Speaking of being a bad blogger, it has been over a year since my last post. Is that a record?

Using 2 layers of easy-up tents and some 1 x 2 walls, we built the "Mingo Hut" so we could keep working through the winter.

After a lot of geometry, trying to find the right combination of intersecting circles to give that cool 1940's aesthetic, we transcribed the math onto a sample template for the side panels.

Here is the temporary side skin template in place so we could evaluate it.

We shaved a bit here and added a bit there to balance out the shapes and make enough room for the kitchen cabinets we had in mind AND a full size futon mattress.

The design is transferred to the final plywood and both sides are cut out together, then belt-sanded into uniformity. We cut little notches into the edges so we would have something to line up the left side with the right.

The first sections of front and back outer skin are stapled to the side frames. We jacked up the metal frame and got all four corners level before bolting the sides onto the frame.

Here is the first sample component of the cabinetry. We used the Kreg jig to assemble all of the face frames.

Before we built anything on top of the floor we decide it will be easier to install the vinyl flooring at this point.

Here the internal bulkheads are built and fitted to the front and rear cabinetry frames. The front will become cupboards and drawers for the galley and the rear will hold a large storage drawer under the bed/sofa.

Parts start accumulating. We have decided to add an on-demand water system as well as a battery and a charger/maintainer. The internet is an amazing shopping resource for bits and pieces like faucets and water tanks and switches, fuses and wire.

The original pop-up camper sink and propane stove are both in pristine condition and will be re-used.

Before it gets really cold we rush to complete the outer skin assembly. Some of the curves are easy and some of them push the plywood to its limit. We had some alignment issues here and also had some plywood failure. Engineering savvy eventually wins out but if I was ding it again I might do this part differently.

Vintage-style awning windows arrived from L'il Bear Tear Drop Campers in California. They are expensive but critical for that vintage look. In this picture you can see the windows just tacked in place to keep the heat in. We only stopped work if it was below zero.

We borrowed a lot of great ideas from this couple's rebuild of a Scoty camper
http://imgur.com/a/5n3xI
One of the coolest ideas we borrowed was the clever futon mattress on a reclining framework so it could be both a sofa and a bed in the same small space.

The overall design challenge was to make the outside as small as possible while still giving us the features we wanted on the inside. Just like the Scotty Sero rebuilders, we decided to use the cabinetry above the wheel wells as the major structural elements–designed to give at least a small amount of rigidity to the whole structure.

Here the battery, charger, water tank and pump are rough-fit below the futon supports.

The galley cabinetry starts coming together. Again, we borrowed from the Sero rebuild and planned for a diagonal sink placement and a garbage can inside the cupboard door. This is the first time we are using a router to build all of our drawer fronts and cabinet doors. It is not a perfect job, but the soft pine is forgiving. Now it actually looks like a kitchen. The main design mandate from the beginning was to make everything as light as possible. Because the counter top is so small we figured it could be 1/4" plywood as long as we had it supported every 12" at least. Rather than add weight with an actual solid-surface material we applied a few coats of granite spray paint followed with several coats of polyurethane. Our wish list was: A small refrigerator, a microwave oven, a sink, a stove and plenty of storage.

How would we be able to include a table for dining in the small space? The solution was to have a drop-down door (supported by a drawer) that would be a table when you needed it but would fold out of sight when you didn't need it.

Meanwhile on the outside:
We looked at several construction methods, all of which are designed to give maximum strength with minimum weight. We decided on the external rib method which meant running 1 x 2 boards across the outside, from left to right every 7" apart. Then, after all the ribs are installed, we filled in the spaces with 3/4" closed-cell foam insulation. After some exterior wiring is installed, the whole thing is wrapped in heavy plastic sheeting.

Now it started to feel and sound like a real living space, instead of the plywood in the front yard. The windows are back in, but still just temporarily.

We installed a distribution panel with (4) 110VAC circuits. 1. Refrigerator, 2. Microwave, 3. Battery charger/maintainer and the wall outlets, and 4. The 500W electric baseboard heater.  Total amperage is less than 10, but the circuits are wired with 12Ga wiring and the panel supply is 10Ga just to be on the safe side. The whole AC system is connected to a standard 30A RV cable as well as an adaptor to connect to standard household 15A service.

