Scoutman's 'new' Starcraft Pine Mtn on Dodge 3500

Scoutman · Jan 1, 2014

I wouldnt have thought so either. This just goes to show how important periodic maintence and construction really are. I wouldnt be having these problems if the front had been sealed better and had a better means of attachment.

I am so sick of working on this thing and cant wait to get it out of my garage and back in the woods.

IdaSHO · Jan 1, 2014

If you cannot manage to get the that skin to bend to match that radius, Id suggest trimming it before the bend, and finishing it off with a radius sheet of aluminum.

Scoutman · Jan 2, 2014

IdaSHO said:
If you cannot manage to get the that skin to bend to match that radius, Id suggest trimming it before the bend, and finishing it off with a radius sheet of aluminum.

That is my plan B. My goal was for one seamless sheet like the original roof was. So far I think it's going to work ok. The lower portion of the overhead is done like you mentioned. They cap'd the front off with some textured white AL that has some breaks (folds) to make the curve. The thing is that you can tell that they didn't glue the AL to the wood structure behind it. You can press in on the AL sheet and feel the air gap behind it.

Yesterday (since I had the day off) I took some time to get a bit more done. I marked and drilled the additional 3 clearance light holes in the front board. Then I managed to tuck the roofing into the trim and get it to fully seat in place. Before I did this I made a mark 1/2" up from the bottom edge so I knew when the roofing had bottomed out on the trim since the channel is only 1/2" deep. With it in place there is still a bit of a bulge to the roofing giving an air gap behind it. I clamped things a bit tighter and then ran the forstner bit in from behind to make my center mark for each hole. Then I came from the outside to drill the light holes. I got the 2 lights that I had mounted with #10 SS screws and they hold everything pretty well. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the air gap behind it but I think if I try to glue it and clamp it flat that it'll look worse. Right now I'm not planning on glueing this front flap and I'm relying on the light screws to hold it down with a good line of sealant at the trim.

Jimmy the Heater · Jan 20, 2014

Looking good, hope that takes care of everything.

Scoutman · Jan 23, 2014

Jimmy the Heater said:
Looking good, hope that takes care of everything.

Thanks, I hope so too. I've been on work travel for the past 3 weeks so progress has stopped until I get back home and get settled again. I had ordered additional front lights so they should be in and waiting on me to return.

Scoutman · Feb 3, 2014

Well it may not look like much but I did manage to get quite a bit done this weekend. I finished up getting the lights on the front mounted and then moved on to the back. Since I had a process down from doing the front, the rear went much quicker. I got all the material pulled down, marked, offset my line, cut, trimmed and tucked into the rear trim. I then cleaned up the old light housings and lenses and got them mounted up with SS screws like the front.

The straps are ready to come off and I'm considering this the dry fit of all the roofing. I now need to take the lights back off in order to peel the clear skin off the roofing, seal the flap of roofing to the front/rear trim, and seal the lights with the bulbs in them.

Picts...

Scoutman · Feb 14, 2014

Not much more to show. I've spent the past few snow days here working on and off getting ready to assemble things. Part of that means peeling endless amounts of butyl tape off the trim (have I mentioned how much I hate taking that stuff off?). I've also brushed up on the best way to install and seal up the roof openings. I learned that the Fantastic Fan that I bought a while back is thicker than my roof is and that I needed to call Atwood to request them to send me a spacer for my interior trim ring. The lady was very nice and I have a couple of them on their way. I'm hoping to make some good progress this weekend.

Scoutman · Feb 17, 2014

Weekend of progress...

So this Sat I got most of the day to make some good progress on getting this thing back together. I got the front and back curves taken apart, protective skin peeled back, mating edges gooped up, put back together, and lights installed with butyl tape and SS screws. About the only thing left for this is part is sealing the seams with caulk.

