Still Going Strong: Camper Renovation: Day 1

Finally, we had a warm enough Saturday where we could work on our "new to us" 1972 Jayco Jay Wren travel trailer (which by the way we have decided to name it "Carlos").

I headed out with so much excitement (and fear) of what we might find and what type of critters or smells we might encounter.

"And the fun begins"

First things first, the prior owner had done some handy work of their own and had screwed down a make shift bed with plywood where there should of only been a bench. So I pulled out all the nasty foam and bedding (I had gloves on: I don’t even what to think about the gross stuff that was on that), found a ¼ of a century old hot dog (YUCK!) and continued on my way of removing the “DIY don’t” addition to the camper.

"Notice red arrows: This is the plywood bed that leaves no room to walk the the bathroom area"

I knew that I was going to want to save all of the original hardware from the cabinets, so I got to work with a few bits and the power drill. I wanted to save some of the unique charm of the camper and by saving the hardware it will also save us some cash. I am sure the travel lock hardware which is specialized for a camper is not cheap. Anyway, I can take the old ones (which I separated and label by type zip lock bags), clean them up and repaint them with special spray paint and they will be good as new!

"Crappy cabinet--sans cabinet doors and hardware"

So while I was hard at work with the power drill, Ryan started to see how much water damage was in the back corner of the camper. After a little digging, finding a mouse nest, and realizing that we should probably have masks on with the fiberglass insulation that he was pulling out…we gave that part of the project a rest until we got the proper protection gear.