Rebuild--rear-ended Uhaul CT13

[EllPea in CA]

WOW! That is gorgeous, and I love it!

[D Davis]

I have faithfully watched the progression of your work with total amazement of your skills. You have done a wonderful job! Love the extra creative touch of the spare tire cover with license plate.
I also appreciate you sharing your work on this site as well as the U-Haul Facebook site, it is so thoughtful of you.
Now go camping to celebrate as soon as you can.

[groys02]

Thanks for the encouragement!

We DO want to go camping soon. Camper will undoubtedly not be finished, but we'd like to see the dogwoods blooming in southern Missouri a month or so from now. But we're having a retirement cottage built on our property also, which may be starting about then.......... one way or another, we'll be taking some shake-down runs, even if they're local ones, in another month or so.

[groys02]

A little bit done, in-betwixt-n-between...

Big push on to finish up last body-shop project, so haven't touched the camper in over a month. My wife was showing it to a friend Tuesday, and I realized later that the door wasn't closed... because it sagged, and you had to lift some while closing it for the latch to work right.
So, I closed the door... then jacked slightly on the bottom edge of the door farthest from the hinge... removed the 2 screws & 2 bolts for the door half of the upper hinge... and worked some auto-body structural adhesive into the screw & bolt holes, working it all around with an awl to fill in edges of the old holes through the wood block glued to the outer door skin. [so the screws could be cinched down snugger--and so the guide-hole I'd drill for the screw could be shifted outward a little] [Alternative to the adhesive--which has just a little give to it, like hard rubber--might be JB-Weld thickened up with sawdust?... or fiberglass resin thickened up similarly?]

Today, I drilled new 1/8" guide-holes for the screws and reinstalled them [they tightened down nice]... and drilled fresh 3/16" holes for the bolts that are closer to the window. I also made a reinforcing plate of scrap steel, about 3/4" x 3", and drilled corresponding 3/16" holes in it... then ran the bolts through from outside... put auto seam-seal on the plate to hold it firmly to the wooden block... and installed it, with nuts, and tightened it all up! [Note: I used a magnet on that plate when I installed it, both to maneuver it around, and to keep it from falling down inside the door.] Picture below of bolts-n-plate in place.

Kind of a nuisance project... took longer than I thought it would... but now the door closes much nicer.
"Something attempted, something done, has earned a night's repose."
[Quote my grandmother used to toss out frequently...]

[D Davis]

Good job, you will be glad you did it, even if it took some time.

[groys02]

Hey, y'all!... and Merry Christmas!

NEWS FLASH: I have not died... or sold my camper... or decided to thumb my nose at the world.
Took till May to finish last body-shop project.
Work on our retirement cottage was begun by then.
Older sister passed away suddenly/unexpectedly one day after I officially retired.
Cottage commenced going way over budget, so I [with help] took on more and more of different phases of it. Moved in Oct 15th, though still have misc trim work to finish up.

Yesterday, I decided I needed to get back into working on the camper. Wife kindly agreed. So, did some grinding n filling n sanding on the repaired seams on the inside-rear portion of the camper. A bit more of that this morning, and then put 3 coats of primer on those areas. I'll hope to sand the primer tomorrow, do some spot-filling, and get it ready to paint. [Masking off all the interior I don't want to paint will probably take longer than the actual painting.]
Hopefully, find time to paint inside before New Year's Eve.

Wishing the group here all the best....
Gary

[groys02]

Another step forward. 'Posted this on the FB U-Haul site a little while ago:

Painted the inside/rear of my CT yesterday... took a stab at buffing today, where the new paint meets the factory gel-coat.
I think it's "acceptable", though not as slick as I'd hoped for, going in. Could be that the new paint needs longer to cure/harden--it's only been 20hrs since I painted, and it's only about 60 in that part of the shop.......I'll try again a few days from now. [This is automotive acrylic enamel, with hardener added......decent paint, and very economical, but nothing you'd paint your Corvette with.]
Not wanting to paint a large part of the inside, I just masked it off a modest ways outside my repaired-n-primered area. I put foam "rope" around the perimeter of the masking, to create a softer edge than just painting up to the masking tape would have left. Sorta worked. Sanded with 1000 grit paper this morning, and lightly buffed about 1/4 of the perimeter edge--where new meets old.
You can see the transition, but it's not glaring. And should be that much less obvious once the camper's full of "stuff" again.

Now, to get rid of the plastic film etc that's been masking off 3/4 of the interior... dig out the new Scamp rear window... and get that put in.

Happy New Year, y'all.............

[groys02]

Well, decided late in the day to see if I could fit the new Scamp rear window to the U-Haul. [stock U-Haul window no longer made, and mine was smashed in the accident prior to my getting it]
Shaved a tiny bit off the top & bottom, and nearly 3/4" off each side.... cut with saber-saw in the corners, sawzall on the straight portions.
Nice to have the back window ready to mount tomorrow, using butyl tape/rope/caulk..........been 2.5 years and then some without one! [nobody every accused me of working too fast]

FWIW--I'd agree with those who might say I should paint the outside of the camper before mounting the window, generally speaking. But I'm just not ready for the painting yet, and I want to get this window in... and move on to re-wiring, etc... so as to be ready to haul it to a March 3rd weekend retreat.
Paint will have to wait for a little longer.

