1980 Granby Rebuild for 2nd Gen Tacoma

[a8ksh4]

More progress this week; The big pieces of trim metal all got scrubbed and any painted pieces got re-painted. The trim around the roof jut got a scrub and I'll have to bang on it a bit this next week to try to straighten it.



My theory now is that there used to be a rack on this camper and someone put a heavy load on it and tried to lift the top. It tweaked the two outside beams in the roof and bent the trim metal. Everything seems structurally still good, though, so I"m just going to straighten the trim a bit and put it back together w/ new metal on top.

 

[a8ksh4]

And the last bit of stitching was done for the velcro for cold-weather insulation and for the headliner. Getting close to building the roof.



I went by ATC to pick up new metal for the roof and a set of tie-down anchors that bolt through the plywood and got to lo see some of their fancy new gear.

It looked like they had a bit of silicon on every screw that went through the roof, and there was silicon along the trim around the edge of the roof. I'm not sure if I should put butyl tape behind the trim for the roof and silicon on the top edge or what.

 

[a8ksh4]

More progress putting the roof together this weekend.


Lines were marked on tape, then screwed partially, and then I'd remove the screws, pull the tape, and fully set the screws with a coating of silicon, as that's what it looked like they were doing when I stopped by ATC and got to look at their campers. . I used zinc coated sheet metal screws and neoprene washers every 14".

 

[a8ksh4]

Ran wires for four lights, a fan, and solar (when I get to it). The solar wires will be coiled in one of the front corner for some-day when I have time to pull them out and hook up a panel. I ran a separate pair of wires to each light and the fan and ran them all back to a single solder joint for hot and for ground back by where the wires run up into the roof. Also, new insulation!



Detail of the seam on the sheeet metal from ATC, for anyone interested in how it's done on their large sheets of roof metal.


I really only have about two weeks to wrap this up and get it functional for a trip next month. My wife and I have the month off and will be touring through Utah with the dogs, seeing some state parks and stuff. Then we're going to drop the dogs off at home with a house-sitter and drive down to Vegas to see some friends, and finish our trip in Nevada and some of the california mountains on the way back.

The primary goals for the camper in the next couple of weeks are to:

• get the roof and vinyl sides on w/ the new conduit lifters
• Finish the pull out bed platform
• And it'd be amazing if I had time to build a little kitchen cabinet in the corner by the propane tank. TBD!

 

[a8ksh4]

First lifter setup is done; second in progress. Thanks, Russ, for the EMT search hints. I ended up just estimating that I'd gain about 2" making a 90 degree bend, figured about what would give me the widest bars and the most overlap between the two pieces of metal, and made my marks 1" wider on the top bar so that when I bent them, they would just overlap. This worked out pretty good.

 

[CougarCouple]

Looking good there sir.

Russ

 

[a8ksh4]

More progress!
The headliner is okay, but would look better over soft insulation. It's hard to stretch tight. The 3m spray adhesive holds powerfully!

All the lights and stuff are 14 gauge. I had run 12 for the solar, but team the calculators online and figured I should have 10 so pulled the smart stuff and redid it before putting the roof together all the way.

The foam was glued in with adhesive, filled the gaps with spray foam, and shot spray foam into the metal tubes as I read that was what they did at factory now to prevent condensation running down the tubes

 

[Living The Dream]

Looking great.

Those dang roof trim pieces are a serious PIA! They certainly get slightly bent when off the camper and I had the hardest time lining everything up on the reinstall. My front of the roof now has a 'gap tooth' because of it.

Go buddy go, you'll be back to a working shell in no time and then can really start to see it come together.

 

[a8ksh4]

And my roof trim is more bent than most! I need to try and hammer parts of it flat. Tooth gap is alright; perfect is the enemy of good.

Home stretch! I'm really enjoying working on it!

 

[a8ksh4]

I glued the window panels together yesterday. And glued in the strip with Velcro for insulation in case we ever want it in the future.


A couple friends are coming by today to drink beer and help out if I get to the point where were ready to put the top onto the camper...

 

[a8ksh4]

I bought a couple of 100w solar panels and am planning to at least install the mounts for them on the roof before I put it up on the camper. I could use the z-brackets at the front of the roof, but was thinking I'd use 1" angle aluminum at the back end of the panels so I could bridge their weight across all of the roof beams (about 40" back from the front). I need to think about this... probably the most confusing thing for me is which adhesives to use for which stuff.
* I could simply put butyl tape under the spots where the aluminum angle crosses beams and have screws through, or I could lay a bead of self leveling sealant under the whole thing and over the screws, or ... ?
* And if I use z-brackets at the front and aluminum angle at the back, do I have to worry about them catching air and lifting the roof? Maybe aluminum angle at front and back would be best. Hmmm. Or maybe I can just use the z brackets at front and back and just put one screw into each bracket toward the back where they cross the beams in the roof.

