Tag Archives: exterior vintage camper photos

Slow and steady wins the race, right??  I’m starting to get impatient because I was hoping I would be further along by now.  Not that I haven’t gotten a lot done though.  I guess I just keep thinking each task will go quickly and that’s not what happens.  You think I’d have learned by now that this project is just going to continue to be like that!  haha

I didn’t get to work on Junebug at all yesterday because I had a brunch scheduled with two of my girlfriends and then we did some shopping.  By the time I got home, it was evening, and I decided that it was too late to start on anything.  This morning, I spent too much time messing around with the photos on my computer and then taking Baxter to the park, so I didn’t get started until around 2pm.  Oh well, sometimes I just have to do something else for a little while to regain the energy to get back to my project.

I’m getting closer to finishing the exterior of Junebug, so that’s exciting!

The first thing I did today was roll Junebug out of the driveway and hook her up to my car to make sure my tail lights were still working.  I connected them to the wires last weekend but didn’t try them out.  I was having trouble getting the batt connectors to close over the wires tight enough, so I was nervous that maybe they wouldn’t work today.  Thank goodness they did!

After finishing that task, I rolled Junebug back into the driveway and set about finishing the street side.

My neighbor gave me these cut resistant gloves. They work great and I sort of look like a transformer! haha

I trimmed the street side bottom edge and folded it under.

I think the bottom edge looks ok folded under, so I may wait until later to add the trim.

Next, I finished the rear panel.

Rear is folded under and secured!

Can’t wait to get the bumper on so the look will be complete.

Still has the stupid creases in the metal on this side. I tried to get it to smooth out but it wasn’t happening. I’m hoping the bumper will cover it up a little.

Screwed this little trim piece down and peeled back a little more of the protective film. This piece isn’t perfect since I made it, but it works! I will make a few more to go around the whole door frame.

Next, I drilled little holes in the four corners of the remaining windows so I had a guide for cutting the hole.  Then I used my sharpie to trace the outline.

All cut out and ready for a window!

Then I got to work cleaning the windows.  They had paint and who knows what else from years of exposure to the elements.  I also had to remove the bits of putty tape from the inside edges.  I used this wire wheel attachment for my drill that I picked up at Harbor Freight.  It worked really well but it also scratched up the aluminum pretty bad.  I don’t really think it will matter in the end though.

My neighbor gave me this tube of metal polish. It works great!

All clean and polished!

I thought my window was so shiny until I put it up against the pre-polished aluminum skin.  I don’t see how I would ever get it that shiny so I will just live with it.  It doesn’t look bad though.

I had to peel back some more of the protective film to get it out of the cracks between the skin and the window. It looks so beautiful!!

Another angle. 🙂

So my work is done for today.  I need to finish cleaning and polishing the other three windows and then they’ll be ready to install.  I am also planning to take some of the leftover skin to a sheet metal shop to get them to fabricate some frame pieces for the door.  They are folded too tightly for me to do it myself without it looking bad.  Hopefully I will be able to easily find a place to do it for me.

Next week, I’m going to visit my family at my grandma’s house near Austin.  I won’t be able to work on Junebug for a little while, but that’s ok.  I’m very excited to see my family since I usually only get to see them a couple of times a year.  I will post an update as soon as I am back at it the following week.

Warning:  The first part of this post is a bit depressing.  If you’re not in the mood to handle a depressing post, you can skip the first paragraph and come back to it later when you’re mentally prepared.

