Next Project

I was VERY blessed to get this camper and we’ve been working on it for a couple months now. Wanted to share it with you all. She was in such bad shape when we got her, but we’re working on her to get her back to her glory.

I’ll post some before and some after pix. She’s been sitting up for 4 plus years so she had some crud growing on her. I named her Classy ‘85 and have said she’s an ugly duckling now but soon to be a Classy ‘85.

Here she is before they got her off the trailer. She was hauled home on a trailer and she was too wide to be put on the trailer itself so she was placed ON the rails of the trailer and strapped down. In the pic they’re about to unload her off the trailer at our house. The normal 7 hour trip to TN. was a 14 hour one coming home with her. Had no problems just had to drive slower. 

Bigfoot 1985 G

Shot from the side.

Close up of her sitting on the rails of the trailer. They hauled her home like that all the way from TN. and she didn’t budge a drop. Got to replace the old tires and a few more things.

Pic of the front.

Pic of the front tongue area. The cover for the bottles is on the inside. Thank goodness they thought to put it on the inside.

Back side

Inside

 

Another shot of the back

Starting to clean her up. She had old moss stuff growing on her and it was very thick. We had to wash the worst off to begin with and then go back over her over and over scrubbing it off. It was very bad.

The front getting a little cleaner.

You can see some of that old moss stuff up on the curvy area at the back and it’s already been washed once getting a layer of it off.

The Bigfoot clock inside.

Getting closer to being clean.

Hubby welding her tongue back. She had a crack in the tongue as well as in her frame. She was pulled with a 4 wheel drive that was up too high and it cracked the tongue and frame. She’s all fixed now.

 

Scrubbing the roof now. With all that washing we did to her I had to put a heater inside to dry her out since we found 2-3 leak areas. So we put a tarp over it. We got some of the lights on the outside leaking scrubbing it so hard. They all need replacing anyway.

See how nasty the roof was? She was sitting under a cedar tree.

 

You can see where we scrubbed on the next one.

 

 

I can see some shine now and she’s not even waxed yet. Going to put some oxidation remover and color enhancer on her soon. Wax is also in the mix. Got to re-paint the water heater cover there on the bottom.

I’ve got the plumbing covers to replace the messed up ones.  Also ordered some butyl tape and going to remove all the windows and re-seal them all.

Removing the awning. She was leaking at the area where my hubby is now. I’m not putting those brackets back on her. Going to use what’s called an awning in a bag with aluminum tent pegs.

Had to clean the goo off where the awning strip was. Hubby had to cut the bracket off the trailer because someone had used like 3-4” bolts much too long and had piled on washers and they were rusted together. No way to get them off. We used WD 40 and everything trying to get them off.

I raised the tarp up so I could get a shot of the roof once we got the top cleaned up. See how clean.

And the awning is OFF! I washed and scrubbed the fabric itself so we could use that part for now. Maybe later on we’ll get another awning but not like this one. Don’t want anything that’s going to tug at her like this one did.

Kept reading where everyone that had Bigfoot campers was going in an area and pulling back the carpet just a bit to see if vinyl was under the carpet and they all had vinyl. So I went under the table area and peeled it back and sure enough there was vinyl. I started pulling that carpet out like a mad woman and this is what I found under it. Cool, MEGA happy woman! I then had to go back and cut closer to the edges with the box cutter and then get some needle nose pliers and pull all the carpet out that was under all the walls and stuff.

I also got inside and put Old English all over her walls. She drank it like a sponge she was soooo dry. I can almost hear her breathing sighs of relief to have someone that is taking care of her and getting her all fixed up.

 

Now I am hoping SOON we can plug her up and see that EVERYTHING is working on the inside. I sure am praying it does!

Well that’s about all for now. We’ll post more updates as we go. Between the chickens, the house and yard and the camper we’re pretty busy these days.

Stay tuned for more.

Edited to add: We did get her plugged up but she kept blowing the breaker. I think it might be the fridge. So I will unplug the fridge and try it again soon.