the rebuilding

It's been many months since I posted, but work has been ongoing on the camper. A bit slow at times, but it's picked up lately. I tore it down to the metal frame, which scared a few people. I didn't take photos of each step. New flooring has gone on and walls have gone up.

Getting down to the metal frame.

This shows the new floor, walls and bedframe. I decided to make a larger bed than was in the original camper.

A side shot from the door opening that shows the drop-down box.

This is the wood that will be the ceiling - the walls and support beams will all be the blue-grey color. We loved the wood grain so much on the ceiling that we decided not to paint it.

the tearing down

A lot has been happening with the camper. She's down to the chassis now. The tearing down has been slow because I'm trying to preserve things like the cabinets for templates for the new ones. I also need the floor as a template for the new one.

The top coming off.

One side to go.

This shows the condition of a lot of the wood. Rotting wood and rusty nails.

I found a surprise on one of the wheel wells. Someone wrote in marker the make of the camper and where it was manufactured.

 Down to the flooring.

fresh air all the time

Quinn thinks the windows should stay off.

taking her apart

The first step was removing the door and windows, which meant taking out lots and lots of screws.

Then I started removing the edging to remove the aluminum skin. Here's the insulation.

After the insulation is removed. You can see water damage on the wood.

The original paint color inside.

Just because.

to restore or rebuild?

The Scotty was a mess when we first saw her. Water was dripping from the ceiling onto one of the bed cushions. Part of the ceiling was hanging down from water damage. One of the curtains shredded when I tried to open it (not that we were planning on keeping the curtains - or the bed cushions). Duct tape held one of the aluminum sides onto the outside of the camper. I'd researched these campers and knew we could either do partial repairs or a rebuild. I quickly realized it would be a rebuild. A lot of the wood felt squishy, meaning it was likely rotted, and water damage was visible in numerous parts of the camper. Although a rebuild is much more work, I was kind of glad because it'd mean we'd know know it was all good wood and parts. We'd also have the option of changing things like keeping the sink or not. The plan is to keep the aluminum siding, the windows and the door. We'll decide what else as we go along.

Someone put on stickers that say, "the back pack." The camper is small but a little bit bigger than a backpack!

The duct tape holding the side on.

This shows part of the kitchen cabinet and dinette area. The table fell down while towing it home. Once re-installed, the table will drop down to be level with the seating, turning this area into a bed.

The roof damage. It was hanging down when we first saw it. The roof is caved in from all of the water damage.

The sink and stovetop. We're likely remove the stovetop and use a portable one.

The dinette area.

This area is another bed. It was designed to be a fold down couch/bed, but we'll make it a permanent bed.

The reason I feel we can do a rebuild is because of all of the resources online and the kindness of others who are so helpful like many of the peeps in the National Serro Scotty Organization, which I joined the day we brought our Scotty home.

the beginning

We bought a 1962 Serro Scotty camper. She's in need of lots of love, all 10 feet of it. Here are the photos that were on Craigslist. And this is where some of you think, CRAZY. But others see the potential like we did.