1968 Travel Queen Resto Mod - 13. Exterior, Skin & Openings

WOW!!!!! It's really looking GREAT! When you are done it may be difficult to actually take out of the safe garage and use! First scratch, dirt, etc.! But when you do and if you do in fact come my way or close I'll make every effort to meet up! I'd so love to see it!

Cheers!
Dak

Okay, so I actually got Lil' Queeny's new shoes on a few days ago. Then I did the range vent and waste water vent cover. So it was the next morning when I started installing windows, and access doors. That was a big job and took most of two days.

But one of the biggest joys I've had on this project occurred as, one right after the other, I pulled NEW windows down off the shelf and installed them. No scraping, no cleaning, no steel wool, no sandpaper, no wire wheels, no buffers. Just plain unadulterated "take down a new one" and put it on.

Now if you've been with me the whole way, you know I don't really mean "new". You realize I restored everyone of these old windows to make them look new. So there's that, but it was really nice to take it down, and put it up.

I started with access doors, and in general, I went from smaller units to larger. This picture shows the difference between the Dicor Butyl tape I bought recently, and the - what's called on its label - "Putty Tape" I bought two rolls of, almost three years ago at a local RV Parts store, before I knew there was a difference. Note it didn't dry out; it was like this then, and I've kept it sealed.



The putty on the left doesn't stretch or stick very much. The butyl on the right is hard to break when stretching, and sticks to everything, better when a bit warm, not as readily when cooler. Screw threads get hot, and see how upon removal a screw gets it?



Does that kind of make you wonder what your local RV Service Department uses? It did me.

I started with the small grey-water dump access door. I used two layers on everything, overlapping corners in opposite direction one layer to the next.





And when you drop it accidentally in the wrong place, don't even try to pick it back up. If it touches itself, it's stuck. Just go with it and fill in the blanks.







Try and dry fit the unit first, and then you'll know which way to try and bump shift it, left or right and up or down, as you get it positioned best for that particular opening and any surfaces imperfections to cover up. Do it before the tape touches or it is really hard to make even fine adjustments thereafter.

Press it in for surface contact on both surfaces, to prevent the screw turning from twisting the tape into a spiral. Put screws in balanced, one each side, one each corner, whatever feels right, then bring down one screw, then its neighbor, and go around in a circle. That kind of pulls it in evenly. As soon as the shoulder of the screw visually presses the metal flange, and you get a bit of squeeze on the tape, hold off on further turns. You'll get the feel, but don't over-tighten. This is just holding in position, not getting torqued! Adjust a little bit on tightness later if needed. As you go, you get better, so don't get too western, especially in the beginning while you're learning.

Back wall locking access and grey-water dump.



Right rear non-locking double propane tank compartment. Did I say two tanks? ;)



Left front locking lower fridge vent and storage.



I moved on to windows.

Back wall bathroom.



Left front cab-over bunk. This is the one which had sheet metal holes to fill just above the aluminum flange. They turned out real good with that epoxy repair.



Right front cab-over bunk.



The cab-over bunk front wall fixed (non-opening) windows. One of the main driving contributors to the original Travel Queen camper characteristics. I will have to watch these close for water intrusion, but I never once considered walling in this area. I couldn't poke Lil' Queeny in the eyes and blind her, if you know what I mean. Campers are human too!





Lower front truck cab window.



Then it was the next day.

Back wall, rear galley.



Left rear long galley window along the back of the counter top.



Right side big dinette window!



Then I tried my hand at the upper fridge vent, what we call the chimney!

This came off the Travel Queen Parts camper we scrapped early on due to its rodent infestation challenge. And this came with a screen which I straightened, reformed and re-used. It is simply pressed into place, as you need access to the top of the fridge for maintenance. So I may have to modify on the screen a bit in future, but I'll start with it this way.









Roof cab-over bunk escape hatch. It was this large 26" by 26" hatch which pushed the flange - closest to the camera - out far enough to cover a roof gash. Its large size also was the factor requiring the slight roof flattening in this area. Compare this camper profile to another Travel Queen, and you'll see what I mean when I described Lil' Queeny as having that slightly modified "custom" look. I little more squat right there. I little faster perhaps. A clean, custom look.



