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ck out fabrics and my talented mother sewed the covers for both bunks the dinette cushions and the couch in the front on the street side of the trailer i built a long lower cabinet that runs from front to rear which has a gas stovetop a built in microwave a sink and believe it or not counterspace i also built some upper cabinets thank god for the guy who invented the kreg jig a must have for any camper renovator finally i also created some drawers and storage cabinets along with space for a room air conditioner under the lower cabinets here is the wardrobe next to the door with the refrigerator this unit fits over the wheel well this picture gives you a good view of the beadboard throughout the interior of the camper right inside the door is a mirrored front medicine cabinet ikea an electrical plug and light switches for an interior and exterior step light the cabinet below also allows storage of long items such as fishing poles marshmallow roasting sticks etc the hinge for the mirror swings into the camper so that the mirror can also be used when you are standing farther inside the camper and allows access to toiletries when standing outside the camper i e on the way to the campsite bathroom opposite this next to the door i built a large floor to ceiling wardrobe that also contains the refrigerator and another large storage cabinet along with a medicine chest with a mirrored door we carpeted the floor with commercial carpet squares we still need to work on curtains and some finishing touches on the inside this is the exterior of what we started with a year ago june 2012 picture of the outside about half way through the top 50 paint job i love how this is coming out and am glad i followed vintage shasta forum thread on this method of painting part of the challenge to renovating an old camper is inventing new ways to deal with the problems you have inherited this is my current problem there used to be a large ugly vent see two pictures above in this location the wall has been patched and will hold up to weather etc but is ugly i don t want to replace the aluminum skin that is more of a project than i want to take on thinking of using a 12 x 12 louvered vent cover but having a difficult time finding good looking vent covers i would paint the space under the louvers black any ideas anyone now that i have clementine out of winter storage i need to focus on the outside as i mentioned last year i took red dirt shasta s advice and polished the z stripe i started my 50 paint job rolling on oil based rustoleum paint thinned to 50 with mineral spirits and applying with foam brushes sanding between coats this weekend and am very pleased with the results so far 3 of 6 coats for the top off white part i found a mechanic willing to repack bearings which probably have not been repacked in at least 25 years so that s next along with new wheels and tires purchased this spring at northern tool with luck we should be able to take her on the road by early july she sure looks different one year later posted by ericc at 10 21 pm 1 comment sunday may 22 2011 chaska shasta ii we enjoyed the 66 shasta compact so much that i guess we got the bug so yesterday while sipping coffee on a lazy saturday morning colleen mentioned to me that there was a 60 shasta on craigslist i kinda scoffed and said i m sure it s gone by now they never last very long and if you are still seeing it there the guy selling it must have gotten a dozen calls by now she said i should call to which i kinda snarkedly said you call i ll bet you it s gone an hour later we were on our way 1 hour north to purchase our newest old camper i should listen to colleen more often the guy who sold her to us had a long list of people he had to call back to let them know she was sold this trailer is in considerably worse condition than chaska shasta i or chloe as our kids like to refer to the 66 shasta compact chaska shasta ii yet to receive a nickname by the kiddos they kind of see her as a bit of a junk pile right now silly kids has had a difficult second half of her life for the past couple of years it seems a leaky roof vent was later replaced by a piece of plywood that was not sealed in place the floor will need to be replaced as it is water logged and soft in numerous spots nearly all interior components are either missing or not worth saving this is a much larger project than the 66 so here we go we spent the rest of this weekend removing the floor and stripping off paneling that had been badly damaged i removed cabinetry that has been water soaked and now we have just the trailer struts and the original wood floor frame and bare walls previous owner had already removed the ceiling it will be kind of fun to be able to build the inside to fit our family but we intend to stick to a modified shasta floorplan while it seems like a lot of work ahead of us i really like the possibilities i am encouraged by red dirt shasta in that this unit at least on the outside looks very much like his did when he brought red dirt home so i am following his posts on how to polish the z stripe and how to apply paint via the 50 paint job roll on method would love to have her professionally sprayed but at 1000 to 1500 can t justify spending that much i ll try to get some more posts out there for this renovation this is gonna be fun posted by ericc at 7 34 pm 1 comment sunday september 5 2010 duluth tall ships trip as promised in my last post we made plans to take the chaska shasta up to duluth for a short trip to see the tall ships tour i spent way too much time agonizing over which campground we should stay at heck it was for one night even a bad campground is doable for one night right anyway we finally chose the spirit mountain campground which is just west of duluth this was a terrific choice the campground is beautifully rustic you feel like you are in the middle of a forest yet there are modern facilities i e bathrooms and showers within walking distance of most of the campsites our only complaints about this campground is that the bathrooms could use a little tlc they were pretty worn down and it would have been nice if there was someway to turn off the streetlights around the campground at a certain time of the night we had one right over our site that make it seem like daytime all night anyway i m off topic way too soon this was the first campsite where we could hook the shasta s water system up to a water line everything worked like a charm keeping to the traditional shasta design we have two spigots going into the sink one that directly hooks to the water supply from the campground and one that is connected to the water tank as i mentioned in previous posts i have converted the hand pump spigot to an electric 12 volt pump spigot we don t drink the water from either source this was also our first big storm trip it started raining about 11 p m the night we arrived and rained all night until probably 6 a m this proved to us why we want to camp in the shasta we were dry and comfortable all night it was a bit noisy but we felt safe in our little 10 foot home away from home we only spent a night in duluth but got two full days of sight seeing in on this trip it was fun and we would definitely take this same trip again i scoped out a few other sites at spirit mountain that i would consider staying at when we return we took a trip through jay cooke state park beautiful they have a campground too but the minnesota state