sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 24, 2020 18:43:05 GMT -8
Hi there, New member here- we just picked up a 66 Shasta Compact that was in the middle of a "restoration". This is actually our first post! Basically, the couple who had this Compact before us replaced one sidewall with all-new framing but didn't follow through with anything else. We bought the Compact with the roof skin on, and the non-door-side skin on. The Compact sorely needs a frame-off renovation, and we're working towards that!
Here are a few photos of what it currently looks like- yes, in rough shape  And the other side with skin still on:
But before we price out new aluminum skins and a new aluminum roof, we wanted to get advice from all of you regarding our existing aluminum skin on the door-side wall. The POs took off this skin and when we got it, this is what it looked like:
You can see that the aluminum skin below the jalousie window on that side has snapped in two, or most likely was cut in two. If you look at the bottom left corner of the second photo, you'll see that the skin also has a cut at the window corner. Is this skin salvageable, or are we looking at a skin replacement for this whole wall?
Thanks for your advice!
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Post by vikx on May 24, 2020 21:12:43 GMT -8
I'd say you're looking at new skins for both side walls, front and back. The existing skins are in bad shape. Since you're going to repair it properly with the skins off, it's just not worth re-skinning the trailer with dented metal.
The framing of your trailer looks pretty good but I suspect the entire floor needs to be replaced. You'll get it and we're here to help.
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aslmx
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Post by aslmx on May 25, 2020 10:44:31 GMT -8
I reused my old skins. It has its dents and wrinkles but skin is something you can change in a few years when you have to do a total reseal. Cost was the biggest factor. Just didn’t want to spend 2-3000 dollars on something that wasn’t going to be a show piece. We actually go camping in ours. It’s your camper though. If you want a pristine show piece then I would get new skin and then put a really nice paint job on it or reuse your old skin and if you don’t like it then you’re not really losing anything but a lot of time and a few rolls of butyl tape. Be sure to study up on installing skin. Make sure the temperature is right.
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Hamlet
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Post by Hamlet on May 25, 2020 15:48:52 GMT -8
Vikx is wise. Skin is spendy, but if it’s within the budget, just do it. You won’t regret it. We all spend thousands of dollars of our time on our trailers, why not this too? We tried to reuse our battered skins, but the bullet holes made it easier to just to get new. It also allowed us to raise the roof a few inches from the wheel wells forward for my tall hubby. We camp in ours and take it on long road trips. It has some dings from the road, but that just adds character.
Congrats on your Compact. We’ve had ours for more than a decade and are still thrilled with its light weight, small footprint, and the flexibility of the basic floor plan. Our little Hamlet has weathered snow, ice, rain, and blazing sun, and still comes through like a champ.
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sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 26, 2020 16:38:12 GMT -8
I'd say you're looking at new skins for both side walls, front and back. The existing skins are in bad shape. Since you're going to repair it properly with the skins off, it's just not worth re-skinning the trailer with dented metal. The framing of your trailer looks pretty good but I suspect the entire floor needs to be replaced. You'll get it and we're here to help. Thanks for the advice, vikx! We've been going back and forth on this - we've reached out to Hemet and a local sheet metal shop to get some quotes, and this is ultimately what will inform our decision. I think we are leaning towards replacing all of the skin, though, if we can afford it. It helps that we can drive (several hours, but still) to Hemet to avoid the steep shipping fees other members have reported. What thickness of aluminum is recommended for the roof and the sides? And we're looking at a 6 inch brake pattern, right?
A big bonus is that if we get new skin we can raise the roof three inches or so and we can actually stand up inside, we're both over 6 feet tall  That does mean we'd have to scrap the frame that the previous owners put up during their renovation... decisions decisions! The right wall with the skin intact is basically rotted through, worse than the floor itself, and the roof framing has disintegrated or cracked in places. Some of them even had a makeshift metal brace to put keep the framing together where it was cracked (pretty sure this is a no-no). I think we will have to start from scratch with everything, it's a daunting task but we are definitely excited to have this community here for us. Thank you!!!
