S-280 Shelter to camper Rebuild

[Troll1216]

Well gents (and ladies) I have begun my S-280 shelter to camper conversion.

I picked up the shelter from Fellow SS member Traumadoc. The pickup went uneventful and I met him between Sebring and Avon Park. The transfer was easy as my friends at Eastern Towing did me a favor and assisted me with providing a rollback wrecker for the recovery op.

The drive home was uneventful and the driver from Eastern Towing was able to use the roll back to unload the S-280 driectly of of his bed and into my Deuce bed. Recovery4x4 was on call for emergency plan A.

When I picked up the truck from Lavarok the wife went with, this time she stayed home, leaving my green disease to not infect the rest of the family.

Pictures to follow soon.

 

[Troll1216]

These are photos of the shelter in Traumadoc's Deuce:

 

[Troll1216]

These are photos of the interior from Traumadoc:

 

[Troll1216]

Although I had a good start, I want to make it better so that the wife and I can enjoy the shelter/camper for years to come. I also need it to be sutable to use for a hunting camp and something to sleep in for the Florida rally i will make one of these days...

So a rebuild was in order....

 

[kennys@wi.rr.com]

I hope to do the same myself. So please keep the pictures coming and let us know of any issues you run into.

 

[Troll1216]

I began the tear down project today. I figure putting in a few hours here and there will keep me out of trouble. Although the interior was serviceable I wanted to be able to use this for many years, this involves, 1st and formost in Florida, is waterproofing. I need to find the leaks, if there are any (it seems pretty tight now as is) but I wanted to confirm fix if necessary and then place a spray on / paint on bed liner over the top and down about 6 inches on all sides.

 

[Troll1216]

The recovery photos:

 

[Troll1216]

The driver from Eastern Towing was really good and slid the S-280 into my Deuce

 

[phil2968]

Looks good! You should try to make the Ga rally in Oct. We will most likely convoy again this year. Hook up with Kenny and come along.

 

[Troll1216]

I next got a rough idea of a floor plan for the interior. I taped off the different areas.

In the first photo we can see the interior before the teardown

In the second photo you can see the far end of the shelter, the bunks will go here. to the left of that will be the bathroom where the porta-potti will go.

In the third photo we can see the entry door.

In the fourth photo we can see the rest of the floor plan with a possible sink/stove on the right, gun safe moved to the left and room for shelves/storage.

Here in the fifth photo is a view of the side where the safe and the storage will go.

In the sixth photo is a view where the sink and range cook top will go.

I am hoping that this will go faster than it looks. Taping it off really made a difference to visualize the interior. If you lay it out well you can actually fit 2x 50"x 73" bunk beds. Thats enough room for the wife and I to be cozy on one together but not cramped.

 

[Troll1216]

I began to pull the pannels off. The interior has a musty smell and the wife and I are both sensitive to mold. A re-insulation of the shelter was manditory because I want to get rid of the old fiberglass insulation and possibly cut a window or two. This will also allow me to locate leaks easier if I find any at all.

I will be leaving the old insulation in place until I remove all of the pannels with the exception of the ceiling, those pannels will be last. So far so good. I will be re panneling the interior so out with the old.....

 

[Troll1216]

Here are the photos of the teardown.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Got any sleep lately James? Workin hard man.

 

[Troll1216]

Today I picked up two camper windows the wife found on the net for $15 each. One is a emergency escape window the other is vented with a screen.

 

[Troll1216]

I also got around to stripping the rest of the wall sections I removed. That fiberglass is NASTY!!!

I used a plastic putty knife to pull the fiberglass off the wall, and then a shop vac with a brush attachment to scrub the walls. This gave me a really good view of the walls and any possible holes. I marked the holes with orange paint to go back to later to fix.

So far, not too many holes to fix.

 

[Troll1216]

Here is a close up of the NASTY old glue used to hold the fiberglass into the shelter.

The walls by the way are 1 1/2 in thick from the interior of the skin to the inside of the interior pannel.

The shop vac, fan moving air out of the shelter, and the mask made the time tolerable.

 

[Troll1216]

I have only one area of concern so far. This is a shot of the far right of the S-280 (as walking in).

It appears to be some seperation / metal rot that will need to be patched.

 

[Troll1216]

I also got a good peak at the floor while I was cleaning up the fiberglass remnants.

By the way, that small section represented 3 full trash bags of waste, two of the wood pannels cut down and a third full bag just in fiberglass.

The floor appears to be a plywood base with a roofing paper on top of that, then a cork like substance that might be really nasty old who knows what.... It comes off pretty easy though.

 

[scottjhl]

Looks good bro. Can't wait to get back and give you a hand. We have much to do.

 

[RAYZER]

Hi James. Nice kooking shelter and deuce! This kind of project has always interested me, I wanted to do the same thing when I first bought my deuce but ended up going in a different direction for a camper rig. What kind of floor are you going to put back in? What are your plans for insulation? Will you rewire? How will you fix the rust? Where will you put those windows?