54-55 Shasta camper frame off restoration the rebuild begins

Looking forward to pics, hard to imagine and keep all the layers straight. Thanks for sharing.

you can see in the photo where the top wraps into the spring. This is a picture of the old setup.

8-29-2017 8-30-50 AM by Tom Ress, on Flickr

that is how it came originally yes.

I have been talking with a bed maker in town and what he recommended was buy a foam skin, you will see the attached picture. (foam skin is the outside layer of a foam block and has a rubber type finish to it on one side. I am putting that layer on top of the springs (hard side down) and tucking it into the springs and then going to hog ring it. At this point we are going to see if this is enough foam and not do anything else on top.) You will also see the frame with the zig zag spring and I will be putting burlap over that then the spring on top of that. 

I also got the wardrobe and under microwave doors installed and done last night. 

I also got the counter top ready to be glued down tonight. 


20170829_205012 by Tom Ress, on Flickr

20170829_205552 by Tom Ress, on Flickr

20170829_203123 by Tom Ress, on Flickr

Looking good!

That is the correct layering for the upholstery. The batting layer is called just that "upholstery batting" it's made of unbleached raw cotton fibres. When I used to do seats like this we would layer it over springs and we liked it better than the modern Dacron white fibre because we could easily build it up and shape it and create extra padding in the corners like @vikx found. Once you have the shape you like, then I would cover it with one layer of ***** Dacron fibre before the vinyl. The upholstery batting is not expensive. It comes in a round bale with paper around it. It's worth getting if you can find an upholstery supply place near you. If you tell them you are a trailer restorer they will usually sell to you.
They also sell the grass matting you mentioned only we don't call it that. I just can't remember the name, it's been a few years since I was doing it full time.

It's looking great Tom I love your choice of colors and finishes.

Here are a couple of photos of the upholstery batting and one of a chair showing the various layers I used in the shop when doing sprung benches and chairs. Only in your case I don't know if you need the thick hair matting or not, and I would normally put more of the cotton batting and wadding than in this photo but it's a good picture exposing the typical layers.

I'm 6'2"+ 210lbs and my wife is a well built 5'9". When we measure shoulders, we're wider than the bed but we fit strangely well in the 3/4 full with 2 small dogs. Was surprising since our Cal King seems too small sometimes.

Got the other bench sewn and put together this morning

Also took the camper out for a trip. I seem to get some sway at 70 mph. Now I need to figure out how to stop that.

20170904_104317 by Tom Ress, on Flickr