Lessons Learned

Being new to the whole "let's restore a vintage trailer" thing, I obviously have some things to learn. I have a feeling I"ll be learning a lot over the time it takes to get this baby back to it's original glory. This year it's all about safety and the interior. Next year will be tricking out the inside to be more of what my end vision is. The exterior will just have to wait until after then. Because neither the "pimp my car" or "pimp my truck" people are not likely to show up at my house any time soon.

I thank all of the people who responded about the age/make of the trailer. I did quite a bit of looking online at pictures and sites and discussions, and do agree that the most likely thing is a 1941 trailer base frame, and a kit or some obscure manufacturer for the rest, probably mid to late 50's or very early 60's. I am going to try not knowing exactly what it is bother me.

Here's some things I've learned already. Some of these I've learned from the great MSN group I found - Vintage Vacations. Thanks to all of you! And some I have learned all by myself, painfully in most cases.

1. Just because it looks ugly now, doesn't mean it always will.

2. Just because the guy selling the thing says everything on it is in working condition does not mean it is all in safe working condition.

3. Even if you look under the trailer and everything looks OK doesn't mean it is. Learning what to look for before you buy a trailer would be a good thing.

4. You can't repair everything by yourself if you don't have proper equipment.

5. Some people will laugh at you and some will encourage you. Ignore the laughers and be grateful for the encouragers.

6. Finding people who can repair what you can't and feeling like you can trust them not to mess you up is a very good thing.

Here's how I learned some of this. When I took it into the shop for a safety check, because I do not want to be responsible for any accidents or injuries and I plan on taking this across the country this summer, I had a lot more wrong with the frame and towing system than I thought.

It turns out that not only was one of the leaf springs broken (on the side parked up next to the fence), but believe it or not the axle was on up side down! What the heck....!!!!! The best guess of the repair guys (who, by the way, are all thinking that my trailer is very cool and are excited about helping me get it back together) was that at one time or another somebody decided they needed more ground clearance to get to more remote camping areas. Because I live up next to the Rocky Mountains, this seems quite reasonable, but it messed up the axle and the leaf springs.

So, the estimate for getting a new axle, two new leaf springs, the bearings (which were shot anyway), brakes (which it did not have before at all), fixing the door so that it will stay shut when it is supposed to, adding a tongue jack because it didn't have one, getting the exterior wiring all correct, and oh yeah, replacing the hitch because the one that is on there now is not only too small for the trailer but also only spot welded in 6 places. $1375.00

I have no idea if that is a good price or not, but all of those things have to get done in order to safely tow the trailer where I want to. I know none of that is anything I can do myself. That puts my interior plans back a bit, since my budget isn't extravagant by any means. But I should be able to still strip the inside down to a stable place and at least clean, paint, and make it comfortable and livable for the main trip this summer.

I will most likely leave the interior wiring alone for now, as well as the gas for the stove. We aren't going to be needing the stove for this trip and the electric seems stable enough for the limited time we will be using it. I work for an electrical contractor, so I will have one of the guys double check the electric for me just to make sure the shore power is safe. Eventually I will probably rewire it, since the plug is not a grounded one.

So here is my new plan....

Pay a lot of money to make this thing safe to tow about 3,000 miles this summer - easy to do, hard on the wallet. But since the plan is to restore it and not just use it for a year or two, this seems very necessary.

Strip enough of the interior to get to a solid base to build upon - nerve racking, but probably not too hard

Test for leaks with my garden hose - easy, but hopefully I won't find many

Hope to God it doesn't need a lot of leak repair - pray hard

Fix whatever leaks - I have no idea how hard this will be

Clean it really well - a dirty, but easy job

Decide whether or not to rebuild the dinette seats this year or next - may be a decision that is easy, but doing it may be more difficult than I expect

Make the dinette area capable of being turned into a bed - easy/medium difficulty, the current table will have to be put onto a base that can come apart and then be fixed up to look nicer

Seal the interior with something like Kilz - easy

At that time decide whether to just paint, or to add something to make it smooth enough to paint, or to add a birch veneer and seal that - I hope that decision isn't too hard, but the budget may be the deciding factor for this year

Trim out enough to make it look decent - should be reasonably simple

Get the dinette cushions recovered - this I know will be easy since I can sew very well

Get a mattress for the bed - easy

Get some kind of curtains up - easy, except for the curved walls but I think I have a plan for those.

As I go along I hope the group doesn't get too tired of questions! I'm counting on y'all for some sound advice and tips to avoid some of the pitfalls.

Here are some more pictures. Matt (in the picture) is 6'2" or so, and he can stand up straight in the middle, which gives the trailer an uncrowded feeling to me.

The back side of the beauty The dining area

Just how many layers of contact/wallpaper are needed behind the stove? Answer: Three, adhered to a poster board thickness of black tar paper.

Matt, stripping the paint and contact paper off of the two layers of veneer.

Down to the green paint on the original (I think) wood by the dining area.

What was I thinking !?!?!?!?!????

OK, It's confession time. I was going to rent a camper for a trip we are taking in June/July. There are two family reunions to go to in the Midwest. We were planning on camping for the first one, and needed extra sleeping spaces at the second one at the cabin, but our tent needed replacement. The rental was going to cost somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500. Ick.