I feel like I took a beating this week.  Monday started out ok, nothing special happened.  Tuesday, however, was the day from hell.  First, I spent part of the night feeling sick and had to go into work a little late.  Maybe my body knew somehow that the day was cursed and was trying to avoid it.   On my way into work, I spilled coffee all over my white shirt.  Then, when I got to work, I accidentally stuck my smart card (my badge that I have to insert into the computer to log on) into the cd drive because someone had the clever idea to put the card reader directly above the cd drive just to mess with people like me who are having a bad day and not paying attention.  ugh Of course, I couldn’t get it out and I couldn’t go anywhere without my badge, so I had to recruit a coworker to go with me to the IT floor to get someone to help me.  The guy took my computer apart, but I finally had my badge again after about an hour of wasted time!  After that, I thought things could only get better.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  It was a nice day outside, so I decided to forego my usual spin class and head home to take Baxter for a run in the park by my house.  While we were out on our run, I saw a guy on a motorcycle hit a gravel patch, then the curb, then lose control and crash.  I wasn’t very far away, so I ran over immediately, thinking somehow I could help.  I don’t know what I was thinking since I didn’t have my cell phone, not to mention that I had a dog with me.  I guess it was just instinctual.  I was the first person to arrive on the scene, and as soon as I saw him, I wished I hadn’t.  He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and his head injuries were pretty severe.  I asked if he could hear me, and he didn’t respond even though his eyes were open.  He also wasn’t moving.  I noticed another car had stopped at this point, and the woman was calling 911.  I was relieved.  I thought the woman would get out of her car and come over, but she didn’t.  The furthest she got was to open her car door and step right outside of it.  She kept her distance and yelled over to me to answer the 911 operator’s questions.  A guy then runs up to me and frantically asks, “What do I do?  What do I do?”  I was trying to hold it together.  I guess everyone handles emergency situations differently.  A few seconds later, a nurse pulled up in her car and, with a somber expression on her face,  quickly walked over to the man, holding some type of first aid kit.  I stared at the man for another minute as people started showing up from all around.   I wondered if I needed to stay to talk to the police.  I didn’t know if anyone else had actually seen the accident.  Since it was only him and no other driver was involved, I thought maybe I didn’t need to stay.  At this point, I thought I might start bawling uncontrollably, so I decided I’d better go.  I knew he was getting help from the nurse until the ambulance arrived, and I was just in the way.  When I got home I cried really hard.  I don’t think I’ve cried that hard since my dad died.  I think I spent the rest of the week trying not to think about this man but failing miserably.  He was the first thing I thought of when I woke up and the last thing I thought of when I went to sleep.  I tried to look up information online about him, because I thought I could have some sense of closure if I knew what happened to him.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t survive, but I couldn’t find anything online about it.  Unfortunately, these types of motorcycle accidents are WAY too common.  If only he had been wearing his helmet, he would have been ok!   This whole incident got me thinking a lot about what is really important to me in life.  My family and my friendships are by far the most important things to me.  And Baxter too of course.  I want to tell my family and friends how much I love them every day, but that’s not always possible and would be a little over the top if I really did that I guess.  I hope that they know how important they are to me without me having to say it every day.   I kind of feel silly spending so much of my time alone, working on Junebug, when I don’t know how much longer I will have to spend with the people I care about.  Life can be over so quickly and unceremoniously.  I guess I keep working on Junebug because without a goal to work toward, I would feel lost.  And I felt lost this week and needed something to take my mind off of it.

So, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I will switch to the updates on my progress this weekend.  Junebug has a few bruises as well thanks to my mistakes.  It didn’t go perfectly (but when does it ever?), but I did finally finish getting the roof folded over and stapled down.  it was definitely the toughest job I’ve had to do yet, even harder than putting the side skins on last weekend.  Maybe because I was doing it alone, but I think it was just physically exhausting.

I started yesterday by finishing the insulation on the back panel.  I realized immediately that Oscar, my welder, had forgotten to leave some wire for the license plate light. ugh!  I had to call him because I wasn’t sure if I should wire it myself since that didn’t work too well the last time. haha  Luckily, Oscar is a really nice guy and was able to come by my house around 6pm yesterday to fix the problem.  He tested all of the wires and they worked, so let’s hope they stay that way once the lights are hooked up!

Wires are all ready to go and insulation is in!

