Rebuilding a 1972 Aristocrat Travel Trailer

You can read the 1st post here and the 2nd post here of my vintage 1972 Aristocrat Land Star travel trailer.

After tearing my old travel trailer apart, the hard work really began. I am not a carpenter, I am a nail tech. Lucky for me that Jason has some awesome tools. Yes, I'm a lucky girl.

 I first worked on rebuilding the front. Because there was so much wood rot, I had no idea how this area was supposed to go together. I spent many hours on Google searching for images of other Aristocrat travel trailers hoping someone out there had documented a rebuild. Aristocrat trailers from the 60's and on seem to all have this peak on the front. Eventually, I decided to just go for it and do the best I could. After all, it shouldn't be seen again...at least for another 40 years, I hope. I did see on a few blogs how others had used metal fasteners to tie in the new wood with the old. It worked great, even if it isn't pretty.

 I didn't cut out every single piece of wood with rot. If the rot was in a small area, I just brushed on a product that "petrifies" the wood and therefore not allowing the rot to have good wood to feed on. It worked very well. The wood became so hard that I had some trouble with a few of my staples not wanting to go through that hard wood when I put the panels back on.

I loved being outside working on this trailer. Every new piece of wood that I put up fueled my excitement for this project. I can do this!

 The back end of the trailer had even more challenges for me. The frame for the trunk was toast. It was full of angled cuts and hid a bigger problem than I realized....the entire trunk had shifted out away from the main frame. This made all of my measurements for the depth of the trunk about 1/2" too long.

 

When I did a test fit with the trailer skin, I couldn't understand why it didn't fit. I was so frustrated. I had to walk away for the rest of the day. The next day, I was ready to try again. After going inside, and moving the couch/bed base out of the way, I could see the separation of the trunk portion of the frame. With it pushed back into place and secured with some metal fasteners, I only had to use my

sander to knock off a little more of the wood to get the skin to fit.

I added new insulation and used a spray foam that had minimal expanding to seal up all the areas around the window frames that were too small for regular insulation. Jason began testing out the new tail lights we bought.

There was so much peeling paint on the upper panels. I spent many hours trying to sand that peeling paint. I'd get it to where the paint was nice and secure and no more signs of peeling paint, and then I used a self etching primer on the panels.

Jason said he liked the color of the primer and thought we should leave it that way. I told him that if we ever broke down in the woods and a search party was sent out, we would be camouflaged so well that nobody would ever find us. Another project I worked on was stripping the white paint off the drip rails that run along the entire top side edges and down each corner covering the seams.

I then used aluminum polish and shined them up. I'm sure they were white to begin with since the white paint went all the way around each strip, but a family vote was taken and they all said it would look better being shiny metal. These are the strips that run down the corners. They had taken a beating over the years and I had to try and repair the edges with sheet metal pliers.

 

I added bubble insulation while the skin was off. At this point in the rebuild, I was not wanting to find any more damage. I was adamant that I was not going to remove that last panel you see on the side and NO WAY was I going to pull the roof off!

Oh well, girls are supposed to change their minds. Jason kept saying that I'd gone this far with taking it apart, that I should just do the rest. Knowing that there were roof leaks in the past from the ceiling damage inside, I admitted that he was right and I could repair the roof more easily if it were on the ground. I was very happy to find that the roof itself was in very good condition once we could see the top framing.

The second week into December, 8 weeks after we took the first panel off, I was finally putting them back on. You can see the new insulation we added to the roof and the plastic vapor barrier. All this time our Arizona weather had been wonderful and I kept saying I had to hurry and get the skin back on before any rain was announced in the forecast. Just look at that blue sky! We shouldn't be worried....

 3 days later we were hit with our first heavy rain storm. My poor trailer still did not have her full skin on. Luckily the roof had been put back on, but only half of it had been stapled down. None of the windows were installed, so one back side window had to be tacked back into place with a couple screws since we were out of plastic and tarps and couldn't cover all of her. I just did what I could and let it be.

The trunk did get soaked as well as some of the insulation along drivers side edge. The wet insulation was cut away and I replaced it with dry. A few sunny days and the wood on the trunk top was dry again. Christmas was coming fast and I decided to take a much needed break from the trailer.

Weeks later, I noticed that many of the areas along the top two panels were still peeling. I went back several times and re sanded and primed again, but no matter how much I sanded, that paint still wouldn't come off until it decided to peel away. I made peace with the fact that this isn't going to be one of those fabulously restored trailers I have seen on the internet. I am creating a fun camping trailer that we can enjoy as a family, or at least those members of our family who chose to join our camping adventures. So she will have peeling paint. And that's OK.

I got an HVLP spray gun from Harbor Freight and taught myself to use it and gave Lola the Love Shack her first coat of white paint, finishing just before the sun went down. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

And here's another photo after the paint was finished and I have all all the polished windows sealed and installed and all that shiny drip rail installed.

