RGingerelli2001TRD
Adventurer
I have always wanted a FWC just never been able to find one I could afford, or one to fit my '01 Tacoma. Recently while searching craigslist, I found a 1985 FWC Fleet for $600 bucks and figured hell I gotta check it out. The owner had it mounted on same gen Tacoma as mine, and just happened to be an editor for Toyota 4WD Owners Magazine. Went to check it out and it was in pretty good shape, just needed a little work. Lifts panels are pretty shot, and just needs an update. After a few trips to my favorite camping spot in the Tahoe National Forrest and reading over SLOF-250, Overland Hadley and others here on forum refurbs, I figured it was time to start mine.
Some Pictures from when I first brought it home
Pics looking from a couple trips
I am the third owner and the original owner had taken it all over the US and had put stickers from every state traveled on the back, unfortunately they had faded bad and were pretty bad looking. The 2nd owner tried to remove some and didn't do a great job removing some of them and left others. So I decided to remove all of them and repaint the back. I started by scraping all the stickers as best I could with a razor balde, then removed adhesive left behind and sanded the rear. At first I thought of just matching the factory white and repainting the back, but decided a whole paint job was necessary. So I prepped the whole camper by removing all old caulk around windows, sanding, cleaning, re-caulking, and eventually painting. I went with Rustoleum Smoke Grey for the Base and did a Black stripe and Charcoal stripe where it was originally light and dark blue. Put down 2 coats of filler primer sanding in between, 3 coats of base Smoke Grey everywhere, then 3 coats of each stripe color and finished it all of with 3 coats of clear. It came out pretty good if I do say so myself. Also coated the bare plywood that sits in the bed, after patching 2 small dry rot spots and reinforcing it with deck screws where it was originally stapled together with rustoleum black leak-seal, its a cool product.
Paint in process and finished, just need to do the roof.
I've replaced the rear porch light, and reflectors on the camper and now it time to move to the inside. When I place my order for inside parts I need to include a new rear water tank fill. Its broken and there cheap on amazon. For the inside I have already done the floor pulling up the old and patching the holes in plywood from nails and sanding a priming with 1-2-3 primer and putting done Lowes sticky back tiles in a grey slate.
More pictures and rebuild coming...
Some Pictures from when I first brought it home
Pics looking from a couple trips
I am the third owner and the original owner had taken it all over the US and had put stickers from every state traveled on the back, unfortunately they had faded bad and were pretty bad looking. The 2nd owner tried to remove some and didn't do a great job removing some of them and left others. So I decided to remove all of them and repaint the back. I started by scraping all the stickers as best I could with a razor balde, then removed adhesive left behind and sanded the rear. At first I thought of just matching the factory white and repainting the back, but decided a whole paint job was necessary. So I prepped the whole camper by removing all old caulk around windows, sanding, cleaning, re-caulking, and eventually painting. I went with Rustoleum Smoke Grey for the Base and did a Black stripe and Charcoal stripe where it was originally light and dark blue. Put down 2 coats of filler primer sanding in between, 3 coats of base Smoke Grey everywhere, then 3 coats of each stripe color and finished it all of with 3 coats of clear. It came out pretty good if I do say so myself. Also coated the bare plywood that sits in the bed, after patching 2 small dry rot spots and reinforcing it with deck screws where it was originally stapled together with rustoleum black leak-seal, its a cool product.
Paint in process and finished, just need to do the roof.
I've replaced the rear porch light, and reflectors on the camper and now it time to move to the inside. When I place my order for inside parts I need to include a new rear water tank fill. Its broken and there cheap on amazon. For the inside I have already done the floor pulling up the old and patching the holes in plywood from nails and sanding a priming with 1-2-3 primer and putting done Lowes sticky back tiles in a grey slate.
More pictures and rebuild coming...