Next, I set out to patch up the mistake I made when cutting the side skin.  I cut a piece to fit over it and overlap slightly, then sealed the gap with gutter seal.  It doesn’t look perfect, but I’m hoping maybe it won’t be that noticeable once the drip rail is on since it’s up high.

Mistake – before patching

After patching – the protective film is still on the patch

On Saturday, I also finished trimming the bottom edge of the curb side and then folding it under.   I put a few staples in, but not many because I will be screwing in some trim along the bottom and sealing it with gutter seal.

I made this little piece to go in the doorway from leftover skin. I will be doing the same for the top and sides of the door frame. I would also like to use some of the skin for the door itself, but the way it’s bent, I will likely need to take the skin to a metal shop where they have the right tools.

Today, I first removed a few of the stainless screws I had put into the curbing (the little strips of wood all along the outside of the frame that the roof staples into).  I decided that now that the curbing was in place and the curves were achieved, I didn’t need quite as many screws.  I was also worried about the screws being too close together and getting in the way of the screws that will hold the drip rail in place.

After that, I started securing the skin.  I started at the front, and worked my way toward the rear.  I did small sections on either side, going back and forth to hopefully avoid any buckling in the aluminum.

I used a sharpie to draw a line after measuring so that I could cut the excess skin and only leave 1/2″ to fold over.

Here’s what it looks like after cutting with my metal shears. I cuts a little slice right out of the middle. This allows the larger piece of metal you’re cutting off to stay put and not have to curl up. It’s pretty neat how it works!

All ready to start folding over. I only cut sections at a time and then folded over.

Here’s what it looks like after holding down a wood block close to the edge, then hammering over the edge with a rubber mallet. This was definitely a good arm workout!

Front panel is getting close!

As you can see here, I cut little triangular notches in the aluminum on the really curvy parts so that they would lay flat after folding over. It worked really well!

Ugh! Buckling! I’m not sure what caused this, but I think it might have been the insulation on the opposite side that was sticking up a little too much.

I eventually corrected the buckling, but unfortunately the whole roof moved slightly toward the street side as a result.  Luckily I had enough skin left on the curb side to make up for it.  It was slight enough of a change the it didn’t make the pattern in the skin look uneven (thank goodness!).

Here’s a close up of the patch I did now that the roof is stapled down. It’s not really that noticeable I don’t think. Hopefully it will be even less noticeable with the drip rail over it.

Front is all secure! Just need to cut out the window now of course.

When I got to the rear of Junebug, I realized that I needed to go ahead and attach the tail lights so that I could make sure the excess wire was safely under the skin where I wouldn’t accidentally put a screw through it.  I thought that would be an easy job, but it actually took forever!  I couldn’t get the Batt connectors to hold the wire like Oscar could.  I didn’t have a crimping tool, so I had to make do with my wire cutters.  When I crimped the batt connector, I accidentally cut through it a couple of times.   I finally got the wires to stay, but I’m a little nervous that the lights won’t work when I hook them up.  I didn’t have the heart to try them tonight in case they didn’t work.  I will try them next weekend when I’m not so exhausted.  If something went wrong, I’ll have to undo the back panel and then restaple it after fixing the lights.  It’s doable, but I REALLY don’t want to do that!

Unfortunately, I ran into another buckling problem, right at the end!  You can see where the buckling occurred, right next to the steel beam.  I also cut the holes in the skin in the wrong spot and had to make them much wider, thanks to my initial buckling problem.  So… Junebug is going to be far from perfect at the end of this.  But I’m not perfect either.  I mean, who wants to be perfect?  That’s so boring.  hahaha

I’m hoping that the bumper will help to hide these little blemishes.  I am also rethinking my plan to put the spare tire on the tongue, and may put it back here after all.

And here’s a shot of the whole thing after two hard days of labor.  I still need to finish the very bottom of the rear, but it’s almost there!  I also need to finish cutting out the window holes and add the drip rail and trim.

I’m glad this week is over.  I am hoping that next week will be better!