Itsavanman
Adventurer
So, impatience got the best of me, and instead of waiting until I had more work done, I decided to tip my hand early 
a little bit of a back story on the name of this project.. Camper Project 3. Over the last 5 years, I have tried and tried to build a camper, to tow the toys, and have a liittle space to sleep / eat. but as life would have it, every time I got ready to build, life kicked me in the kahones.. cp1 was a $200 1955 chevy bread truck, got everything collected, and ready to build, and had to give it away because of having to move from the west coast back east because of a sick family member. last time i checked in with the person who got my rig, hes made it his own, fixed it up and its keeping his other 55 chevy bread truck company in Sierra Vista AZ.
CP2 was a ford econoline 1/2 ton. lined up an actual quigley front end for it, and sourced a 4 speed and tcase out of a 70's bronco. but once again, Here comes that kick.. (I should buy a cup) was promised use of a shop by a "friend" and a place to store my crap for cheap money, a month later, get booted because of the landlord not approving of extra tenants in the shop, in the process, the AOD takes a crap in the van, after about 3 or 4 weeks of searching for a place to finish this and failing. and not finding anyone who wanted a fun bug out project, the dreaded call to the junkyard is made, and away cp2 went. after selling off all the spare parts, i think I just about broke even on that one.. still that one stings.. whatever!
Hopefully the one that changes my string of bad luck.. CP3. in my 5 years of trying to build a camper, the idea got refined, I realized that all previous renditions of this idea were limited, either by drivetrain, or physical size. plus the base vehicle wasn't what I wanted. I wanted a solid axled manual transmission vehicle. and spent much time trying to convert previous vehicles to that configuration. well as luck would have it, a $300 98 jeep was plopped into my lap. nothing fancy, just a SE with a 4.0 and ax15 and 260k on the clock, but with a damn near mint body and ok mechanicals.
Spent the first year of ownership fixing up what 260k does to a vehicle. and of course that year was spent dreaming, sketching, and thinking.. about a year later, the final rendering has been penned, and my schedule has been freed to actually build something! Over the 5 years of trying to do this, certain things were kept that were slated for the other projects, like the water tanks, pump, on demand water heater, Ice box etc etc.. So having all the bits and pieces ready and waiting really helps.
When this project started, I knew I had severe interior size limits, with the rear seats removed, theres only 5' of vehicle to work with. so unless your a midget, theres not enough room for a bed, and if there was, all interior would be eaten up by a bed. so like my previous project was slated to have, a pop up roof will be added, the final piece will be like a Westfalia, and a pop up camper where the bed slides out. this will net the headroom to stand up, but also leave the 5' for a seat, ice box and sink, not large by any means, but big enough for weekend trips to ride the dirt or water toys. Most importantly, a table to play cards with the love of my life (shes already ready to kill me because all spare time is given to cp3). oh well.. lol
First order of business is to build the platform on the floor. off to Lowes for supplies.. $100 later, I have enough material to get half way there I think. building a floor in an XJ takes a bit of figuring, but after a couple hours, we have a sub-floor.
and then after that.. a real floor!!
With the floor built, i now have my platform to build everything else. I am going to build the pop last, so now unto the seat and the cabinet to hold the ice box and sink. more story telling later today when i come in for lunch.. now I'm fully caffeinated.. :coffeedrink: time to build! stay tuned...
a little bit of a back story on the name of this project.. Camper Project 3. Over the last 5 years, I have tried and tried to build a camper, to tow the toys, and have a liittle space to sleep / eat. but as life would have it, every time I got ready to build, life kicked me in the kahones.. cp1 was a $200 1955 chevy bread truck, got everything collected, and ready to build, and had to give it away because of having to move from the west coast back east because of a sick family member. last time i checked in with the person who got my rig, hes made it his own, fixed it up and its keeping his other 55 chevy bread truck company in Sierra Vista AZ.
CP2 was a ford econoline 1/2 ton. lined up an actual quigley front end for it, and sourced a 4 speed and tcase out of a 70's bronco. but once again, Here comes that kick.. (I should buy a cup) was promised use of a shop by a "friend" and a place to store my crap for cheap money, a month later, get booted because of the landlord not approving of extra tenants in the shop, in the process, the AOD takes a crap in the van, after about 3 or 4 weeks of searching for a place to finish this and failing. and not finding anyone who wanted a fun bug out project, the dreaded call to the junkyard is made, and away cp2 went. after selling off all the spare parts, i think I just about broke even on that one.. still that one stings.. whatever!
Hopefully the one that changes my string of bad luck.. CP3. in my 5 years of trying to build a camper, the idea got refined, I realized that all previous renditions of this idea were limited, either by drivetrain, or physical size. plus the base vehicle wasn't what I wanted. I wanted a solid axled manual transmission vehicle. and spent much time trying to convert previous vehicles to that configuration. well as luck would have it, a $300 98 jeep was plopped into my lap. nothing fancy, just a SE with a 4.0 and ax15 and 260k on the clock, but with a damn near mint body and ok mechanicals.
Spent the first year of ownership fixing up what 260k does to a vehicle. and of course that year was spent dreaming, sketching, and thinking.. about a year later, the final rendering has been penned, and my schedule has been freed to actually build something! Over the 5 years of trying to do this, certain things were kept that were slated for the other projects, like the water tanks, pump, on demand water heater, Ice box etc etc.. So having all the bits and pieces ready and waiting really helps.
When this project started, I knew I had severe interior size limits, with the rear seats removed, theres only 5' of vehicle to work with. so unless your a midget, theres not enough room for a bed, and if there was, all interior would be eaten up by a bed. so like my previous project was slated to have, a pop up roof will be added, the final piece will be like a Westfalia, and a pop up camper where the bed slides out. this will net the headroom to stand up, but also leave the 5' for a seat, ice box and sink, not large by any means, but big enough for weekend trips to ride the dirt or water toys. Most importantly, a table to play cards with the love of my life (shes already ready to kill me because all spare time is given to cp3). oh well.. lol
First order of business is to build the platform on the floor. off to Lowes for supplies.. $100 later, I have enough material to get half way there I think. building a floor in an XJ takes a bit of figuring, but after a couple hours, we have a sub-floor.
and then after that.. a real floor!!
With the floor built, i now have my platform to build everything else. I am going to build the pop last, so now unto the seat and the cabinet to hold the ice box and sink. more story telling later today when i come in for lunch.. now I'm fully caffeinated.. :coffeedrink: time to build! stay tuned...
