Land Commander: a Small Home, that I own

[LandCommander]

I would like to introduce my 1964 Aristocrat Land Commander. I bought it a few months ago in rough but structurally sound shape. I plan to use it for long weekends camping as well as "urban camping" at the beach I Santa Barbara.

I attacked the outside first to keep my neighbors happy. I've done some minor structural support on the front and back corners, sealed all seams with elastomeric caulking. Required tow wire harness, installed new brakes, new pergo floor. I repaired the old steel black tank which I've now repurposed as a grey water tank. Made some minor repairs to the pressurized water system. I turned the potty room into a shower and will place a small porta potty in it. I'll post some details of the shower later. Welded some supports for the pull out step. Reupholstered the cushions. I still have to at least paint the interior and some cosmetic things, but I'm getting there sooner than I thought I would!!

[KCStudly]

Just jotting down some notes?

[LandCommander]

lol lol yes I also typed a bunch of other stuff introducing my build but my iphone decided to delete all that. It's way of telling me to shut up and stop rambling.

Cheers,
Eric

[LandCommander]

So this is my new-to-me 1964 Aristocrat Land Commander.

The actual box is about 12' long, bumper to bumper its about 16' and on registration its as 18' because they dont have a category for 16' in california?
Generally, what measurements do you all reference when stating the length of your trailer?

I got it off craigslist for $500. Another $100 for registration, $150 for new trailer brakes.

It's in ok structural condition, not gonna fall apart. But it does have some frame rot in a couple corners. The floor and ceiling are solid, but a couple corners are a bit rotted. I plan on pumping in adhesive and screwing on some aluminum angle on the inside of the trailer and sealing up everything really good on the outside.

All the systems need going through. I am hopeful that I will be able to use the 10 gallon compressed air water system. Hopefully the old rusty metal black tank from the porcelain toilet will function as a grey tank for the kitchen sink and a shower I plan on building. The tank is missing all the fittings and I'm hoping a 3" uniseal will be good enough to plumb in a dump valve I have on hand. I will then buy a porta-potty to keep in the wet bath.

I'm doing this on as much of a budget as possible, just finished dyeing some drop cloths navy blue for the upholstery. I'm reusing and fixing as much as possible while avoiding completely disassembling everything.

To keep my neighbors happy, I did it a little backwards painting the outside first thing. I used cheap spray cans from walmart and I'm happy with the result.

I picked up some cheap laminate flooring today from home depot and will be installing that soon.

The AC electrical system works, the 12V system consists of two dome lights wired to an overhead cabinet where you were supposed to have a lantern battery. I will be expanding on the 12v system and am deciding on where to install a 100AH battery from walmart. I may also get a 100w solar panel and either keep it modular/movable or epoxy it to the roof.

My to-do list above is actually pretty complete expect for a few smaller things.

here is a before pic:


and an after pic:


this one you can see I was able to strip the front top to bare aluminum, wish I could have done the whole thing like that but it would have been way to many hours to strip it all:


I'm starting to shine up the quilted aluminum back splash here, cleans up nice:


and one of my tow vehicle... a 1995 saturn with 300k miles:



looking for to keedback, open to criticism,

Cheers

[LandCommander]

well yesterday I set of to home depot with a huge list of plumbing parts and other stuff. I only got a couple things because they didnt have what I needed. I need to replace a section of copper pipe and, whether it has froze previously or is just a weird size, nothing would fit it. no copper fittings, no sharkbite fittings. I even went to a specialty plumbing shop and they didn't have anything that would work. I've read that I could expand a fitting to fit, but I think I'll just run a webbed vinyl tube over the copper with a couple hose clamps in an easy to access spot, it will onyl be cold water.

I've decided to move forward with using the old metal tank, I found a 3" test plug at the plumbing shop that allowed me to test it. It has a couple pin holes in it but I plan on dumping a whole gallon of rust preventative paint I saved from the trash into it, that should give me a few years of use at least I think. No one locally carries uniseals, which seem to be one of my only options, so I have one on ordered from amazon.

I brush painted the bumper and front of the frame. Spray painted the front white and will add color later. And I sealed the front and rear windows, the front and rear corner seams, and two of the roof vents.

For sealing joints, I have my own special procedure that seems to hold up pretty well. Get a dull, skinny metal scraper, I used a 7in1 paint tool and a bamboo skewer, scrape some of the old butyl tape out from between the joints, if everything looks fine the whole length of the seam, leave it alone, if there is lots of dirt/dust in there more than just sitting on top, you will be able to tell if it has been leaking. Gently remove as much of the old seal out be careful not to mark or cut the aluminum, go over it several times, maybe with a skinnier tool the second time, then wipe it off and brush out the seam with a dry still little paint brush. Then use clear, elostomeric, sealant/adhesive like Lexel. Caulking is an art in itself, I like to cut the tip as little as possible, then chew a little on the tip to squish it smaller like a slit, then use the poker to open up the tube seal. Obviously, squirt it as deeply as possible into the seam/joint, dont make your bead to big. Then wet you finger and smooth out the bead.

[LandCommander]

We'll I'm almost done with the upholstery, I used a canva drop cloth that I dyed navy blue. Pretty happy with how it looks/feels

Finished the floor Saturday

Now I need to make the bathroom happen!

[LandCommander]

This weekend I finished the shower for the most part. I must admit I think my setup is pretty thriftily ingenius. I put coroplast on the walls I already had on hand. And for the shower pan I used a "large mixing tub" from Home Depot for $15. It's 24"x36" and fits my space perfectly, I installed a utility sink drain that goes straight into the tank. Right now it's cold water showers only but I may add a solar heater in the future. I'll try to post some pics of it all