Finally ready to take her out...

A quick review of what we have done:

Sleeping area before:

And after:

with a little reading nook

Kitchen before:

and after:

Dinette before:

and after:

 Just some decorating left to do! Oh and of course camping....

Cleaning the roof

By the moss growing on the roof of the camper I don't think it has been cleaned for many years....

After a good scrubbing this is what we got:

 Sadly it didn't all come clean but at least we don't look like we are camping in a cave!

Interior is all complete....

We have completed the interior!
I have a previous post on the walls, but I hadn't finished the trim at the time.

We had tried pine 1/4 round but it didn't bend enough so we found a plastic quarter round that would go over most of the curves.  Here it is without the trim:

and here it is with the trim:

The only place I couldn't get it to bend enough was the front at the ceiling where it bends.  I took it as far as I could (which is in the shelf over the dinette) and am hoping to find something to put on the shelf to cover the absence of trim.

 

 

CURTAINS

The curtains in the back are made out of flour sack towels.  The bottom has red ricrac and I plan to embroider in red when I have time.  I found some vintage camper patterns

and will also add the Grandchildren's people drawings as they get older.  I will start with Doris's adorable person:

The dinette window has a blind type of treatment

It is on a curtain rod (I need to get a stronger rod) and rolls up and down.

An overall fastener holds it up

and then you can lengthen or shorten the strap as needed.  Here it is closed.

 The side windows are simple

 Big difference from the original curtains:

NEW FLOORING:
I got a great deal on linoleum at the local flooring store.
It isn't the most decorative but that is ok....

Installed 1/4 round around the edge. This will be easy to clean up.
We have already tracked in dirt!

 



 

water, lights, gas....

All major systems are a go!

We hooked up the water, only a minor leak which was quickly repaired.  Had to get new tubing from the faucet to the exterior.  They had a really strange connection and of course over the years it has begun to leak.  Not really sure how many years it has been since water has been used in the camper. 

Any way the water faucet from outside water is now working!

I was most worried about filling up the water storage tank and checking for leaks.  We probably should have done it before we finished the floor in case there were major spills.  But luckily there was no large water spills.  The pipe coming in does leak around it so we can't fill the tank full, only to what we think would be the bottom of the pipe.  Then we tested the hand pump, of course it didn't work.  Mike played around with it a little and it is so simple it should have worked - so here is the trick - put your finger over the faucet to plug it, pump a few times, and walah! it works!

Now we had to deal with the external spigot, here is what we had to work with:

Not a real good picture but it was rusty and had a gob of caulk around it. 

So we purchased one at the hardware store, one is on order from a vintage RV shop but hasn't gotten here yet and we are going out this weekend so need something now.

Not real thrilled about the shinny brass, but a nicer one is in the mail....

So we had the exterior lights working and three bulbs were burned out, so went and purchased them at the auto parts store.  One of the fixtures was completely rotted out and of course they are not available locally. 

So we removed the two side running lights and replaced the rusted rear marker light.

To replace the side running light we purchased these:

So once we installed them NO lights worked!  WHAT?  So Mike takes them all out again, checks all the connections, etc.then looks at the car and it blew a fuse.  One of the front running lights grounded out and that caused the fuse to blow.  On the Honda it has a individual trailer light fuse or it would have shorted out the entire lighting system.  I love my Honda! 

Last but not least, the propane...
Gas stove works -

Propane lantern works...

freshly painted heat vent in place

 here is what it looked like before:

 We haven't tested the heater yet, guess that will come after this weekend.  Hopefully it won't get to cold. 

All cushions complete!

I have already posted about the dinette cushions, well I stopped by IKEA and picked up a futon mattress for $90.  4" foam was much more expensive and they don't make mattresses that fit or that bend in the right spot.  Futons available around the area were too expensive.

Here is what was there when we bought it:

So I picked up the futon that would go on a bed like this, but only the mattress:

I had to cut off about 4 inches on the width and 3 inches on the length. 

Here is how it turned out:

 

It covers most of the window when in the couch position but don't think we will have it up very much.

 

Ahh, much more inviting to sleep on then a 48 year old mattress!  Now I have to get my quilt completed, working an a red, white and black patchwork quilt.

Prepping for paint and windows

We removed all the windows so we could re-seal them and clean them.
The previous owner had caulked them shut and boarded them up in an effort to seal out the cold.
They were a mess and we thought it would be easier to clean if they were removed.

Here is some of what we are looking at:

 This window took about 4 hours to clean.

 I am not really sure why there is caulking around the window crank, but they were also all encased.

 We are trying to find new gaskets for the Jalousie window:

 I think we found a substitute, but it isn't the same so not sure if it will work as well.  Keeping our fingers crossed!

Most Important Tool

I mentioned that the new mini air compressor was great but the best tool of all for the demolition portion was this little baby:

I don't know the official name but it was great at cutting out the paneling and whatever else got in my way.

Since we didn't remove the cabinets or the skin of the camper I couldn't remove the entire sheet of paneling so had to cut it out.  This tool enabled me to cut along the edge in a much more controlled manner than I could with a jigsaw, sawsall or even a dremel.  It got right up next to the edge and would cut on any side of the blade. 

1959 Forester Brochure

1967 Forester Ad

Cushions

I have completed the new dinette cushions!
They were actually much easier than I thought they would be.
The original cushions:

In the search for new foam I realized how expensive it was!  WOW! 

It would cost almost $100 just for the foam from JoAnn fabrics, and that was if I got it on sale.

There were cheaper online sites, but then I had to pay shipping. 

So after some thought I was wondering if there was a mattress that may be cheaper and I could cut it into sections.  I checked out IKEA - And found the perfect size - no waste!

 It is a fouton cover, and along with the foam I also got the mattress cover! 

 I was the perfect width - 31"  None of the other foam options came in that width
So out of the one mattress I cut two seats and two backs and had about 3 " of foam left over.

The trick to cutting foam?  Electric knife!  Who knew - well I guess everyone but me - anyway it was well worth the $12 investment. 

It cut the foam "like butter" - really -

I used the two zipper portions of the mattress pad for the seat cushions since I thought they may need to be removed and washed more often.  I sewed the missing edge out of muslin.  For the backs I just whip stitched the edges closed and figured if I needed to remove the covers and wash them it would be easy enough to resew them.

So I purchased this fabric and I decided instead of zippers I would use velcro.
One cushion:

 Two cushions:

 Completed cushions:

there is a little fabric left, I think I might use it to make some roman type shades for the windows.