park system in typical land of 10 000 taxes fashion nickel and dimes campers to death with fees so it is often more economical to go to a private campground plus it benefits the mom pop businesses way more ok off my soapbox this was the last family trip we took in the 66 shasta that we had nicknamed chloe fall set in and with it back to school winterizing projects and eventually the shasta went into storage for the winter posted by ericc at 12 59 pm no comments monday july 26 2010 sorry for the lack of posts i had really hoped to keep up to date on this blog and the summer has gotten away from us the beauty of this camper is that we only really had to replace wood on the ceiling which we did with beadboard we did remove one cabinet which was not very functional and made it difficult to get into and out of the dinette we have taken the shasta on a few trips since my last post each time we learn a bit more about what we need etc the shasta has been a great home on every trip even though she is only 10 feet long we sleep and camp two adults and our three younger children in comfortably a trip to northern minnesota a few weeks ago proved what babies we all are though we were in the midst of a minnesota heat wave and found out that we had become very comfortable sleeping in air conditioned comfort a windless night at 85 degrees made us think twice about an upcoming trip to iowa and kansas we were set to go in july i began to think about a solution window air conditioner units are not practical especially with the vintage jalousie windows in the shasta i did not want to cut a 2 by 3 foot hole in the side of the camper i was not sure if the shasta would support a camper roof top unit plus they were prohibitively expensive then it hit me there was another option we have several portable room air conditioners in various offices where i work i work in a largely un air conditioned building these room units have a 8 inch exhaust tube that goes to the outside this exhausts the hot air that is emitted from the air conditioner newer units don t even need a tube for emitting condensate they blow the hot air from the exhaust onto the collected condensate inside the unit evaporating it along with the hot air even if i had purchased an older unit or if this unit cannot keep up with the condensate in it s evaporative mode simply attaching a hose to the back of the unit and running it through the hole where the icebox used to drain would be acceptable so i went about trying to find a unit looking where it all started with the shasta craigslist in the heat of summer these units go very fast as luck would have it i found a used unit for a great price i drove across town found that the unit was in great shape so soon my new at least new to me air conditioner unit was riding shotgun with me back to the shasta cutting a small 8 inch round hole in the side of the camper was much more acceptable to me than other venting options vintage camper enthusiasts are probably cringing right now but really the cut was minimal i placed the vent near the other utility connections on the front street side of the trailer i purchased one of those louvered dryer vents in white the vent fits right in along beside the gravity fill water connection it is hardly noticeable when you look at newer rigs they have all variety of doors vents connections and other dohickeys i found that the air conditioner fit perfectly in the closet this allowed it to be out of the way when it was not being used and when we wanted to use it we just opened the closet door the exhaust venting tube made a 360 degree loop with the excess storing in the area under where the icebox sits note that my shasta s icebox was removed by a previous owner so i have filled the space with a smaller a c refrigerator and a small microwave we knew that we made the right decision when we arrived and set up camp in iowa the outside temperature was near 90 degrees but we slept comfortably under blankets inside the shasta the next two nights in kansas were equally restful it does not take a lot to cool a 10 by 8 foot space the humm of the air conditioner also drowns out any late night parties that may be occurring outside of the camper we did get a bit tired of opening and closing the closet door so by the 2nd night i temporarily removed and stowed the closet door this made things a lot more comfortable i am thinking of removing the closet door and storing it at home and crafting a two section door for my shasta s closet so that the lower section could be opened when the air conditioner is being used while i did not mind cutting the 8 inch hole for the exhaust i would not consider ruining the original closet door so i would craft this 2 section door out of something else and keep the original door intact and safely stored for replacement when i want to return the shasta to vintage condition all in all the air conditioning made sleeping a lot easier call me spoiled but i don t want to sweat when i sleep of course i also want a few more comforts of home in my rig that s why i opted for the shasta and not a tent camper or worse at least for me a tent i don t want to rough it that much well better sign off for now we love the shasta and hope to go see the tall ships in duluth for at least a night i ll let you know how that trip goes posted by ericc at 7 42 pm 1 comment friday may 28 2010 assessing the damage as you can see by the hole in the roof this is what we started with there was water damage that permeated the entire front ceiling panel it appeared that this was fairly new water damage though so i did not run into mold or really that much damage to the surfaces that the ceiling was in contact with i e walls the nice part was that i did not need tools to remove the ceiling a gloved hand moved through it all posted by ericc at 11 58 am no comments bringing her home my wife is a craigslist expert she regularly shows me campers and other items that she likes so that fateful sunday morning in early april did not phase me too much when she showed me a 1966 shasta compact on her computer i went along and encouraged her to contact the guy selling the camper we were the first to call she talked to him a bit more and as she spoke with him i listened in to about half the conversation gradually becoming more interested by the end of the conversation she put her hand on the phone and asked my permission to purchase the camper sight un seen i guess i must have been in a pretty good state of mind because i agreed several hours later we were two hours north of our home and sealing the deal as we were hooking up to pull away i noticed that there were absolutely no safety chains on the trailer now i have this voice in my head that is my father s voice and i could hear him clear as day disapproving of this setup i was unsure what else i could do keep in mind that this was a sunday afternoon approaching evening and we were two hours away from home i knew of one home improvement store about 10 miles away that we had passed on the way to get the trailer i anxiously drove those 10 miles sure that the trailer was going to unhook itself from the tow vehicle and take out both the cars behind me as well as the gem we had just purchased we pulled into the store and found that it had closed 10 minutes earlier lights were dark and no cars were in the parking lot so i could not even beg someone to let me in i remembered passing a 24 hour walmart about 10 miles further south as i hit every bump and pot...