1975 Carefree Project !!

[AdlandB]

Just picked up an unfinished restoration project. 1975 Carefree camper that we are looking to give life to. Lots to do. Previous owner took care of water damage by completely gutting it. Here's an off the top of my head explanation of things needed to be done. Will post progress on this thread. Excited to see everything come together as we check things off our to do list.

Exterior - sanding and fairing, silicone, paint, new coupler, finish off propane and battery hook up, create spot for the battery to sit, service the brakes axel and hubs, weatherstrip the door and repair the window ones, paint and attach the spoiler.

Lots of exterior clean up to do, plan on taking care of the exterior first before the interior. Would be nice to make sure everything closed up before the rain comes back. I may of missed listing some things above, just listed what I can remember at the moment.

Interior - lots of woodwork, bathroom repair, toilet plumbing, paint, finish off electrical

Focusing on the exterior so I'm having trouble recalling everything we plan on doing on the inside. The interior isn't as specifically listed because there's lots of tedious things to do that'll be listed in the process posts. Most of it is the finishing details like trim and cabinets and what not.

Here we go!!

[AdlandB]

Crazy what a bottle of bleach can

[Mary F]

Welcome, AdlandB! Wow, that bleach really did the trick!

By the way, the previous owner of your new project posted some details of his work. Once he sold the trailer, we closed his thread. Here's a link to it:

Carefree On Life Support.

[AdlandB]

Originally Posted by Mary F

Welcome, AdlandB! Wow, that bleach really did the trick!

By the way, the previous owner of your new project posted some details of his work. Once he sold the trailer, we closed his thread. Here's a link to it:

Carefree On Life Support.

Thanks for adding the old thread onto this one! Still trying to figure the app out.

[Buggeee]

Congratulations! It really seems Dave has gotten a lot done and in the right way. You are off to a good start.

From what you just did to the bathroom it looks like this camper has hopped out of the frying pan and into the fire! I mean that in a good way... From one thorough owner into the hands of another thorough owner

Enjoy your project and here's wishing you on the road with it soon!!!

[Kai in Seattle]

That IS the one I saw the inside of earlier--thanks--now I remember.


Good luck to you. You've already made a big difference in your little bathroom.


Kai

[AdlandB]

Originally Posted by Kai in Seattle

That IS the one I saw the inside of earlier--thanks--now I remember.


Good luck to you. You've already made a big difference in your little bathroom.


Kai

Thanks! And all we did was clean it. Plan is to make it look nice and new.

I saw your thread for the scamp weatherstrip. Thinking about using it for my door saw it was made to fit a scamp door. Do you know how long it is?

[Kai in Seattle]

Hi. No. I'm getting a sample ot see if the configuration will work but the length I don't know. I think you can call the Scamp factory.


Paul's going to look at some Scamps this weekend in Lynden, WA (maybe, if he remembers) and that should help. I'll post on that thread if I find out.


BEST
Kai

[Raspy]

Adland,

Nice project.

What do you mean by "silicone" in your first post about exterior work?

[AdlandB]

Originally Posted by Raspy

Adland,



Nice project.



What do you mean by "silicone" in your first post about exterior work?

Around all the lights hooked up on the outside (blinkers brakes etc) they were attached for the drive home but no silicone has been used to make sure they're waterproofed and what not.

[AdlandB]

Started the night off with lots of wood filler on the interior and spot bondo on the exterior. Lots of spiderweb cracks so I went over most of them with a layer of that.

[Kai in Seattle]

Hi, exterior work should be sealed with butyl tape (it's like putty) or butyl caulk if you can find it--not silicone. for some reason silicone ALWAYS pops a leak. It doesn't adhere as well as is needed on these rigs.


Some here have other suggestions, but silicone is never one of them.


You use the butyl tape (available at most hardware stores) in black, white, or gray. NOt all stores have all colors. You can read up on the use of it on FRGV or on YouTube videos. It's easy enough but there are a few tricks to make you a pro.


ALL the old silicone has to be removed for a seal with butyl to be made properly...it's perfectly doable but does take some elbow grease.


Looking good so far!