And finally, the left side water utility hatches. The gravity fill (furthest forward) install was kind of a chore. I'll post that up in Chapter 8. Fresh Water another day. The next two in order are the spray port, and at rearmost, the city-water fill.





I also got up the eyebrow (rain diverter) over the back entry door. And that leaves still to do: the Fantasticfan Vent, the water heater door, and the entry door.

Here are our views to this point.









And with windows open. Isn't that charming?

Sounds good dak! DW says she's good for the ransom, but she had that look in her eye, you know? We better take Lil' Queeny too - for leverage.

We put a few weeks into your area three winters ago in the TT. Then went further south from LA, because we didn't exactly want to try the longer rig for our Hwy 101 thing. But, one of the earlier Lil' Queeny trips will be back down to the basin to visit family, then north along the coastal highway. When we do that, maybe we'll have to arrange an in-person exhibit for you!

Recently, Lil' Queeny got new shoes!

Here's the lower corners of the camper, where the sidewalls of the box meet the floor.



If you don't remember the floor construction - and who would blame you, it's been a long time ago - the new floor mimics the original, in that the interior is a 1/2" sheet of plywood, over a 1/2" sheet of fiberboard, over lengthwise rows of 2x2', which are pressure treated lumber. And it is at that level where the box side walls come down to, and cover over. Then the box side wall 1/2" plywoods are carriage bolted to the sides of the outer 2x2s. And you can see the heads of the carriage bolts in the above picture, which will not allow a flat board to lay tight against the box wood, right?

And then there is visible, the 1/2" pressure treated plywood, screwed to the bottom of the 2x2s, which wasn't original, but I added it to enclose the skeleton, protecting the insulation and keeping out rodents, insects and weather.

Then I painted it all up nice. Now when you load and unload the camper, as much as you try not to, sometimes you scrape the lower areas of the camper on the truck bed! My truck has a rhino-lining of sorts, and so acts as kind of a rasp or sandpaper, not the most gentle of touches for the surfaces of a lady, if you know what I mean, so I wanted to protect Lil' Queeny from abrasions.

A long time ago we built a residential deck out of Trex, a fairly expensive and quality version of today's composite decking, and we have loved the material; wears very nice and continues to look good.

So one day, when we were at the home center and saw these two same color and material 6' handrail pieces on their clearance cart for $1.00 a piece, DW just had to have them. Since then, I've been moving them from one storage location in the yard to another.



What I liked about them, beyond the material toughness, and how it looks good when it hasn't been finished, even if it gets scraped, and that it is extremely weather-proof, is the under-side cavity that would fit over the carriage bolt heads on Lil' Queeny!

So I ripped them on the table saw, until they looked like this and sized them up on Lil' Queeny.

Nice Fit!



The camper bottom is 48", and my truck bed offered almost 52", so I had some width to work with. Even so, I kind of heard Lil' Queeny groan, and then she whined, "Dave, I don't like 'em!"

I said, "yeah, I know, they're kind of clunky aren't they? You're not really a steel-toed work-boot kind of girl are you? Let's see if we can't maybe get you a pair of more dainty, comfortable shoes, like maybe a pair of high-heeled pumps!" :D

DW overheard and exclaimed, "High-heeled Pumps! Are you crazy!? There's nothing LESS comfortable than high-heeled pumps! Give her some flats, for crying out loud if you're looking for comfort! Pumps!?!?" - and shaking her head kind of wandered off.

Of course she was right - I supposed - I'd heard. Hey! They don't even MAKE them in my size - how would I know! Properly chastened, I walked back over to the table saw and looked into what I might do.

Taking more measurements and making more cuts, and checking new weights, I ended up with these - which weigh 2.5 lbs a piece, as opposed to the 8 lbs a piece my first attempts came in at.



I used some composite deck screws I still had on the shelf, which have reverse shoulder threads to pull material back down into the hole allowing a flush finish.



And leaving space for the edge molding, resulted in this.



Lil' Queeny seemed happy too.





I also had some pressure treated deck boards, ripped and left over from a project last summer, that were now intended for Lil' Queeny's flats, since we got her a proper sized steel-toe, and cut them to length, laid underneath for install, and made penciled measure marks on the box. DW then helped hold, while I got them screwed up from below.



