Sunline Saturn remodel

[paulr]

Hello all, finally got a chance to do some work on the Saturn I bought, and to my surprise I found the camper was rotted badly in the front from a leaky window and a small hole in the siding.


So I guess I will try and update this as I go but sometimes I forget to take pictures of the process and only after I stand back and look at my work do I think " oh shoot, I should have taken pictures of me doing that" so I guess this will be more of a before and after rather that a how to, besides I don't think anyone would want me telling them how to do stuff.

In the beginning my wife jaime and I had decided to remove the top bunk and the gaucho bed ( I think this is what it was called?) and build a permanent bed that would stay made up and also give us a little more elbow room in bed but less floor space and since we don't have kids we felt this would work out great so below is the result.


it also has two compartments on each side with a lid that lifts up for access to storage.

it still has to be painted.
I also put up tong and grove pine boards that I found at a local lumber yard that was on sale, the boards were very thin and added very little weight to the camper, you can see the 12v wires hanging down from where the original lights were, we are in the process of making custom lights in our studio from stained glass to replace them.

there are two rectangles at the top, one on each side, these will have two stained glass art pieces that will go in the middle on each side and you can also see we painted the ceiling white, which that alone made a huge difference to the dirty cream color that it was.
And since I have OCD I skip around a lot on projects that I do, it keeps me from getting bored on doing one thing to long, my wife is a saint, she can live with the fact that there is 10 different projects around the house in various states of completion and never say a word about it when I am going to get them done, last year she went almost 11 months without cabinet doors, flooring in the bedroom, sink vanity, and a bed in the bed room ( mattress on the floor) while I remodeled the house in no particular order and never said a bad word to me about it.

When I bought the camper it was dark and I was in a hurry, so I didn't look at it very close, I mean the people I bought it from did seem so nice and I had no reason to believe that the camper was not in perfect working order like they stated over the phone, right? So in the morning the first thing I noticed on the camper was a very large dent on the passenger side front where someone jackknifed the camper. I could have replaced the tin if I could have found a piece to match but there was a sale and I was needing a break from the interior, well you know how it is, below is the result.

I like it, and it is light weight aluminum so not much weight added.

Well that is all for now, soon I will be painting the cabinets and doors and putting in hardwood flooring, well that is after I install a new water heater, fix the sink in the bathroom, install new gray and black waste valves, install new electric brakes, fix the stove vent, put on new marker lights, fix leak in toilet, reseal the roof and god knows what else is wrong with this in perfect working order camper purchased from the nice couple who only pulled it to church on Sundays.

[frank]

Good work, it's coming along nicely!

Looking forward to seeing more!

- Frank

[Tweety]

Awesome job. I always thought the sofa / bed would be better as a permenant bed in that sort of layout. Keep those photos coming

[Viking]

You guys that take on projects like this, almost make me feel bad.
People like me, ho are quite challenged when it comes to this kind of work,
would just take one look at such a mess, throw up our hands, turn around and walk away. Not only do you fix the mess, but you make it look beautiful.
I am amazed!
Roar

[wagonman76]

Originally Posted by Tweety

Awesome job. I always thought the sofa / bed would be better as a permenant bed in that sort of layout. Keep those photos coming

Me too. I usually just leave that bed pulled out anyway.

[paulr]

Well, got a little done this evening, managed to get the couch/dinette built.






It is shorter than the original and it doesn't have the L shape to it which gives one a little more room to get in and out of the bed but it does away with the bed that was there, which might be a problem if we were going to have company stay over but I'm almost certain that won't happen and if it does I will make sure and set the tent up for them myself.

when I came home today my wife had started on the hitch area, she had said she wanted three batterys instead of the one so she has started building a battery rack to accommodate them and has mounted the propane tank holder and even got rid of the rust and sprayed some primer. When I ask why she welded them on instead of bolting them, I could tell by the look in her eye that it was her project and I should remember the curious cat thing.

She had also installed a back splash and sprayed the vent hood white, I didn't even know she knew how to use the spray gun and put reducer and hardener in the paint, well at least I hope she knew to do that, it looked good.

And still not sure how she got the new frig put in. The one thing I knew was wrong with the camper when I bought it was there was no frige, my wife and I had went back and forth on what to put back in, I guess she decided today on a reg. dorm frig, I am installing a 1000 watt inverter soon which will have no problem keeping the frig running while we are under way so I hope it works out, we had one in an ice cream truck we built and it worked for years and was still working when we sold the business.


Well that's all for now, more to come soon.

[wagonman76]

Wish my wife could do all that!

Looks great so far! Nice to see another T-1661 and what the possibilities are.

