Bed, Bath and Beyond
Samantha joined the Navy! She is in basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station. She wrote me a heartwarming letter, thanking me for all the opportunities we gave her and for all the fun she had working on the camper. I plan on sending her pics as we go along with the restoration of “Peaches”. She will pop in when she can to check on our progress.
“Peaches” has also moved to a new temporary home. We shrink wrapped her nice and tight and moved her on a flat bed trailer to the warehouse.
After much contemplation, I have decided to change the original floor plan from this
to this..
We took out the stove and i will put a refrigerator there with the counter top extending over the top giving me more counter space. I gave up the wardrobe cabinet to have a toliet room. After taking out the wardrobe cabinet we started on building the bed. We wanted to make it so that it could be used as a bench during the day for seating and then pulled out at night to give me more room to sleep but still leave enough room for someone to get by me to get to the toliet. 
The curve on the back of the camper was a tiny challenge but i think it came out great!
Frank loved the Joint Pro! He was able to drill holes that perfectly lined up for the dowel rods. The rods make this sleeping bench stronger and makes us feel like cabinet makers 🙂
The wood lines up so that it can slide back and forth to bring the bed to the full size or push it back to be a bench.
This is the finished bench or so we thought. After we made this nice hinging system we realized that it won’t work exactly as we wanted, It sticks out too far from the wall and a few other concerns with the window height ect. So we are taking that hinged piece out and it will sit on top and then i will push it back when time to go to bed, just like the original design of the bed from the back.
The next step was building the inside bathroom wall with a door opening. We clamped 1/4 inch birch plywood to the outside wall so we could use it as a pattern.
cutting out the doorway two sheets at a time. One for each side of that wall.
Then we added wood to frame the inside of the inside toilet room wall, then we glued it and clamped it.
After the glue dried we added insulation. We used a spray glue to hold it in place.
Then we glued the other side to it and clamped it up.
We put it in temporarily to see how it looks. We are nailing it all together before the final installation.
I love seeing it all come together! Thanks again Frank! I am glad you share my interest in restoring this peach.
The kitchen cabinets are next! The counter top was hard to find but i am very happy with my choice. I originally wanted the boomerang pattern but i couldn’t find it in the color i wanted. I tracked this down and it has a similar feel. The manufacturer only had 4 sheets left and I bought two. Enough to do my table and my counter top.
Then we should put in the tile. Staying with a peachy/coral and cream theme i picked these tiles from Home Depot.
I highly doubt they will do free installation 🙂 Especially since i want to cut each 12 inch tile into 9 inch tiles. I would like to do that to keep it in style with the original tiles which were that size.
We’ve come a long way baby…
It has been a few months since my last posts. Living the crazy, wonderful life! We only work on “Peaches” on Fridays and we have only missed a few. We are making great progress!
I took photos of the back wiring and framing so that we know where things go when we put it back together. I cannot stress enough how important it is to take photos! Because you think you will remember how it goes back together, but you won’t 🙂
You Can see how the roof sags in this next photo, we will reinforce it when we get to the roof.
Now here is where it gets interesting…. We took all the trouble to save the old birch interior to use as a pattern for the new birch then Frank had a grand idea… Slip the whole sheet of birch in, clamp it and cut it with a jigsaw! Before we started, we had to decide if we wanted to use the 4 foot sheets as they came or cut them down to 3 feet like the original. We went with the 4 foot pieces because there would be less seams. The next thing we did was to add 1×2’s to the framework because now the seams didn’t line up with where the framing was. It was an easy fix and makes the whole camper much stronger!
Sam started on the Insulation as soon as the walls went up 🙂 For now we are using a spray adhesive to attach it, but i am worried about it slipping down into the walls over time. Before we close her up i hope we solve that possible problem.
Sam and I had a great time using the Palm Nailer to attach the birch to the frame with the nail screws. It can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it you will love it.
Joe is always ready to lend a helping hand.
Frank using the Radial Saw to cut more birch
He taught me how to use it too! It is loud, and scary in that you could cut your fingers off. Besides that, making sure you are putting the wood thru from the right side seems to be one of the most important things i learned. I just hope i get to use it enough so that i can remember it :).
After we put in the birch panels, it was time to put on the curbing. We measured and cut and realized we would have to compensate for the curve and the three layers of plywood. As you can see each layer was shorter than the next.
There is a steel bar like this in the front of the camper and in the back. It adds strength to hold the table inside.
Look how nice the front looks now! On to the back…
I took photos and measurements of all the shelving, brackets for anything that was there and made a drawing so that i could put it all back in the right places.
EWWWW, i was so glad when we took this panel out.
Notice the trees are still green in the background, not for long 🙁
We finally got that big cabinet out and the spider was gone… ewwww, i wonder where he is….
