Trailer Talk Whatever Day: Table Top Makeover

It's Trailer Talk-Day!  I plan to have these up on Tuesdays, but life gets in the way sometimes.  Last week there wasn't much to report on Jolene, our 1967 PlayMor camper that we are renovating--just more goo-removal.  This week we're 99% done and ready to do some final clean up and paint.  To take a break from the monotony, I thought I would do one of the little interior projects and do a refresh on the dinette tabletop.

This is what we started with:

The formica was stained and scratched and the hinges were a little worse for wear, too.  We unscrewed it from the wall of the camper and removed the hinges.  They got a couple of coats of my favorite spray paint:  

Oil Rubbed Bronze

Then I got busy painting the table top.  I taped it off and applied several light layers of Sherwin Williams 6783-Amalfi.  This color is one I'm planning on using as an accent color on the exterior of the camper.

After the paint had dried and cured for a couple of days, I brought the table into the garage and started the fun part.

The Adventure print is a free printable I found at explorationamerica.com

Free art is the best!

The vintage looking postcards are from a set I bought from this cool online shop, Anderson Design.

Check out this cool store!

Mister and I chose our top 12 bucket list national parks that we want to visit and I arranged those cards around the adventure printable.

After I had them placed and tacked down with a little bit of glue, I got to work mixing up what will make this table top functional:  bar-top resin.

This is the part where I tell you how to not make the same mistakes I did.  

• Plan for more resin than you think you will need.  I thought two boxes would be enough.  It wasn't.  
• I thought the gloves were fine for the mixing part.  WEAR THEM THE WHOLE TIME.  Resin is crazy hard to get off your hands.  Trust me on this.  
• Find a level place to do the pouring.  Don't trust your eyes--use a level before you start pouring.  It will make your project SO much easier if you do these three things.

If you want a great tutorial on mixing the resin and pouring it, this happy little gal has a good one:

After mixing the resin in my handy Rudy's BBQ cups and stirring them for the required time, I poured the resin over the cards and smoothed it out.  I turned the heat gun on low and passed it over the table top to make sure any bubbles popped.  

All looked great until I realized that my garage floor is not level--it slopes just a little.  Because the postcards weren't completely glued to the table, they started to float--swimming, as it were, in a pool of resin.  I used a popsicle stick to move them back into position, several times, and waited for the resin to set up enough so they wouldn't move anymore.  The cute gal in the video actually leveled her trailer and then poured her tabletop in place. That sounds like a good idea, but resin can run off the edges, so, you have to be ready for that, too.

Anyway, I thought all was good and ran over to watch little sis cheer at a football game.  When I came back two rogue cards had turned almost 90 degrees and were fairly stuck in place by that time.  I was able to move them, but it left a couple of low spots in the resin from where I had to scoot them back as close as I could to their original position, without tearing them.  

I love the glossiness of the table and I think one more coat to fill in the low spots will fix those problems.  The cards on the right side aren't in perfect alignment, but not much on Jolene is in perfect alignment, so, I'm okay with that.  While I was working on this tabletop, I was listening to the Cool Tools podcast and they were interviewing Adam Savage, host of Mythbusters.

cool tools podcast

At some point in the discussion, Adam brought up the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi, which sees beauty as "imperfect, impermanent and incomplete."  How freeing that would be to so many people, (including me) if we could see the beauty in what was already there.  Our goal should be to just try to make it as good as it can be and perfection gets in the way of all that.

This little tabletop is a prime example of that.  I've never used resin before but have always been curious about it.  I did a lot of research about it, but nothing I ever read said anything about paper floating in resin.  Live and learn!  I love trying new crafts and using new gadgets and this renovation of Jolene is tailor made for that.  The new tabletop brings in color that will tie in to the exterior paint job and also provides a place to display art.  There isn't much wall space in a little camper and I love that these beautiful postcards and Adventure printable are a part of the camper now. 

Renovating Jolene is an adventure--hope you're finding adventure in your world, too!

I'll leave you with this awesome youtube video.  Someone took Dolly's original recording of Jolene and slowed it down to 33 rpm.  It gives me chillbumps and even Dolly said it made her smile.

*Some affiliate links are used in this post at no extra cost to you. 

Trailer Talk Tuesday: Community Edition

Hello!  It's Trailer Talk Tuesday again, where I share our progress on Jolene, our 1967 Play-Mor 140 camper.  I am proud to say (cue drumroll), that we have finally removed all the paint from her exterior and are almost done removing all the silicone, tar and various sticky stuff the previous owners used to prevent leaks.  The final process we came up with to get the tape and tar residue off is:

• Cuss a little
• Use the heat gun to heat up the vinyl and pull it off
• Cuss a little more when you see how much sticky stuff there is.
• Use the heat gun again to heat the residue and scrape off what you can.
• Lather, rinse, repeat.
• Heat it up one more time and use a shop rag to wipe off the final bit.  

