Jayco Sportster 8ft - Renovation

[Manfred65]

The old, original winch:

...and the new one:

This winch includes cable and radio remote controls.

Yesterday we glued a PVC-covering on the new camper floor and let him dry until tomorrow. So there was time to remove the old floor.
It went out as planned.

 

[Manfred65]

We covered the new floor with PVC but the result was not as smooth as we liked to have it. But the pics show the situation more worse than real.
The floor is placed between the sidewalls and it fits perfect !

Also the new winch found it´s place:

Have a nice week

 

[Manfred65]

Hello again:

Update from last week:

We rebuilt the front storage/step to the cabover to place a new fresh-water-tank and a possibility to store a Potti here.
It is possible to pull the tank out for cleaning and to have access from the upper side. Original there was no access and no
chance for cleaning.

Yesterday Viola started the new insulation to get a warm home away from home. Originally covered by plywood with deko-cover (kitchen style??) We replace it with 1/8" waterresistant painted HDF-wood.

Drilled the holes and prepared everything to install the Tiedowns.

We sealed the original metal propane-compartment and fixed the propane tank a little more to the left to get room for the installation.

Proper fit ?

...includes the plug for pressure test and propane barbecue

The propane tube runs to a 2-Way-distributor inside the wardrobe and then down and inside the camper....

....to the furnace in the rear seat-box. ( not yet connected )

I hope to get the propane-connections ready this week.

 

[Manfred65]

+ prepared the rear wall to install the furnace´s combined Air Inlet and Exhaust.

Looks like the inner wall has no cutout. But it´s only the pic

 

[Manfred65]

Today we finished the propane plumbing to the furnace. Hope i got it well sealed.

Viola built a 2" higher pedestal under the table to install the ventilation tubes properly.

The battery is fixed with some metal profiles from an Ikea hanging kitchen cabinet. The screws are supported in the floor by expanding nuts. Works well. We use an 120 Ah AGM-Battery and a interesting italian charger:

The charger works on 110V/230V domestic power, on alternator from 90 Amps and up and with Solarpanels up to 250 Watts.
Weight 3,75 lbs!

 

[Manfred65]

We received our new kitchen this week:

Our very special thanks to Mr. Don and Bryan Wheat from Alaskancampers for making it possible to get this Atwood stove and the coleman oven ( which are both rarely available in europe ) at a reasonable price.

I am very glad to have the contact to these two great guys who provided me their help if i would need something for our project.

Thank you very much !

 

[takesiteasy]

Looks like things are coming together well!

 

[Manfred65]

Today we installed the beginning of the +wiring:

to connect the "ground"-cables i used a part that was left from our house renovation.

On the right side you can see the 100A-Shunt of the NASA-Clipper BM-1 , Battery-Monitor.
NASA or NSA ? Big Brother is watching us and this one is watching my electricity

Battery Monitor and Furnace Thermostat above

To have a little work outside in this beautiful weather i cut the M10 screws to shape and installed the four TieDownRings.

 

[Manfred65]

information to add: I think you figured it out already: The brown plywood i used is called MDO in the states i think.

 

[Manfred65]

Hello,
we installed the propane tube to the kitchen area yesterday. Originally the Jayco-builders ran the tubes outside the camper. In Europe this is not the standard. Yes it is much easier to install all this outside But i don´t like the easy way:

We prepared the cutout´s in the cabinets, thread 4-5 mtrs. of copper tubing throug the entire camper and starting from the rear, bending the tubes to the right shape into the galley:

Originally there was a worktop made of particle board installed in the galley. One Pre-owner covered this with a plywood-board of the same design, only with a smaller cutout to fit the Cramer-Dometic cooktop. This board is in an excellent shape so we will "recycle" it, converting the cutout for the Atwood.

Today we finished with covering the outside frame with 1/8" double-side-painted HDF-Board. So we only need to seal the open edges. We use this instead of the original rotted plywood which was covered with some type of adhesive film.

