Shasta compact- REAR SKIN off today-questions & photos

The lower part of my front skin was connected to nothing but the back skin was attached to a 1x3 that was nailed into the ends of the floor joists. There was a 1x2 above it over the bottom of the paneling. Both of these boards were completely rotted.

One thing that most fail to "see" is that the curve of the wall itself is the biggest factor in the strength of the wall. The bend in the wood, tied together with the brakes in the aluminum and its curve, make for an amazing amount of tensile strength that does not require a lot of extra support and weight. When you start to take it apart as you show here, it loses that strength and the lack of framing seems like a huge mistake. When the interior and exterior components are added together, it is quite strong. I also believe there needed to be some "give" and "flex" for the hammering they take going down the road and adding too much to the frame will defeat that and make it more subject to breaking something over time. I am not an engineer nor claim any expertise, but that is how it seems to me.

nccamper - The back end of your Compact looks very similar to how mine looked!  And mine also just had a couple of boards across the back to hold everything in place.  I'm now in the process of putting the new skin on, and trying my best to replicate what was done before, only a little better (I hope) .  I ended up replacing all of my wood paneling with birch because I like the grain better and wanted to use amber shellac.  My Compact had ash I'm pretty sure, and it was coated in this yellowish polyurethane varnish.  I tried to sand it a little and then gave up because I decided I'd rather have all of the wood grain match.

Here's a before shot of the interior.  You can see the yellow varnish except where the PO painted the insides of the shelves white and also replaced one of the ceiling panels with some kind of paneling, not sure what kind.  I had already removed the benches and table as you can see.



And here's what the exterior of the rear paneling looked like.  Gross!  Lots of rot around the edges.



Here's what the exterior paneling looked like after I replaced everything.  I had a welder add two additional steel beams to extend off the back for a bumper (will be added soon).   I also added some aluminum flashing across the bottom to hopefully prevent water from getting up under the skin.  Because of the steel beams, I couldn't add one solid piece of wood across the bottom, so I had to cut it into three sections and attach it to the wood as best I could.  You can't see the bottom piece of wood as well in this pic because I painted the undercarriage and all the wood along the bottom with fence post paint so it's black.  Please ignore my crude cutting of the flashing, I went back and cleaned that up later. haha


And here are a couple of interior pics.  Still finishing the bed and benches area, but you get the idea!  



I had to build a new shelf so that I could have the scalloped one like in the original Shastas.  The previous owner took the original one apart and added an ugly addition to make the shelf larger that I promptly threw out.  I don't have a nice covered carport like yours, so that blue thing you see is the tarp I have to keep over Junebug all the time. haha

Thanks Hamlet! I had very difficult day today securing the new roof skin, so it's nice to hear a compliment.   This is one of those days where I'm questioning my sanity.  haha   I think putting on the new roof was the hardest task yet!

Maybe the link to my pics will post:

What it looks like now. The board on the bottom is a 1x4 (originally a 1x3, I think).
www.flickr.com/photos/susieqilvu/14700997054/

This is what was left of the old boards in the same place:
www.flickr.com/photos/susieqilvu/14703966752/

You replaced your back panel with 1/4 birch? Kelfing was tough? Finding 1/8 inch is not happening in NC. Even Hood Distributors doesn't carry it anymore.

Folks on the west coast, better stock up!

Thanks everyone for the compliments on my Compact! It has been a long road, but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. And I guess living in Houston has its advantages because there's a specialty hardwood store only a couple of miles from my house that carries an endless supply of every kind of 1/8" plywood you can imagine! I had no trouble getting all of the 1/8" birch I needed for this project. Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble in other areas, so I guess at least this was one less thing to worry about!  

nccamper - Don't worry about getting thrown off the forum, I know I'm not offended by painted interiors.  I don't blame you either, especially if you have more than one camper.  I thought seriously about painting mine, there are some really cute ones that are painted.  It sure would have saved me a lot of time!  

I just finished folding the new skin over and stapling down this weekend.  I still need to finish the very bottom of the rear skin, it's not completely secured and trimmed.  I also need to finish cutting out the windows and then installing the j-rail and trim along the bottom.  Overall though, it's really coming together!

Below is a picture of the current state.  You can see that I left the protective film on just to keep it from getting scratches while I continue to work.  I will remove it once I'm ready to do the big reveal. haha I think everyone will need sunglasses to look at the aluminum because it will be soo shiny!!   You can get a sneak peek at the mirror finish where I pulled a little section of the film away.