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'87 Sunrader Front Cab Build


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I decided to keep my wood beams uncovered without paint or fabric, I'll stain and poly them after a final sanding to remove some resin residue. Tonight I added the half inch ceiling insulation, and earlier this week I epoxied in half inch framing rails alongside my ceiling beams and a few on the side walls. I'll use this to screw in my wood ceiling paneling, see pics, the close up of my thumb shows a test piece of thickness of my final ceiling panel, and the rail framing I'll use to screw them into.

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I thought about a thicker insulation and cover over the beams, but I like the look of them so I'm going with half inch insulation, I just stained and varnished the beams and I'll screw in the ceiling panels so I can easily take them off and double my insulation thickness at a later time. This way I don't loose any head room between the beams and can still sit up and read a book. If I hit my head on them all the time I'll cover them in. There will be a slight gap between insulation and ceiling panels but not much. Huge improvement over the old stuff, for sure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is a local chinook mid 80's in my area, completely rebuilt, 4" lift and 4x4 that looks great, good to see its a family and they use the heck out of it. Got me looking for one, but I found my Sunrader first. I like the Sunraders with side couch and all rear kitchen area, much roomier. Not what I have but someday maybe ill do a full remodel.

Could you get photos of this 4x4? I'm in the Olympia area all the time. Where did you see one? Definitely custom.

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Got a couple of my ceiling panels finally installed, here is a pic of the final install after carefully cutting out my maple panels with a jigsaw, and I used a summer oak poly+stain finish, plus special ordered some antique brass square drive screws, $20 for 200 screws from a ship building website in Rhode Island of all places, water tight screws. I counter sunk the screws. Taking a break now and taking wife and daughter skiing at Mt Baker - its nice doing a partial remodel and being able to stop work and still enjoy the rig!

Rusker, here is a flickr link of my Sunrader, exterior and interior, and with build pics too. Next time I see the local custom Chinook I'll snap some pics, I only saw it at Winco grocery not sure where it's home base is.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwi_adventures/sets/72157638814822985/

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You are making good progress on the overhead, good job. Like the idea of using the antique color screws. I just replaced window screws with new S/S, my old screws were pretty rusted.

I know you will be happy to get the overhead work done, thats a tight space to be crawling around in.

I see you have a roof rack attached to the roof, any chance we can see some pic's?

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I stained and polyurethaned (all in one can) the maple panels with summer oak. I'm skiing right now but next panel ill cut out around the 2 front windows.

some day when you get it done and are planning on driving though Seattle drop me a note and we can toast your project with an espresso...or other beverage, lol.

I will be back to work on my Sunrader next week....if the rain lets up a bit. This is now officially the wettest March in Seattle recorded weather history. We have been having real rain versus the normal Seattle light drizzle. Hope it is not going to be one of THOSE spring and summers.

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Sounds good Corbin, I just blew thru Seattle on the way back from some great skiing at Mt Baker. I'll take u up on the drink later this year. Note to self don't go road tripping when your side windows are only held in with butyl tape from the exterior! One window started to separate! I suspect it was too cold when I set it. I'll have to take them both out and reapply. Skiing snowboarding and camping was great though. Tried out our oven for the first time too, worked great.

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A little more progress on the paneling: I decided to panel around the front windows, took a lot of measuring, and trimming, and test fitting, plus I glued in some fabric where the mattress meets the front window wall. I'm about 80% happy with it and will use it this summer, then redo it - one of my countersunk screws pulled thru and I missed the wood on another.

Also whilst waiting for my stain to dry I refinished a few of my exterior access doors, and sanded the rust off the furnace outlet, and painted with metallic heat resistant paint. Check out attached pics. Next I need to finish the last ceiling panel, and the 2 side panels.

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Nice job on the woodwork. I like the looks of the repainted heater and frig pannels.

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Thanks, ill be painting my rims black to match them. Panels are designed to easily be removable and give me access to windows and wiring.

Where can I buy black trim to go around my cut out window panels? My old panels had them?

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Thanks, ill be painting my rims black to match them. Panels are designed to easily be removable and give me access to windows and wiring.

Where can I buy black trim to go around my cut out window panels? My old panels had them?

Here's what your looking for.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/edge-trim-black/19134

This price is pretty high it just had the best picture. Lots on ebay.

Linda S

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Thanks, ill be painting my rims black to match them. Panels are designed to easily be removable and give me access to windows and wiring.