We were so excited to put the cabinet welting on. We stapled it down at just the right spot, can’t be too much hanging over, you just want to see the rolled edge.
In this photo below you can see the welting goes all around the curve and around the door frame.
Frank, always measuring…. measure twice…. cut once 🙂
Imagine how exciting it was for us to put the first ceiling pieces in…. then double it !
Frank made a piece of wood to brace the ceiling so our arms didn’t get so tired 🙂
In the meantime while we were working in August. My sister was buying me a birthday present… The best present a sister can give… She gave me WINGS!!!!
In September i went over to Kings Mill in Wasco , Illinois dragging my old nasty camper seats with me
I came back one day to see how it was going to look. I brought a pattern i made for the Chevron design. I loved talking to these guys about the reconstruction of my dinette seats.
They held it up so i could get an idea of how they were going to look.
They retied the springs, fixed the frame and put new stuffing inside.
I left feeling very happy about the great work they were doing!
We continued working and putting in the wall panels in back.
Wow, next is the new floor.
The day came when i picked up the seats…. SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!
Maestro of Kings Mill
I love Minivan’s …. Say what you want , but nothing is as versatile!!!
We put in 3/4 inch plywood flooring in. We cut it, glued the old floor and then screwed the new one over it. Look how nice this is… No more old musty smell!
So as you can see we have come a long way baby…
The leaves have turned into beautiful colors of fall. We need to get ready to move Peaches for the winter so we can park our cars in the garage. Luckily we have a warehouse to move her to so we can work all winter in a warm place.
Moving along…
It is funny that just when you feel like you are really making great progress everything looks like this…
We feel a great sense of accomplishment even if every piece of the camper is spread over 4 garage spaces.
The Vent was a little difficult to remove as it was painted with this silver slush that is hard as a rock and painted over the whole top. The only place that didn’t have it was the hole Frank found in the top.
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD A WARNING HERE
WE TOOK THE TOP OFF AND SET IT OUTSIDE ON TOP OF THE GARBAGE CANS TO KEEP ITS CURVE AND THE WIND PICKED IT UP AND SLAMMED IT TO THE GROUND!
LUCKILY, IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE IT GOT ANY MORE DAMAGED THAT IT ALREADY WAS. IT WASN’T EVEN WINDY OUT.
The top sides came off next.
At this point, there is only one small piece of skin on the back of the camper.
It is a good idea not to take too much apart at one time. As is the case for the curbing that sits on the framing and follows the curves on both sides of the camper. If you leave some on, you have a place to match the new with the old. I learned that and so much more from watching videos on
http://www.cannedhamtrailers.com/ .
(See Larry? , i was listening!)
His videos are very detailed and i can’t thank him enough for giving me the courage to try to restore this camper.
Check out his video tutorials! They are very informative!
The curbing is made up of 3 strips of 1/4 inch plywood. The thin strips are wrapped around and then glued and nailed or screwed into the framing. We will be taking off small parts of the curbing at a time so we can match the new curbing to the old so the depth stays the same. It is extremely important to make the framing and curbing the exact same measurements as the original material so that the skins fit when you put it all back together.
Samantha screamed today when she was trying to remove the big closet. She said she saw a huge spider that she described as about the size of her fist! He crawled back into the box that sits over the wheel wells and she couldn’t get to it. So he lives another day, I just hope he doesn’t crawl out and into my house!
Frank replaced the wood around the wheel well today on one side and it looks great now.
He is replacing the wood on the frame to the right of the new wood you see there. He had to cut the two carriage bolts that hold the camper to the trailer. I found new ones that are stainless steel so they won’t rust.
and the scraping continues, 4 squares at a time…
Knight In Shining Armor Appears
Samantha and I were pulling out parts, carefully labeling each piece. I took photos of each part before we removed it and even saved the screws in baggies and labeled them for where they came from. All our tools are put away at the end of every workday and I am feeling very organized about the whole process. I bought the black shelving unit you see in the photo so i could stack the windows to save space.
I took this photo so i could remember how the skins of the camper go together. It is a little blurry but you get the idea.
We took the J rail off the front next
It was at this point that our Knight in shining Armor (aka my brother in law Frank) appeared! 
My apprehension about this project disappeared as soon as he walked in the door. He brought his tools and we got started.
I should mention at this point that Frank had the idea that we should cut that front curved piece on each side out of one piece of 1X6 wood instead of using 3 pieces of 1X2 like it comes from the factory. Each of the three pieces was on an angle and stapled together. It was very wobbly. The first tool he showed me how to use was the Jig Saw!
We had my husband and my other brother in law checking in on our progress.
