We bought this 1995 Tiger CX last summer with the intention of doing a full renovation on the interior. We first had it checked out by a mechanic and repaired the items he identified, and he gave it a clean bill of health. In his words “The truck is great, it’s just the camper part that needs work!” It's got 129,000 miles on it.
From there, I removed all of the interior finishes, down to bare studs. (I still have everything that was salvageable when I removed it – the back seat that folds down to be a bed, the table, the shower pan, the refrigerator, the furnace, the sink, the spare tire with the “Tiger” cover, the fresh water tank, etc. Unfortunately, once the structure was exposed, I discovered that water had been infiltrating between the sheets of aluminum sheathing on the two side walls, which caused the wood “bows” on the sides to rot, as well as the floor where it was in contact with the walls.
I reached out to Tiger about how to fix it, and a really helpful guy named Scott responded to me as follows:
"The exterior skins will need to be removed, then you can re-build the wood bows and wood structure that provides the shape of the exterior walls. Once you have replace the rotten wood, the sides can be re-skinned with .040" aluminum sheet. There may be another way to do it, but the above is the technique we use when we repair rotten side walls."
I also plugged into the great community of Tiger owners, and there were several people who had done similar repairs who offered me guidance.
As I’ve been contemplating how to approach this restoration project, I’ve realized that I just don’t have enough time to devote to it. Tiger still manufactures this same model: https://www.tigervehicles.com/bengal/, and a new one starts at $179,000 plus the cost of the truck chassis it’s installed on. This is a great opportunity for someone willing to put the work into it to have an awesome Tiger Bengal at a very reasonable price! Offers accepted. Located in Glenwood Springs, CO.
From there, I removed all of the interior finishes, down to bare studs. (I still have everything that was salvageable when I removed it – the back seat that folds down to be a bed, the table, the shower pan, the refrigerator, the furnace, the sink, the spare tire with the “Tiger” cover, the fresh water tank, etc. Unfortunately, once the structure was exposed, I discovered that water had been infiltrating between the sheets of aluminum sheathing on the two side walls, which caused the wood “bows” on the sides to rot, as well as the floor where it was in contact with the walls.
I reached out to Tiger about how to fix it, and a really helpful guy named Scott responded to me as follows:
"The exterior skins will need to be removed, then you can re-build the wood bows and wood structure that provides the shape of the exterior walls. Once you have replace the rotten wood, the sides can be re-skinned with .040" aluminum sheet. There may be another way to do it, but the above is the technique we use when we repair rotten side walls."
I also plugged into the great community of Tiger owners, and there were several people who had done similar repairs who offered me guidance.
As I’ve been contemplating how to approach this restoration project, I’ve realized that I just don’t have enough time to devote to it. Tiger still manufactures this same model: https://www.tigervehicles.com/bengal/, and a new one starts at $179,000 plus the cost of the truck chassis it’s installed on. This is a great opportunity for someone willing to put the work into it to have an awesome Tiger Bengal at a very reasonable price! Offers accepted. Located in Glenwood Springs, CO.
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