cleaning products seem to fade the carpet a little bit. Maybe if you use one of those steam cleaners on it (with a cleaning product containing a little bleach) the blue color will lighten up and seem less noticable?

You can also probably attach velcro (the hook type) to the back of some sort of fabric (I'm thinking a cool Hand-Dyed sarong or light quilt or batik type of flag) and cover the large swatches of blue with something you can stand until the rally in Oregon, when you get some good ideas for getting rid of the blue shag.

I'm going to go look and see if I saved some pictures of the blue shag Casita from E-Bay. The owners had it done up nicely with some yellow accents.

Yeah Toni, The only problem with bleach is....................... It would still be a shaggy carpet . I have decided it's liveable till after the rally. I can hang with it. If it was Orange, I would be all over that! I love Orange! Major funky decor.......... But blue, hmmmmm, I just keep thinking the whole 80's country theme............. I can't go back! LOL! But I will make it work till after I see what others have done and get some great ideas. Congrat's on your Egg!!!!!!!! Robin

Toni, you live in Ventura? I grew up in Ojai!

Here's a possible way to trim down the shag carpet in your egg.


Flowbee

Dan, I am a professional! I wouldn't touch one of those things! LOL............... I always crack up when I see one of those, or the haircuts it produces.............. I will live with the shaggy stuff. My Mom says its not shag and she's right in the fact that its not the 60's stuff But it's the 70's 80's country blue stuff that every country blue and pink home had..........

Heck if I keep coming across new Casita's, I may just dump the project and buy a newer one. Been Looking! Or should I say, I have kept looking..... Robin

I'm glad to hear that -- I understood that Scamp went to rat fur because Ensolite went off the market.