Work continued. A little bit of wood glue and clamps here, a little bit of wood filler there..
This is the piece I needed for filling out the cabinet face in the low inside corner adjacent to the "short drawer front" spot. Again, the bump out of the fresh water tank cabinet housing - to accommodate trash cans - forced this opening smaller than what was original. The piece shown here will fill the extra space, most of which is hidden behind the bump out and altogether this piece and it's support backing will lend strength to the entire small corner, adding structure for fasteners between the two partitions.
To make it, I added a 1/8" panel sheet to the back and glued the surface paneling that had been lifting in places. Then I held the parts together, measured for and cut the support piece, made pencil marked approximations for screws and assembled the patch.
Once in the correct position with a bit-o-screw bite I removed the furniture and applied greater screwing pressure from on the bench.
While the furniture was out I made one last trimming of some gimp along the floor. Because of a limited amount of available extra cream colored gimp, I choose a while back to include good gimp lengths along the vertical runs, trimming or leaving it off altogether along the horizontal runs.
The idea is that most, if not all, the horizontal runs are in places that a visual caulking seal is preferable, while on the verticals, most places need the gimp bead visual for the vintage character.
And why put it on the horizontal runs where the bead is trimmed anyway? Well, that is to provide the rubber (vinyl?) gasket between wood surfaces. I don't imagine we'll have passengers riding back here, but even just moving around in the camper can cause wood on wood squeaks, and I simply want to control squeaks if the gimp is already there! Of course you want to check individual staples for proper depth.
Now to put it all back together - again! Fortunately, moving these pieces in and out and into place and shifting to out of place was quite easily done. It made for some nice custom and detailed fitting. A real nice job.
Had I not wanted to save these "character" pieces, the interior rebuild could have been much different - maybe. I mean the build might have been different but I can't imagine changing the layout.
The fact of the matter is this. From day one I have loved this floor plan. It is basic. It is common. It has been used on many a camper in truck camper history. There must be a reason. I can't think of a more functional floor plan.
But there is ONE thing that makes this one so functional, over so many others I've seen of the very same layout, and that is the rear offset door. That simple offset allows for a large enough water closet space that even a big guy like me can justify a small camper like this.
If I'd had my druthers, perhaps it would have been exactly opposite with the door on the curb side for camp location access reasons. But even then problems might arise, such as having the dinette window to the street side. Can't have everything, but this little layout provides something close.
See you over in Finishes and Finishing. Let's get some color on these pieces!