These were spaced at 23", except the last two which were closer.



This last one couldn't go any further back because the truck bed ribs ended, and this board placement still rests squarely on them. So this is my overhang, a few inches of bed - and a bumper, but the back wall of the camper doesn't extend past the bumper.



Originally I was planning to use steel hat-channel, because that's what was on our pop-up camper, but I like this better. More my style.

Now you remember this hole? Drilled through the floor for the battery box install a few days ago over in Chapter 9. Electrical? I scraped the excess caulking off and then proceeded to cover it with a screened vent cover.



I bought this vent over at the home center the other day for $2.99...



And cut it into three equal sections, as I have need for three of these, only one of which I'll tell you about today.

Then I capped the ugly edges with more of that plastic edge trim I had, and screwed it up over the hole. Take that mud-daubers!





And with these final two shots...



This is the last time you're gonna see Lil' Queeny's bottom!



Lil Queeny? Those look like comfortable shoes!

I gotta tell you..... if the need ever arises again for me to restore an older camper..... get ready!.... I'll be kidnapping you to help and give advice! ;)

Excellent job you are doing! I can't wait to see the finished camper on your truck and camping!

Cheers!
Dak

This Chapter 13. Exterior, Skin & Openings, used to be a popular place. Lots of activity day after day about windows, and aluminum siding, etc. But by and by, other categories kind of took over.

Now we get back here with lots to do and report on. Let me start here, with the stove/oven range vent and hood. I looked back, trying to find the previous detailed discussion about this subject. Couldn't find it, but I think it was under "Structure & New Wood", when I was framing the opening (and I didn't take time to look there).

At that time, there was some pros and cons discussion of exterior vent methods. In the end, I decided to go original and re-use my existing original parts, and just make sure water intrusion was handled to best avoid water into the wall. If it comes into the stove at isolated times, I can deal with that, and decide further modification if necessary.

The main concern is to keep water intrusion out of the wall interior, so the first thing I did was smear caulking along the opening edges, and seal it all up good from outside siding through inside tile work, including the edges of the various materials, and the staples.





Then I installed the interior vent piece, which fits into the exterior vent piece as the inside portion of a telescoping fit.



But I discovered a pretty large gap between it and the hood, due to the rounding of the upper wall, and that the bottom grey band of the vent piece was visible, as was its retaining screw head, so I painted that band and the screw head, re-installed and added some of my extra foam weather seal, piece by piece, to fill the gap.



While here, I installed the hood itself, with dark colored screw heads, and added a small knob to the interior adjusted vent slider, to make operation easier.





Then I opened up my bulk order of Dicor Butyl Tape, 1/8" by 3/4" by 30'. Three - four roll packs for $42.21 each. This is not a time to cheap out.



And started this big outside job with the range vent, exterior piece.





The exterior vent piece telescoping part installs around the interior piece (between the interior metal tabs and the wood framing) so any water intrusion would theoretically, provided the caulk sealed wood opening edge sluffs off leaks, enter the camper between the tile surface and the bottom visible metal of the interior vent piece. Incidentally, this is exactly how new vents fit together too, except that most have an extra "hood" piece on the exterior as well. I might add a hood later, after evaluation of real need.

At first I put this up using rubber-washer steel-roof screws (which I was planning for the windows too), but I didn't like the look of the bulky screw heads - just a bit too road-warriorish.

So I went back to the #10 by 1" wood screws with oval head, that I had bought several years ago when I started this project, and thought window sealing would be my first job. Ha! And installed the vent with them. I like the look much better.

The reason I chose #10 over the original #8 is because some of the windows are mounted to original screw holes, and I wanted a better bite than what might be found in some of those almost 50 year old holes.



I also discovered upon removal of the roof screws, the butyl tape had formed so well around the threads of the removed screws, that I no longer have ANY concern about water leaks around the non-rubber-washer screw heads. That stuff was amazing!

The other day I prepped and painted the waste water vent opening cover hood, an original beige plastic part that had age and sun related micro-cracks and plastic surface-oxidation throughout, and yet was pretty cool. It fell right in the camper's color band, so paint (for protection against further weathering) was a no-brainer.







Using the butyl tape, and some dark headed screws, I got that up too.



