Hello everybody,
I’ve been itching for a project and the hubs talked me down from building a tiny house or renovating a school bus. After a school bus, the idea of a small camper was an easy sell. So I bought a decrepit pop up of Craig’s List and started dreaming. I’ve spent the last few months drawing on graph paper and even graduated to basic cad drawings to plan out the grand rebuild.
After settling on the idea of a pop up, I couldn’t find many pop up rebuild sites. I found mostly superficial renovations, all of which looked great but they didn’t help me much with how to go about a full rebuild. I struck gold when I found you guys so THANK YOU all for this site/community.
Hang with me while I explain my plan… I was looking for a project, like something to build and wire and design and all that jazz. A simple repaint and reupholster wasn’t going to satisfy by DIY itch. A buddy of ours bought a pop up camper, we went camping and loved it (we normally just backpack/tent camp). That got me hooked on the idea of a pop up camper. I realize I could probably salvage a decent amount of the current pop up camper but want to start from scratch, just for fun. So in my mind, I wasn’t looking to buy a camper to renovate, but was looking for as many parts as I could find to build a camper from scratch. So I bought a pop up that was in pretty bad shape but for $200 bucks got a functional trailer, roof lift system, mini fridge, bed slide hardware, a decent amount of aluminum trim, and working AC (definitely surprised me when I turned it on and it was fully functional!). We’ll see how it goes.
Another odd thing: I’m going to try and make a hard sided pop up (as in the upper walls will be wood not canvas). I’m handy with a sewing machine and found a bunch of great how to videos by Sailrite…but I think it will actually take me longer and possibly more money to hand make the upper portion out of canvas (especially as I don’t have the old canvas as a template). You can buy replacement canvases but they start around $1000 and up. My hard-sided plan might change if the folding and hinging of the all the sides becomes wildly overcomplicated. But I can press with the majority of the build and then change my plan if needed, suck it up and get to stitching.
So that’s me and my plan. I’ll start a build journal soon with and hope to sink my teeth into the tear down mid-month and the rebuild in February. I appreciate any insight and ideas!!
-Samantha