[Borrego Dave]

You're rocking it Gary! I agree with you, paint can come later.
BTW, as our little gems always seem to get a lot of lookie looos, have you ever thought of putting a reno picture album together to show the before and after? Would be pretty cool .

[groys02]

Thanks, Dave!
Yes, I'll probably have some sort of abbreviated build journal/folder in the camper. People DO ask about anything out of the ordinary, and a picture's worth a thousand words, so they say.

[itlives]

Hey Gary, sorry to read about your sister. I just read this last page of this thread and will peruse through the rest. Good work in here. I made my living in painting body shops for many years. Got out of it for my health. Paint smart, stay healthy!

[groys02]

Thanks, Mike.
Yeah--2016 was full of surprises and re-orienting. I have hopes that 2017 will have time for a lot more relaxing-and-recreating.
Good observations about the body-shop industry. It was not the smartest career move on my part to spend the first half of my working years drawing pictures, making charts, and doing desktop publishing........and the second half doing manual labor, with potentially harmful fumes & dust & tools. I'd say I've been fairly careful about fume/dust exposure... but the arthritis in my hands now is probably a lot worse than it would have been had I stuck with a keyboard & mouse.
But, of course, if I hadn't done the career change, I'd have never taken this project on, most likely. It is what it is.
keepin' on.........
Gary

[itlives]

I still "paint". I finish wood furniture. Got my own shop and always configure my day where I spray and leave. I'm only using nitro-lacquer now but still like the fumes to be gone when I'm working.
I noticed the VW in one pic. I was the president of our local club and was into them for about 10 years. I'm over them now - lol. The last one I built was a 1971 truck with a 2.3 ford engine. I think there's a picture in my Trillium build thread.
Excellent work on the taillights!

[groys02]

Thanks again, Mike.
I did the mid-80's Chevy pickup taillight assemblies, after Tom Griebe mentioned they were a possibility another member on the FB U-Haul site had suggested. Worked out okay.......then, later worked with Tom to design and fabricate fiberglass taillight adapters to replace the no-longer-available U-Haul lenses.......that would have been a much easier approach, had I been able to see into the future.
Yeah--we had VW's for quite a stretch, too. Lots of bugs. One 61 bus. Had a Pinto-powered bug well under way at one point......later on, got a 79 Subaru engine swapped into a bug. [peppy... rode normal... didn't cool well, with how I had the radiator mounted] Should have kept that last one.
The bug project in the pic was one for a friend who's been into bugs for a LONG time. It's got a Chevy 4.3L up front.....just a little crazy.

Today, did some more fussing with the back-glass, and took a picture from inside, with cavity-lids in place, and back-glass, and paint blends buffed. Good for now.........

[itlives]

I like the finished look on the inside under the window!

[groys02]

Mike,
Yeah--I wasn't sure if I had compromised the strength of the back panel of the camper by tearing it all apart and then reassembling it... as well as indenting the spare. So I bridged that spot with 3 layers of mat & resin... and later roughened the surface up and swiped a layer of Duraglas up the valley as well, to smooth it up some. Followed by a little regular body-filler later, before priming & painting. Mostly, I didn't want to put that odd bit of carpet back up there... so filling and smoothing that joint cleaned things up, while adding some strength.
G

[groys02]

Time for electrical update. I decided to make separate 12V and 120V systems, and eliminate the converter system.
Phase 1: Install basic 120V system.
Phase 2: Re-do the vehicle-to-camper wiring system.
[pause here to do some initial camping in state parks... no boondocking]
Phase 3: Install 12v system, with battery & solar panel, etc.

120V Wiring side pretty much done this past week...
I installed a plug in the utilities niche on the side of the camper, where the cord used to pass through, and used a part of that heavy power cord to go from plug to small fuse box mounted under the sink. I glued a small patch of 1/8" plastic where the plug-in mounts in the utilities niche, as the plastic is pretty thin there. From the fuse box outwards, I'm using stranded 14/3 wire, cut from a new extension cord.

'Got shallow plastic outlet boxes where my 3 new outlets are. The outlets sit on the face of the f/g panel, and their mounting screws go through the f/g and into the new boxes, with seam-sealant around the box holding it in place--and mostly sealing it as well.

Circuit one: outlet down by the ice-box door, for an electric heater to plug into. Circuit 2 powers an outlet on either end of the upper cabinet, and the 16" flourescent fixture on the bottom of the cabinet.
I'll figure to add a 12v outlet just to the right of the upper rear outlet a little later......

[Dave Fish]

My Campster has separate systems and I don't consider that a problem at all. It has a 45w solar panel and a battery maintainer for the 12 very side that mostly powers the lights and a fan with plugins available for charging the phone, etc.

The 110v side mostly powers the fridge and our small microwave plus CPAP at night if we have shore power. I have not tried running the dorm fridge off the plugin invertor yet.

[Jay H]

Yep, me too. Separated the two systems on my Boler as well, we don't use electrical sites much anyway.
Jay

[groys02]

Thanks for the positive feedback, Jay & Dave. I'd read some other folks' posts, where they'd separated the 2 systems--so I didn't feel like I was doing anything TOO renegade there.

If we camp in the Midwest in summer, we'll likely be in campgrounds with electricity, and just live off that system---eventually adding a small AC unit, most likely.
When we go to Colorado, we usually are in Forest Service campgrounds with no 120V hookups available.......then we'll be 12V.
I think it'll work well enough for our needs, either way.........and more comfortable for us than the 20-30 years we've spent camping out of tents at any rate.