The paneling is loaded with little screw type nails that have to be dug out. It is painstaking work. I bought a few different tools for this job but i keep coming back to the Cat’s paw as my go to tool. 
We Duct taped the pieces together so that we could get them out in one piece to use as a pattern to cut the new piece out of 1/8″ Birch.
We had a little trouble getting the water tank out so Frank cut a hole in the top so we could get at the fittings that go through that side of the camper.
That is when i got to use a blow torch for the first time!!
I heated up the fitting so that Frank could unscrew it from the tank and remove it.
Sometimes you find little treasures when you open all this stuff up. We found old newspapers, a toothbrush, many cigarette butts, and a plastic box from the Union Plaza Hotel/Casino Las Vegas. My favorite surprise was when Sam found this…
We will not be painting over this… Big Ken would want it that way!
As you can see Frank and Samantha made metal plates and attached them to all the places where the pieces joined. Now that front end is very sturdy! 
By the end of the Day Frank had the whole front framing rebuilt! I am so thankful that Samantha and Frank are enjoying this work as much as I am. 🙂
Getting started…
I thought I was on my own and I was thinking I could do it myself if only I could learn how to use some power tools. I took a wood working class in high school with Mr. Dispensa as my teacher, and I made a fabulous butcher block cutting board for the final project but that was the extent of my experience. Samantha, a friend of my daughters who is staying with us has been interested in the renovation since the day the camper was delivered. She helped me rip out the carpeting and take out a broken window on the first day.
In that first photo you can see that there was no window, just an old wooden frame with cardboard in it. I found two windows in the closet that look like they might fit. So now I need to decide if I should replace the matching window on the other side of the camper. The problem is that one is original. The ones in the closet are similar but aren’t the original design. Below is the gross carpet we pulled out. 
We had a pile of smelly innards by the end of the first day. 
A few more before photos
There was an incredible amount of water damage, from every window and the vent in the ceiling.
The seats in the dinette area smelled awful and were destroyed also.
Under the carpet we found the original tile. A beige with streaks of pastel colors in it.
We have been scraping the floor taking turns with this great little tool, Chicago Electric Multifunction Power tool which I bought at Harbor Freight. It works great, but it is a slow process and the vibration gets to you after a while, that is why we take turns on the scraping. Some people just put another subfloor on top and don’t bother taking the old tile up, but I felt that it was too loose in spots and we might feel the bumps under the new floor, so out it goes. Slowly…
1963 Shasta Airflyte Restoration Begins…
Here she is on the day she arrived. I haven’t named her yet. Her name will come to me. I found her on a website called tincantourists.com. I was so excited because I had been searching for a year and a half to find a canned ham style camper. I have bid on a few but to no avail. The morning I woke up and saw this one, I jumped on the chance to get her. She is missing her wings but I didn’t care because I knew I could get her new wings.
I called right away, and when the owner called back I bought her immediately. She was in Arizona and I considered going out to pick her up but I figured out how long the drive was and how much gas I would use to go out there, so, I decided to list it on Uship.com and find someone to drive her home to me. That site is interesting because different companies bid on your job. You can check drivers out and see comments that other people who have used them have posted. You decide not only on price, but experience. They show you how many times the service has been used. Wyatt from Texas picked her up and called me. She was in much worse condition than the above pics showed. In my excitement, I never realized there was no picture of the door side. There was a window missing and the door didn’t stay shut. But I didn’t care, at this point it was like adopting a dog, in my mind she was mine and whatever I had to deal with I would do it happily! When Wyatt pulled into my driveway 3 days later, I was so excited I can’t even explain how tickled I was.
He parked her for me and handed me the title, which said she was a 1974. I thought she looked older, so I immediately put her picture up on a club page on Facebook called Vintage Shasta Trailers. I started getting comments immediately on her age 🙂 They said she looks more like a 1960’s style. They were so helpful, they told me to look at the underside of the sink to see when it was made. I found that the sink was made in 1962. Then on another day someone told me to look behind the mirror to see when that was made. So I took the mirror down and it said March of 1963.
After talking to other people with the same looking camper, we determined she was a 1963. Now the only problem was that my title said 1974. In Illinois you must have a title to get plates. I went to the currency exchange and got my plates. I was excited when I got what I thought was my title in the mail. It wasn’t. It was a letter saying that it doesn’t match any records and that I would have to fill out the following forms and have either a dealer verify the info or a police department. I have never driven with a camper on my hitch and she was in such bad shape, I was not about to drive her to a dealer an hour away. So, I decided to call my local police department. They were nice enough to send an officer to my home and he gladly signed off on the Vin number. He also agreed with me on the year and signed off on that too. Yesterday I got the title in the mail, and now I have a big smile on my face!