Build your own canopy/camper/shell?

[CastIron]

When I bought my 1969 GMC back in 2000, it had a canopy on it that had been installed right after the original owner bought the truck. I took it off for the first time since it was new soon after. A few years later, it got damaged in storage and I got rid of it. It was heavy, made huge blind spots, and had a few little problems, but now I'm wishing I still had it.
A while back I stumbled across a thread on a different website that was all about building a slide in camper to fit the author's truck. He used some plans from the Glen-L RV website (they also have boat plans- a lot of boat plans). The plans are definitely much more old-school than what you see being built today. I've been doing a little research, and surprising I found a company not too far from me that sells parts and materials for older campers/RVs. I have lots of woodworking and automotive experience, and a place I could build it. And now that I know I can get building materials fairly easy, I'm thinking I could (and should) build something.

Has anybody here done something like this? If so, I'd like to hear about the process and experience. Pictures would be great too.

Here's a link to the Glen L website:
https://www.glen-l.com/glen-l-rv-plans/
and the truck camper page:
https://www.boatdesigns.com/Camper-Plans/products/697/

[Palf70Step]

I have not, but it sounds neat to get that old style look. I don't think I trust my wood working to get into one though.

[special-K]

I haven't built a camper but have thought a lot about doing one ever since I got rid of my old original camper. I'm talking overhead cantilever style, but I've also thought about building a nice clean low-profile cap. I had done repairs on mine on the back corner, when I found out the skin material was available. Very expensive! I haven't checked lately and that was many years ago. I'm sure that type of aluminum is still available somewhere. The cap I think I'd like to do in wood with fiberglass laminated. Either way, though, I want to do the frame with aluminum tube stock.

The downfall of the old campers was the seams and wood frame. That is where they seem to fail. My plan would be to weld up an aluminum square tube frame