Hi, i'm new to the board and thought I'd introduce myself and my project. This forum has been invaluable for me as I navigate through my first build. I've always wanted a small camper and thought, "someday I'll get one", well this year I decided to do it. My younger brother passed away unexpectedly at 37 this year and it made me think a lot about what I put off. I was excited to move back to my home state soon and camp with him so building this has been some therapy for me as well. Anyway, I purchased a small 5X8 professional built camper from an estate sale. I saw it advertised on CL and even though it was fairly ugly (compared to the beautiful teardrops I"ve seen on here) I thought it was a good time to go for it. They were asking a few thousand dollars for it and I decided to go see it. When I got there I kind of fell in love with the idea of having it so the negotiation stared. The first thing I noticed was water damage. Being a woodworker my whole life I know what that looks like even though the seller said it was just "smoke soot from cooking inside it" I tried to explain that it was water damage but after they insisted I took my key and put it through the wood, enough said. When I did that they dropped the price to 500 bucks so I bought it (the door/windows/trailer were worth much more than that to me). I was hoping to get away with just some repair work but when I started digging into it I realized I had a total loss/redo on my hands. I used it as an opportunity to build the teardrop I had in my mind Here is a photographic timeline of the last couple months, I feel like I can see the light at the end of tunnel now but still a lot to do! So without further delay, here are the pics:
The day I brought her home and started "poking around" lol:
The moment I realized I had a much bigger problem then a bit of water damage haha:
Inside behind some shelves hiding this damage:
Feeling the "total loss" feeling building inside me:
Now I know total loss as there was not one panel that did not look this way:
Even when down to the bare floor this much mold/damage, yuck:
So I started work on my new and improved designed that I dreamed up in my head and worked out on my computer:
And this is where I am at today, I rolled it out to flush trim the outer skin:
I'm ordering the aluminum this week and my plans are to get the mill finish and then polish it like an Airstream as I've seen some of you do on here. I think that looks amazing.