Well I decided since I can't make it up there for days at a time right now I would just get up there for the day. The leaking roof and the buckets catching the rain is giving me nightmares. I cant help but think when I get there I will open the door and a tilde wave of water will rush out the door at me.
First the roof. It's pretty easy since the entire roof is aluminum and it is riveted together. The main leak was coming from the long sealed roof vent. I was hoping to restore this vent since it is nice to have a place for all the hot air to escape. Upon further review...the roof vent lid is shot. The vents on these old campers are not the standard 14x14 vents on today's campers. These are no longer made. Some genius decided to hammer the crap out of it and pop rivet it to the roof. They then proceeded to tar and feather it unit it was a mound of silver and black gunk.
With a little elbow grease a hammer and a chisel I was able to remove all the gunk, and the pop rivets holding the lid down. I don't think it would seal if I do not reseal the entire cover and make it non-operational.
Well there was no tildal wave and barely anything in the catch buckets inside the camper. Time to open her up and play detective with these leaks.
First the roof. It's pretty easy since the entire roof is aluminum and it is riveted together. The main leak was coming from the long sealed roof vent. I was hoping to restore this vent since it is nice to have a place for all the hot air to escape. Upon further review...the roof vent lid is shot. The vents on these old campers are not the standard 14x14 vents on today's campers. These are no longer made. Some genius decided to hammer the crap out of it and pop rivet it to the roof. They then proceeded to tar and feather it unit it was a mound of silver and black gunk.With a little elbow grease a hammer and a chisel I was able to remove all the gunk, and the pop rivets holding the lid down. I don't think it would seal if I do not reseal the entire cover and make it non-operational.
I decided to seal the vent, the crack and the seams in the roof while I was up there. Since it's not the first time the roof was sealed I decided it wouldn't hurt anything.
Now onto finding that pesky window leak..The rain channel above the window is cut and there is a piece of wire between the channel and the camper. Not sure what this would be for but it appears to be steel wire. For those who know aluminum steel and aluminum react to each other and cause aluminum to corrode. I removed the wire and hmmm....two holes right where the wire was touching. Time to seal those up!
Checking back..the leaks appear sealed. I will seal around the windows with a sealant when I remove the birch paneling and insulation around the windows when I start putting her back together.
I decided I should try to take down the interior panel around the vent to make sure I did not see any light coming in and to remove any moisture that has been collecting there over the years. A couple screws later and wham! Down comes the panel!
After the panel comes down the insulation was mostly intact but I dont think it is very clean or dry. I decided to pull it down in the area of the roof vent. I can see the insulation was a nesting area over the years for mice and I am assuming the rest of the place will need new insulation also. 
One of the things that attracted me to this Spartan was the original light fixtures. They are all Mid-Century modern and are beautiful! 
One of the things that attracted me to this Spartan was the original light fixtures. They are all Mid-Century modern and are beautiful! 
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