Now I'll watch those two pieces for a couple days and decide if any application modifications are needed before I do windows, and eventually trim the excess. I'm using advice found in the first review here.

Laura's advice and review of Dicor Butyl Tape.

After my previous post Monday, I went into the paint distributor to order the paint. It's going to be delayed.

They keep their semi-gloss in stock, but not so the gloss bases. The paint I'm using is typically for an industrial or commercial application on metal buildings - all discussed over in Chapter 7 - Finishes & Finishing.

After using a semi-gloss on my 1940's era civilian Willys type trailer, I concluded, while very nice for it, Lil' Queeny didn't deserve anything less than gloss! So I chose a color, and placed the special order. Just like in "The Money Pit", it will take about "two weeks - two weeks"!

That's okay, plenty to do in the meantime.

As I move forward, there will be odds and ends picked-up and worked in any of the chapters/categories, probably Chapter 10 - Galley & Greatroom getting a higher share of some of the next reports.

But in a bit-o-review of this chapter, I realized - back last April, when work on Lil' Queeny was interrupted, some work done on the entry door hadn't yet been shown, that is to say the exterior color band stripe put along it's lower exterior surface, and the interior surface painted - I'll show that today.

And due to the paint order delay, I shifted back into "color-band first" mode. So here are the access doors, the upper fridge vent (what I call the chimney), and the range vent grill, fresh sanded and prepped for paint.



Next, the vent grill and chimney parts (to receive white) were put out of the way and the aluminum frames for the new access doors were masked. Additional masking was then placed over the portions receiving white on the two larger doors, and the "Chestnut" hammer-forged color bands sprayed onto all three doors.



A closeup of the small insulated door on the lower back wall.



And of some of the louvers on one of the other doors.



Next we see the work done last April when I got the color band onto the bottom of the entry door.


This will extend the color band now, across the entire camper (entry door, access door, and three small exterior siding pieces that had been special made and seamed at exactly their places to replace cancered aluminum corrosion).

You may recall, there was no original color band on this back wall. Due to the corrosion, and the need to replace some of the siding because of it, the lower color band was created.

Now here's the interior surface of the entry door, in Hammered Copper.



We used the same stuff on our Fairbanks home entry doors. Like so many times when installing a metal entry door in a home, the primer gray OEM surface had never been finished. It's pretty easy, and makes for a very nice upgrade! That same paint and color will be used in a few places on the interior, but that is a story for another category.

Just edited a post from about three replies ago. The Lil' Queeny project is ramping up. In the past two days I've moved stuff around the shop and that included all the projects and storage piled up around, under and in Lil' Queeny. The storage shelves in the corner were emptied, cleaned up and camper parts organized and re-stored in categories. A tarp over the top shelf covering the pile of windows.

After painting my Jeep Trailer (probably from the 40's) I now have the plan in my head for painting the camper in the garage. I think I'll head over and buy paint today. Was first planning on marking and prepping the access doors to get the chestnut color band stripes on those, and let them cure up good before masking on the fresh paint, but now I think I'll just do the white, let THAT cure, then put on the color band later. Yeah, that's the ticket.

So that means I'm probably within a few days of showing some finished painting pictures of Lil' Queeny.

Thanks for the encouragement. Good luck on a successful find!

I will indeed post further progress. I've had multiple large "good weather" projects this year. And right now several still being worked in the house, and several on my Willys Jeep and related stuff (an old vintage Willys trailer, a snowplow, changeover to original rims, etc.).

Soon mom's coming for weeks or months. Some medical procedures. Sheesh!

But I expect back onto Lil' Queeny around Christmas.

Fantastic job here. I hope you keep posting your progress. I am following this with great interest. These projects take much determination to see to a successful end. I am in the process of refurbishing and modernizing my 1962 Chevy C20 pickup and am actively looking for a mid to late 60's Travel Queen camper for it.

Thanks

{1/16/17 Edit} I stopped work on Lil' Queeny in about April, as I moved outside for large projects on the house, yard and garden. And then in Fall and early Winter, "on-hold" projects for my Jeep. But I did get more work done on the exterior door - even back in last April. I'll post that in a day or so because here recently I got it out from it's storage and examined. Preparations to get the white on the camper, and the access and exterior doors.

The project is coming back together.