Need to gut my baby Sunline

[Allen Barefield]

Hey guys, new to the group and just now getting my bearings. I just purchased an old 12 ft Sunline (not sure yet but mid to late 70s) for $150! Needless to say it wasn’t s in very poor condition. My plan is to gut the entire interior and rebuild from scratch. My question is: will gutting everything damage the structural integrity of the camper?

 

[JohnGB]

Hi and welcome! Congrats on your "project camper"

When you say, will gutting the camper damage the structural integrity of the camper, help explain to use what you mean by gutting. Depending on how you do this, it may affect the integrity while you are working on it but it should be repaired to be back into being structurally sound.

If your camper has water damage which is sounds like it does, it is best to take the camper apart from the outside to fix the damage. And then deal with the inside as needed or both. The camper is not built like a house, the cabinets etc are screwed in from the outside. We have several posts with pics of this process.

Since yours is an old one, see this active post by Sunline Fan taking his 79 apart. http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f63/new-project-sunline-1979-12-1-2-mc-18647.html

And here is a few others.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f71/water-damage-assessment-and-repair-17458.html

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f71/2004-t1950-restoration-project-ugly-picture-heavy-17684.html

Hope this helps

John

 

[Allen Barefield]

Thanks, John ... this does help. I’m basically sailing blind here and any and all advice is appreciated. The camper has significant damage, and in fact may not be salvageable, but for $150 I can certainly learn a lot with this project without too much cost. Thanks for the links, they’re a great starting point.

 

[JohnGB]

Hi,

As far as the structure of the camper, the entire camper can be rebuilt. The appliances can be fixed in many cases. And in some cases pending what is wrong with the appliances, it is more practical to replace them.

As to the cost to do a project like this, the materials are not that bad in cost however the labor hours will be a lot. This is ideally something you do yourself as hiring it out can be costly. It will be a labor of love for sure.

We can help, suggest when you want to get started, create a separate post in the "Repairs and Maintenance" forum and post away. Posting pic's of your project really help big time. We can see what you are up against and suggest better ways on how to tackle the problem. They also help convey the issues better as you may not know all the right words what they call things. And someone may have changed what was there since it shipped from Sunline.

Good luck and looking forward to seeing your progress.

John

 

[Sunline Fan]

Welcome! From working on my '79, I can definitely say you'll not have much left if you gut the trailer from the inside. It will literally have the integrity of a big cardboard refrigerator box.

All the cabinets, particularly the upper cabinets, are screwed in from the outside. To remove them without destroying the walls, you'll need to work from the outside in. If you have a lot of hidden water damage, this is for the better.

I've discovered in these older Sunlines, the walls really don't have proper framing. They are more like 1/8" paneling with support boards glued/stapled to the paneling to add rigidity, and then those support boards are stapled to each other to hold the whole thing together.

Like John said, the best news of all is that it can be completely rebuilt. I don't plan to reuse much wood from mine, except interior cabinets. Most of the parts on these older Sunlines you can still buy today- roof vents, lights, exterior components, appliances, etc. You definitely bought it at the right price where you can still restore it properly and not be too deep into it.

Do you have any pictures of it?