Where can I buy black trim to go around my cut out window panels? My old panels had them?

did you throw out the old brown trim? Too bad, a bit of black vinyl paint would have done the trick.

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http://www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/fastcap-peel-and-stick-cover-caps.asp

real wood covers for your screw heads going into the maple paneling.

The company is out of Bellingham area, easy enough to find them in Seattle in the Ballard neighborhood and you can stay in your rig overnight in that area of town as long as you are near the water in the industrial part.

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Very cool, got a favorite store in Ballard that stocks them? Next time I'm up that way ill crash in that part of town. My old brown trim was pretty beat up, I might try and paint some of it, cause it ain't cheap, thanks for the tip.

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Pretty much finished all the panels now on the front cab over area! The side panels were the toughest ones to do. I ended up using some old maps I made years ago (needed a large piece of paper to hold up to trace the wall and window outline). Then I cut them out and traced back onto the new panel. At $26 dollars a sheet I didn't want to make too many mistakes. I initially just traced my old panels I had kept from demo, but they didn't fit well and I wasted a panel. Check out the photos. Still have to order some window trim and I might get some of the bead trim in black too. Anyone know what that is called?

I also plan to rip out the shower panel in the cab over area and build in a small shelf into that wall (there is wasted space here) and also add a USB charging port and a built in pistol safe. But that will have to wait. I'm going to shift gears and work on the rear vehicle panels, seems there was some leaking going on at some stage of the Raders life back there. While I'm at it I'm going to add some sturdy wood so I can attach a new external galley box and get my generator stored outside on the back bumper.

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  • 1 month later...

I added some rubber bead moulding trim by stapling to back of ceiling panels. Rest of the time I've been out using the Rader camping and kayaking! How much room do you need to turn around on a forest service road - answear: see last pic! In 4wd.

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Nice photos!

I've been a little disappointed...back in my days working for the Forest Service, in the old F350 six-pack long-bed, driving down a logging road and it suddenly just stops...single lane to begin with, the 16-point turns were always fun.

My Chinook is pretty long, but it can turn pretty tight, and I don't think I've had to do more than maybe a 5 point turn.

I'm getting so ready for water. I left Montana in March and so headed straight for the southwest to get out of the winter and into warmth and desert. But now that it's regularly in the 80s, and days are starting to break 100, and it's dry, sandy, dusty and windy...I'm about ready to hit the west coast and start getting into real forest, real rivers and lakes and soil.

I don't have my canoe with me right now but will once I get back to Montana. I'll be missing it when I get to the coast.

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Nice photos!

I've been a little disappointed...back in my days working for the Forest Service, in the old F350 six-pack long-bed, driving down a logging road and it suddenly just stops...single lane to begin with, the 16-point turns were always fun.

My Chinook is pretty long, but it can turn pretty tight, and I don't think I've had to do more than maybe a 5 point turn.

I'm getting so ready for water. I left Montana in March and so headed straight for the southwest to get out of the winter and into warmth and desert. But now that it's regularly in the 80s, and days are starting to break 100, and it's dry, sandy, dusty and windy...I'm about ready to hit the west coast and start getting into real forest, real rivers and lakes and soil.

I don't have my canoe with me right now but will once I get back to Montana. I'll be missing it when I get to the coast.

You might be able to hookup a fun day or two of paddling through one of the "meetup" groups in various locations. A lot of people have an extra seat and oars or even an extra canoe. Just figure out where you are going and then go to the meetup sites and look for paddle groups in that location. There does not even have to be an event scheduled to log on and find out if anyone is interested in going out that week.

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Thanks Karin. I should do more of that anyways. I'm beginning to realize that my idea of what you do in a new town is go to restaurants and bars. But...I'm going to spend all my money if I keep doing that, and these days I go to breweries or cool bars closer to lunchtime than "party time", so I'm not meeting too many people, but still spending too much.

I need to find ways to check out towns and hang out with people that don't necessarily involve spending money, like restaurants and breweries.

But enough about me! Back to the thread.

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  • 2 weeks later...

if you look at my last photo - that is where I literally did a 5 or 6 point turn. The turn radius on our 18 foot rigs is pretty awesome alright! I'm a member of the WA kayak club, thats how I meet fellow paddlers.

I'm going to start a new thread and jump into adding 2 rear storage boxes and replace my existing classics sunrader storage. Check out "Sunrader Rear Storage box Build"

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