This week I'm going back in time to tell my past self what mistakes to avoid when working on my 1968 Play Mor 140. Will he listen? If only he could. Thanks for watching my diy vintage camper rebuild series.
Several years ago I got rid of a 16', 1974 Mobil Traveler. I had started working on it and 'life happened' so it sat for over 10 years collecting water damage from leaks...my neighbor tried for several years to get me to sell it to them and I declined, thinking I would someday get to it and never did. Finally I changed my mind and sold it to them for half of what I paid for it. Then they left it at my house for another year or two after paying for it so my Son delivered it to their driveway and after a few years, it still sits where we left it. I wish I had been able to get it repaired and renovated and not sold it. But hindsight is 20/20 they say..... I enjoy what you've done. Just subscribed to your channel and look for to seeing more of your videos.
Rebuilding old campers is a surprisingly time consuming hobby, and I am stupidly and constantly thinking of getting another one, but I've probably got another year to go on our Cal-Craft at the rate I'm going, and then I've got to do another rebuild on our photo booth camper, so I've got plenty of work for the foreseeable future. Still though, makes for lots more content to come!
Great concept and as a result, an entertaining yet informative way of talking about how you might have done things differently. Excellent content on your channel, I thoroughly enjoy Sundays seeing what you've been up to lately. Cheers mate.
Conan, I really enjoy your videos and always look forward to them! I wish "the algorithm" would fully embrace you because your videos are very well produced. You have a very natural narrative style, they are funny and your "journey" is interesting. In this genre of content, I feel you should be at the top of the heap. The struggle is real finding non-backlit 12v/USB outlets, but they must exist. Those LEDs are SO bright in the darkness of a camper. I'd be happy finding something that is easy to take apart and remove the LED and/or that separate the hot lead for the LED from the outlet side (I have a switch that allows that). Frustrating, and we can't possibly be the only ones who have an issue with that.
I put blue painters tape over the LED’s on the usb charger. Not perfect but mostly cuts the light out. If that doesn’t do it, black electrical tape would, just may look tacky, lol
The warm embrace of the algorithm, sounds like a distopic scifi novel, I'd read it! But thank you so much! I'm sure there's non-lit USB ports too. I really didn't think about it when I installed them, but I just haven't bothered to look into it further. When we've camped, we've only ever used the USB ports on the two lights that we installed, so I've been thinking about taking the USB outlet out altogether and replacing it with a standard 12V socket.
I thought about painting over the light parts with black paint, but I think I'm probably just going to remove the USB outlets and replace them with a standard 12V outlet at some point.
OK I'll add comments as we move through this video. First there is nothing wrong with working under tarps if you know a little bit about how to do it so you are not constantly removing the tarp and putting back on each and every day. To learn more join my class. The metal pattern you have and want to replace is 2 inch Custom Mesa so yes Steve does have that pattern... The seams in the roof are ACME seams and they will not leak unless damaged. And if you double up on the tape for the roof vent AND install a 3/4 inch crown around the vent hole, water will not puddle and it will never leak... Robert at Vintage Trailer Gaskets should have the top flap seal for your windows... You don't have J Rail. You have Top Edge Molding or Corner Cap. But you are correct. Don't paint it.... Air Conditioning. I didn't want to say anything before because you were almost finished with it. But I'll say it now. Your ankles will be nice and cold. Your forehead will be sweating at the same time though. LOL.. Finally, All upper cabinets or floor to ceiling cabinets if you have one need welting (gimp) and you install them before the roof metal goes on because they are fastened from the outside top down into the cabinet. And the fasteners are two inches apart. These upper cabinets are like gussets and give the trailer Sway Protection. Shear Strength. So you can't just install them from the inside. Lots of fasteners go through from the outside also. By the way Conan I make all these mistakes so you don't have to. It's on my card LOL...
I really have thought about joining your class, Larry. Anyhoo, that's a lot of good points so let me break it down. I suppose the thing about tarps in Kansas is that the wind just rips them to shreds in no time, so it's a constant struggle to replace them before they get too worn. My little canopy is a slight improvement, but rain only comes with wind in Kansas so its lack of sides is a problem. I need one of those metal-sided RV carports like you've got. Actually what I need is to bulldoze my falling down garage and replace it with something that actually has some room to work in. Yeah I don't have any problems with the seams, but I wish that one was just a few inches further forward and it'd be out of the way of the vent altogether. Tell me about this 3/4" crown though, how do I do that? Is there a hand tool that you use, or do you just hammer it? I actually have the top seal from VCT and there seems to be a very small difference that is causing them to pop out as the windows are operated. I've meant to call them back and ask if I'm doing something wrong, but I never got around to it. These are Phillips windows so I don't know if there was enough difference between them and the Hehr windows which seem nearly identical to require a different seal, or if I'm supposed to install the seal and wait a few weeks for it to "set", but yeah, that's the only seal I had trouble with. I misspoke, I know it's not J rail, I just didn't feel like going back and re-recording what I was saying. My local trailer supply shop stocked that stuff and in their inventory they called it Roof Rail. The A/C. Here's the thing, you know and I know that this is a stupid way to do it, which is why I didn't do too many permanent alterations to install it, because I think it isn't going to work terribly well, and I think I'm going to take it out. But here's the thing, that's content baby! So yeah, just wait for the future video titled, Why it was STUPID to install AC this way! or something like that. Also, I just wanted to see firsthand the pitfalls of installing an A/C like this and see if I could come up with something better in the future. And yeah, trust me Larry, I know all about the cabinets, but at the time I did this build, lets just say I made some assumptions that were perhaps ill advised that I'm trying to avoid repeating in the future. Interestingly, in dismantling the '56 Cal-Craft, all of the original cabinets were attached from the inside, and some were just hung on the paneling without ever hitting a stud! I do not plan on copying this aspect of the original build. Thanks for the comments!
Get advice!!! Love your videos and am going to do the same water system you have. I’ve seen it on other campers but you made some very good points about have a city water hook up. Could you share the parts you have picked out for the conversion? Greatly appreciated.
It's basically the same parts, but with a city water inlet. You just plumb the city water in between your pump and the faucet. Most pumps are built with a check valve to prevent back flow from the city water feed, but you should also have a pressure regulator on your water line to make sure you don't over power the check valve. I'll do a future video about it.
Great videos...entertaining and educational. Thank you. I'd love to hear more about how you AC worked out. Did it cool the space well? Did the ducted exhaust pose any issues like leaking heat back into the space?
Thanks for watching! You know the unfortunate thing is that it cooled off for the winter the week I finished installing it, so I haven't really even gotten to try it out yet!
Ah, this answers my previous question in one of your other videos, why your windows leak. You were cutting cost on sealant? Also while at Home Depot the other day, in the drawer handle area, I overheard the associate explaining to a customer about those drawer handles and how things will get caught on them.
Thanks for posting this video. There are so many things on my camper build that I wish I knew what I was getting into from the beginning. Live and learn for the next one right?! I keep thinking to myself "a tent is so much cheaper..."
Here’s another suggestion and I see it all too often never use liquid nail on something you may potentially have to take back apart in the future especially on ceiling and wall panels if staples and nails were good enough 50+ years ago they are good enough today.
We like to cook outside where there's more room to work, plus leaving off the propane system made things a little cheaper, simpler, and lighter weight.
I would say probably? Asbestos wasn't phased out until the late '80s in a lot of products. If you don't know for certain that something contains asbestos you're better off just assuming that it does. I'm in Wichita, KS.
