81 FWC, 87 K5

[metalneverdies]

Man, I need a better respirator.

I finally got the original labels removed. Really scared up the paint getting that ancient vinyl off.

A fair amount of sanding, primer, sanding, filler primer, sanding, primer, and finally the first coat of gloss white on the exterior.

 

[metalneverdies]

Well, I didn't make too much progress over the last several weeks. The ice storm that hit OKC 10/25 really slowed me down. We ended up living with my mom for 3 weeks while we waited on power restoration to our house. It was a little stressful, especially with 3 dogs, since they are not really dog people lol. We have been home for 2 weeks now. However it's now week 5 and I still don't have internet. Luckily, the neighbor finally got service and is letting me run 100' ethernet cable from his house to mine and have our router hooked to it. It's been a major interruption since I work from home and am still taking (online) classes to finish up a degree.

After several coats and sanding, I finally have called it good enough on the paint. This is my first big paint project were I used spray paint. I have used real automotive paint in the past to paint a motorcycle and then a Jeep. The spray paint is much harder to get a nice finish with. I just kept ending up with lots of dry spray. I am going to try wet sanding with 1000-3000 and then hitting it with some compound and polish on my DA. I don't care so much that its not a nice professional finish... but I really don't want any texture outside of orange peel because it will make the camper hold so much more dirt and junk on the exterior.

I mocked up the heater and had to make a few modifications to the camper for the new heater. I need to make a few modifications to the new mount pictured below, but it's getting there. I traced the opening on the camper for the new water heater. Unfortunately, the water heater arrived with some damage, so its being exchanged right now.

I also got the under camper bed side aluminum skin cut and ready for install. I just need to finish painting the trim pieces and then I can get most of the main shell sealed up and ready for the R-Max foam insulation and expanding foam for the cracks and crevasses.

I also got new flanges welded onto the exhaust pipes yesterday - hopefully that fixes my gasket blow outs for good. I need to figure out a clean way to add another exhaust mount to the truck too. Still waiting on my gaskets...(Rockauto and their multi-warehouse BS)

 

[metalneverdies]

I FINALLY finished painting / sanding the main shell portions. Spray paint sucks to work with lol. After several coats, temperatures, methods of applying the paint to minimize the dryspray; I ended up calling it good enough and then wet sanded everything with 1500 - 3000 then used my DA with a Lake Country orange foam pad and Griot's fast correcting crème, then applying Griot's one step polish / ceramic sealant. It looks good from far, but far from good LOL. It's going to get scratched to hell like my truck anyways and require touchups after the first outing I am sure. The trails in OK and AR are quite narrow.

Most of the Luan paneling is now rough cut. Once I source some finishing edge material I will do the final trimming. Windows are now re-installed. The shell is ready for insulation at this point!

The heater mount is also ready for install. I made a few modifications to it for ease of use and access to critical components like the flame viewing window.

My neighbor told me about this sealant. I am going to use it on all the corners. Looks much better and easier to work with vs. butyl on the corner sections. https://www.campingworld.com/seal-t...NW4UgrC-8iPmBeIzXzRoCL38QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Hopefully I didn't screw myself over too much on the bottom corners of the camper. I noticed with fitup tonight that the holes are off by about half a full hole in order to have the corner bracket go around the original section and the new slightly thicker bottom wood and aluminum skin. I am debating trying to find a slightly larger size brace ( if they exist ) or seal up the original holes and use self tapping screws and just make entirely new holes for the bracket to seal everything up.

 

[metalneverdies]

Can anyone confirm the location of the pass through / where to bolt the piece of topper to the camper front wall?

I forgot to measure the location of the original. I would assume it is flush but bottom of the camper sides and centered left to right?

 

[Capt Ron]

Can anyone confirm the location of the pass through / where to bolt the piece of topper to the camper front wall?

I forgot to measure the location of the original. I would assume it is flush but bottom of the camper sides and centered left to right?

I'm not sure what area you are talking about? These help? I do remember Robs was a bit different than mine from the factory.

 

[ZooMad75]

Can anyone confirm the location of the pass through / where to bolt the piece of topper to the camper front wall?

I forgot to measure the location of the original. I would assume it is flush but bottom of the camper sides and centered left to right?

