Stripping the Interior of a Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper

Stripping the interior was the 2nd of eight projects to renovate my Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper.

Project 2: Stripping the Camper Interior to Bare Aluminum

The stripping project went like this:

1. I dismantled the seat compartments, ripped the paneling off the walls, and pulled the carpeting out.

2. I dismantled all the cabinets, the sectioning, and everything else because there was nothing I wanted to save.

3. I pulled all of the old wiring (I knew I would have a different, updated system) and the refrigerator, furnace, and the propane plumbing (as it was kinked and looked dangerous).

4. I pulled and swept out so much dirt it was incomprehensible. Then I vacuumed it and spent an entire day pulling staples out of the plywood and aluminum struts up the side. In the end it was a bare open space of plywood and aluminum.

5. I cut and installed rigid foam insulation into the aluminum wall between the struts. I tried to find the best R value insulation that would fit in the 1" space between the aluminum shell and the new paneling that would attach to the struts.

6. Then I lightly sanded the plywood and painted it with gray Gripper primer.

7. I also repaired plywood joints at the bottom that were starting to separate. I used steel angles and Marine Rx putty. The floor pack had obviously been replaced and rebuilt at some point in its history. Not too bad of a job, but I would have used marine plywood and reinforced the plywood joints with something more than a stapled connection on unpainted plywood. But whoever it was, he probably did a better job of cutting it and putting it together than I would have done.