The "Patient" as she arrived...

To give some flavor to what we started with, we'll begin with a set of pics to show inside and out what we've gotten ourselves into.

The dinette area.

In all her purple-paneled glory.

Entrance door.

The louvered or "Jalousie" window is original, the Schlage door set and bolt lock...not so much.

Dinette roof.

Oh that glorious paneling.

Cool light fixture and panel.

We managed to save this fixture and it will live on in the restored camper. Also love the curved panel next to the dinette, this was part of the HiLander interior and will make it back into the restored version as well.

Roof vent.

As you'll see later, a major source of leakage. The sins that panel was hiding there were pretty  epic.

"Bathroom"

This was actually a small bathroom originally, but was turned into a storage area. It will be reformed back into a bathroom, per the boss of course.

Propane furnace.

This will be going away. To be replaced most likely by a 120v quartz heater.

Dinette seats.

These will be built nearly identical to the original, but with piano hinges vs the plastic flaps they used originally. Of course there are cushions that cover the underlying bench.

Old propane/electric fridge

Just a shot of the old fridge controls.  A new purely electric fridge will replace this.

Galley

This is from what I can tell the original galley setup. We'll replace with a small bar type sink and remove the stove top to make more counter and cabinet space.

Upper galley cabinet

This will be replaced with something similar, but a bit more graceful and sturdily built.

From the back

A view of the dinette from the back of the trailer.

A shame.

Another cool fixture lost. But this one did sacrifice it's mounting plate to repair the one from the front. So from the two we salvaged one.

Original flooring

Through one of the storage cubbies, you could see the original flooring. When you zoom in it has atomic sparkles in gold and silver, it just screams of the 50's-60's. Love it, really.

Under sink.

Just a shot under the sink. Actually this looked just fine, really no duct tape or super glue anywhere.

Inside galley cabinets.

Yep, just a glamour shot.

It's so blue...

The vinyl tile laid right over the old linoleum.  Also not awful, but we're going to go with some type of engineered wood flooring - think "Pergo" or the like.

Storage closet

Another shot of the storage closet. Gotta love that exposed junction box. But hey, it got a cover of the purple menace, it blends - right?

The "closet" door

Yep, that blue and white really shakes things up.

Back window and bed

The rear jalousie window over the bed/couch. I have word from the boss, this will be a bed only in it's reincarnated form. It's a strange size - about 72" x 44". Bigger than a twin and smaller than a full  - some ingenuity will be needed here.

Hot light

Hmmm, I guess a 150 watt bulb was a bad choice here. But wow was it bright for a little bit, huh!?

Her poor tongue

As promised, some of the finest examples of ad-hoc engineering you'll find anywhere. I'm sure those are special u-bolts made for towing. Heck, they used 4 of them, that ought to do it. No worries, mate.

Curb side front seam

She be bustin' out here, later it was apparent why.

Door handle replacements

Not sure if the bolt was meant to backup the handle in case of failure, or they kept a lot of valuables in the belly of this glorious beast.

Classic wheel opening

It ain't a Scotty without these babies.

Rear lights

I can't believe this one held on the whole 150 miles from Beaver, PA to Fremont. Glad it did, these will be re-used.

Street side front seam

Bulging here too, yikes.

Roof

Roof shot. note the aluminum nails sticking out. There is not a lot of meat under there holding anything as you'll see later.

Street side profile

The street side almost looked OK. Her shape surely shouts "canned ham" though. One of her charms.

Front view

The left lower louver was busted out. All the parts to repair these widows are available thank goodness. The entire frame has to be disassembled to do it though. Looking forward to that!

Three quarters profile

This view shows her missing teeth and bad skin.

Curb side profile

The HiLander hump. Unmistakable.

Rear view

Not sure what the deal was with all the reflectors. I think it was to compensate for lack of working rear lighting. "Shucks, they'll see us when they get close"

Street side view

Some re-arranging of vents and openings will be in this sides future.

Full tongue

The jack didn't work and as you'll see is now replaced. We will be converting to all electric, so the tank plate and tie down is gone and will be replaced with diamond plate and a spare tire mount.

As you can see, she was pretty rough all around. But nothing like what she was hiding under her skin.  We really have no idea regarding number of previous owners, so attributing all the bizarre colors and shoddy fixes to one person or persons isn't possible. But, based on what was there, they all attended the same classes in midnight engineering and jerry-rigging. 

Although not visible in all the pictures, the purple paint appears to have been rolled on. It must have been the largest possible roller that was available, because very little was spared from the purple menace including cabinet hardware, lighting fixtures or logos. She was in need of paint I guess, and nothing was gonna slow that job down by gosh. And hey, while we're at it, what can't be painted, we might as well cover with this swell paneling...we can attach it with these silver washer head screws, that'll fancy up the place!

All kidding aside, I can understand not wanting to spend a bunch on repairs, but wow, most of these "fixes" just made us shake our head and laugh. As I mentioned, we knew this was all going away, so we enjoyed tearing it all out just to see what was hiding behind each layer. Next I'll post the demolition gallery and you'll see the terror that lurked beneath.