A few more pictures so you see what we're working with-
The roof, with plenty of "previous work" on top, complete with silver goop- we're pretty sure we're gonna replace this:
The roof interior:
A close up of the metal braces:
And the side wall- framing looks shot there:
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sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 26, 2020 16:52:49 GMT -8
Vikx is wise. Skin is spendy, but if it’s within the budget, just do it. You won’t regret it. We all spend thousands of dollars of our time on our trailers, why not this too? We tried to reuse our battered skins, but the bullet holes made it easier to just to get new. It also allowed us to raise the roof a few inches from the wheel wells forward for my tall hubby. We camp in ours and take it on long road trips. It has some dings from the road, but that just adds character. Congrats on your Compact. We’ve had ours for more than a decade and are still thrilled with its light weight, small footprint, and the flexibility of the basic floor plan. Our little Hamlet has weathered snow, ice, rain, and blazing sun, and still comes through like a champ. Thanks for the advice, Hamlet! We are seriously considering replacing them - if we weren't both over 6 feet tall and the skins weren't damaged, we might push harder to use the existing skins- budget and all. From what we understand about the process of putting the skin on and waterproofing, we won't want to do a skin replacement again in a couple of years.
Yes, I guess bullet holes are a great motivation to rip skins right off (yeoww)!! That's crazy. We'll make a final decision once we get estimates. How did you adjust the skin measurements and framing to account for the addition of three inches? This is exactly what we want to do. Do you have a recent photo of the exterior of Hamlet? We are thinking of dubbing Hamlet our spirit animal since you are the only ones we know who have increased the height- brilliant!
We can't wait to have our Compact for a decade. It's going to be a renovation, not a restoration- there really isn't much here to begin with, so we feel like we have a blank slate. We want to embrace the spirit of the Shasta Compact and give it the much deserved love it needs! It'll begin life as a mobile office for us, and then we'll take it out camping whenever we're not working in it. Having said that, I realize that we'll be spending so much time with it that we really need to address that height issue somehow... *thinking cap on* |
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sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 26, 2020 16:58:19 GMT -8
I reused my old skins. It has its dents and wrinkles but skin is something you can change in a few years when you have to do a total reseal. Cost was the biggest factor. Just didn’t want to spend 2-3000 dollars on something that wasn’t going to be a show piece. We actually go camping in ours. It’s your camper though. If you want a pristine show piece then I would get new skin and then put a really nice paint job on it or reuse your old skin and if you don’t like it then you’re not really losing anything but a lot of time and a few rolls of butyl tape. Be sure to study up on installing skin. Make sure the temperature is right. Thanks for sharing, aslmx! We really want to reuse the skins, but the tears in the side skins and the possibility of increasing the height (we are tall) are luring us into replacing the skins. Plus the roof skin has quite a few holes (they're hard to see in the pics), so we're concerned about being able to waterproof everything well with the skins as-is. I bet we may rethink that once we get our estimates back from Hemet and a local metal shop!! We're gonna keep you posted |
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Post by vikx on May 26, 2020 20:19:04 GMT -8
Yup, it's time to take 'er down and rebuild. Since Hamlet raised the roof, it will be good to discuss that with them and figure out what you want to do. The metal braces made me smile, but your poor little trailer is cracked in half! New wood called for. The roof needs to come off too, so you can re-frame for the height.
Metal comes in .024 and .030 thickness. Both NC and Mobiltec like the 30. Looks like 6" brakes.
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sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 27, 2020 17:58:17 GMT -8
Yup, it's time to take 'er down and rebuild. Since Hamlet raised the roof, it will be good to discuss that with them and figure out what you want to do. The metal braces made me smile, but your poor little trailer is cracked in half! New wood called for. The roof needs to come off too, so you can re-frame for the height. Metal comes in .024 and .030 thickness. Both NC and Mobiltec like the 30. Looks like 6" brakes. vikx , going to take 'er down and rebuild from the ground up! Hamlet , just sent you a PM so we can get a bit more info on how to increase the height. Yup, cracked in half is about right! We have work ahead of us to do... but it's all good! Looking forward to diving in.
Steve over at Hemet Valley RV did get back to us and we now have a better idea of what is required. We'd love to do the .030 thickness, and Steve did say 6" brakes were possible but he also mentioned that 4" brakes were significantly cheaper. We're looking for pics of 4" brakes to see what that looks like. Ideally we want the 6" but... gotta crunch the numbers there.
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aslmx
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Post by aslmx on May 27, 2020 18:16:00 GMT -8
Yup, it's time to take 'er down and rebuild. Since Hamlet raised the roof, it will be good to discuss that with them and figure out what you want to do. The metal braces made me smile, but your poor little trailer is cracked in half! New wood called for. The roof needs to come off too, so you can re-frame for the height. Metal comes in .024 and .030 thickness. Both NC and Mobiltec like the 30. Looks like 6" brakes. vikx , going to take 'er down and rebuild from the ground up! Hamlet , just sent you a PM so we can get a bit more info on how to increase the height. Yup, cracked in half is about right! We have work ahead of us to do... but it's all good! Looking forward to diving in.