That was a process. It required the truck to fit. The basic rundown was we fit the front wall to the camper with the opening rough cut smaller so we had material to cut back to fit. The camper was set in place to the truck with the front wall butted up to the cab. We traced the size of the opening to the wood. We then slid the camper back and cut the opening to size with a hand jigsaw.

At the same time, we had the section of the top in place and traced its shape out to know where it was going to land on the wood also. You can see the trace in the pic above.

With the camper pulled back we were able to locate where the top section would sit and screwed it to the front wall. That gave us the ability to drill the holes through from the front for the bolts to lock the camper to the cab.

I can get measurements off of mine if you need them, but the most accurate way to size/locate the pass-through is to fit it on the truck.

 

[ZooMad75]

I'm not sure what area you are talking about? These help? I do remember Robs was a bit different than mine from the factory.

You are right in that our were different to start with. But in general, FWC made the opening asymmetric.

Mainly to house the icebox or 3-way fridge behind the driver seat. I wanted the opening to match the cab. I wasn't going to run the fridge there so I could have more space for my seat. Ironicly now that I have the 5-speed in the truck I've found I can't drive with the seat all the way back like I did with the automatic. I can't reach the bottom of the stroke of the clutch pedal with it back!

 

[Capt Ron]

That was a process. It required the truck to fit. The basic rundown was we fit the front wall to the camper with the opening rough cut smaller so we had material to cut back to fit. The camper was set in place to the truck with the front wall butted up to the cab. We traced the size of the opening to the wood. We then slid the camper back and cut the opening to size with a hand jigsaw.

At the same time, we had the section of the top in place and traced its shape out to know where it was going to land on the wood also. You can see the trace in the pic above.

With the camper pulled back we were able to locate where the top section would sit and screwed it to the front wall. That gave us the ability to drill the holes through from the front for the bolts to lock the camper to the cab.

I can get measurements off of mine if you need them, but the most accurate way to size/locate the pass-through is to fit it on the truck.

I pretty much did mine the same way.

 

[metalneverdies]

That was a process. It required the truck to fit. The basic rundown was we fit the front wall to the camper with the opening rough cut smaller so we had material to cut back to fit. The camper was set in place to the truck with the front wall butted up to the cab. We traced the size of the opening to the wood. We then slid the camper back and cut the opening to size with a hand jigsaw.

At the same time, we had the section of the top in place and traced its shape out to know where it was going to land on the wood also. You can see the trace in the pic above.

With the camper pulled back we were able to locate where the top section would sit and screwed it to the front wall. That gave us the ability to drill the holes through from the front for the bolts to lock the camper to the cab.

I can get measurements off of mine if you need them, but the most accurate way to size/locate the pass-through is to fit it on the truck.

It looked like an ordeal. If you could check to see if it ended up centered I would really appreciate it. I am basically working on this alone 99% of the time so on off, on off, test fitting is trying to be avoided as much as possible. I guess I will follow suit and rough cut it in.

I am to the point of setting up the counter and cabinets and am trying to get a closer idea as to the fitup with the opening like you guys have them. As I also plan to remove the fridge (mine was just an ice box anyways).

 

[metalneverdies]

You are right in that our were different to start with. But in general, FWC made the opening asymmetric.

Mainly to house the icebox or 3-way fridge behind the driver seat. I wanted the opening to match the cab. I wasn't going to run the fridge there so I could have more space for my seat. Ironicly now that I have the 5-speed in the truck I've found I can't drive with the seat all the way back like I did with the automatic. I can't reach the bottom of the stroke of the clutch pedal with it back!

This is what mine originally looked like vs. the one Capt Ron posted of his.

 

[ZooMad75]

It looked like an ordeal. If you could check to see if it ended up centered I would really appreciate it. I am basically working on this alone 99% of the time so on off, on off, test fitting is trying to be avoided as much as possible. I guess I will follow suit and rough cut it in.

I am to the point of setting up the counter and cabinets and am trying to get a closer idea as to the fitup with the opening like you guys have them. As I also plan to remove the fridge (mine was just an ice box anyways).

So I went out to measure mine and discovered something odd that I never noticed before. Measuring from the outside front corner to the section of the fiberglass top (right at the bottom) on the left side it is 3 3/4" and on the right it's 4". I'm honestly not surprised because when we put mine together none of the measurements were consistent. But it does tell me the opening is probably not centered from the outer edges.