But, what if I bought a cheap camper, one that maybe wasn't really gorgeous but a least didn't leak. That would beat a tent, and if it had electricity we could hook it up and hubby's sleep apnea machine would work. Then not only would we have a camper for the trip, but we would be able to take off for a weekend here and there to "get away from it all" whatever "all" is. Or we could sell it and be ahead of the game. Sounds reasonable, right?

So on to Craig's list I went and searched around for a camper. Not, please notice, a perfect camper, but one that would be adequate for our needs. Craig's list had tons of campers and I narrowed it down: no pop-ups because the price range I was looking at would most likely only include ones with leaky canvas, no campers that you drive in because then you have to deal with all sorts of mechanical issues, they were all out of the price range, ditto any new-ish ones. This left very few to choose from.

There was one that caught my eye. A vintage camper, one that had lots and lots of personality. One that had seen a few campfires in her years. One that didn't look too bad. One that was guaranteed not to leak, that the electricity and LP gas worked, and that was "solid".

So off I went on Sunday to see it. I was to take "a voice of reason" with me according to my friend Lisa. Great idea, but both of my voices of reason had other plans. The weather was not good: dense fog, snow and rain. I had to go to Thornton, about 80 miles away over Monument Hill. The guy said my trailer hitch and ball were compatible, as was the tail light hook up in case I decided to buy it.

It looked "interesting". There were definitely things wrong with it. However, this was a camper that could be used once it was freshened up with a coat of paint. There was some water damage inside, but the guy said he had repaired all of the leaks. It had some really hideous hot pink curtains, horrible fabric on the dinette benches and a really rank looking futon for a bed. Nothing that wasn't an easy fix. The electric worked, and the stove was used last season with no problems. There is no bathroom, so nothing there to fix. No refrigerator, just an icebox so nothing there to fix either. There is a sink, but no water tank, but that should be easy to add later.

Can you tell yet that I bought it? Yes, indeed I did. It was cheap, and it looks like it will be a fun project. (Feel free to remind me I said that later.) The hitch turned out not to be compatible, I had to get another one at the Wal-Mart. And I had to have the guy include the adapter that makes the tail lights work. I brought it home and Bob didn't laugh in my face, but I'm sure he's really hoping I can pull this off. Matt is psyched to have such a neat project to work on. He can't wait to make the inside "bad ass". (I will remind him of that later.) It only took me 10 minutes to back it into the proper space in the driveway, which I think is pretty good since I haven't backed up a trailer in over 30 years.

I have an appointment tomorrow to take it in to have some of the safety issues like brakes and safety chains looked at. I know there are some things I can't do and will wisely be leaving those things to the experts. I'm leaving the rewiring and gas leak detection and stove check until later on this season. I've had to prioritize what needs doing. This is not going to be a short term project. The immediate priorities are: towing safety, getting the door fixed so it stays shut while driving down the road and locked when at the campsite, leak repair if any is needed, screen repair because there are mosquitoes in Wisconsin, a new roof vent for better circulation, deciding whether or not we need the electricity re-done this year or not, having the gas system (which is really just the stove) checked, deciding on if we want to get the water tank hooked up this year, and then making the interior comfortable, livable, cozy and nice looking. After that, if we decide to keep it for a while, exterior repairs and a spiffy new paint job. The exterior will not happen this year, that I know for sure. So I am prepared for lots of people laughing and pointing. Also for later consideration is a furnace if it turns out that we use the camper enough for the expense to make sense.

Matt and I started investigating it a little closer today after I got back from the DMV to get plates for the thing. The people we bought it from had painted the entire inside baby blue, and they did a really bad job of it. They had painted over the previous owners contact paper, which was white with gold and silver sparkles. The contact paper was adhered to cheap veneer, which came off as well. Under that layer of veneer was more veneer, which also was coming off. Under that, there was a creamy green paint color that I believe was the original paint. It is definitely a 40's color. Oh, I didn't mention the year of the camper? The title says 1941. Yep, the same year as Pearl Harbor. 67 years old. Stop laughing!

We are by no means done ripping back to a good solid starting point for repainting or re-veneering the ceiling and walls. We have decided that part of the walls are covered with 70's cheap panelling, and we think we will probably remove that as well. None of the trim is original as far as we can tell, but the above sink cabinets and the closet probably are. The dinette benches were installed after the panelling, and we may by rebuilding those as well to make them a size that we might like better. We haven't decided whether to keep the icebox or make that space into general storage. If we make it into storage, we will build a place for a cooler under the bed in the back.

Right now we are thinking of a linoleum floor (sticky tile squares really) for ease of cleaning, maybe white and black checkerboard, and having throw rugs to keep our toes toasty warm when needed. The stove and sink are white porcelain over steel, so we are thinking of keeping the walls and ceiling creamy green color with white accents for the rest. I know of a couple places to find vintage inspired fabric for the cushions and curtains, if we decide to go that way. I still have to figure out how to get the window coverings right. Four of the windows will not cause any problems, they are on straight walls, but two windows are on walls that curve. That means the curtains, if just attached at the top, will hang straight down, which means they will hang away from the walls.

There are no identifying marks on the camper. The title just says RQ under make and CMP under model. It does have a VIN number which I have memorized. It wasn't hard since the VIN is "243". I've done a little research on the web and am thinking that it was a kit trailer, or a really obscure manufacturer. There aren't any online that I have seen that are a close match, but I'm going to do more research. There might be a clue on the icebox. They painted over a raised piece that looks like it could be the manufacturers logo. We'll find out after we strip the paint off.

Wish us luck!