Tear Down

Like I said it an earlier post. The order in which you rip one of these appart is critical. Tear down order: Windows, Aluminum Siding, Cross Ribs, Roof Skin, Front Skin, Interior cabinets. Walls (keep plywood on). Floor.

Mine was....what is the word....Nasty. When I was tearing it down. Plent of rot from years of leaks and neglect. Tons of mice crap and pee. I decided early on that ALL of teh wood was going with the exception of what could be saved in the walls. I alos had a huge ants nest in the front bunk... lovely.

All that is gone now. Here are some "Tear down" Shots:

There is the handy old man tearing out the Dinette.

ANT NEST and a big one

Major rot in the bunk where the ants nest was. There was a big hole in the roof right above this.

Interior tear out...wrong way to do it!

Delivery Day

Here are some shots of the Shasta the day it arrived. I bought it on EBay for 750 bucks.... I have a few more dollars into it now. I have no idea how much but its significant. There was quite a bit of water damage though its hard to see in the photos. The water damage can be decieving. Looks like a small stain and you find out there is a 1 inch hole in the roof! We had to bring it in on a flatbed.

Stage 1 Photos

I am very fortunate to have a great space to work on this project. My father (Armand), has graciously donated the corner of his barn/woodshop for the job. He is also donating quite a bit of time. We frequently work on the camper together. He runs a engine rebuild/restoration/machine shop,  (Bessette Motor Works) so all of the tools we might need are at our disposal as well.  Have a look at his website : http://www.bmotorworks.com/ . Its safe to say that this project would probably never have gotten off of the ground without him.

Most of the time I am working, he is right there with me lending a hand, his expertise or an opinion that turns into a half hour debate/argument... its all part of the complex father son relationship. I will have to post a few shots of the barn itself. He built it, and its just a great place to do work like this. The second floor is a full woodworking shop with all antique tools from my grandfather. The Planer, band saw, table saw... all from the 40's and 50's. the same generation of wood working tools that the folks who built the Shasta in the 60's would have been working with. How fantastic is that!

Its the 4th of July today and I am here working. There are no such things as free weekends and holidays. My in-laws are kind enough to watch my son on the weekends my wife has to work. You really have to dedicate some serious time to take on a project this big.

Here are some photos that I thought I would share. I call these "Stage 1 Photos" because its the beginning of construction, post tear down. We are WELL beyond this stage of the game, but I am creating this blog closer to the tail end of the renovation, so I am playing catchup with the postings.

Frame Rust free and Painted Black

We used Ospo(sp) on the frame instead of sandblasting. Its an acid that converts rust into a paintable surface. I highly recommend it... works wonders.

The Original Floor... can you smell the mouse pee?

Fender wells had some surface rust... Ospo again and a heavy coat of truck bed liner paint inside  the wells.

Driver Side wall With new skin. other wall in process

This birch skin is 1/4 thick instead of the 1/8. its a bit heavier but its readily available at Lowes... and its good quality. It will NOT work on the roof however, just too thick to make the bends. You have to use the 1/8 thick birch plywood and will need to order it through a lumber yard. 40-50 bucks per sheet.

Wall skeleton being repaired and prepped for interior Birch skin

Plenty of rot from leaks in the walls. each piece was cut out and replaced. You can see a very large piece of wood in the back. The Shasta had a bunch of tiny pieces of wood stapled together to form the curves, it was pretty shotty. We used the old interior skin panels as a template and cut some more rugged sections for the walls. TIP: DON'T remove the wall skin when the walls are still in the camper. leave the skin on and it will hold the geometry of the walls. This is a mistake I made, not knowing how this was built at the factory. The walls are skinned with plywood and then nailed up (as you will see below. If you take too much plywood off the walls skeleton will have no strength.




A fresh deck, undercoated with truck bed liner paint

Underside of old floor... still smells upside down

Fenders were narrowed by 1 inch and shortened by 1 inch... every inch counts!

This was critical to fit the new bathroom and there is still plenty of clearance for the wheels.

New walls propped up

Judging by how it came apart,  the factory would have built the camper in the same order that I am: Frame, add Floor decking, interior skinned walls go up, add front wall skin ribs and bunk, interior walls/furnishings, roof panels (nailed to top of walls), roof ribs. There is also three layers of 1inch wide plywood strapping all along the edge of the roof. Finally the outer aluminum skin  and windows.  Keep this order in mind if you are tearing one apart... you need to do it in the opposite order of what I have listed. There really is no way to get items apart in any other order.

A Bit of Shasta History

I thought I would throw in a little information about this camper. The "Astrodome" and the "Astroflyte" were made by Shasta over just a few years 1961-1964. One of the cool things about the Shasta names is that they break down to tell you what the camper included. Astro means it has the extra cab-over bunk in the front of the camper. Dome.... well that tells you it has a toilet (aptly named). The "Flyte" had no toilet but still has the bunk.

Of course like all Shasta's of this time it had the iconic wings. This model had the 42"X9" wings. Unfortunately mine are missing and I will be forced to make a new set. If you are in the same position as me, check out http://www.freewebs.com/kc8jwa/wings.htm its a good source for wing info. You can still see the holes on the side of my camper where the wings once were. If you want to buy an original set be prepared to shell out 200-450 bucks, If you can find them. That is a big IF.

The beauty and the drawback of the Astrodome is the cab-over bunk. It makes the camper a bit tongue heavy (wont be an issue in mine given my design changes), it also takes away from the "canned ham" shape a bit. However the bunk is very big (full size bed) and will be great for the kids. For a kid, is there really anything more fun that having what amounts to your own private fort up above all the adults? I think not.

The original camper had  a cold water sink, full stove/oven, and an LP/Electric Fridge. The bed was opposite the toilet in the rear and folded into a sofa. Water was provided by an aluminum water tank under the front right dinette seat. This was pressurized with an air pump to deliver the water. Cool idea but not really practical today. I have a copy of the original brochure that I will attach at the bottom of this post. it shows the layout and has some interesting comments about the features of the camper and even the factory itself.

Colors... it appears that the factory offered all sorts of color combinations. The most popular being White/Teal, White/White, White/Yellow, White/Red. I have seen all sorts of variations that people have done, unfortunately I have not found a source for any original color codes that the factory offered. It seems that information is lost.... at least it is to me. I have also seen some Shasta's that were raw aluminum like an airstream. They look original but its hard to tell of that was actually offered or if someone stripped the paint. I am still not sure what colors I will end up with.

A Big Idea

So late last year (2010) I was convinced by my family that I needed a camper. You see we go camping several times a year and have been staying in my in-laws (rather impressive) motor home. Well my family is growing (a 19 month old and another on the way) so it started to become apparent that it was time to find our own "tenement on wheels". The problem was that I don't like modern campers... square, bulky... utilitarian. Beauty lies in the past.... the canned hams and Airstream's of yesteryear. 

My wife's uncle has restored 2 Airstream's with some rather impressive results. I found that I too preferred the older campers for their curvy beauty and nostalgia. So, i decided in August of last year to get one, and make it my own. One fateful EBay bid later and I was the proud owner of a 1964 Shasta Astrodome. It appeared to be in fairly good shape... looks can be very deceiving. I decided to create this post to share the project with other enthusiasts and my family.... enjoy.