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Have a seat.

No I mean it, I know a really great place to sit.

Well after a months work I have the bench seats done, they look fantastic! I think this has been one of my favorite projects on the camper so far. Also the one I have invested the most time in too, perhaps. I really enjoyed building from scratch, having all the new fresh lumber to work with and just the general fabrication of it all.

We started out building the skeletons of the seats which involved a lot of measuring, pre-drilling and (something my dad is very insistent upon) countersinking of screws (where you drill a very small shallow hole so the head of the screw can rest at or below the surface of the wood). After the frames were done, or I thought they were, I came to the conclusion they were a little too tall for comfort. I originally got my measurements for high from checking many different chairs and taking the average of how high you sat from the floor. However when I was making the frames at last minute I decided to go about 2 inches higher. Big mistake. We chose to dismantle the seats and lower them all 2 inches. It was really worth it though because then the hight was oh so nice.

Next up came the sides and tops (also lids) of the seats. This part was not too hard. We got some nice thin wood for the sides and thicker stuff for the top since it will have to support the weight of people. After a few trips to Ace for hinges we had these all assembled.

Oh! side note throughout this whole time I was racking my brain trying to figure out how I was going to upholster these things. I had (with the help of my mom) looked into high density foam, which is really expensive. I was trying to find some kind of material to cover them with, there was a lot more searching too which I cant remember now. However, while at Menards looking for something else the heavens opened a light shown down and I could hear the voices bellowing down, here was my answer! In the outdoor patio section they had a huge wall of replacement seat cushions for outdoor furniture and swings, they were perfect and exactly what I needed. My long search was over. I went back a few days later with my lovely wife Tyne and we picked out some great green cushions.

Anyway back to the bench seats. Next up came a few days of staining. Lots and lots of staining. Its worth it though because they have a great dark finish on them now. After letting them dry and putting them in and placing the padding on, voila! I give you a new and great place to sit!

Also during this past month I got side tracked into a few other little projects. I got the water system working. Found a new water storage tank, got a new spare tire, towing mirrors for my car removed some ugly wallpaper and chances are a few other things too. I might write more about these later, or at least post a video.

A quick update. I am in the throws of the whole bench seat creation, which I will write more about in another post. Right now I would like to let you know that I am currently sanitizing the on-board water system. Which is quite small and simple like most things in this camper. I also got to take apart the little pump action faucet and get that cleaned and working.

Its warm outside and the camper is getting oh so close to being usable. Its all good.

PS. Look what I can do!!

Celebrations and Linoleum!

First off something terrific finally got done with the camper. I have a brand new Nebraska title and plates! This is actually a very large accomplishment, seeing as how I got the camper back in October and have not yet gotten this to happen. Through many months of trying to get a hold of the actual previous owner and going to the DMV, finding out my title was no good and having to mail it back to him and have him go to his DMV pay a fine and get a new title and then mail that back to me *whew*.

Then finally last Monday the big day came and it all went quite well. I got to deal with a DMV worker who looks quite a bit like Wash from Firefly and is equally friendly. It turns out there is a reason the VIN for cars is so very long. Its so that it dose not have repeats with other vehicles. First off the 4 number long VIN for my camper was the same as a old 70s army jeep that was reported stolen. Then after that was cleared up it turns out that it is also shared with a local mobile home. So Wash had to get clearance from a manager to override it and make sure that the mobile home dose not vanish from existence or that my camper wont get mail form said home. Anyway after a quite pleasant experience at the DMV I was walking out with a new title and plate in hand. WOO!

Also that same week I spent two days on the floor of the camper with a putty knife scraping up old linoleum. Which actually was not too bad minus a blister or two. I got to listen to music and slowly scrape away at the old flooring. Which compared to some tasks I have done on it so far is quite calm. After two days of removal it was time to find a new piece of linoleum. I knew that I wanted a wood grain, I also knew that I did not need too big of a piece. What I needed was about 8 feet 2 inches long and about 5 feet wide. My mom recommended a place called carpet land. They have factory remnants for a fair price. After looking though many many rolls of flooring with the help of my Mom we narrowed it down to two rolls. Both were quite close to the size we needed. One was 8 by 6 feet and there other was 8 by 7. So we went with the smaller one.

Here is where something really rare happened. When the time came to lay down the new floor we measured the length at 8 feet 1 inch, the piece of linoleum was exactly that, we had to make no cuts at all for length, Wow.

Last Thursday my dad and I were able start and finish the whole process of putting in the new floor in one long but fun evening. Putting down about 2-3 feet at a time of the one large piece which after cutting for width fit very very well. My mom even got to help us smooth it out as well since she was wearing slippers when she came out to see how we were doing. It worked quite well to have her slide around on it securing the glue. So now the new floor is in, and it looks great! By far the most noticeable change we have made yet. Again I could not have done it without the help of my parents so a big thank you goes out to them.

Tonight I just got back from Home Depot were I bought 70 feet of 2x4s and one 8x4' of plywood. Heres hoping it will be enough for two new bench seats!

Hungry anyone?

In need of some cooking? I might just happen to know of a place, oh a little place on wheels. A super great place!

A finished piece of the camper. The kitchen. I finally got to finish the plumbing, sink, stove and fridge last Saturday. I finished mounting in the counter top, it had just been sitting in place. The sink is also attached from below and hooked up to the drain line. I had to drill holes and place the two faucets. One which can be connected to the outside fresh water line, the other with pump action to draw water from the internal tank. I also finished securing the stove top and hooking up the gas line. The new mini fridge is braced up and the extra space filled in (the original fridge was a bit larger).

Now all that is left for the kitchen is the paint. Which will not happen until the whole camper is redone. There is no since in painting one area at a time.

