My husband and I bought a 1979 camper in the spring of 2024. We were about to have a baby, and we knew that our current camping setup wouldn’t accommodate our growing family. So, we found this fun vintage camper on Marketplace and couldn’t wait to renovate it! Keep reading to see our vintage camper renovation!
For reference: our old camping setup was a Ford Transit Connect that served as my husband’s work van during the week and our little adventure rig on the weekends. While yes, there would have been room for all of us to sleep in the van, we wouldn’t have been able to safely drive it anywhere with a baby since it only had two seats in the front.
We wanted a camper because we really didn’t want to go back to tenting – especially with a baby! Thankfully, we found this gem right before the baby was born, and we were able to take it out for the first time when our little Tate was just six weeks old.
For the summer of 2024, we basically just used the camper as it came. My husband re-wired the trailer to make sure everything was safe, but other than that, we didn’t do any renovating that summer. We just enjoyed life where we were at with our new baby.
Fast forward to the summer of 2025 – This is when we started to get serious about the camper.
We started out by repainting the outside. Okay, I repainted the outside. I didn’t really love the navy-blue stripe, plus it was all starting to chip away. I wanted a bright, cheery color, so I went with Yellow – what a shock!
I love it so much – I still do! It makes me so happy every time I see it. It’s such a bright, cheery color.
Next up, my husband went to town working on the interior. I’m not much help in this area, except for the demo. He’s a carpenter by trade, so I let him take the reins on this one.
We knew that the ceiling needed quite a bit of work – it was sagging a noticeably. We also knew that the front wall had some previous water damage; it was quite squishy and would need to be replaced.
We start out every camping season by heading out on May long weekend. In Canada, this is Victoria Day. We knew we wanted to get the front wall fixed before our trip, so my husband spent many, many late nights working on it to have everything ready for that first camping weekend.
Here are a few “before” shots of the front wall:
Here are a few “during” shots. Things always get a little worse before they get better. I remember seeing that gaping hole in the front of the camper before the May long weekend and wondering if we would be sleeping in a tent after all.
Thankfully, my husband is very good at what he does! He managed to get the front wall completely repaired and the bed built just in time for our first camping adventure of the season.
Camping on the May long weekend was so much fun! We had an absolute blast with family and friends.
After we got home, we continued working on the camper. The next thing I tackled was painting the bathroom. The bathroom in this camper is TINY – like just room for the toilet and yourself. But honestly, the fact that I even have a toilet in this camper is perfect for me.
Here’s the “before” of the bathroom. We removed the old toilet because it no longer worked. It was so dark!
Here’s the “after” of the bathroom! I went with pink because I love fun colors. The picture doesn’t show it, but we also installed a brand-new toilet. SO MUCH BRIGHTER!
Next, we decided to tackle the back wall and the ceiling. The back wall was a little soft, but not nearly as bad as the front wall. The ceiling was slightly saggy, and all of the paint was peeling off – it didn’t look great!
Things escalated pretty quickly, and we decided to tear out the whole bench and table area too. We never eat inside the camper, and removing it gave us a lot more space to put a playpen for Tate to sleep in. If you travel a lot or camp like us, I highly recommend getting a small mattress like this one for the playpen – it makes it so much more comfortable for little ones.
We decided that if we need a table further down the road, we’ll build one then, but for now, we’re leaving it out.
After we got it to this point, we were able to start putting the camper back together. My husband put up new paneling, a new wood ceiling, and we laid vinyl plank flooring.
We also put up some shelving where the cabinet used to be above the table. Instead of building a new cabinet, we decided to go with baskets.
This is basically where we left off for the summer of 2025.
For the summer 2026, we plan to tackle rebuilding the kitchen cabinet, painting the walls and ceiling, putting up curtains, and probably installing some wallpaper.
This is part 1 of our 1979 camper remodel. Thanks much for following along!
Let me know what you think in the comments below – I’d love to hear from you!