 

There was so much more that work that went on with this 1972 Aristocrat Land Star that I skipped over in this blog post. Such as: We removed the old non working air conditioner and installed a roof vent in it's place. We have future plans to replace the old a/c, but it isn't in the budget right now. She also got a new refrigerator vent hood since the old one was missing. I also repaired the broken back window. At this point, I still have to paint and reinstall the bottom edging of the trailer. The rock guard for the front window needs work before I can put it back up. We need 4 new tires. The wheel bearing need to be repacked. We need a battery...make that 2 batteries. We still can't get the refrigerator to work. I might need a new water tank. We need to figure out how to fire up the furnace and I really hope it will work because those suckers are expensive. Thankfully the stove and oven work and since I've got the outside all back together we've had more rain and I can't find any water leaks inside.

 

So many things left on my punch list, but I've moved on to the part that I have wanted to do all along...the inside! Time for her lipstick and mascara!

 

 

Vintage Travel Trailer Woes

When you buy a 40 year old travel trailer you'd better expect to do some work. Maybe I was lying to myself about how much work would need to go into Lola the Love Shack to get her where I wanted her to be. Or to be more accurate, to get her to where SHE needed to be.

Jason always says I enjoy a project, and this girl was the Mother Of All Projects to enter my life so far. I'll let you in on a secret....I am daydreaming about taking on another one. Yeah, I'm a little sick.

This was the beginning of the tear down at the front dinette.

 

That dent isn't from me, but that gash right above it is from me. I wasn't very careful gouging out the old wood rot and I damaged the aluminum skin. Lesson learned.

 

The first section of aluminum comes off. I was telling myself at this point that I wasn't going to invest too much time in a lot of renovations.

 

When that first section came off and the old rotted wood fell to the ground, I knew this was going to take longer than a couple weeks...but I KNEW it wouldn't take me much longer than that.

 

What the heck? Is there supposed to be something covering this hole on the roof? Turns out this is the refrigerator vent and there should be a cover over it. Add it to the list.

 

I kept saying that I was just going to do the minimum and that would be enough. Jason said that if I planned to keep this trailer for any length of time that I HAD to fix her right. He said, you can do it now, or you can do it later.

The first side is skinned. Guess how many staples it takes to attach those panels? What ever number you guess, add about 10,000 to that number.

 

This was about the time when Jason and I were both hating this project. Pulling staples wouldn't have been so hard if over half of them weren't rusted so bad. I was pretty amazed to learn that these old trailers are framed with 1 x 2's and cut plywood. Guess that is what makes them so light. Thankfully the rot was contained to the front and back with the sides being in pretty good shape.

 

I loved finding the Land Star model name written on the framing.



This is the back driver's side at the trunk. Lots of rot here.

And this is the trunk top. Rotten on both sides.

 

Every section revealing rotten wood makes my heart sink. I'm a little freaked out since I have NO IDEA how to fix this. I can't say enough how lucky we are to live in the digital age. Google became my best friend. I was so grateful to those who braved a trailer rebuild before me and posted what they had done to make repairs.

 

If anyone asked me what advise I would give them before taking on their own vintage trailer project I would say to take as many photos as you can. Document everything. These photos became valuable to me when it came time to put things back together. The other thing I would say would be to not get overwhelmed. Just pick one thing at a time to concentrate on. There were days when I got a little scared about the project. But after stepping away for awhile, I could look at it with fresh eyes. I'll admit that I spent many, many hours on the internet with research.

 

I hope I haven't scared anyone away from their dreams of a vintage travel trailer. I can honestly say that during this time, I was truly happy and in my element. It was somehow soothing knowing my girl was always out front waiting for me. I always had something to do. Unfortunately my family probably suffered from a lack of attention and the house got dirtier than it should. Jason actually called me Obsessed. Yeah, I really was.

I'm Back! And I bought a friend.

My blog is my homepage when I hit the internet. I have no excuse for ignoring my little blog. So without further ado, here comes a new post.

It's time to share with you what has had my interest, my time, my blood, sweat, and tears over the last several months.

Meet Lola, the Love Shack

She's a vintage 1972 Aristocrat Land Star travel trailer. I kind of love her. She joined my family mid October 2012. She was a little rough looking when we brought her home. I knew she would need a little work.

Lovely avocado stove with groovy wallpaper back splash

Dinette with old shabby curtains (I'm sure they are original)

Couch folded down to a bed.

 

I just couldn't wait to get going on fixing her up to be a sweet little gem we could enjoy camping in. All she would need were tires, a little paint and a few touch-ups here and there.

Ah, ignorance is bliss.

We did see this water damage before we bought her. We'll just find the leak and fix it. No problem. 

We brought her home and I started to clean her up and thought this front corner of the dinette was pretty bad looking and decided to replace some of the wood.

Before long, I had torn out so much rotten wood and uncovered the fact that the entire front was rotted away from years of water leaks.

 

I really had no idea of what I should do or where in the world I should even start. I feel very lucky to have Jason as my husband. He may not have wanted a travel trailer, but he knew how very much I wanted one (because I sent him craigslist links every other day) and he told me if I was going to fix this trailer, then I may as well fix it right.

