Jayco Sportster 8ft - Renovation

[Manfred65]

Hello,

Thanks to everyone who gave me a warning with the 22 year old Jayco on Ebay Germany/Austria.
Sorry Folks, for ignoring you, but American Popup-Camper are very rare in Germany and Europe.


http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/8728-older-jayco-popup-camper-hands-off/page-2

Picked it up last week and started to strip it down this week.
Renovation will last its time because i am still in work all week long.

First we started a clean up inside the camper and the popup-liner. The liner is in an awesome condition: Only one screen behind the overhead cabinet is broken.There is a Waeco-Compressor Fridge ~ 3,9 cuft and a nearly new Flowjet Water-Pump in the galley.
First we removed the rear window. All dry around !
Stripped the rear right side paneling then and found rot around the popup mechanism and in the corner. We could see it from inside the cab before.But not as bad as expected.
Before removing the left side panel we have to support the roof because the winch that holds the roof in the upper position is fixed through the rear wall. Will be the first important step to remove the winch and rebuilt the floor and the room where it is located. Found a big hole in the side wall, much bigger than needed for winch access and bigger than the cover.

These Jayco campers are very well made! The bottom was complety covered with a thin layer of foam insulation and aluminium sheet and i have to say thank you very much to the guys at Jayco:
They gave me immediate support, e-mailing manuals and structural informations and measure of bottom and roof. Great Service !

 

[billharr]

I will be following to see how your camper comes out. Europe always does things a little different and usually better than we do.


Bill

 

[Manfred65]

Rear right Corner-Detail:

Side view w/o Aluminium Panels

Cabover rot. Wood lath wanted!

Front right corner outside and inside:

At the moment there are no bigger problems than expected.

 

[Manfred65]

Striptease is going on:

The front left corner and the screws from the jack bracket. More metal than wood in this corner !

Removed heater, fridge and the "central electric"-parts ( 220V-breaker, conv 220-110V, Main switch 110V and Carson Converter 110V-12V

After this i have a free view on the popup-winch:

The main problem is the structure that must hold against the pulling cables in the pulleys. I have to lower and to support the roof to loosen the cables.

 

[highz]

I'll enjoy following your restoration. I admire people with the skills to take on this kind of project.

 

[Manfred65]

@highz : Thank you for the flowers. The skills are not mine. I am only a bus driver with no craftsman background.
What you need is:
- a little tooling and room where to work an to store the demounted parts
- ability to think straight and to thinks "around the corners" if necessary
- internet research on special skills, sometimes grabbing from other rebuilds
- the "Best of all wifes" must support you in the idea and also with practical work
- the courage to start the project......THERE IS NO WAY BACK IF STARTED.....only a lighter

 

[ski3pin]

<snip>
- the "Best of all wifes" must support you in the idea and also with practical work
- the courage to start the project......THERE IS NO WAY BACK IF STARTED.....only a lighter

Manfred, great list!

I have a friend who was discussing a possible kitchen remodel with his wife. He brought his chainsaw into the house, cut a big hole in a wall, and announced "Now we are committed!" They are still married.

Thanks again for sharing your project with us.

 

[billharr]

1. - a little tooling and room where to work an to store the demounted part
2. - ability to think straight and to thinks "around the corners" if necessary
3. - internet research on special skills, sometimes grabbing from other rebuilds
4. - the "Best of all wifes" must support you in the idea and also with practical work
5. - the courage to start the project......THERE IS NO WAY BACK IF STARTED.....only a lighter

Lots of wisdom in those 5 points. Especially number 4! Your build will be fun to watch and see how it progresses. Great work on tackling the big items first.


Bill

 

[takesiteasy]

Yeah, that's a good list of rules to live by...

Good luck with your project. It will be fun to follow along.

 

[Manfred65]

Thank you for your emotional support.

The manufacturer called this "plywood"

Cabover left side:

Cabover right side:

Rot like expected!

I cannot believe how this construction can hold two sleeping persons:

EDIT:
There is NO strong construction behind this. The complete front + cabover is only supported by the inner wall covering, aluminium outside panels and the contact to the floorboard. All this with small and smaller staples. You see the vertical metall. It´s the popup mechanism. There is the cabin in the rear and the cabover in the front. Behind the metal tube is only wall-cover of max 1/8" plywood fixed with staples!