Steve over at Hemet Valley RV did get back to us and we now have a better idea of what is required. We'd love to do the .030 thickness, and Steve did say 6" brakes were possible but he also mentioned that 4" brakes were significantly cheaper. We're looking for pics of 4" brakes to see what that looks like. Ideally we want the 6" but... gotta crunch the numbers there.
Id say if you’re doing the entire trailer the 4” would be fine. Did they price it by the running foot? I just had a company price me some for $42 a foot. That would be over 3 grand to do a camper my size. Gave me a little sticker shock. Lol |
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sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 27, 2020 18:37:45 GMT -8
vikx , going to take 'er down and rebuild from the ground up! Hamlet , just sent you a PM so we can get a bit more info on how to increase the height. Yup, cracked in half is about right! We have work ahead of us to do... but it's all good! Looking forward to diving in.
Steve over at Hemet Valley RV did get back to us and we now have a better idea of what is required. We'd love to do the .030 thickness, and Steve did say 6" brakes were possible but he also mentioned that 4" brakes were significantly cheaper. We're looking for pics of 4" brakes to see what that looks like. Ideally we want the 6" but... gotta crunch the numbers there.
Id say if you’re doing the entire trailer the 4” would be fine. Did they price it by the running foot? I just had a company price me some for $42 a foot. That would be over 3 grand to do a camper my size. Gave me a little sticker shock. Lol
aslmx, nope they didn't price it by the running foot, which is definitely a good thing. I called a couple of other local sheet metal shops and they quoted me $75 for a full 4' x 10' sheet of 0.32 aluminum... that's 48" x 120", but our Shasta Compact is 122" long so... not sure what to do with that 2 inch portion there. The sheets have to be larger I think.
A quick sketch makes me think we can do it with 5 or 6 sheets for the sides, but not the roof obviously. That brings just the sides to around $450 plus tax. Also, local shops might not be able to do the roof because it's significantly longer. Local labor costs to put in the 6" brakes by hand are $120 / hour at one shop so I don't know about that one- how long will it take them? No idea! Still waiting on official quotes.
No luck yet finding pics of 4" brakes- can anyone point me in the right direction?
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sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 27, 2020 18:44:58 GMT -8
Hamlet - we're new to the forum (as previously established here in this thread, ha) and didn't realize that we couldn't PM other members, only admin / staff. So here's what we want to ask you: I mentioned this earlier, but we're interested in raising the roof so we're trying to figure out the best plan of action for increasing the height clearance. Could you talk a bit about what you did to increase the height, and send over a pic or two of your beloved Hamlet so we can better understand what we need to do to ours?
Thanks, Hamlet - any help is much appreciated |
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sprinkles
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Post by sprinkles on May 27, 2020 19:12:31 GMT -8
Hamlet - we're new to the forum (as previously established here in this thread, ha) and didn't realize that we couldn't PM other members, only admin / staff. So here's what we want to ask you: I mentioned this earlier, but we're interested in raising the roof so we're trying to figure out the best plan of action for increasing the height clearance. Could you talk a bit about what you did to increase the height, and send over a pic or two of your beloved Hamlet so we can better understand what we need to do to ours?
Thanks, Hamlet - any help is much appreciated Hey, Hamlet! After searching the forum we found some pics of the height increase! Phew... they're here in the Adding Toilet to Shasta Compact thread. Your Shasta Compact is quite dashing and debonair!
So no need for pics, just wanted to know how you changed the framing plan to add 3 inches of height. Since our '66 Shasta Compact is of the boxy style, not the canned ham style, we're thinking about raising the height all around instead of just forward of the wheel wells. I would like to learn more about both the partial height increase and complete height increase approach, but please don't stress over sharing pics- what we found is great.
Does anyone know if we can safely increase the height beyond 3 inches? We were thinking of raising it 4 or 6 inches just so we can get in a full 4" or 6" brake for the replacement siding, but aerodynamics. We will be going quite light with no stove and reusing the old ice box- no propane planned for this build, so the added weight shouldn't be a concern, right?
Thanks!
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Post by vikx on May 27, 2020 22:04:13 GMT -8
4" brakes will look fine and if you can save, why not? The only trailers that would suffer form different skins (other than really modern patterns) are the older 50s hams, so you're safe to go with 4". Here is a trailer with the 4" brakes: 58cardinal.shutterfly.com/ Click on pictures and videos to view the albums. I think your trailer will look funny with more than a height increase of 4". Too tall, if you get my drift... |
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That does mean we'd have to scrap the frame that the previous owners put up during their renovation... decisions decisions! 
