Well, here we go again! Atl-atl gets another Four Wheel Campers "Blazer"

[Atl-atl]

Just like the title says, here we go again! So a couple months ago a guy over on CK5.com posted up that he was doing a bit of spring cleaning and people should ask if he has anything for sale that they might want. So I inquired about a Four Wheel Camper because a little birdie told me he might have had an extra one laying around. Turns out he did and we made a deal! Fast forward to this past Tuesday and I made the trip from Flagstaff AZ to Lakewood CO and picked it up.

I do still have my yellow Blazer with a Four Wheel Camper (Build thread here) and Im continuing to use it/work on it. Mostly just use it at this point because the weather is so nice in Flagstaff this time of year. I need to update that thread because a lot of cool stuff has happened recently, Ive just been super swamped.

Anyway, I got a uhaul trailer, loaded up my "custom" Blazer camper dolly and bounced my way up to Colorado. I decided to take my RV and boondock along the way to make it there and back as comfortably as possible. $700 in gas later and I was back home.

This camper will be getting a full resto over the next few months. No plan yet for when its done. Maybe Ill find another Blazer to put it on, maybe Ill sell it, maybe Ill figure out how to stick it on the back of a Suburban!?! Either way its going to be brought back from near death for somebody to enjoy in the future. Im going to try to document the build on instagram, in addition to my normal forum posts. Please check out @darlington.adventures if you dont already follow me.




Dont worry, the dolly got a little "shoring up" before the trip home!








And safe at home, ready for me to tear into.

 

[NEVERENOUGHAZ]

Can't wait to see what you do with this one.

 

[utherjorge]

I adore your work. Love reading about it all.

I have a 2017 Lexus GX, but for my own uses, I snagged a Ranger and lo and behold...a small FWC appeared very near to me! I was going to snag it to throw on my Ranger but someone got there before me. Still on the hunt, in large part due to your work on these.

 

[Atl-atl]

Thanks for the love!

I tore into the interior a little further this weekend. Im working on getting some better videos up as well but that might take a bit longer. Ive got the interior stripped to essentially just the paneling. There are a few spots that need to be replaced which unfortunately I think is going to mean replacing all the interior paneling. There is definitely some water damage and Im worried if I dont get behind the panels to see whats there I will regret it. The good news is that means this one will get modern closed cell foam insulation and I will be 100% sure there isnt any mold left when Im done.








There were multiple wasp and hornet nests throughout!!


The passenger side overhead storage had water damage, it basically fell off the wall and the screws that were holding it were getting eating by rust. Should be interesting to see whats behind the paneling, which is bowed out from water damage as well. Ill try to get a video up soon that shows this more clearly.




The counter top was completely trashed by water damage as well. It crumbled when I removed it and went straight to the trash can.


Here is an example of how the wiring was fastened back in the day. Just stapled into place. Many of these staples wear through the coating on the wires so they are live. Its only 12v but still.

 

[Atl-atl]

Tore into the camper some more today. I should finally have some videos up in the next day or two. My computer decided it no longer wants to be able to edit videos so I went ahead and ordered a new one that arrives tomorrow. Trying to step up my documentation game a little.

Got all of the interior stripped, roof off, lift panels and canvas off, measurements taken for the new canvas etc. Im definitely going to replace the two pieces of wood that sit on the bed sides. Im still not sure if Im going to replace the front wall and cabover bed area. Im leaning towards yes just because I dont want to do all this work and then kick myself for not doing it, even thought theyve been replaced already. I want it all to be as new as possible.

Now the search is on for new interior paneling that is a close match to the original shade of brown. Ive been googling 1/4" plywood that has a veneer finish but its so hard to tell what it looks like that I might have to order some sample pieces to see what Im getting before paying to ship big sheets of stuff.

I cant believe these lift panels were able to hold up the roof!

 

[Atl-atl]

Not a ton of progress here unfortunately. Ive been super busy, out of town and will be out of town again for 3 of the next 4 weeks. I do have a couple things to share. Got the hinges and misc. exterior brackets as well as all of the lower trim parts back from blast/powder. They turned out GREAT!! Now I want to pull all the exterior bits off my camper and get them refinished.


Lost one of the roof vent cap pieces so I guess Ill have to make a new one myself and get it finished with the next round of powder when I try to convince them to blast/powder the enormous 12 foot long roof trim pieces that wont fit inside their blasting booth hahaha. Good news is having these parts back will allow me to install the new wood pieces for the bedsides so I can get the camper off the jacks and back on the rolling dolly.


Also got the wood blocking removed which was a huge pain. This will allow me to finish cleaning up and repairing the frame and then Ill install blocking the full length of the sides of the camper to add rigidity to the cabover area.