The next step which is already started is pealing up all the old linoleum, this is proving to be slow going. However like most things on this project its just a matter of time.

Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL kitchen station!

One piece at a time.

Just in time for winter.

Well a few weeks ago my Dad and I finished the rear window in the camper and man dose it make a difference. There is so much light coming inside now. I remember when I first got it it only had two small windows on the sides. Now it has two very large windows one in the front and one in the back and also a good sized skylight as well.

The back window was a bit more tricky then the front in some ways. It was also a lot easier over all due to the fact that it was something we had done before. Hence it only two about 3 days to do where as the first one took over two weeks. The only part that was harder is that this window is at a angle and the front window is straight up and down. So we found out that everything we had to do was at at 78 degree angle. We made it work.

So now next up will be to redo the back wall in the camper. It has no insulation and there is a bit of wood that needs to be replaced. This will be a good project over Kawasaki's winter shut down. Best of all I will get to work inside the camper away from the frigged elements.

As a side note to any Metroid fans out there. I just started playing the original NES version a few days ago. I gotta say this is a great game once you get into it. I have tried many times in the past and given up due to how hard it is and the lack of any kind of map. Thanks to my recent purchase of a Nintendo Wii I am able to try again. I am already over half way though the game. It really gets great once you get a few power ups and are not dying all the time, then you really get to enjoy this game and see how solid it is. Also it helps you realize how much more awesome the SNES version is and where a lot of its style came from.

A very merry Christmas to anyone who is reading.

All's well that Windows.

Two weeks later. The window is in.

A project that started two weeks ago is finally finished. I wanted to get a window in the front of the camper, one because it look horrible with an old house AC unit hanging out the front and two because I want to do all the outside work before winter. It started out looking not too hard just tearing away the old AC and metal shims that the previous owner had installed and put 2lbs of caulking around. However it branched out into at least 3 or 4 other side projects.

After opening the window and finding rotted wood and also a rotted counter top I tore out most of everything that was there. My dad and I then built a new frame for the opening and also then had to build a new support structure for the new counter top. We visited a few window places with very little success, it turns out no one has windows 2 inches thick, and if they can get them it will cost around $200.

So we decided to visit our local Ace Hardware (Havelock). It was the first place we went where we were told "oh yeah no problem". Woo! The head honcho there, Dave, who is also good friends with a long time loyal customer my dad was more then happy to help. He also let us bring the camper to his own garage and use a tool called a Break. He also hooked us up with some free aluminum sheets to make our window pieces from. Thanks Dave! My dad and I both learned quite a bit about how to use a break which was great. We can even go back later to get more for the back window.

After getting the window skirts I got distracted by another project, scraping and re sealing the roof. Also I put in a really awesome skylight where there once was a defunct vent that would not open. We then got to work on building our window. We installed the window skirts we had just made got some plastic wood trim to build a interior frame\stop for our glass. Put in our piece of glass and then built and installed another frame\stop for the outside of the glass. While making sure to use silicon to water proof the whole thing.

After all is said and done we now have a really well built waterproof large window in the front of the camper. It feels great to walk by and see it now with all its window glory. We also have in a new counter top, fridge (from a break room in a going out of business beauty salon), skylight and a sealed up weather proof roof. None of which I could not have done with out lots of help from my Dad the support of my Mom and our local Ace Hardware.

Now its off to start on the rear window which currently sits boarded up and very ugly. We will fix all that though.

Sunday the first post.

Hello Hi, and thanks for reading?

Its Sunday morning of my first post. What a great day it is too for starting a blog. Well down to business. A few weeks ago my dad and I drove to Columbia MO to buy a 1976 NuWa camper that I had found on craigslist. Its a ten foot hard sided non pop up pull camper, which it turns out are really hard to find. I had spent over a month looking for these and to my surprise found it very difficult. I even talked to a few dealers here in town and I guess these types are not widely made anymore. Its mostly all 14' or much longer now.

I was planing to make the trip myself in my Subaru, however I ended up not being able to find a trailer wire harness in time. So my Dad lent my his van under the conditions that he come along as well. Which turned out to make it into one really good road trip. After getting there and dealing with the very interesting man who was selling this camper for a friend and getting a title with white out over key parts we hooked it up and left. It pulled very well given its very iffy origins. We managed to make it home around 8pm completing our trip in about 13 hours.

Since then things have been going even better. My mom has helped me along with advise from her boss figure out what to do with the title. My moms boss has also been gracious to provide us with a parking area for it when its not being worked on. And most of all my parents have been very helpful with the whole ordeal allowing me to park it at their house and work on it there, even know its currently a bit of an eye sore. My dad has also been incredibly helpful with the remodeling. So a very big thank you to all the help I have had so far.

I have started by removing a storage cabinet inside the door and also a closet so to give me more room for extending the bench seats, which in turn will also widen the bed by about 2 feet. There is a "bathroom" (closet with a portapotty in it) next to the closet which I will be turning into storage, since neither Tyne or I like the idea of going to the bathroom in the same 10' by 7' box as we do our cooking eating and sleeping. I have also re done all of the interior wiring, what was there was very poorly done and quite possibly a good chance of being a fire hazard. Most recently I have removed the window AC that plugged up the front window. I had been boarded up around the ac as well, which looked terrible. My dad and I built a new window frame and installed it just a day or two ago, and it went much better then expected. I have also had to remove the "counter top" which was watter logged and rotting near the back. Tyne and I have picked out a nice new actual counter top which will be installed later this week.

So all in all this project is going oh so very well. I had my doubts in starting but I just kept up with my original idea and got past any fears and now its very much worth it. So again a big Thank you to everyone who has helped so far and who will be helping throughout. Its all gunna be great.