It really feels like it takes about 30 minutes per foot, so, it's been a slow go since we have limited time to work on it.  But we're in the final stages of this process and we've been checking out what to do about the trim.  Some of it looks a little rough, but we can't decide whether removing it will bring more trouble than it's worth. 

Here's where the community comes in.  There are so many cool vintage camper groups on Facebook. They freely share photos, tips, ideas, and advice for newbies like me.

  Here are some of my favorites:

PlayMor Vintage Campers

This group is very specific to PlayMor campers like Jolene.  It's been a great source for pictures of PlayMors, since there aren't that many of them out there on the internet.  I've had lots of questions answered and they've pointed me to different sources for vintage camper parts and trim.

Shasta Glampers in the Know

This group is for people who own the 2015 Shasta Airflyte Reissues, like our Sundance.  There were some warranty issues with these when they first came out and this group was absolutely the reason those problems have been dealt with by the manufacturer.  They are a fun group and share camping photos and tips, as well as different ways they've tricked out their darling Shastas.

Retro Shasta Airflyte

This facebook group is all about fun photos.  Some are Shastas, but there are lots of photos of Airstreams and other brands of vintage campers.

Canned Ham Vintage Trailers

This is a great page where people share photos of their "canned ham" vintage campers.

Vintage Camper Trailers

Vintage Camper Trailers  is a great source of information about rallies and vintage campers for sale.  I like these posts because a lot of the for sale photos show before and after shots.  Lots of good ideas!

Instagram is also a fun source of vintage camper eye candy!  Some of my favorite feeds are:

van.crush

reggie from the road

girls glamping guide

the camping hams

and tin can homestead

These are all just lovely feeds to read through when you're stuck at your desk and need a break from the indoors.  

Some of the great parts websites I've been pointed to by the vintage camper community are:

Tear Drop Fix-it-Shop

They have a wide variety of trim and mouldings, as well as great photos of these cool little tear-drop trailers.

National Serro Scotty Organization

Not a commerce site, but they have links to a lot of resource websites.  And cool pics.

VintageCampers.com

This site is an absolute jewel.  Great resources on parts, information for DIYers, completely restored campers for sale and lots of lovely photographs.

Well, friends, next week, I hope to have some lovely photographs of my own.  Until then, have a great week and happy camping!



If you'd like these posts sent directly to your inbox, please subscribe to this feed (link in upper right corner of page)  Thanks, friends!

The Gift of Grace

Grace is the unearned, unmerited love of God 

that meets us where we are

and takes us where we need to be. 

And it is messy, thank God, because we are messy.

The flat plain of our everyday lives, the unchanging horizon of the plan we think is our purpose starts out straightforward.  But little by little, decisions made and actions taken and opportunities not seen reveal valleys and canyons that we didn’t know were there.  We stumble and fall and long to be back up on level ground, where we know what is around us and can see what lies ahead. 

God sees us in the low places and His grace will lead us back to a more level field.  Where we can catch our breath and reflect back on where we have been.  Where we can look around and thank Him for leading us out of that valley of shadows and back to greener pastures and still waters.  He restores our soul and through the messy road we’ve been traveling, He moves us to a path of righteousness, for His name’s sake.

But that’s not the end of the road.  He has met us there and is leading us to new heights.  The mountains and hills that burst into song for Him are waiting for us.  For His ways are higher than our ways and He will accomplish what He pleases and He will have mercy on those who return to His ways.  Though we were blind, now we see that this gift of grace is all that matters. 

Let us be quick to share that same grace with others.  Let us forgive and forget and remember our own stories of when God’s grace covered our lives and led us out of dark places.  Let us take someone’s hand and not say a word but just show that we love.  Because He first loved us—unearned, unmerited, undeserved, freely given Love.  

Psalm 23

Isaiah 55

Be Brave Saturday: Doubt and Dreams

The open road.  It will always call to me--the freedom from the everyday and the freedom for a new day of people and places never seen before.  With a map to our destination, we prepare for the trip and what we will find when we arrive.  But we always find the most important thing at the end of the road--ourselves.  Our true selves, with all the excess stripped away and just the bare requirements we need to live the adventure we dreamed of.

But back at home, we are not as free.  We hold our dreams so tightly, wanting to keep them close, in the light of today. We doubt tomorrow because we only trust the right now.  But it's in the dim haze ahead, on that open road, that those dreams flourish and grow. 

What are your dreams, friends? What map are you drawing that will lead you to your true self?  What brave thing will you do TODAY to make your dreams come true tomorrow?

Trailer Talk Tuesday: Don't Stop Believing Edition

You know you'll be singing this song ALL DAY.