BEST
Kai

[AdlandB]

Originally Posted by Kai in Seattle

Hi, exterior work should be sealed with butyl tape (it's like putty) or butyl caulk if you can find it--not silicone. for some reason silicone ALWAYS pops a leak. It doesn't adhere as well as is needed on these rigs.


Some here have other suggestions, but silicone is never one of them.


You use the butyl tape (available at most hardware stores) in black, white, or gray. NOt all stores have all colors. You can read up on the use of it on FRGV or on YouTube videos. It's easy enough but there are a few tricks to make you a pro.


ALL the old silicone has to be removed for a seal with butyl to be made properly...it's perfectly doable but does take some elbow grease.


Looking good so far!


BEST
Kai

Thanks for the advice!! This is my very first restoration project and the silicon was something Dave (past owner) said should be done. Now that I know in advance I won't be using that, and will order some butyl tape. I planned on using that when applying the aluminum belly band, didn't think to use it other places though.

[Kai in Seattle]

Adland,


If not me, someone else would likely have told you.


BUT, yours is more like our amerigo than like the more usually seen Bolers and Scamps and Trilliums (the vintage ones) ...because we have that wooden panel interior, making ours a dual wall creation. I like it for the dead-air insulation factor and for ease of attaching things inside.


It's a tad different from the single-wall trailers.


Glad you'd heard of butyl...belly band, absolutely. UNDER the trim, I bet you already know, not "around" it. If it's under properly (with the slight oozing at the edges that tells you it's properly filled) then you know you've done it well. WE used a wooden popsicle stick to clean away the extra butyl tape along the edges after letting it ooze a couple days. Made a nice radius and a clean edge--and the stick is 2-ended and disposable.


If we had ours to do over again, we would've fiberglassed UNDER the belly band to get a more solid seal on the outside--though you'll end up screwing through it anyway into the wood inside, which is so useful for attaching so many things. And you'd still need the butyl tape under the trim.


By the way, when you screw through the belly area into the wood from the outside, run your screws through beeswax to help seal every little micropore in the wood and add additional leak protection. You can get beeswax easily: buy a wax toilet ring and just push your screws into it until you're ready to use them.


A few bucks and extra protection.


There are other products for screwing through metal...but if wood is your ultimate target, beeswax is ideal.


And it looks amusing to have a totally screwed-up toilet ring sitting around like a porcupine-slug.


Lots of work, lots of fulfillment!


As they say, don't hesitate to "make it your own!"


BEST
Kai




PS -- ALL my advice is strictly IMHO, and I hope I don't sound too dictatorial!
As we also say here, YMMV: your mileage may vary

[AdlandB]

Working on repairing the ugly spots in the bathroom. Going over it with a tub repair kit mixture to fill the holes then sanding down the spots. Videos and such showed it being used as a chip repair pile it on type thing but i used it more like bathroom bondo. Plopped it on then smoothed it over the holes with the popsicle stick. Got about half way done. Bought the product from Home Depot. The first one worked great but the second one was super tough and impossible to spread so hopefully they'll replace that one. Also caulked the crack beteeen the shower wall and the roof. Looks much better without a separation between the two. Will post pictures once I'm able to get a new repair kit and finish the walls.

Next step would then be to paint it. I'm thinking Bath, Sink & Tile Epoxy Finishing kit for Dummies. Decent reviews on that and looks simple to apply. Any other recommendations?

[AdlandB]

Armorpoxy is also something I am considering

[AdlandB]

It’s been some time since I’ve posted on this page, lots of little things completed spread out over a long period of time that did get around to posting. But we’ve finally checked big project #1 off the list.. PLUMBING the bathroom. It was bare bones nothing to work with but the pex pipes for the faucet. I had 0 pictures to go off of and found almost nothing online about plumbing a camper that went with what I was working on.

The before picture of the bathroom can be seen above, but I repainted the fiberglass shell with a tub and tile paint, connected the faucet, wired in the light, and connected and plumbed the toilet and shower drain. Not pictured is the me connector piece added to the 3” pvc and capped off.

[Yukoner]

Has there been any more on this? Been following since D Morgan started it and would like to see finished product.

[AdlandB]

Thanks for the interest Yukoner, there has been more done to the camper since the last posting. Will add updating photos within the next couple days.

[AdlandB]

It’s not finished yet since working on it is weather permitting for me, but my goal is to finish this project this summer