 

[ski3pin]

You are doing great with this project, looks great! Thanks for keeping up the posts.

 

[Manfred65]

Today the rear insulation was covered by some "recycling material". The lines show where to find massive wood if it is necessary to find it while attaching the outside Aluminium panels.

Who can find the mistake ?

Yes, i forgot the wiring for the original rear lamp. But this is no big deal...

The Lady signed her piece of art:

Prepared the new fresh water tank:

Now it is visible how much water is in it w/o electronics.

The wiring to the electric winch and fridge is already prepared now. I consider to prepare the solar wiring in the cabinets.
I don´t know if we are able to repair the roof this fall but i think it is good to have all the wiring to the roof ready to connect.

 

[Manfred65]

Now all the installations are nearly completed:
Electric roof winch is connected, waiting for the first test. 220V is going to be finished this weekend. Battery, Charger and Furnace are ready. Hope to install the stove the next days.
To finish the 220V, Fresh water inlet and grey water outlet we started installing the sidewall panels today.

I love the small details so we are now able to open our beer "in style"

 

[Bad Habit]

Now that's a good Sarsaparilla

 

[Manfred65]

..yes it´s good but it has to wait...there will be a time to drink....
now it is time to work:

There was a carson converter in this jayco

To remove it left a hole in the galley so i decided to recycle the cover:

Fresh painted, a covered 220V-Outlet on the left and a combined main breaker/ residual current operated circuit breaker on the right side. ( Sorry, i don´t know if this is the correct translation).

The first window and the fridge grille are fixed and, as a fake: exhaust from 3-way-fridge and furnace to cover the holes in the panels.You remeber there is a compressor fridge + furnace in the rear seat.

 

[ski3pin]

A fun project to watch, thanks!

 

[Manfred65]

While i was working on our trucks Herculiner-Bedliner, Viola had some progress on the camper:

She installed the Fresh-Water-Inlet

and the frame of the lower fridge access

I consider if we will need this additional vent for the compressor fridge. Otherwise it will create a small outside storage or we close it with Styrodur-Insulation inside the door.

The Power-Inlet is now converted to a grey-water-outlet, placed in the hole of the former City-Water-Inlet (not needed in Europe).
The Diameter fit perfectly!

In the first Pic you can see some holes in the aluminium panels. They are remaining from the Jack Brackets and some "wild" additional screws from the last owners. The smaller holes along the sidewall are from Aluminiumplates which were there when we bought the camper.

Most of the holes will be covered by some Aluminium-L-Profiles we will bond there. I think this is the best solution:
To ship original Panels ( yes, they are available at Jayco ) is far to expensive and also new Panels made of aluminium or
fibreglass are too expensive for the budget we planned at the beginning.
And we like the original design very much !

I bought a special Air-tool an Air-Nibbler called in Germany to cut the aluminium panels to shape. Low price and easy to work with.
This is a great tool for cutting holes (exact: it stamps the metal, so there are no sharp cutting edges) in thin metal or fibreglass !

 

[Manfred65]

The result of nighttime working. I finished the bedliner at 11.30 P.M. yesterday

+ front view of the truck

 

[Manfred65]

Today we first covered the insulation at the cabover. The HDF-wood-panels are bonded and sealed with Terostat MS 939 a special "body glue" for cars, trucks an buses. Nearly the complete repair is made with this glue. It is available in black, grey and white.
Similar to the famous Sikaflex-products.

Step by step it starts looking like a camper:

 

[Manfred65]

Today i started with a small but important repair:
The right side guide of the ice compartments door in the fridge was broken. I fixed it with 1/2" part of an plastic cable channel

The next door was the one from the propane compartment:
We installed the frame 180° reverse to the original. Now it opens on the left side. No wind pressure is able to open it now.
The gill plate is necessary because we must have 100 cm² vent for the propane compartment.

The Aluminium covering is 90% my wife´s job. She did it all from cleaning to the final fixing! Sometimes it sounds through our workshop:
" I did it darling!" She loves our Jayco!