The Shastah Disastah! 1961 "canned ham" camper

Ian F wrote: In reply to Toyman01: I just bought a floor standing a/c unit for my apartment. This 10K BTU one. I was looking at it and brainstorming of ways to fit it into a home-built RV. The air vent could go right out the side of the vehicle with the condensate drain out the bottom.

I just disassembled one of those free-standing AC units to replace the condenser squirrel cage fan wheel that had failed (it was ~5 years old). If you remove the casing, I'm pretty confident that you could reconfigure the unit to be less tall if you're willing to sweat some copper tubing. It wasn't easy to work on given all the plastic and screws, but on my unit the upper half was the cold side and really only connected to the lower half by copper tubing and a little wiring on the hot side. Lengthen a few wires, extend some tubing, etc.

Could be an option for making it fit inside a period correct cover or appendage on the end of the Shastah or SanFord...

Another Shasta Sunday, and it's coming along nicely. This past weekend focused on the bathroom compartment:

Isn't it cute? Here the toilet is just set on its mount, not yet installed because I still need to clean off all the glue from putting in the plastic panels. Also still need to get in there with a caulk gun and caulk all the seams. (Remember, since it's a marine/wet bath, the toilet sits in the shower... or the shower is in the toilet. Either way, I'm putting a razor in there so I can accomplish a personal goal of S S S all at once.)

Wax and grease remover also does a great job of taking off glue. Which is good, because the shower pan was covered in stickers, too. And ladies, it whitens your nails and really makes a manicure pop. Oh, and garage-grade hand cleaner? Forget the sugar scrubs, that pumice E36 M3e makes your hands lily soft! (Like I said, I'm super fancy.)

After spending way too long in a way too tiny space with a caulk gun that was almost as long as the compartment is wide, I had it caulked. This was a sweaty, contortionist process that was not, believe or not, helped by Tim's constant caulk jokes. Yes, it was too long. Yes, I got some caulk on me. Yes, caulk is messy. Honey, please go plumb something somewhere else now.

This didn't help my mood. Tim's shop is man-sized. I am not.

Gotta admit, this perked me up a bit. The Shasta's bathroom is me-sized. Tim is not.

At left you can see the plumbing access that Tim's working with. We have gotten a lot of really close together time with this project. Once I succeeded in shooing him outside, Tim put the finishing touches on his genius A/C installation.

Do you see it tucked away behind the cute Continental kit he came up with? Here's the rear view. What A/C? Uh, we're sweating along with all the other period-correct purists. Honest!

Here's a close-up look at the A/C and spare tire mount.

Inside, we'll build a cabinet around the unit and wrap the seating that's already next to it over the top of the air conditioner for a nice L-shaped lounger, and once I rub some of the stain on that plastic, I think it'll fair disappear.

Other systems are going in, too. The batteries, water heater and water tank will all be under the front bunk:

Oh, and remember that rockin' floor? It's still there, but we've got some of Tim's beloved scrap carpet thrown over it. There's actually a layer of craft paper between that and the floor--one of the tips from Tim Heintz at Heintz Restorations was to tape this paper over the floor before anything else went in, then cut it away once all the insides were installed and varnished. That's how they did it at the factory.

The plumbing is going down, and we’ve got lots of woodwork to finish. After that it's electrical, which is kind of scary because... well, I'm scared of electricity. And Tim's mind doesn't really comprehend things that can only flow in one direction. We'll keep you updated as we go along.

Margie

that was an excellent update, if only for the caulk jokes.

Great update. Needs more caulk jokes.

Sigh...

that ac install really is genius. I assume the condensate drains to the outside? Does the continental kit fold down / slide out or something?

Also, taping up a photo of the original so you know what it SHOULD look like is pretty smart too.

Yep, drains to the outside. There's no folding on the kit, but once the spare is unbolted, the air conditioner can be unfastened and slid right out. And yeah, Tim takes lots of reference photos for his projects. It's been really helpful here, because we are pretty much winging it.

Margie

Marjorie Suddard wrote: Another Shasta Sunday, and it's coming along nicely. This past weekend focused on the bathroom compartment: This didn't help my mood. Tim's shop is man-sized. I am not. Gotta admit, this perked me up a bit. The Shasta's bathroom is me-sized. Tim is not.

