Nearly Finished Roof

16 hours.  That's how long it took my dad and I to rebuild that roof.  And we still have to coat it.  For the past year I have been restlessly desiring a project that would take stress off of my mind.  This is it.  On my drive home, about 2.5 hours, I felt relatively calm.  I felt accomplished.  Below are some more pictures of the Starmaster 7 Roof Rebuild portion of the project.

First, this is my son helping.  He's 2 and prefers real tools over toys.

Outer frame is 1/2" marine plywood with an inner frame of 1" x  1 1/2" furring strips as a "nailing flange".

The length of the roof is 10' 3".  The building supply center didn't carry any plywood longer than 8'.  We spliced the two pieces cut with an aluminum plate.

We used 1/2" foil backed foam insulation adhered to the aluminum roof with 1" x 3" pine across the width, to both hold the foam and add support.

The roof is back on.  We had to actually flip the roof around after this initial test fit, because the canopy rail was on the wrong side.

Next steps are to scrub all of the grime off and coat the roof.

Dig In

9/20/14

Today my dad and I dug in to the restoration process.  Below are pictures of that process:

Torn and Moldy Canvas

More torn and moldy canvas.  Also an excited kid!

Here is the water damage.  It came from an improperly installed canoe rack on the roof.

More water damage.  The water damage was on all four corners.

Canvas Removed

Roof Removed

The roof.

An example of the water damage.

Now just a pile of junk.

Roof stripped.

Both bunks plywood is in great shape.  Just the slides are bent making it difficult to slide them out.

Upside down, but looking in to the area under the dinette seat.  Bees had made a hive in this area.  The got in through the power cord access hole.

 Here are some videos:

So, today we removed all of the old canvas and we removed the roof from the lift.  We stripped the roof of all rotten material.  Went to the lumber yard and bought a sheet of 1/2" x 4' x 8' Marine Grade Plywood, a 1" x 10" x10' Pine Board, 3 sheets of foil backed foam, and some 1 x 1 1/2 furring strips.

We used the side aluminum sheets from the roof sides as templates to cut the plywood to size as-well-as the end boards as templates.

We got about halfway to finishing the new framework when a line of storms moved in and we had to scramble to cover the open camper and upside down roof with a tarp.  I am glad my dad had a gigantic tarp.

The level of water damage was impressive.  It is sad that this old girl was neglected.  The two other options for this, before I decided to buy it, was a utility trailer or the junk yard.  Most of these old campers need someone to dedicate the time and energy in to restoration.  Most think it is too much of a hassle.  I think it is a labor of love.

Take possession.

Starcraft Stardust 8 Pop-up Restoration

9/18/2014

Below you can see the camper.  My dad picked it up from the family friend that sold it to me.  I haven't received the title yet and the original owner can't remember the year.  I will update as soon as I have that information.

   It has been sitting in a small lot of tall grass for years.  When I first looked at it, I walked away.  The canvas is in very bad shape, it smells of mold, dry rot, and screen tears.  There are most likely rodent nests.  After some research, upon seeing other restored campers that started in rougher shape than this old girl, I decided to buy the above camper for $200.00.

   THE PLAN:

   The plan is to remove the canvas, remove the roof, repair the roof, gut the interior, rebuild the interior, replace the canvas, remove the wheels/tires, remove the tires, sandblast and paint the the wheels, replace the tires, sand and repaint the frame, replace wheels/tires, and then go camping.

   More pictures to come, once I get up north and begin.