[paulr]

Well about 13 years ago I did two, so I taught her everything I knew about stuff in the hopes that I could reduce the honey do list, well the list never got any shorter for some reason and now when I try to bluff my way out of a project by trying to say its to hard, my wife knows better, so be careful of what you wish for!!

[Tweety]

Wow that just looks awesome. You need to come to the Buttonwood Meet and Greet so we can all see it in person

[JohnB]

Paul and wifey!!!

WOW, this looks great! I can see you 2 are into it!!! A hubby and wife mod team. Very cool and very capable.

Keep those picture updates coming. We are rooting for ya.

John

[paulr]

Tweety, what is the Buttonwood Meet and when and where is it held?

Thank you everyone for your kind words of encouragement, I hope we get enough done to the camper soon so we can go camping! I still have cabin fever from the long winter.

[Honda03842]

Paul,

Nice work.

We have an electric refigerator as well and run it off a 1000 watt Inverter without problem. Typically when we're towing we do not use the Inverter if it's not too warm. The refigeratopr seems fine for 4-5 hours without power though we often make it a little colder than normal before we start a trip.

We have the ability to charge our battery from our tow vehicle as we drive so when we run the fridge while driving the batttery stays charged. Now we have Solar panels to charge the battery as well.

What kind of refrigerator do you have? How much storage capacity?

How do you keep the door closed when driving? That was our first problem. We added a small O-ring at the top that hold it closed - a hook in the wall and a screw in the plastic at the top of the door.

Looks great, keep it up,

[Tweety]

Here's the info on the Buttonwood Meet & Greet. It's a fantastic fun time.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/ph...pic.php?t=3108

[paulr]

That looks like it would be so much fun, it would be hard for us this year to take enough time off from work to come but maybe next year we can plan better and we will get to come and meet everyone.

[emam]

Awesome job on the rebuild!

Can you have your wife teach me how to weld

[paulr]

Well work sure is getting in my way of getting my work done!
Emam, I will ask my wife if is taking on any students!!

I just wanted to post a few lines about the water heater issue I had and the results of my frugal nature.

When I bought the camper I discovered I had what I thought was a busted water heater but when I removed it I found some interesting things, one was that the water heater had been repaired before.


you can see where it was split and had been welded who knows how long ago and this is not where it was leaking so I surmised the repair had worked.

This is where the new leak was. see the small hole?



This is the very bottom of the water heater and when I removed it I noticed there was a staple that was in contact with the water heater and it had eat a small hole in the bottom of the water heater and since the staple was steel well, you know dissimilar metals coming in contact with each other and all that, so I took it to my welder friend ( not my wife, a welder who gets paid to weld) and said " sure I fix about 6 or 7 of these a week for the auction place down the road " and I said " really, how much " and he said " 10 dollars " never thought twice about it. below is the result.



I had him pressure test it to 80 psi and it looked good, I will keep everyone updated how it holds up.

My wife and I went round and round on the back splash, at first we put up the tin ceiling tiles and while I liked it I didn't think it fit in with the overall look of the camper ( to rustic looking ) so we took it out and I took the money I saved on a water heater and bought some tile, it will look better when the grout goes on but time is always my enemy.
Its hard to tell from the picture but the tile looks like it has ice crystals frozen on it, I am waiting on my flexible grout additive to come in, this is completely experimental, I have installed thousands of square feet of tile in my life but never in an environment that has so much movement so will keep everyone updated as to how well the grout additive worked, you can find it here. http://www.super-tek.com/acrylicgrout.htm



I will post more pics when I get the stove top powder coated white and the grout in. So I guess that's all for now.

[emam]

Where did you get your tile?

We have the same tile in our Tiki Bar out back at the Low-Key Hideaway here in Cedar Key



The two people on each end are Ron and Alice from this forum

Side note, our grout has an additive that makes it glow in the dark. Something you might want to think about because it could act as a nightlight while camping!!!!

Looking forward to knowing how this works for you

[paulr]

Emam, a local tile company I used to work for many years ago ordered them for me, we have the glow in the dark grout in our kitchen, pretty neat stuff, my wife loves it.


My lights came in today, I changed out every one of them, I really liked the eyeball lights for over the bed because there adjustable.



I bought six like this, some are the single blub.



I also got my new rims and tires mounted today, purchased these from ebay 145.00 for two.



and my wife managed to get the tile grouted but did not like the flex additive, said it made the grout lumpy and hard to float down in the grout lines.


Will post more when we get more done.

[JohnB]

Paul

WOW!!! you and your wife are doing a fine job. Thanks for sharing

I must admit you might be the 1st, at least that I know of, that has a real tile back splash in a Sunline camper....

Keep up the good work and keep those pics coming.

John

[Honda03842]

Tile looks great and so do the aluminum rims.

Do the aluminum wheels save weight over steel rims? They certainly look great. Where did you purchase them?

Thank you