Post by dj on Oct 9, 2007 0:16:48 GMT -5
I'm in the middle of rebuilding my Wildernest topper and I thought I'd share some info.
My camper was purchased in 92 and it's for a short bed full size truck. From my research I believe that the Wildernest company shut down in either 92 or perhaps 93. If true, that would make my top one of the "newer" ones made.
One way to tell a newer model from the original wildernest design is by counting the small windows behind the cab at the front of the topper. I have two larger windows. Older wildernest toppers have 4 smaller windows. So there was a change made to the molds sometime before 92. See the photos at www.wildernestcamper.com/ to see the differences.
My serial number is: 629xx
I would guess that fewer than 75k tops were made. Does anyone know the exact number?
I'm the second owner and the original owner put 230k miles on his camper before he got a new truck and sold me the wildernest. I paid $600 for mine and I think I paid too much considering how much work I have in front of me to get it fixed up again.
My top was painted black at the factory to match the original owner's truck. Not the best of paint jobs and I first had to figure out how to get the paint off without damaging the gel coal/fiberglass. After removing all the hardware and the windows, I used a ready strip product called auto strip to get the paint off.
This worked fairly well since the gel coat didn't get damaged. There was a lot of elbow grease involved and I had the special triangular stainless steel scraper to speed up the job. I can recommend this product if you have the time and energy to 'paint' the striping chemical on and then scrape at the gel coat surface after waiting a short period of time. To get all the curves and around the windows, I figured I spent a day and a half to get all the old paint off.
I should mention that getting the side windows off is also a chore. First I tried to pay an auto glass shop to cut the glue off for me. They declined my offer to pay them
They claimed that it couldn't be done without damaging the fiberglass frame.
It is difficult but I managed to get the windows off. For the front smaller windows, I used a wire rope cutting tool after poking a hole through the glue in a corner. Then I carefully used a sawing motion to cut the glue around the window perimeter while angling the wire to avoid the gel coat. Since the top/bed portion was already removed, it was fairly easy to do this standing up in the truck bed with one hand on the outside and one on the inside of the topper.
I used a suction cup bathtub/shower handle attached to the glass with a bungee cord tied to the topper frame to keep the glass from falling into the concrete floor as I cut the last bit of glue. Both the handle and the wire cutting tool were harbor freight items.
The back/main windows presented the biggest problem. These windows are inside aluminum frames that are glued to the topper. Getting a tool between the frame and the topper to cut the bond is difficult. I used a special window channel cutting tool for this job which I also purchased from harbor freight. The tool has a bit that is too long for the wildernest windows, so I cut about 25% of the tip off with a dremel multi tool and then switched to a grinding wheel to resharpen the cutting tip. This fit, barely, between the fiberglass and the aluminum frame from the inside of the topper. The final trick is to heat the aluminum frame with a hot air heat gun before trying to pull the cutting bit through the glue. After 4 hours, I had both rear windows off without too many additional scratches.
Everything else is either rivets or screws/bolts. I drilled out the rivets with a step drill bit.
Some of my steel inserts in the bed portion that hold the supporting cable mounts were rusted out. They look like standard furniture tee nuts and I'll have to drill from the outside of the top to insert new inserts into the original holes. I'll then have to repair the gel coat and fiberglass to cover back up the new inserts.
Never let water fill up the bed (always use the skirt to keep water out). The original owner setup the camper and forgot to put the skirt out one night and he got rained on. I believe this was the start of the rust to the steel inserts.
My top has many deep cracks in the gel coat. I considered painting the top again, but I don't think this will work to stop the cracks from showing. Most of the cracks are along the hinge side which makes sense since that is where the flex is concentrated.
Instead of paint I'm considering paying to have the topper covered with UV resistant bed liner material. Speedliner and Line-X both claim UV resistance. So I'm saving my pennies for that. Can anyone comment on the durability of these spray on liner material? I'd like to get a white color to keep things from getting too hot.
I also have some surface rust inside my steel frame sections (probably from being wet that one time where the skirt was not used). To combat this rust, I'm going to try using a product called rustbullet (www.rustbullet.com) by pouring some into the steel frame section and corking the hole. Then I will roll the top around the back yard to distribute the coating around the inside and cover up the surface rust. I then need to use a vacuum tool to siphon out the remaining rustbullet and let it dry. I have the rustbullet product but I haven't had time to try it out yet. Check back in a few weeks
I'm surprised by the lack of steel components in the Wildernest frame. I took a strong magnet and traced around to find the steel sections. The lower/main portion of my camper has four steel supporting pillars which are the obvious steel components that I need to pour the rust bullet into. The other two steel sections are the upper back frame and the driver's side frame. Neither the front or the passenger side hinge section have steel sections. The hinge support is just manufactured wood, and the front looks to be foam.
The bottom rails along the top of the truck bed is all manufactured wood core surrounded by fiberglass.
The top/bed section has one steel bar that runs the length of the passenger side to reinforce the hinges. The rest of the bed section is wood covered by fiberglass.
