1985 Grandby - Another Rebuild

[Abbiennormal]

Hello All!

I have been reading and following this site for the past few years and have been really inspired by all the rebuilds. Especially the ones by Poky and Tim Morrisey just to name a few. Now it is my turn to take the plunge and try my hand at it.

I inherited the Grandby that was floor mounted on a 1985 F150. The truck is finally toast and I have taken this out quite a few times to know how I would rebuild to suit my needs. Thanks to this site, I have learned so much, now comes the fun part of doing it all.

Here are a few before pics of Princess Lumpy.

 

[ski3pin]

What a nice old Grandby! I look forward to watching your project evolve! Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[Abbiennormal]

Thanks Ski3pin, we have taken her on many trips and had the best adventures! It was originally owned by my friend's uncle who passed it to him when they could no longer go out on the road. My friend died suddenly while he was hiking 7 years ago and his wife asked me if I wanted to adopt the truck/camper since their kids did not want it. Of course I said yes!

I had partially gutted the interior and rewired everything to LEDs somewhat haphazardly. Replaced the auxiliary battery but the Ford had a paralytic drain that no one could figure out (at least for free) and every mechanic I asked told me that to troubleshoot it could get costly. So I just lived with it. My initial intent was to bring the F150 back to life but the more I worked on it, the more it became a money pit. It no longer has a working air-conditioning and that pretty much killed me every time we took it out. Then the motor started failing, one rust spot led to another, basically the bottom of the truck was rusting out. So I gave up but not before I learned how to work with Bondo to patch things up. It became our test area on how to do bodywork. My husband used it to learn before he rebuilt an old Miata.

Now I am turning my attention back to the camper. Fix her up for her new home, a Toyota Tundra with a long bed.

 

[PokyBro]

Abbiennormal,

Glad to see you start a build thread and share your project. You’re certainly starting with what appears to be a well kept Grandby. Wishing you lots of success moving forward, and don’t hesitate to ask if there’s any thing we can help with.

Poky

 

[Abbiennormal]

Hi Poky! Your thread lit the fire under me and showed me what was possible. So thank you!!! I have read it over so many times and keep referring back to it. Next week the welder will be coming to help bulk her up. My job this week is to finish stripping her down to her bones.

 

[BBZ]

Look forward to watching what you do! Its fun making them just how you want them!

 

[Abbiennormal]

I finished taking off all the aluminum yesterday. The stove, fridge, propane box, water tank and heater were previously pulled out. One thing notable was that there was no aluminum siding installed right above the door before they mounted the soft pop up piece. The soft panel was attached directly to the aluminum frame. Maybe to make room for the drip tray? Just thought it is worth noting as a reminder to myself when it comes time to reassemble things.

Here are a few pics of the interior and exterior demolition. A bonus picture of a hornet's nest in the vent of the heater.

 

[Abbiennormal]

More pics of the demolition.

 

[Abbiennormal]

There is a piece of black foam about 3 inches long that were placed throughout the top of the c channel aluminum. My guess is that this was used to keep the soft panel from directly contacting the aluminum to prevent wear and tear. You can see it on the second picture. That picture also shows the soft panel attached directly to the aluminum frame without any insulation and siding in between.

 

[chobro]

Good luck with the build!

 

[Abbiennormal]

I have been busy with so many balls in the air that working on the camper was pushed to the side. Plus I encountered aluminum supply issues. A lot of the metal shops here are down to bare minimal inventory due to the worldwide supply chain issue. I refuse to pay full on retail price that the big box stores was charging and since I was not in a rush, wait I shall.

In between waiting for more aluminum and scheduling the welder to come to my house to work on the frame, I managed to remove the old vent and cut out a second vent for the 2 new fans. I also reinforced the roof with more crossbars and started running electrical wires. In doing so, I also found out that I did not have enough wires left from my first wiring job so I had to order more. Fixed all the cracked holes where the screws attached to the frame on the roof. After patching fiberglass bondo, the roof was repainted with a reflective white paint.

Here are a few more pics to bring you up to date. You will see that on the frame I added a good 6 inches to the base. My intention here was to raise it high enough to go over the bed rails of a Tundra. I figured while I was adding the height, I might as well add a few more inches so that there would be a proper "basement" The intention here is to make a storage drawer big enough to throw in all my fishing and crabbing equipment. This way the interior will stay relatively cleaner and I don't have to keep on stepping over my equipment. I also added 2 inches to the top and added another 7 inches to the cab overhang so that there would be more internal storage space.

The corners of the camper was also reinforced with a few more 1x1 aluminum bars so that he jacks had something to bite into. Removing the camper from the Ford was real sketchy. Thank goodness I had the help of my daughter's friends! The first three pictures shows the original camper on the truck and on the jacks. The following pics show the additional aluminum and roof work.

Last week I finally received the shipment of anodized aluminum that will be used to clad the frame.

