Hi from AZ-almost a trailer, almost an AS

[jforb]

Hi, I bought a 1968 Avion truck camper a few weeks ago. I've been working on getting it usable. I've been into old cars and trucks for many years, and I bought the camper to go on a 57 Chevy one ton truck that I bought last summer. I looked around at what kind of campers there are, and even thought about building one, but after looking at pictures of the Avion truck campers I knew that's what I had to have. I found mine in Phoenix, which is about 3 hours north of here. I should probably post a blog or thread about the work I'm doing somewhere here. I expect that would be a good way to get advise about how to tackle the jobs that I'm not too knowledgeable about. What would be the best way to do that?

[Mel]

Welcome! I LOVE Avion truck campers, and at one point we even looked into getting one for our '73 F-250. Feel free to start a thread on your progress (or just continue on in this one) or begin a blog. Either way, I'll be interested to follow along and I'm sure there will be plenty of help here for you as you work through this restoration. Good luck!

[safari62]

yes, we do love Avions also. Good luck with the restoration.

I used to own a 55' Chevy truck 3/4 ton and travelled across the country way back when. I built a canvas cover with a bunk area inside to camp in. It was just the beginning of the motorized travelling bug. The Avion would have been a more comfortable way to go.

Here is a more age appropiate chevy truck I found somewhere.

[jforb]

Thanks! I've seen that picture with the era correct truck. It's an interesting thing about the Avion truck campers--the campers are styled like 1950s trucks, but they were build in the mid to late 60s and fit 1960s trucks. This caused me some problems, because my old truck has a much taller cab than the camper was designed for. I had to build a five inch tall pallet to put in the truck bed, to elevate the camper high enough so the cab over would clear the cab. I'm really into the late 50s Chevy trucks, so this is just something I'll have to live with. It doesn't look too bad, and also allows storage access between the camper side and bedside. But it does raise the CG significantly.

[TG Twinkie]

How about a Travel Queen. I am the second owner, it's a 69.

[funkill]

Just recently, I saw one of these pulling a 25'-27' Avion behind. The two together was too cool!

Yours looks pretty sweet. If I'da thought of that sooner ... well...

You know, I find the blogs here kinda hard to follow. IMO, I'd start a thread here on the forums to document your work - and to more easily solicit for assistance. Just sayin'.

Laura

[Kevin245]

Welcome jforb,

Glad to have you with us. You can post your progress in our Vintage Kin - Airstream Forums area. Or you can start your own Blog by clicking Airstream Forums - Blogs


Best of luck,

Kevin

[NicheVintage]

Very cool camper. I also love the truck. Great find.

[jforb]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'll work on starting a "restification" thread on the VK forum. The camper is in OK condition, but it's not a cream puff...it's led a hard life. I have no illusions that I'll be able to restore it to it's original glory. But I will do my best to keep the original flavor as much as I can. If you want a quick peek at how it was when I found it, and progress so far, you should be able to see lots of images here (you'll have to click on each image name as a link to see the image) Index of /avion

[Aage]

Howdy and welcome to airforums.com, jforb! Say, that is one cute li'l camper! And I love that you have a period correct (even a bit early) vehicle for it to "turtle" on.

How many can you sleep in that unit? Comfortably, that is. :P

One thought: if you are going to post all those photos you have in your index (and we hope you do), might I suggest using a "photo warehouse" website to do it? There are several that are both free and easy to use (I like www.photobucket.com, personally), and will let you easily put up a whole bunch of images and only have to paste a link to put them in your posts. I say easily, because you can bulk upload them quickly.

We look forward to your evolution on your rig. It looks like it could be called "From Orange to Infinity". hehehe...

[jforb]

Thanks. I'll probably keep the images on my own web host, but I will spend some time getting them more user friendly. I've been really busy with helping the local high school robotics team, their 6 week build season started the day before I bought my camper! My brother has gone to Burning Man the past few years, and as soon as he saw the camper he asked if I was going this year....I might just do that, it would give me motivation to get it finished. I'd probably stay at the camp he is in, not the AS camp.