Wildernest Revamp

Hey all,

Starting a thread here to track my revamp/rebuild/rejuvenation of my Wildernest on my 1st gen. Hopefully this will be something of a resource for other owners and I'm also hoping other owners will chime in with suggestions. Got some pictures from the day I took it home:


I'm told the green tent is "rare" and it's in surprisingly good shape for being in the PNW. The shell has some "spidering" on the fiberglass, and the struts are shot, and the bulb seal needs replacing, but otherwise it looks pretty darn good for being ~20 years old! I clamped it down in Seattle and took it back up North.

Found a spare parts info page on an old forum here: http://forum.expeditionportal.com/archive/index.php/t-4338.html

Planning to order the following in the next week:

National SS Hinges x 5 (looking for cheaper ones):

$9 National Hardware N225-953 514RC Door Hinges - Stainless Steel in Stainless Steel, 4"

https://www.amazon.com/National-Har...r=1-1-catcorr&keywords=National+V514rc++hinge

Bulb Seal part #PTL-124 from http://www.uni-grip.com. Quoted me $4/ft so again I'm looking for a cheaper option

Snug-Top T-Handle: I'll probably just go through my local canopy shop. The rivets on the old one are shot so I need to come up with a new solution

New Suspa struts (open to alternatives if there are more solid ones out there):

$24 SUSPA C16-02622 Gas Spring 28 Lb Force Per Prop, Set of 2

https://www.amazon.com/SUSPA-C16-02...9221531&sr=1-1&keywords=suspa+strut+c16-02622

And lastly I painted my truckbed last night and had some extra paint so I taped off the top, roughed it up a bit and rolled on a couple coats of Rustoleum roll-on liner. Planning to spray pain the bottom today or tomorrow and will be interested to see if there's any difference in quality.


I'll keep updating here but it may be a slow process. Finishing up grad school and working means there's not much time for camping and/pr camper restoration. Open to any feedback or suggestions, thanks!

 

Oh, also, if any Wildernest owners out there have a good photo of your logo, I'm looking into getting a new decal set printed since my old decals were totally done for.

 

Hey man! Still working on your nest? Curious how it is going? If you need a pic of the logo I can take one of mine and it is in pretty good condition!