The valiant camper we’ve named Joy. She is a pop-up Coleman camper with a table, small stove, decent storage, good canvas, patched up screens, a new wood/vinyl floor, and lots ‘n lots of memories. And repair work. Oh yes, there’s some of that too.
We love her, despite her flaws. Named in memory of a beloved sister and sister in law, lost all too suddenly and soon from Covid through no fault of her own.
Our memories, new and old, join together in new and exciting adventures.
Joy recently suffered a setback: A good chunk of the front body panel plastic disintegrated on the Interstate somewhere between home and Pattison! Upon arriving, we surveyed the damage:
It is a good thing we always have duct tape on hand. Duct tape is an essential part of any camping trip, as the usefulness of the silvery tape has no bounds. Like The Force, it binds us all together, and has a dark side and a light side.
The light side proved finnicky, as we had to stop a couple of times to tape up the panel, lest we shed anymore of Joy’s skin along the expressway.
This winter I will temporarily seal it up with plastic and weatherproof tape, and then work on designing the permanent repair. I am considering using diamond panel steel (preferably stainless) to reshape and reconfigure this damaged panel. I am hoping to source a local place to get the metal, as I know of a local fabrication shop I might be able to call upon to bend, shape, and cut the panel to size. This will take some measuring and careful design so that the fender bolt holes align and the lights are secure.
Once that is done the rest is simply attaching the fender bolts and fitting the new panel to the camper.
I had considered using a plastic pellet compound and solvent to fix this much like the Pop-Up Princess did in this post, where they too have a body panel that is damaged, but with such a large, missing piece it is going to be nearly impossible to reconstruct it without a mold – I’m just not that talented, especially when using what seems to be some pretty toxic stuff.