I can't get an accurate reading inside that would help since the right side is open and the left side is closed off with my little cubby where my wiring hub is.

I think a rough cut to allow it to be cut back when the camper is on the truck is the best bet when you are working solo.

 

[Capt Ron]

If this helps. Mine is 3.25 on both sides.

 

[metalneverdies]

That seems like a wild deviation . Thanks guys!

A few parts of mine have had measurements all over the place (overcab is a crazy shape)

 

[metalneverdies]

I disassembled my door this weekend. I knew it was in bad shape, but wow lol.

Most of the wood on the bottom 1/3rd and around the window had disintegrated from water damage. The bottom portion of the extruded aluminum door frame is 90% torn from being overworked without the supporting wood structure. I desperately need to find a suitable replacement for the frame.

I have been having a really hard time finding the extruded aluminum molding / trim online. I have found many similar looking items at places that sell pre-made RV doors and mobile home doors but none of these places have a parts listing or way to order just the part I need.

The generic h channel trim doesn't look like it will work without massive modification because the long portion on the h channel is 2" long and the factory door is closer to 1".

The size of wood in the door a super weird size too, of course. I measured the few intact portions at 1" x 1 11/16". So I will have to mill and rip wood, or just go with 1" aluminum tube and maybe shim the rest of the door with rigid foam insulation and soft insulation? Or?

If anyone has any LEADS ON DOOR PARTS I would be so very grateful.

The only other option I can see is spending a bunch of money on an AC/DC TIG welder and spending an insane amount of time repairing the door trim I do have, which is not a very sane option lol.

 

[metalneverdies]

I also cut up the topper I got for the front seal. Its pretty rough and I got it pretty cheap, I will need to do some fiberglass repairs to it prior to actual install.

I cut up the rest of the topper for our next bulk pick-up and out of curiosity. I decided to see what was actually inside the fiberglass shell. For all the times I saw mention of a fair amount of metal or metal roll bars inside the toppers, I was pretty let down to find only two metal parts. The main rear hoop if you can even call one piece of stamped steel at the rear a roll bar and the small metal hold down tab at the front corners.

 

[ZooMad75]

Yikes. Your door looks worse off than mine does. I know mine is a little wobbly and the wood is probably weak like yours.

I've looked at a couple of threads on WTW that have rebuilt the doors on the older FWC units. I don't know of any source for the aluminum extrusions they used. Most reused what they had and rebuilt the rotten wood with pressure-treated lumber cut to size. It's probably the route I'll take when I get the courage to take my door apart.

 

[metalneverdies]

Yikes. Your door looks worse off than mine does. I know mine is a little wobbly and the wood is probably weak like yours.

I've looked at a couple of threads on WTW that have rebuilt the doors on the older FWC units. I don't know of any source for the aluminum extrusions they used. Most reused what they had and rebuilt the rotten wood with pressure-treated lumber cut to size. It's probably the route I'll take when I get the courage to take my door apart.

So far in my research I have found the door was most likely produced by Philips Doors which was bought by Dexter Doors. The seals from our doors can be ordered from Dexter.

Plan to call All-terrain Camper Monday and see what they suggest.

From WTW: The part number is 2200-06 and it goes on the perimeter of all the 5050SQ series doors. It’s a whopping 2¢ per inch but we charge a minimum of $15 for shipping.

 

[metalneverdies]

Well, crap. ATC said all they can do is build me a new door.

Have not heard back from Dexter Door yet but with the holidays it's not surprising.

At this point it's 475+ shipping for a new door. Plus the cost of aluminum sheets, insulation that I already have purchased to repair / rebuild the door.

Unfortunately, my windows will not match at that point either. The new door will have the new style rounded windows and all the others will be original.

Debating buying an ACDC TIG and wasting a bunch of time repairing the original trim

 

[America.Mike]

Builds looking good man!

 

[ZooMad75]

Well, crap. ATC said all they can do is build me a new door.

Have not heard back from Dexter Door yet but with the holidays it's not surprising.

At this point it's 475+ shipping for a new door. Plus the cost of aluminum sheets, insulation that I already have purchased to repair / rebuild the door.

Unfortunately, my windows will not match at that point either. The new door will have the new style rounded windows and all the others will be original.

Debating buying an ACDC TIG and wasting a bunch of time repairing the original trim

Did ATC say how they would build the door? Wood again or Aluminum?