The “New to Us” PUP Looking for a New Life!
After returning from Cumberland Island we were blessed to acquire an old 1986 Jayco 1008 SG Deluxe pop up camper. It was pretty much in original condition but didn’t leak and had a solid floor which was the biggest plus! Other than the canvas, the rest was all cosmetic.
We jumped at this opportunity and all were excited to “move up” to the camper world and off the ground! The thought of having air conditioning while camping just put us over the top. We were ready to take it out on day one…..but I digress! The design ideas began to run wild and all three of us had thoughts on colors, places to go and things to do!
We didn’t waste any time jumping into this project after deciding to keep is simple. The internet is FULL of pop up campers that people pour tons of money into making them amazing “glampers.” These things look amazing in staged photos but is that really camping? After tent camping for so long anything was a step up so we all agreed we’d much rather make it “homey” and us the money to actually travel in it. Based on this we, including the cat, decided to start with flooring, paint and upholstery to recover the seats. I also had to rebuild most of the cabinets and benches as they were falling apart after 34 years.
K and J primed all the wood while I worked on building and installing the cabinets. After completing this and painting it was off to JoAnn Fabrics to find material for the cushions. I chose to use outdoor fabric to help it last with the elements of camping and was lucky to find a 50% off sale just when we needed it!
After completing the flooring, paint and cushions it was on to the air conditioning unit. The unit worked but had been installed in such a way that it wasn’t properly draining the excess condensation. The more I dug into the prior installation the more concerned I became with the situation. I found the unit had been slinging water from the sides into the open space between the interior and exterior walls of the camper. This meant I needed to completely remove the unit and rebuild the entire area before reinstalling any unit.
After removing the unit I found even more issues with “wires to nowhere!” Fortunately an old PUP is an easy thing to trace wiring through so this task was more annoying than difficult. Once I had all the wires properly routed and secured I replaced the rotted wood and reframed the area to install the new air conditioning unit. I stayed with the window unit since the hole was already cut into the camper but this time I made sure it had the proper tilt and enough air flow to the rear. I also installed thin sheet metal inside the dead space of the camper to catch any interior condensation and channel it out! Finally I used scrap molding to dress is up a bit on the inside before caulking.