On the DC side of things, the lighting, the water pump and the roof exhaust fan are all controlled with automotive-style light-up toggle switches. Everything is fused in-line.

The whole project became cooler than we ever thought it would so we decided to invest in a white sheet-aluminum skin. We ordered all the materials from the awesome people at Hemet Valley RV http://www.hemetvalleyrv.net/
It arrived from California in perfect condition. Those guys really know how to pack and ship stuff.

The skin is easy to cut to shape with a good (fresh) pair of tin snips. The windows and doors are cut out with an angle grinder.

The under-camper

Tuesday March 5th, 2013

A lot has happened since the last post, but I will attempt to update you in logical steps. Since the last post was months ago I think we can all assume that I am a terrible blogger.

First of all we flipped the frame over and applied a liberal coating of asphalt roofing goop to try and seal the wood and metal from rot. This was the time to have easy access to the wiring so we added new 4-pin and 7-pin wiring for lights as well as battery charging capability. Knowing that winter was on the way and that the finiahed camper would not fit through the garage door we built what would come to be known as The Mingo Hut on the driveway. A skimpy frame of 1 x 2s covered with 4 mil. plastic sheeting and topped with an easy-up tent. The whole thing was then anchored to the ground with guy wires and metal stakes.

Getting Started

Wouldn't it be cool, I thought, to make your very own vintage-style camper without spending a lot of money? Starting from scratch, a new trailer frame would cost at least $400. And that would be just the beginning.

I noticed that old pop-up campers were often selling for less than the price of their frames. People get tired of jockeying around them in the driveway or having them just rot away in the backyard. I figured that if I bought a pop up in need of repair, I could throw out everything I didnt need and keep the things I could repurpose.

Things like a refrigerator, a stove, a cooktop, a voltage converter, and hopefully a furnace (you know, Wisconsin and all). It took a while but the perfect one came along. The previous owner had put new wheels and tires on it and was selling it for $100. Sold.
It only took 2 days with a sawsall and a prybar to turn it into a cleaned off metal frame. Inside I had an ivory sink and gas cooktop that looked like they had never been used. No furnace but I salvaged the roof vent and all the marker lights. In addition I had things to sell on craigslist: A full set of cushions in great shape (and not very stinky considering the mold factor inside the camper) as well as a complete set of lift components to make the pop up , well, pop.

Luckily for me the garbage collectors took every single scrap of the camper demolition. No snotty notes or whiny attitudes like Waste Management leaves for people.
The next step was to clean all the glue and bit of schmutz off the frame, grind away any surface rust and then a good coating of Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and a basecoat of paint.
I was originally planning on replacing the trailer jack as it was a little grungy and replacements are quite inexpensive. I found out that the frame hole diameters for A-frame jacks, as they are called, is smaller now than it was when this baby was built in 1998. They used to be 1 7/8" and nowadays (that's camper talk) they are 2" or 2 1/4".

After the frame was primed and painted and allowed to harden up for a few days, I got new plywood for the subfloor. Originally the pop-up had 5/8" chipboard, but that seamed a little too fluffy for me so I got 3/4" CDX plywood.  Although statistics show that OSB (which is a little lighter) has equal strength characteristics, I still felt more secure with the CDX. First of all pop-up frames are not solid square tubing like "real" trailers, they are just bent steel. I figured that the CDX would give me a little extra torsion strength as this new camper bounces along.

I was able to re-purpose the galvanized wheel wells and attach them to the new plywood floor. Then the ply got glued and screwed to the frame. I found really cool wood-to-metal screws that have a small drill bit on the tip and little wings to ream out the wood on their way down. These are very slick and worked great on the soft camper frame. I don't know if they would have worked on stronger steel. 

The next step was to fabricate a wooden frame around the galvanized metal wheel wells to protect them as well as to adapt the old metal edge to the new camper. Now it's time to flip the whole thing over and do the undercoating.