 

[a8ksh4]

More progress today! The vinyl is installed, mostly, in the top. I got some help from my buddies to hold it up and make a first round with a few staples. I made some measurements and figured I had it a little too low and made a second round shifting it up another inch and pulling and resetting the staples as I went.

For anyone doing this, I'd suggest getting your vinyl centered and putting a staple about every 18 inches. Then go back around replacing the staples as you tighten and adjust it.

I set some glue at the top of the corner where the ends join and will finish trimming it and glue that entire seam after it's installed on the bottom half of the camper.




Bending the metal over the edge is sort of an iterative process. You have to work along the entire edge starting the bend, and then make a few more passes along it, eventually using a hammer to crisp up the corner and staples to hold it down as you work along it. Slow and steady!

In case it's helpful to anyone, I'm using a 1/4 inch (narrow) crown stapler with 1/2 inch long galvanized (zinc coated) staples. I wish I'd bought this at the start off my build, as it would have been very helpful with the plywood assembly! I'm sure it'll be an indispensible tool for future projects.

 

[a8ksh4]

Getting closer. The roof is assembled. I sort of screwed up and cut the aluminum too short around the sides, so on one side I was just barely able to get it tucked behind the trim, and I doubt any of the screws holding the trim on are through the aluminum skin. I might add a couple rails on the top along the to sides just to help hold the skin down so I don't have to worry about the staples coming out and it coming apart. Tbd!

 

[a8ksh4]

The top is on now. Lots of work this weekend...

 

[a8ksh4]

On the To-do list today:
* reaming out the holes for the conduit lock pins so I can try raising and lowering the top. I was planning to use bolts with wing nuts for the lock pins, but if they're consistently to hard to get in and out, then maybe actual pins would be better.
* buying turnbuckles (about 6"long) and cutting access holes for them. I got some 6" boat deck caps to put over the access holes.
* Adding some backup plates to the conduit lifters at the top. I missed the aluminum on half of the screws for the u-clamps that hold the bar to the roof, so I figure I can add a backup plate to get some additional screws into the roof tubes and give me something to screw the second screw for each u-clamp into.



The bed mount bars for the Tacoma are in front of and behind the wheel wells. I put turnbuckle mounts on the camper offset two inches side-to-side and front-to-back from the bed mounts. This puts the turnbuckle mounts pretty far forward on the camper. I'm planning to pack it with weight forward, so maybe this is okay. It just looks a little weird.

 

[CougarCouple]

Hi and Morning
Hitch puns might be the answer as they have a small ball under spring pressure. Stops them from falling out.
Might want to wait on turnbuckles and get actual measurements.
Remember to put your access on the inside, although it does look good there. coming along, first trip where??

 

[a8ksh4]

You might be right about the hitch pins. I ran the drill through the holes with the roof up, though, and the bolts go on/out a lot easier now.

First trip was going to be to Utah, but we're seeing that a lot of passes we wanted to go are still as how as Sacramento, so we're heading further north, like Oregon and Idaho. I can't wait to have a little time off of work!

 

[CougarCouple]

Hi
Was thinking the HPins might be easier. Excited for y’all. Haven’t been to Oregon , but we just did Idaho and man what a green state ( well we’re we were) have fun.
Russ

 

[CougarCouple]

Mr a8ksh4
Did you see this not sure if need one but saw it and thought I'd pass it on.

Russ

 

[a8ksh4]

Hey Russ, What did I miss? I'm really looking forward to Idaho. I think I went to an archery shoot in Idaho many years ago with my parents. I recall it being beautiful. My wife and I are pretty loose in our travel planning. We're basically going to pick a national park whenever we want to move on and go there. It's hard to say exactly where we'll go. I mainly want to get out of the Sacramento heat and the valley smog. We've been talking about moving to Oregon; it'll be fun to get to drive through a few places over the next few weeks and see what looks good.


I think I'll stick with the bolts and wing nuts to secure the lifters. They're a little harder to get in and out, but I think they'll be stronger if I can tighten up the bolts after I put it up.


Small progress today. I got the top lowered for the first time this evening and found that I need to shorten the lower lever on my conduit lifter on the back of the camper by the door. When the front is lowered and I got to lower the back, the lever part of the lifter hits the ceiling. And the conduit isn't so strong sideways that it's actually useful having such a tall lower part of the lever. Not sure if that makes sense.

Anyway, I can take the back lifter apart and shorten the lower half to make it work better. I think this won't be too hard to do with the roof down.

Advice for anyone else doing this, it's probably best to totally attach your roof with the lifters before you ever get around to attaching the vinyl sides. It's hard to adjust and change stuff once the vinyl's on because it's heavy and everything is under tension.

I'm working on mounting the solar panels... this is really the last thing I have to do before I put the camper on the truck and roll over to lowes to buy the correct length turnbuckles.

I feel totally out of energy tonight (6am run might have done this). I'm having a beer now sitting with the dogs. I'm gonna try to get everything wrapped by Saturday AM so we can hit the road!

--Dan