Ive never welded aluminum, last time I needed a frame repaired I hired a mobile welder. So I grabbed a spool gun, a bottle of 100% argon and some scrap to start learning. I should probably learn to tig but I think the spool gun will work. Technique is way different, you have to move super fast because the aluminum is so soft. Also you need a ton of shielding gas flow or you get tons of black soot, as evidence in this pic ha. Still need practice before I move to the camper.

 

[COSCAG00]

Awesome write up! I just finished restoring this exact camper but it was a Bronco Model. My camper was made for a 1978-79 Bronco and I retrofitted it to my 1990 Bronco.

 

[Atl-atl]

Nice! Do you have a thread for it? The Bronco ones are super rare.

 

[COSCAG00]

Nice! Do you have a thread for it? The Bronco ones are super rare.

No I dont, I mainly just lurk around here. I do have a few pictures on my Instagram account. I just mounted the camper on the Bronco a few weeks ago and have only driven it a couple of times. I have lots of pictures, its been a 2 year process to get where I am at right now. @fredtdodd is my inst account.

 

[Atl-atl]

Oh cool, I just followed you back from both of my accounts. I see that SeamsSoFine follows you. Did Sacha build a canvas for you?

 

[NevadaLover]

No I dont, I mainly just lurk around here. I do have a few pictures on my Instagram account. I just mounted the camper on the Bronco a few weeks ago and have only driven it a couple of times. I have lots of pictures, its been a 2 year process to get where I am at right now. @fredtdodd is my inst account.

Get off the pot and start a thread for this, I for one would Love to read about the camper on a bronco and your experiences with both!

 

[COSCAG00]

Oh cool, I just followed you back from both of my accounts. I see that SeamsSoFine follows you. Did Sacha build a canvas for you?

I ended up getting it made from All Terrain Campers.

 

[COSCAG00]

Get off the pot and start a thread for this, I for one would Love to read about the camper on a bronco and your experiences with both!

Ha! I need to do that, I have lots of pictures.

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

These old campers are so rad. Nice find and can't wait to see it completed. Looks like you are off to a good start.

 

[Atl-atl]

Well, progress has been slow this summer. Ive been super busy traveling and riding bikes so the camper project has taken a back seat. I did finally get past some major milestones though. I figured out how to make my welder and spool gun setup work on the ultra thin aluminum tubes that make up the frame of these old Four Wheel Campers. They are .040 wall thickness which is about 1mm. Without having a machine capable of AC tig welding I was unsure if Id be able to make it work. After picking up the thinnest aluminum I could find locally I wasnt super confident and was starting to shop for an AC tig machine. After some creative thinking I decided I was going to try using 1/8" filler pieces in some of the worst areas and this wound up working. It also helped me get enough of a hang with the material that I was able to repair all of the areas that needed it which now affords me the ability to move forward with essentially every other step of the process.

There were two areas that had cracked or even completely blown out welds. This first area was the vertical tubes that are on either side of the rear door, where they are welded to the header. Both welds in the top corners were cracked. I think there are a variety of reasons for this. The door slamming closed is the most obvious but then also there is a hole through the tube on either side for electrical conduit that runs through it. I was able to cut a small piece of 1/8" stock and stick it in there.







Unfortunately I had to grind the welds here, and all the other welds in these areas, because the way the interior paneling fastens onto the frame requires it to be almost completely flat or the walls will be wavy. I tried not to sacrifice too much material in hopes of maintaining some strength.


The other area where welds had failed was the front corners. On either side there are two pieces of tubing right next to each other that make up the supports for the cabover bed area. The forward most pieces had completely blown out and were no longer attached to the rest of the frame! I forgot to take a pic of this unfortunately.

Here is what the driver side looked like after being welded back together. Even with the best settings I could get to work on my machine I was still getting a little bit of black soot but nothing that was stopping the welds from being strong enough.




Here is the bottom where those same two tubes meet. The angled tube(the one on the right in this pic) was the one that was completely detached from the frame on both sides. It was a lot easier to attach the tubes at the bottom where there was much more material to weld the corners together.


In case anyone cares here are my settings. 18 gauge is the thinnest my machine will go so I had to adjust the wire feed and volts to make up for that. 100% argon. Wire is .035, 4043, in a Lincoln Magnum 100SG spool gun.


Last but not least. I got all of the new wood paneling sized, cut, primed and painted!! This is a huge task and was the only thing keeping me from being able to get the camper back on the dolly so I can move it around again. Unfortunately Im still waiting to hear from the seamstress about when my canvas will go into production. For a variety of reasons we will be back in Phoenix full time by October 1st so I might wind up having to assemble the wood paneling and then transport the camper down to Phoenix to finish it in my shop before Im able to install the canvas and lift panels. Working in my shop is much preferred over a two car garage but I was really hoping to be able to install the canvas and lift panels first when the bed floor is still out, simply for ease of access but I have to put the wood back in to be able to transport the camper. I really only want to install the wood once.