1975 dodge beaver restoration

[Kurth Family]

We have our first rv! She is a 1975 dodge beaver. We love her. We are Dustin, Carrie, Lydia, and Gavin. We bought it saturday it overheated on the hour and a half drive home. We just kept stopping and filling it back up with water. There was absolutly no coolant. She made it home! So we will get to her engine later there might be a few issues there. But totally fixable! We pulled out the carpet and found remnants of the lovely original shag carpet and avacado colored linoluim. Dustin started taking apart the cabover due to sagging and found alot of dry rot. So he is going to start there. I'm working on taking off all cabinets for sanding and painting. We will do it peice by peice, saving the outside for last. The bathroom needs to be completely ripped out due to dry rot. On a positive note after pulling up carpet we found newer plywood on floor from dining table to captins area! So who knows what other goodies we will find. I will post pics of inside soon. Unfortunatly we have already started, so you'll miss out on the dirty carpet and creepy old futon that someone put in the cabover as the bed. But the bed pads seem to be the only original item missing. It even has the maual. So good luck everyone and if anyone knows where a good place to look for a used door is let us know. Thanks and happy rving. =)

[Kevin Crowley]

Is there any update on this awesome project? 

[Craig & Lisa]

Hang I'm there and do not give up hope. I had to replace walls, ceiling AND the floor. I think I used ACX exterior grade plywood because the bottomof my floor is exposed to the road. I coated it with a waterproof urethane that they use for wooden boats. Yes you are correct when you look at the construction of these rigs and you wonder about why they were built the way they are. It has to do with money obviously. Ours should be built better than the original and I am happy knowing that. :-) Keep the faith Beavertriss family. You will get it done.

[Kurth Family]

Man this isnt easy. We are in the process of gutting the rv and its so much more work than we originally thought. Has anyone replaced the floor plywood? We see it has 2 wo th insulation in the middle. We think it all might have to come apart. This is so much more than I thought. I have sent an email to the beaver coach company. Our beaver was the first year they were built. We asked if there was anyway we could find out where in the production line she was and if they have any original blueprints or pics. I'm surprised how these are put together. Lots of 1x2 and staples. Weird. Some structure beams have rotted, and the back 4ft or so floor plywood has to go. If anyone has ever replaced the floor plywood before? Does siding need to come completely off?

[Kurth Family]

Wow so much dry rot. We added pics of what more we have ripped out. We are going to have to replace at least 90% of the wood. A lot more than we thought. It wont be original when complete but it will be neat. We are taking out furnace and fridge. Issues have come up. Some things are concerning, but we are trying to stay positive.

[Craig & Lisa]

I know how you guys feel. The same thing happened with our camper. I thought I was only going to replace about 12 studs and when I removed all of the siding the camper just imploded on itself. Take a look at some of my pictures and you will see what I am talking about. You just have to keep your head in the game and think about all of the great times you will have camping in your RV once you get it completed. :o) Keep plugging away.

[Kurth Family]

So we found more dry rot. In walls and underbench where water tank is stored. It really isnt suprising but its alot more than we thought. I started getting kinda down, like did we make a mistake? But my husband is determined and loving ripping everything out. Our woodshop is quickly getting crowed with random peices of wood with my husbands notes znd numbers written on them. Man I wish there were more hours in the day.