So, you know things aren't going like you planned when you're wasting time looking up inspirational quotes with the search phrase "Don't quit."  Apparently, it seems like there are a lot of us potential quitters on the web and lots of impossibly positive people cheering us on.

Alrighty, then!

Jolene is in no state to take anybody's man, but I'm pressing on, moving forward, looking up and finishing what I started.  Whew!  These people will wear you out!

We really only have time to work on the camper on the weekends, so, that is slowing down the process a little bit.  For some reason, my family thinks they need clean clothes, food and a passably clean house to live in.  Completely unreasonable.  So, instead of the camper being ready to paint, we are still making progress in stripping the paint off and getting rid of the eternabond tape, plus we're starting to remove the silicone caulking around windows, etc. in order to re-caulk.  That will probably involve removing all the windows.  Yeah.


This is me:

via GIPHY

Fortunately, in all of this, Mr. Blue Jeans & Turquoise has remained completely optimistic.

We own a heat exchanger/cooling system parts and repair business and our JOB is repairing old broken down parts, replacing what needs replacing and making things new again.  This little camper project is totally in our wheelhouse and I normally don't get frustrated with projects like this, but I WANT TO PAINT!!  So, without further ado, here is where we've been this week.

Rocking the paint clothes

After using the Citri-Strip paint remover, we've been using the drill and a brush or wheel attachment to get the rest of the paint off.  Most of the white paint came off easily and the blue paint is just taking a little more effort.  Eventually the camper will look like this on all sides and the roof:

Clean galvanized metal!

Once the Mr. gets the Eternabond tape off the J-strips on the seams, it looks like the picture above and I come back and brush off any paint left behind.

This is silicone caulk with a little Citri-Strip left on it, which will sand right off.  With the wire wheel attachment I can get most of the silicone off, but in order to caulk correctly, we will need to remove the windows and get all that cleaned up.  From everything I've read, ALL the silicone needs to come off because RV caulk won't stick to it.  Some people are in the Silicone Is Okay camp and others says it's the devil's own goop.  We're planning on using butyl tape between the skin and the windows and then caulking again when we get the windows screwed back in.  That's the plan for now.  

We definitely will have to take the back window down because the Eternabond tape was hiding this:

We haven't gotten the rest of the tape off yet, so, I don't really know why these two edges couldn't be flush.  Hopefully, it will be an easy fix.  

Besides looking up inspirational quotes while I'm wasting time in the pick-up line at Little Sister's school, I peruse the listings on littlevintagetrailer.com.  They are a clearing house for people selling vintage trailers and have some really lovely campers for sale that have been completely done.  

Check out this 1964 Shasta Compact for sale!

Has the original Shasta wings!

original Birch paneling

renovated to keep that vintage feel

While Jolene is going to be a (mostly) renovated camper rather than a restored one, I still like seeing the owners who have kept the original details!  

Well, that's it for this week.  I don't know about your facebook feed, but Dolly has been EVERYWHERE on mine.  This video popped up several times and I thought it was just stunning.  Enjoy!

Be Brave Saturday: A Creative Life

What brave thing will you do TODAY?

Sharing a Smile: Edie Wadsworth's "All The Pretty Things"

each chapter title is a classic country song 

I've mentioned on my facebook page and on Instagram that I was part of the launch team for Edie Wadsworth's new book, "All The Pretty Things".  It's published by Tyndale and this is what they have to say about it:  

'This raw and heartbreaking story shines with truth  and light, as Edie struggles with the wound of fatherlessness that has left her untethered and unspoken for.

This is the searing story of Edie’s soul-searching journey out of the rubble of her childhood, through the devastating choices of her adulthood, and into a life of healing and forgiveness that she never dreamed possible.  Against all odds, she finds strength to confront her past and finally encounters the love of her true Father on the long road home."

The thing that most struck me about Edie's book (and in the conversations she had with the launch team) was the tenderness and love she extended to her family in the telling of the neglect and poverty of her childhood.  It's a hard story to read and I know it was a hard story to write.  Yet, never once does it seem that she was bitter or angry towards her father or his family.  The grace she extends to him and the rest of her family is real.  She doesn't gloss over the details--they are just as real as the redemption she found when she turned to her heavenly Father and the abundance of His love.

Being a part of this launch team was truly a blessing.   Edie is a generous soul and shared so much with us about the writing process and the publishing industry as it pertained to her book.  She was incredibly giving of her time in having weekly live book club discussions and even threw a launch party & square dance!  

I've learned in life that I need to surround myself with people who reflect light.  There are those people in the world who are positive and open and make you want to be like that, too.  Even though I don't know Edie personally, her giving spirit and her ability to love and forgive are what draw you to her.  She is a treasure and I'm glad I've gotten to know her a little better.  I hope you'll take to time to read this wonderful memoir and get to know her, and maybe even yourself,  a little better, too.

*Some affiliate links are used in this post at no extra cost to you.