Awning in action!

We went to the rally in St.Malo MB. This is a picture of the Boler with the awning up. It was a hit!

We had an excellent time and met some great people! Can't wait to go again next year!

More Progress More Updates

I've been busy for the past few days. I now have a working converter.
I've hooked up the new LED lights on the upper cabinets.
I also installed a porch light with an interior switch. (I've really wanted one of these since I saw someone else do it. It's very cool!)

The cabinet doors have also been painted a lovely teal? robins egg? - Oh whatever color it is...It does seem to match the stripes on my interior fabric perfectly though! 

BOLER VIRTUAL TOUR

THE APPROACH - AIN'T SHE BEAUTIFUL

View from the door.

The cabinets - Still have some finishing touches to add IKEA GOODIES..

OH YEA! That's the light switch for the porch light!

TABLE / BED area. LOVE THE FABRIC & CURTAINS!

UM the other side of the amazing Table / BED area

Lights (those are 24 LEDs up in there) Luckily the light is just right I was thinking it would look like close encounters when both of these lights were on....

 

The light over the table - These lights are stainless and waterproof (marine style)

Well that wraps up the tour for now. Tomorrow I have to take out all the curtains and cushions so they can work on the windows again... It's a BOLER thing=)

NEW WINDOWS! Well sort of...

I've been preparing for new windows in the Boler for some time. The old ones were yellowed and cracked. They also leaked... So I ordered new gaskets and lockstrip from Scamp travel trailers.
I was going to take this project on as a DIY, but later chickened out and had an auto glass company install them for me.

The good news - They look amazing, they don't leak, they are really clear, and I opted for Lexan which is suppose to be much stronger than plexi.

The bad news - I went out in a rain storm the other night. I was checking for leaks...there were none..BUT the front window has a small crack in the lower left corner of the window :(

I'm wondering if the window may have been too tight? Or possibly the weight of the upper bunk caused issues when I reinstalled it?

At any rate this Lexan stuff is not suppose to crack. So back it goes tomorrow for a replacement window. The guys at the auto glass place have been really great to work with.

A photo - Just cause...they really are a thing of beauty =)

Progress Today! - Gotta love it when a plan comes together!

 LIGHTS

LED lights installed! There are 24 LEDs in these bad boys. 

This Boler is going to light up like a flying saucer!

COOKIN WITH GAS!

I youtubed how to flare soft copper line....

I don't know why people record stuff like that but they are totally my people!

Had to uninstall the old Coleman and cut and re-flare the gas lines. It's working and there were no trips to the hospital ;)

 STAYIN' PUT

NEW Latches! http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/

 Now I can drive around without all the cupboards flying open....maybe?

Still wish these were SILVER, but I was lucky to fine ones that fit exactly.

UM I LOVE antique brass =)

CHARGE THOSE GADGETS!

Added a 12V power socket for the iPad

At this point you may be asking....Did you install the converter? Do these lovely lights and iPad charge station HAVE power????

UM NO - Thinking I need to sort out my window situation before I go to town on the converter.

Still seem to be leaking from time to time ;)

New Cushions & Curtains

So much has happened since my last post....New cushion covers & Curtains!!!

This is really going to make the Boler look nice!

Talk about a total makeover!!

Many thanks to my sister (who was on vacation when she helped me with these) & my mom!
I'm talking late nights folks =) We did make a patterns so my sister is willing and able to create more of these amazing interiors. She is a driven sewing PRO! Check her out on Flickr

I assisted with all the prep work. I even learned how to sew a set of curtains. Thanks Mom! 

We made 70 yards of piping for this project!

Lucky my sister knew how to fast track this piping business. That's a Tupperware canister that we were using as a spool =)

AND NOW THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Reversible Baby! Notice how those stripes line up! My sister planned that out - not an easy task on a project this size.

 

 

 

Look 2

Look 3

Look4

The "couch" for the boler. The upper bunk is the only part that isn't desinged to be reversible (because it gets bolted to the wall ;)

 

Check out these curtains!

I have two complete sets to suite whatever Boler mood I'm in =)

Thanks Mom!

When you hang them up the patterns even match up in the middle. These women know how to sew!

Special thanks to Christine McClellan and Patti Deal!! You made my Boler the cool kid on the block!!

New Developement...an awning!

The wonderful things you can find on the http://www.fiberglassrv.com website.

I was reviewing a post from Randy who has a 1975 Boler that he is restoring.
He picked up a new 7 x 7 awning from Alberta Tent and Awning in Calgary.

After looking at the awning he got I looked up Alberta Tent and Awning.
I talked to this awesome guy named Steen and now I am the proud owner of a new
teal striped awning.

My grand plan is to have my Boler painted 1950s "Kitchen Apliance" teal on the bottom and white on the top.

This all sounds like a really happy story....until...

I got a call from Greyhound (Steen sent the awning in record time using station to station Greyhound delivery) he saved me mondey and it got here REALLY fast.

Now for the sad part of this story...It arrived without the poles. I have a feeling Greyhound has "misplaced" them. So I sent a quick email to Steen to see what we can do.

More on this later...AND pics of the new awning! Steen does really fantastic work!

Here is a teaser of the color. I went with the Teal stripped one at the bottom of the pic.