 

[Abbiennormal]

Last week I managed to finish building the floor pack. The floor bottom has been painted with a flex paint and I screwed on pressure treated wood to raise it off the floor of the truck bed for ventilation.




That pretty much brings my build up to date! The last picture on this shows the front of the camper and on the floor is the anodized aluminum sheets ready to be installed this weekend.

 

[EYEMLOST]

Hello All!

I have been reading and following this site for the past few years and have been really inspired by all the rebuilds. Especially the ones by Poky and Tim Morrisey just to name a few. Now it is my turn to take the plunge and try my hand at it.

I inherited the Grandby that was floor mounted on a 1985 F150. The truck is finally toast and I have taken this out quite a few times to know how I would rebuild to suit my needs. Thanks to this site, I have learned so much, now comes the fun part of doing it all.

Here are a few before pics of Princess Lumpy.

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20140816_151403.jpg

Wow; your rig and camper bring back memories!


My '98 Grandby was originally in the bed of my buddy's '86 F-150.

I too; inherited my Grandby.

Countless campouts in the deserts of S.Cal.


Looking forward to your rebuild/remodel.

 

[Abbiennormal]

Wow; your rig and camper bring back memories!


My '98 Grandby was originally in the bed of my buddy's '86 F-150.

I too; inherited my Grandby.

Countless campouts in the deserts of S.Cal.


Looking forward to your rebuild/remodel.

Hi Eyemlost, love your name! We are neighbors. I am up in SF and usually head to the Sierra Buttes area, have always wanted to explore SoCal. I will add it to my list of places to visit when I am done. Will probably hit you up for tips on where to go.

 

[EYEMLOST]

Any updates?

 

[goinoregon]

thx for the pics and story. very informative.
on my atc, i had marty put 4 of the folding steps on the back. had him do it, since he knows where all the internal frames are located. i like for hanging various things.
keep up the good work.

 

[Abbiennormal]

Hi All! It has been awhile but I am still slowly, ever so slowly continuing with my rebuild. Please forgive me in advance since I did not strictly adhere to the size of the original Grandby. I figured since I was not rebuilding with an eye towards resale, but for my own personal use, I wanted something a little more customized.

With that in mind, I added 6 inches to the base so that it would be high enough to clear the side rails on the Tundra. After doing that, I realized I had this huge gap between the overhang and the top of the Tundra cab. So I used that as an opportunity to build it out for additional storage under the bed. In doing so, I would be able to add in insulation too since it gets really cold up there.

I also decided to go with anodized aluminum sheets instead of the aluminum tin siding that was used on the original model. You will see that the black anodized aluminum sheets are riveted in.

I did reuse the some of the moldings, door and all the windows since they were in excellent shape. Just repainted them to update the look.

You will see pics of the two fans that replaced the one vent on the roof. One is a Fantastic Fan and the other is a MaxxAir. Both are manual since I have a tendency to lose remote controls.

I also used 1 inch square aluminum bars for the DIY roof rack to hold the solar panels. Had a bit of a delay since one of the solar panels had an exposed wire. Ended up contacting Renogy and they walked me through a possible fix, if that does not work, they will send me a new one.

Still so much to do! The next phase is wiring all the electrical. Learned how to build my own electrical panel with relays, fuse and switch. The lights have been plotted out on the camper (that is the pink paper you see stuck on the side walls). Onward!

 

[Vic Harder]

Now that's a rebuild! Love the idea of adding under bed storage. Did you consider making the cabover area 5' deep so you can have a full queen size bed without having a pull out?

 

[Abbiennormal]

Now that's a rebuild! Love the idea of adding under bed storage. Did you consider making the cabover area 5' deep so you can have a full queen size bed without having a pull out?

I did make it deeper but not large enough for a queen sized bed. It is usually just me and a couple other ladies, we don't camp with our hubbies this is my get away toy.

Since we are all under 5'4" one person sleeps on the overhang, I usually take the bench under the overhang which leave room for one more on the other bench facing the sink. Plus I wanted to reuse the roof and couldn't wrap my brain around making the truck bed section shorter cause I wanted it to be on the full 8 ft truck bed.

The only time the overhang pull out will be used is if my daughter takes it and goes out with her friends. All the bedding, blankets, sleeping bags and the winter pack will be stored in the overhang storage. It is all light but they do get bulky. This will free up the area under the bench for me to mount the lithium batteries and slide out fridge. At least that is the plan that is in my head, who knows where the battery will end up once I start putting all the wiring together.

 

[goinoregon]

i was looking at one of the new camper company layouts, and they are kind of a swiss army knife for configuration. the one thing i liked, is that they put riv nuts into the frame, all over the place, and available inside the camper. the idea, is that if you need to add something later, the secure riv nut fastener is already there, and you dont have to find the internal frame, etc etc.