Updated Greetings from North Pole!

Hey, everyone! A few folks asked for specifics and pictures of my 1958 Alaskan Shasta. I was out of town for a bit, but I'm back and happy to share where I'm at and what ideas are guiding the "spruce up" (not a restoration) of the Shasta.

Here's how I found it in a little place called Sourdough, AK. I bought it from an old friend of my wife's grandparents who had a cabin close by. I don't have any pictures of the camper in it's original setting, because they hauled it up the hill (about 100 yards) to the grandparents cabin before I could get a camera. But these definitely reflect the condition of the camper...

Along the bottoms of each side (near the front) you can see some steel flat bar stock that was added presumably to stiffen up that area. I actually wasn't sure if that was stock or not, but I definitely don't see it in any other old Shasta pictures.

You can see how the roof got smashed in at some point from the snow. This damage obviously transferred to the inside as well.

There were some modifications done to the front at the bottom. It appears both front corners got a little crunched somewhere along the way. Besides the added heavy gauge aluminum, they also added a 6x8 timber on the inside along the front bottom corner. The timber is the one piece of Alaskan engineering I think I'll keep. It might add 30 pounds to the weight, but it really gives you something substantial to attach everything to at the front. Structurally, I like it.

In the interior, the back was definitely the worst.  The ceiling was split due to the roof collapse.  The contact paper on the back wall was covering the parts where the plywood was completely delaminated and-in some cases-gone from all the water damage.  There were many seams (not just the back window) that were leaking.  Underneath the home-made bed, both back corners were completely rotted out.

The front didn't look nearly as bad as the back, but the cushions and table were covering a lot of water damage from the leaking windows.  After I removed the skin, I could see that edges of the front plywood were delaminated and splintered off, so there was nothing really attaching it to the sides of the camper.

So all-in-all, not a complete write-off, but I probably would have walked away had I realized how much damage I was going to find.  There were just tubes of silicon squeezed into every nook and cranny of this camper.  With less-than-overwhelming support from my wife, I started taking pieces off just to find more rotted wood.  Eventually, I discovered (as all of you already know) that you can't replace the ceiling or the back wall without taking the aluminum top of the camper.  You can't replace the rotted wood in the back without taking the aluminum sides off the camper.  With every piece that came off, her hopes of camping by June were becoming slimmer and slimmer.  Eventually, it was deskinned, the back/top/front plywood was taken out, and I started replacing the bad wood.  This was the camper at it's lowest point...  (Although you can see I had already started replacing some of the wood.)

So, the dream of June camping is still alive (barely).  Before the pictures of where it sits now, I have to share my philosophy of "sprucing up".  I know some of you won't agree.  My personal desire would have been to rip this whole thing off the frame, sandblast, recoat, and start assembling piece-by-piece, restoring as I went...  But in the end, that's not what we want.  We (my wife and I) have kids that aren't getting any younger.  As much as I LOVE bringing old stuff back to life, we don't want a perfectly restored camper that we're afraid the kids might scratch up.  We want a camper they can enjoy.  20 years from now, I doubt they'll look back and say, "Man, my dad did a really nice job of refinishing those cabinet faces."  And if I spend the next year restoring it, that's one less summer we're camping in it.  We don't mind that the 58 year old cabinets have nicks and scratches.  That's the character that comes from 58 years of having a good time with it.  That being said, it must be safe and structurally sound, so I made sure it is.  Obviously if I'm replacing plywood on the inside, I'm going to try to make it look nice.  But when you see nice, new ceilings with old, beat up cabinets, and laminate floor instead of original-looking black-and-white vinyl tiles, you'll know where I'm coming from.

Here's where she sits right now...

The back before I put the floor in.  I can't get enough of that birch grain with the amber shellac!  Question for the masses:  I took the old homemade bed out and I would like to build something more like the original convertible couch/bed.  Does anyone have some good pictures of one.  I don't necessarily need detailed plans.  Just an overview of what the framing looked like when it was in and out.  Thanks!

You may notice my back hammock bracket is broken.  Anyone know where I can get an original?

View of the whole camper from the front window.

From the rear window.  You can see that timber along the front I was telling you about.

The front area.  No, these are definitely not original benches, and yes I would actually like to replace them with a something that looks a little less homemade, but they're fine for now.  I'll make new ones once winter rolls back around.

Finally, the outside is ALMOST ready to reskin.  You can see how much wood got replaced.  Basically all along the bottom and a lot of the corners.  A little bit to tidy up right up front at the bottom and I need to put on the wood strips around the edge for the aluminum and then the new skin goes on...

If you made it this far, I'm impressed and thanks for reading.  I'll definitely post a few more once the skin goes on and it's painted.  If anyone can pass some pictures of the bed or knows where to get an original hammock bracket, I would be much obliged.

Cheers!

Chris