Scoutman · Feb 17, 2014

Weekend of progress, part 2

On and off this past week I had been working to get all the darn butyl tape off the side trim pieces. I found that careful putty knife work, working your finger tips raw, and cleaning any residue off with lots of acetone worked the best. I'm glad to have that part behind me. Saturday I laid 2 lines of 3/4" by 1/8" thick butyl tape on the 2 planes of the trim. I started at the crown of the camper and began screwing it in place. I'd beat the putty into making a bond with the top with a dead blow hammer and a block of wood. My shop is heated so that helped it too. I was prepared to use a heat gun to make it more sticky for assembly but turns out I didn't need to.

I'm happy with the results an I had been dreading this part. About the only thing left for this is to insert new white plastic screw cap, cut off the excess butyl tape, and caulk all the top seams.

Scoutman · Feb 17, 2014

Weekend of progress, part 3

Since I was on a roll with the butyl tape and assembling stuff I decided to go ahead and put the Fantastic Fan in. I mentioned earlier that the bottom part of the fan housing sticks below the ceiling so interior trim spacers are on their way. I measured everything off to ensure that it was even on all sides and that there is plenty of space for the trim on the inside. I read over the instructions a few times and saw a few video's online on installing these and dove in. I marked the placement on top with a sharpie and marked all the holes for predrill. Butyl tape over the bottom flange covering the screw holes in a continuous bead and I put it in place. I used the provided countersunk white screws and evenly tightened them down till I got just a little bit of push out of butyl. I'll come back and trim off the excess and then use Dicor self leveling sealant to finish off the outside.

I also went ahead and cut the wires to length and make my connections and got them tucked in the extra space between the vent and opening.

Scoutman · Feb 17, 2014

Weekend of progress, part 4.

Sat evening I worked on getting all the lighting hooked back up. When the roofing ripped off it took my front lights with it and thankfully left most of the wiring intact. Since I was adding 3 extra front lights I had to tie these in as well as fix the damaged parts of the wiring. I'm not a fan of scotch locks (wire taps) but they're used everywhere else and it wasn't a battle I was willing to spend more time on. The wires got cable clamps screwed in place and the light wires were tied into the main line.

The plastic piece that holds the fabric on the top was still attached to the damaged front board. I dug it out of a pile, pried all the staples loose and started figuring how to re-attach it and where it should be placed. I eventually decided to go back with staples cause they seem to hold pretty well, they sat flat on the trim unlike a screw head would, and I figured that the rest of the fabric was held in the same manner so we'll keep things consistent. One of my goals with putting this stuff together has been to make it look as original as possible. I know there are some parts that are no where close but oh well. The new construction is solid and that's what really matters. The plastic fabric holder is 2 parts. One part mounts on the front wall and covers the back of the lighting holes, the welting of the fabric (for lack of a better term) goes in a groove on the first piece and then there is a second plastic piece that screws in to hold it in place. I forgot to take picts of the final assembly but here are a few of the first plastic part and the wiring before I put the fabric in.

Scoutman · Feb 17, 2014

Last night I didn't work on anything but I did clean up the garage a bit and started making a list of all the things that are left that need to be done. Till next time....

Scoutman · Mar 12, 2014

Computer crashed, just now getting picts back loaded. Slowly but steadily getting stuff done. I got my interior trim ring spacers from Atwood for my Fantastic Fan so I cut the trim ring down and screwed it all together.

I also peeled back the protective skin on the roofing and hit the screw heads and seam to the roof with some Dicor.

Scoutman · Mar 12, 2014

Camper jack bracket

One of the things I wanted to inspect while I was working on all this was the integrity of the jack brackets. I had noticed that there was some movement in one of them at one point and wanted to see what was going on. After I removed everything and saw that it looked pretty good and there was no evidence of water or rot. A couple of the screw holes (screws are just lag screws) were loose, probably from the screws being over tightened. Anyway, I cleaned off all the old butyl tape, cleaned the bracket, taped everything back up, and reassembled. I tightened everything as best I could and each screw got a treatment of butyl tape to seal the threads. I have a different jack attachment method in mind that I may work on after this is done. :ylsmoke: