My "new" old pop up

I have been inspired by Richard. I bought me an old popup. My hopes are to remodel it and possible give it to my son for his wedding on August the 21st. I will leave posts on the progress. Perhaps Chuck can help me with the posting of pics!!

Alan, are we still friends? I inspired you to buy an old popup with all the problems I've had? What did you get? Size? Make? Model? Refrigerator? Furnace? AC unit? Condition?

Richard wrote:What did you get? Size? Make? Model? Refrigerator? Furnace? AC unit?

Tool Box?

chuck wrote:

Richard wrote:What did you get? Size? Make? Model? Refrigerator? Furnace? AC unit?

Tool Box?

Good one, Chuck

Coolbreeze1

abivens wrote:I have been inspired by Richard. I bought me an old popup. My hopes are to remodel it and possible give it to my son for his wedding on August the 21st. I will leave posts on the progress. Perhaps Chuck can help me with the posting of pics!!

I'm wondering how this wedding present will turn out?

Coolbreeze1

coolbreeze1 wrote:

abivens wrote:I have been inspired by Richard. I bought me an old popup. My hopes are to remodel it and possible give it to my son for his wedding on August the 21st. I will leave posts on the progress. Perhaps Chuck can help me with the posting of pics!!

I'm wondering how this wedding present will turn out?

Coolbreeze1

Good point Cool, I may be hurting his marraige more than helping it. I purchased a Coleman Valley Forge. I am not sure of the year but it has to be late seventies or early eighties.It has air, someone has mounted a unit on the front of the frame (they actually did a pretty good job). All the structure stuff (cables, pullys, frame, axles, wheels and tires) seem to be in great shape. There is some water damage to the roof, but the floor is solid. Apparently someone had started to gut the insides and quit about half way through. I didn't want you to have all the fun Richard!!

At the very least, you know where to go for some excellent "technical advice" if any is needed.

Dave

OK, I started the roof rot demo, the damage isn't quite as bad as I had expected. I also mixed up a bleach and water solution to scrub certain places on the canvas. The canvas has some pretty good rips but the material does not seem to be dry rotted. A good friend of mine has some very heavy duty upholstry thread and I am going to try to stitch the rips together.
Total Bill:
Camper - $250.00
Bottle of Bleach - $2.00
_____________________
$252.00 and counting

abivens wrote:OK, I started the roof rot demo, the damage isn't quite as bad as I had expected. I also mixed up a bleach and water solution to scrub certain places on the canvas. The canvas has some pretty good rips but the material does not seem to be dry rotted. A good friend of mine has some very heavy duty upholstry thread and I am going to try to stitch the rips together.
Total Bill:
Camper - $250.00
Bottle of Bleach - $2.00
_____________________
$252.00 and counting

$252.00 and counting and counting and counting, when will the counting stop? The world may never know

Coolbreeze1

Went to WalMart then Lowes today, what a zoo!! I did find some pretty good deals. I have materials to repair the canvas, flooring, a new locking latch, and some paint. Along with some other odds and ends I left Wal Mart 30 dollars lighter and Lowes 40 bucks poorer. The total damage so far is:
Camper - $250.00
Bleach - $2.00
Wal Mart - $30.00
Lowes - $40.00
______________
Total - $322.00 and growing

Thanks for keeping us up-to date on your project

Coolbreeze1

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I purchased some roof sealant and caulk today. I am getting close to being done with the demo. I basically have a wide open floor with no seats, tables, cabinets, or structures of any kind. My thoughts on a floor plan is to be a minimalist. I will probebly build a sink with a cabinet under it and one seat that will open up for storage. All my chairs and tables will be the fold up kind you can find at Camping World or Wal Mart. My thinking is that if we ever sell the camper we can keep most of the furniture. A camper this old will only bring so much, regardless of what shape it is in. The Kelly Blue Book is around $500 in good condition. If I can make as many of the amenities removable as possible, I actually won't have that much in the rig. I am using the same strategy for lighting, I am not going to install new ceiling mounted lights, instead I will stow a couple of table lamps. I do have have a gas rv stove I could mount but i am a bit skeptical concerning the gas lines. Cheap, cheap, and more cheap is my battle cry.
Damage to date: $322.00
Roofing sealant and caulk: $30.00
____________________________
Total : $352.00 and I have stopped the bleeding, at least for now!

KralCamper wrote:At the very least, you know where to go for some excellent "technical advice" if any is needed.

Dave

Remember, Alan, Dave and Darlene's fixes worked the first time!!! Mine took several tries, and I'm still broken.

Alan, feel free to take a really close look at my cabinets on the next trip. They are made of 1x2s and panneling, and that's all. Very easy to replicate once you've seen how they go together. $50 worth of materials would make a lot of these cabinets and benches. (The actual seats are 1/2 inch wafer board)

Richard wrote:Remember, Alan, Dave and Darlene's fixes worked the first time!!! Mine took several tries, and I'm still broken.

Actually, the first set of new cables were factory. Lasted for 2 trips and started to fail, cable ends slipped out of the ferrules. First 1, then over the next few trips all 4 failed. Finally replaced all with 3/32 cable from Lowe's or Home Depot, made them myself. Then I replaced the eye bolts (started to open up) at the winch with stainless steel eye bolts (much stronger) and had it that way for the next 3 years till we sold it. Camped a minimum of 12 times per year.

DIY fixes usually have some sort of "learning curve", my cable revamp took 3 or 4 tries to get right over the course of a few months.

Dave

Ya know.. with all this "cable" and "cable failure" talk.. I sure am glad I don't have the POP UP any longer. I am not as handy with tools as you guys.. and when lift system problems arose (and seems they always do with PUPS) I would have had to pay someone to fix it.

Little mods are fun.. but I am better at camping without repair work.

chuck wrote:Ya know.. with all this "cable" and "cable failure" talk.. I sure am glad I don't have the POP UP any longer. I am not as handy with tools as you guys.. and when lift system problems arose (and seems they always do with PUPS) I would have had to pay someone to fix it.

Little mods are fun.. but I am better at camping without repair work.

I'd be right there with you on that opinion, Chuck, but for the fact that I'm broke and also that I'm too far into this monster to stop my project now.

Oh yeah, Alan, I looked at my cabinets, they aren't 1x2 boards for the framing, more like 1x1/2 or so.

Thanks Richard. I am putting up the new ceiling now. So far so good. I have been taking pics, I need to figure out how to get them on this site.

abivens wrote:I have been taking pics, I need to figure out how to get them on this site.

if you can email the pics to me.. I can post them for you.

It ;ooks like I am going to have to order a new canvas. I did some research and found that currently there are only two places I can order after market canvas tops from. Interestingly, there is a significant difference in price. I called and talked to the guy at Bear Creek Canvas (the cheaper of the two). It seems that both canvas facilities are only about 6 miles from each other. He was a wealth of information concerning old/new pop up campers, not just about the canvas but all things. I have placed an order and hope to be getting the canvas soon!!

abivens wrote:I did some research and found that currently there are only two places I can order after market canvas tops from. Interestingly, there is a significant difference in price.

how much difference?

300 bucks or more

abivens wrote:300 bucks or more

Now that is a big difference

Coolbreeze1

I just gotta ask, How much was the new canvas? I've seen good reviews on Bear Creek's stuff.

I just happened to watch a Youtube video of a guy that restored a 1980 Coleman Pop-up. He added a AC unit, the first thing I thought about was Richards cables

Coolbreeze1