Add one of these to the bathroom roof and Tim will fit just fine!

Very cool. I like the way this is going.

Y'all must be working in a air conditioned shop. It's been too damn hot here to work on SanFord. That and too much other stuff going on.

I hate it when my caulk gets out of hand and makes a mess...

I tell you, I had caulk all over my hands. I'd clean them up and them wham! more caulk. (Seriously, it was a problem. That waterproof stuff is terrible to work with.)

But yeah, the shop has A/C. It struggles on our hottest days, and a drop light didn't make that tiny bathroom any cooler, but the window banger out there sure made it doable. Otherwise I don't think I'd even survive the walk to the shop and back!

I should mention that this is my favorite picture of Tim ever.

I don't care what kind of caulk you used as long as it filled your crack.

The Shasta is looking great so far. The AC solution seems fantastic. You may want to make a spare tire cover that doubles as a AC cover when going down the road. Id imagine with it in the rear your going to get a fair amount of dust and road grime in it.

Oooh, yeah, good idea. I can throw in that project when I get sewing on the upholstery... which I will be starting after Monterey.

Margie

Glamping update required. What are you doing out there, running a magazine or something?

Oh, hey there... wandered away a bit from this, didn't I?

To be fair, a couple of projects crowded in front of the little Shasta:

I'm sure that took some time, or whatever...

Okay, fine, so he made a couple of cars. From scary heaps of not-cars. Still, the time for that is temporarily on hold, and it's time to get back on the Shasta!

(drum roll please) ...and so we have.

The woodwork is pretty much finished, and Tim's starting to look more relieved when he's in the camper.

This also gives you an idea of how the whole AC modification fits in. That's the original bookshelf on the right, modified to work with the deeper AC enclosure. I wanted to keep the rest of the shelving because a) it's handy and b) it's structural. The furniture and cabinets in the Shasta provide pretty much all of its rigidity.

Here's the new countertop and the vintage cooktop that Tim restored and had powdercoated to a very midcentury color I picked out. 

Here's a closeup of the countertop pattern. Behold the boomerangs!

I've got all the doors off and have patched the veneer on the damaged ones (i.e. all of them); we'll complete the woodwork by sanding off the remaining varnish and putting on a very light stain to match the old and new wood colors, then more sanding and finishing. Look for those details next. Oh, how I love sanding. :/

Margie

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

I can’t tell if Tim’s had way too much caffeine, or not nearly enough yet?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

"What have you done to his eyes?!"

"He has his father's eyes."

Berk Yeah, it's back.

Absolutely love the counter top pattern and cook top color.  Moar moar moar!!!

Marjorie Suddard said:

The furniture and cabinets in the Shasta provide pretty much all of its rigidity.

Terrifying. Lol!

Marjorie Suddard said:

In reply to Pete Gossett :

"What have you done to his eyes?!"

"He has his father's eyes."

Give those back!

"Must not show my wife this thread" 

She really wants one of these things. She wants it basically as a portable lounge that we can park in the yard. I'm cool with that, but I told her that we need a cool, vintage truck to haul it with. You know, for reasons. 

Also, glad to see you are back at it!

Did you upgrade the  axle and brakes and springs and taller tires ?

One upgrade I like which is the law in Germany is a handbrake mounted on the tongue , nice when you leave it at a campground etc and it does not roll down the hill :)

Ohh and they have an Eberspacher gas heater just like an early 911 Porsche !

Tony Sestito said:

"Must not show my wife this thread" 

She really wants one of these things. She wants it basically as a portable lounge that we can park in the yard. I'm cool with that, but I told her that we need a cool, vintage truck to haul it with. You know, for reasons. 

Also, glad to see you are back at it!

I’m sure the T/A could tow it fine. Just tell her you need to get it finished, or at least on the road, before you can get her a camper. 

In reply to californiamilleghia :

Tires and wheels are slightly larger, brakes are all-new OEM-style, and springs were in good shape already. The thing weighs right around 2000 pounds, so it doesn’t really require sophisticated suspension upgrades. Just clean, new, and ready to go.

Margie