Well, that is enough for now, this post is long enough. I do have some links and part numbers that I'll share next time.
-DJ
My camper was purchased in 92 and it's for a short bed full size truck. From my research I believe that the Wildernest company shut down in either 92 or perhaps 93. If true, that would make my top one of the "newer" ones made.
One way to tell a newer model from the original wildernest design is by counting the small windows behind the cab at the front of the topper. I have two larger windows. Older wildernest toppers have 4 smaller windows. So there was a change made to the molds sometime before 92. See the photos at www.wildernestcamper.com/ to see the differences.
My serial number is: 629xx
I would guess that fewer than 75k tops were made. Does anyone know the exact number?
I'm the second owner and the original owner put 230k miles on his camper before he got a new truck and sold me the wildernest. I paid $600 for mine and I think I paid too much considering how much work I have in front of me to get it fixed up again.
My top was painted black at the factory to match the original owner's truck. Not the best of paint jobs and I first had to figure out how to get the paint off without damaging the gel coal/fiberglass. After removing all the hardware and the windows, I used a ready strip product called auto strip to get the paint off.
This worked fairly well since the gel coat didn't get damaged. There was a lot of elbow grease involved and I had the special triangular stainless steel scraper to speed up the job. I can recommend this product if you have the time and energy to 'paint' the striping chemical on and then scrape at the gel coat surface after waiting a short period of time. To get all the curves and around the windows, I figured I spent a day and a half to get all the old paint off.
I should mention that getting the side windows off is also a chore. First I tried to pay an auto glass shop to cut the glue off for me. They declined my offer to pay them
They claimed that it couldn't be done without damaging the fiberglass frame.
It is difficult but I managed to get the windows off. For the front smaller windows, I used a wire rope cutting tool after poking a hole through the glue in a corner. Then I carefully used a sawing motion to cut the glue around the window perimeter while angling the wire to avoid the gel coat. Since the top/bed portion was already removed, it was fairly easy to do this standing up in the truck bed with one hand on the outside and one on the inside of the topper.
I used a suction cup bathtub/shower handle attached to the glass with a bungee cord tied to the topper frame to keep the glass from falling into the concrete floor as I cut the last bit of glue. Both the handle and the wire cutting tool were harbor freight items.
The back/main windows presented the biggest problem. These windows are inside aluminum frames that are glued to the topper. Getting a tool between the frame and the topper to cut the bond is difficult. I used a special window channel cutting tool for this job which I also purchased from harbor freight. The tool has a bit that is too long for the wildernest windows, so I cut about 25% of the tip off with a dremel multi tool and then switched to a grinding wheel to resharpen the cutting tip. This fit, barely, between the fiberglass and the aluminum frame from the inside of the topper. The final trick is to heat the aluminum frame with a hot air heat gun before trying to pull the cutting bit through the glue. After 4 hours, I had both rear windows off without too many additional scratches.
Everything else is either rivets or screws/bolts. I drilled out the rivets with a step drill bit.
Some of my steel inserts in the bed portion that hold the supporting cable mounts were rusted out. They look like standard furniture tee nuts and I'll have to drill from the outside of the top to insert new inserts into the original holes. I'll then have to repair the gel coat and fiberglass to cover back up the new inserts.
Never let water fill up the bed (always use the skirt to keep water out). The original owner setup the camper and forgot to put the skirt out one night and he got rained on. I believe this was the start of the rust to the steel inserts.
My top has many deep cracks in the gel coat. I considered painting the top again, but I don't think this will work to stop the cracks from showing. Most of the cracks are along the hinge side which makes sense since that is where the flex is concentrated.
Instead of paint I'm considering paying to have the topper covered with UV resistant bed liner material. Speedliner and Line-X both claim UV resistance. So I'm saving my pennies for that. Can anyone comment on the durability of these spray on liner material? I'd like to get a white color to keep things from getting too hot.
I also have some surface rust inside my steel frame sections (probably from being wet that one time where the skirt was not used). To combat this rust, I'm going to try using a product called rustbullet (www.rustbullet.com) by pouring some into the steel frame section and corking the hole. Then I will roll the top around the back yard to distribute the coating around the inside and cover up the surface rust. I then need to use a vacuum tool to siphon out the remaining rustbullet and let it dry. I have the rustbullet product but I haven't had time to try it out yet. Check back in a few weeks
I'm surprised by the lack of steel components in the Wildernest frame. I took a strong magnet and traced around to find the steel sections. The lower/main portion of my camper has four steel supporting pillars which are the obvious steel components that I need to pour the rust bullet into. The other two steel sections are the upper back frame and the driver's side frame. Neither the front or the passenger side hinge section have steel sections. The hinge support is just manufactured wood, and the front looks to be foam.
The bottom rails along the top of the truck bed is all manufactured wood core surrounded by fiberglass.
The top/bed section has one steel bar that runs the length of the passenger side to reinforce the hinges. The rest of the bed section is wood covered by fiberglass.
Well, that is enough for now, this post is long enough. I do have some links and part numbers that I'll share next time.
-DJ