It is a good thing that I wanted an old trailer so bad that I'm ready to do whatever it takes to get this old girl into shape. With the help of the internet and Jason's arsenal of tools I begin my trailer saga.

To be continued....

2012 Quarterly Update

Here it is, March. So far this year is not unlike last year. One change has been my work location at a new salon. Things are OK there, but I'm separated from the other girls and in a room by myself. I don't much care for that.

Another change is that I've been actively working out for all of this year so far....and LOVING it!
January I joined a boot camp fitness and by the end of the month knew it wasn't for me. I did manage to change my sleep and wake schedule to accommodate the early wake up, so now I just get up every day and work out at home. The changes in my body are slowly making their appearance and I have to keep reminding myself to be patient.

Along with the exercise routine, I decided that my diet needed an overhaul. January I just tried to watch my calories and carbs. Unfortunately I aways felt bloated and stuffed, yet still wanted to eat. In February I decided to try a vegetarian diet. Two weeks into it and I was thrilled with the way I felt. In doing some online searches, I learned about eating a raw vegan diet and wanted to give it a try. I've been eating raw ever since. I truly love it. I finally feel satisfied after a meal. I'm not constipated any more. I've noticed my face is slimmer and I'm no longer craving sugar.

This is my new Blendtec blender. It is perhaps the best purchase I've made this year. I have a big green smoothie for breakfast every day. YUMMY!

In just 5 days, Jared will be 16 years old. How did my baby grow up so fast? He got his drivers permit just last month, so he will still have to wait 5 more months to get his licence.

Oh yeah, he also got his braces off about a month ago. Ain't he cute?

Jacob finally got his drivers license. It's great because while he's visiting, we can have him run all the errands we don't want to. He seems to love it, but I'm sure he'll get tired of running around for us after awhile.

And lets not forget The Color Run back in January!

Here is Team Redrun Redrun  =  Me, Suzee, Jason, Olivia, Sarah, and Jim. It was a lot of fun. Jacob didn't get to run it, but he did get to be a color thrower.

Yes, he was in the green zone. The kid was covered from head to foot in green.

His feet were stained for quite a while.

Next Saturday on St Patrick's Day, Suzee and I are going to be doing the 4K Four Leaf Clover run at the Westgate Center. We are going to be wearing something fun and St Patty day themed. I'm looking forward to it.

Am I still considered a blogger?

Welcome to 2012!

If one does not blog with any consistency, is that person still considered a blogger? I should try to get in here more often and start posting again.

I'm looking forward to this last year before the world ends (as far as the Mayans are concerned). I've just started at a new salon and will have the option of working more now that I do not have to share my station anymore. Yay!! It's great to know that when I clean my mess up and go home, and come back another day, that I won't have to clean up after somebody who must not see all her nail dust and clippings and therefore leaves them for me to take care of. See, it doesn't take much to make me happy. Just a clean station and lots of yarn to crochet with.

Happy New Year everyone!

Montana Vacation Part Deux

Once we left the cabin, we headed to Kalispell. We spent several days at Marcie’s house. One of those days we headed to Big Mountain in White Fish. Jason missed out on our trip because he had another golf day planned with a friend.

You can just make out the ski trails in the mountain ahead.

As soon as we got there, we hopped on a lift to ride it to the top of the Alpine Slide ride. You can see some of the slide in the picture I snapped of Betsy, Taylor, Beau and Jim in the first lift.

And this is the picture of them from the lift I was riding on.

It’s me, Jessica and Parker. Aren’t we brave riding with the safety bar up? Actually, I didn’t know we had one!

And bringing up the rear is Jared, Olivia, Brittany and Jacob. Behind them is where the Alpine Slide ends.

Here’s a small section of the slide taken from my lift.

As you come up to the top, they tell you to get ready to run so the lift doesn’t run you over. Here’s my kids and Britt getting ready to run for it.

Time for some documentation photos….pay attention Jacob. Jared knows what to do.

Hey Jared, let me get a picture of you. Thanks for blocking my shot Jacob.

Um, Jacob… will you please cooperate so I can remember this day and scrapbook about it please.

Oh look, it’s me and my kids. The background almost looks fake in this picture. As you can tell, it was a chilly day.

This is looking down at part of the Alpine Slide track. That tiny man is there to take pictures so the tourists can spend lots of money for a copy.

Here is most of our group. Everyone gets instructions on how to operate the sled. I’ll be in line as soon as I get some photos.

Get your phones out so you can video your slide!

There goes Jared! Have fun!!     So did they enjoy it?

YES!! Here they come up the lift to go down the slide again.

After sliding, we all went on a nature trial walk. Big Mountain also has zip line tours, but it was WAY over our budget.

We could hear these people coming down these lines before we could see them.

I really loved being on that trail. Living in Arizona makes you appreciate simple streams and green everywhere you look.

Finally the day trip is over and it’s time to go.

Everyone is a little tired and ready to call it a day.
That’s it for part deux. I’ll try and wrap up the Montana Vacation in one more post to come soon…..