Checked the Cabover Construction again:
The ply you can see between the frame is 1/2" ply running from the side window to the front corner of the cabover ~ 90 inches x 10 inches. Very well covered from the inside and exact work outside so i´ve gone wrong with my first analysis

 

[Manfred65]

Only office day today !

doing some research on materials an how to fix one problem after the other.....

I phoned a bavarian manufacturer of very strong expedition camper cabins. He works with a special type of plywood called "Siebdruckplatte" translated screen printing plate. Pics says more:

http://www.adventuremedia4u.de/rustikab/index.html

These plates are available in the perfect size ~ 8ft x 4ft ( 250cm x 125 cm ) they are very stable and nearly waterproof.
The ply layers are bonded with phenolic resin
They are used for floors in Big Trucks and trailers and on livestock trailers.

I can work with thinner material, save weight + add stability. Only use double on the places where the pulleys of the roof lift are located. I think this is the perfect material for use on the bottom part of a truckcamper.
#1: Reliability: Form follows function.

Rustikab uses 3/4" for Expedition Cabins on 4x4 7,5 ton trucks and 3/8" for use on Slide in Campers for Pickup-Trucks.
One difference in my plans is it to use Standard - L-shape-Aluminium profiles not the special Profiles used in these professional constructions.
Glue this together with Terostat MS939 + short screws. This will protect me from most "wild" neighbours on european campgrounds.

 

[Manfred65]

Edited post #10 now.

We plan to replace the 1/2" side support of the cabover by the same boards like i showed above. But same size than original.

 

[Manfred65]

There was not so much time this week but today work was going on:

Removing lots of screws and staples! I think these camper builders are world champion with the staplegun !

Every time you think: "Well lets remove this board, it´s all free!" there is a staple somewhere you never thought there can be one !

Removed the front right corner:

also the front wall:

Floor on the right side already removed:

Next steps: Rust protection on the Lift-system and changing parts of the frame on the right side, replace the front corner and then the rear right corner. Step by step to get no problems with the structure of the camper.

Today we realised that this camper has a double floor with a few inches of insulation between the floor boards.

 

[Manfred65]

No quiet sunday in Bavaria:

Repaired some structural problems today. The right side corners are replaced and also the horizontal frame. We cut the vertikal frame to shape to give place for stronger horizontal frame. It´s use ful to install some useful staff later. We will fit Airline tracks like in transport vans in this part of the frame to carry some stuff like a small table, bottle opener or only for a cord to hang something away from the ground.

Front right corner:

Rear and total:

You can see some dark parts on the inside sheeting. There is only 1/16" of ply remaining to hold the inside decor. To glue a sheet of plywood outside to support these parts is a job for the evenings.

 

[takesiteasy]

This is quite a project! You are making good progress. Thanks for posting the pictures. It is fun to follow along.

 

[ski3pin]

Looks like great progress and a good job on your part. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Manfred65]

Back here again:

We had a little progress today. Little because the gods of the tool wanted to annoy me and tucked my tools.....

We placed an additional Frame brace in Front. Original there was only the front wall. We think it will give more rigidity, thinking about the roof lift.

The lower wood lath is only for rigidity during our work.

The pulley in the left corner was replaced sometime ( not OEM) but it is already cracked:

I think i will replace it by a stainless one.

Then we finished the left side frame:

No better view possible, because the camper sits very close to the wall on the right side.
Tomorrow i hope to finish the left rear corner.

To replace the floor we are planning now with a sandwich of PU-Block-Foam and Plywood with HPL-Cover ( like on countertops )
This cover is very reliable against scratches, salt, water, oil and you can hit it with a hammer ( like shown in the Hallmark-Video ) without any damage. And it is available in thousands of designs.

 

[Manfred65]

Next frame repairs:

The rear left corner:

The lower part of the entrance frame is missing. That´s work left for the week...

Right back side finished as far as possible:

If one has never done such a renovation he cannot believe how filigree such a frame is. Cutting one screw or staple at the wrong time and you can see how the forces find their way! You need to have the "global view" while working on the camper.
I think it is easier to build a cabin from ground up than to renovate one and have to change essential structural parts.

A little rust protection on the roof lift was another job of the day:

 

[Sock Puppet]

Amazing project, thanks for sharing!

 

[Manfred65]

Because our car needed some TLC this weekend there was not the big progress:

Reinforced the locations of the tiedowns:

Replaced the right floor over the bedrails:

...and removed the bottom wall of the right side.