He made a duffel bag out of the same fabric to keep the awning in and included rope, tent stakes and I think ;) poles.

Progress continues...New tongue box

I got a box for the boler a few weeks ago at Canadian Tire.

I'd been looking around for one of these for a while but they are just really expensive. I saw this one on the Canadian tire website and added a "Sale Alert" so that I'd get an email when this box when on sale. Less than a week later it went on stale for $200.00 which is still a lot, but a nice savings of $40.00 so I picked it up.

It's been sitting in the garage waiting for me to get up the nerve to drill through the trailer frame to install it. Many thanks to Jake for helping me get that job done!

The plan -  to move the propane tank and the battery into a secure box at the front of the trailer.
I'm still moving towards installing my new converter, but needed to first install an outlet then take care of installing the battery...progress has been made!

Check out the new Delta aluminum tongue box!

The Box

Room left for my battery box.

Boler Returns

Just got back from a week away. I dropped the Boler off at Metro Trailers to have the bearings repacked and new safety chains added to the front. Metro did an Excellent job. I got he bearings repacked, the axle serviced, the chains welded on and the coupler adjusted for under $100.00...
They just rock over there at Metro!

In preperation for my new converter I installed an outlet under the front bench seat. I'm thinking that I can also use this for the new / old fridge when I get it installed. (I picked up an old three way fridge on kijiji) These bolers came with three way fridges (at least some of them did) , but there isn't anywhere to plug it in....very odd. Maybe it was suppose to be plugged in separately...at any rate I'm going to try running it using this GFI outlet. Not sure yet if both the fridge and the converter will run smoothly on the same outlet, but we will see ;)

Front bench seat compartment

New GFI outlet

Porta Potty cabinet....New home for my future converter

After much debate I decided to remove the furnace. It was only a shell so it really was taking up valuable space. I was really fighting the urge to fix it...but when I opened it up and saw that it was only a furnace shell it was just a matter of time.

Before

After

 

 

The furnace hole just happens to be the exact same size as the other cabinet to the right. I'm going to use that cabinet door as a template for creating a new door for my reclaimed furnace space!
The only problem...this is where the wheel well is. There are also water and electric lines running through the space. Not sure how much space I really gained, but it looks better.

Running lights installed!

Despite all the rain we've been having I managed to get the running lights installed.
Everything worked perfectly on the first try! Not bad for my first trailer rewire...

The second photo is a closeup of the new 7" tail lights from princess auto.
All these LED lights use a fraction of the power of the originals and are BRIGHT.

Looks like the little boler is going to TAKE OFF =)

Rainy Day...No Boler Renos

Couldn't get anything done on the lights today due to the rain. I did however pickup my running lights at Princess Auto. They look exactly like the originals. They will be great once installed!
It'll be nice to have the trailer lights working. Then I can get started inside.

I found some interior lights to replace the original non-working 12V lights. These are roughly the same size as the original. I love the stanless steel finish. AND they are LED! Perfect!

New LED Tail Lights

I finally finished rewiring the Boler yesterday. I couldn't wait to test it all out (which I ended up doing in the rain). My new Power Fist 7 inch LED tail lights are working perfectly!....that's the good news.
All the other lights on the trailer are NOT working. On closer inspection I discovered that all the old light fixtures had bad / broken 12V bulbs.  I also noticed that I have one leading running light on the passenger side that is orange, but all the other running lights are red... I'm thinking all will be well with new lights / bulbs.  I hate to remove the original running lights, but I am so impressed with the brightness of the tail lights that I think I'll be going all LED.

They are huge and bright! Like two light up dinner plates!

Back to Princess Auto to get new running lights =)

My 1974 Boler!

I recently purchased one of these little gems after much searching. I watched the Winnipeg kijiji listings for weeks to find the perfect one. Another great place to find them is on http://www.fiberglass-rv-4sale.com/ they list classifieds Boler as well as listings for many of its kin.

We looked at 4-5 during our search. There are many things to look for when searching for your very own egg. I'll post a link to the buyers checklist later.

There weren't that many for sale in WPG when we were looking, but I wanted to get going so we could do some camping!

I think we really lucked out when we found this one. The owners were really cool! We couldn't have purchased from nicer people!

My new favorite online hangout is fiberglassrv.com. There a many helpful "Egg" owners on this site.
There are also tons of mods / suggestions. My first task is to fix the wiring on the Boler. The tail lights work, but nothing else. After that who knows...so much to do! So much fun! This little egg and I are going to be spending a lot of time together!

Boler Floor Plans

This is the standard floor plan for the Boler. There were some choices like fridge vs ice box, furnace, window shields. I've seen some with cabinets over the dinette area, but I'm not sure if this is original.

The Boler

I've wanted one of these amazing little campers since I saw the Bee 2Gether office at the Forks here in Winnipeg Manitoba. The Boler was invented in Winnipeg Ray Olecko in 1968. His first invention was a fiberglass septic tank. This little camper sports a small kitchen, dinette and a couch that converts to bunk beds....YES bunk beds....how cool is that! The body is all fiberglass. Two pieces joined in the center by an aluminum "belly band". The Boler was the first in a long line of fiberglass kin. Many parts for this trailer can still be purchased from the Scamp website (one of the bolers more modern Kin).