Our First Trailer ever . . . a 1972 Overlander

[Mrs.Mod]

Yeah, these 70's bathrooms don't fit the big guys too well. My husband, John is 6'4''. We try to camp at places that have shower facilities. We have a center bath model, just a shower, no tub. The shower door opening is only about 16 inches wide.

I told John that in a pinch, he could just stand there and turn around while I wash him like the dog.

He said 'no'.

[Modern South]

We have a 69 caravel and our bathroom is so small u have to sit on the toilet seat to shower! On another note, I am very curious about your paint color! It sounds cool, will you post a pic after it is up?

[aquinob]

Wow, thought for a second I was looking at the bath in my trailer. Dont know what the PO was thinking when they put down a wood floor in a bathroom. I found quite a bit of rot underneath that parquet with only a little bit of discoloration on the top. Water could leak down around the toilet and can also get underneath if it comes down between the walls from the roof or window. In my case the rot was only for the last 4 feet so that is what is being replaced. As others have mentioned, that bath is not for anybody that is of normal proportions. Hopefully I will be installing the new shower and sink/counter in the next month or so, that may help you if you have damage back there as well. I'm documenting it all as I go with many pix, that should help when I have to put it all back together. Look at the blog link if you havent already.

[spencerhut]

Bob, I thought the same thing when I saw your trailer! The floors made me do a double take. Never thought so many people would be that crazy to put down wood in a bathroom, let alone carpet! I've been trying to read and research a lot on here before I dove in head first. Since the "cabinets" have no shelves, at least I can see a lot of the floor before I pull up the parquet.
Cara, I never thought of that! Spencer would never let me do that either LOL! But what are they to do when they drop the soap? They wouldn't even be able to pick it up.
The funniest part is how low the toilet is. The PO was potty training their kids so they set it low. That was 12 years ago and they never changed it.

[Mrs.Mod]

Originally Posted by spencerhut

But what are they to do when they drop the soap?

Shout for assistance.

[Steinmetzmr]

I am 6'6" and duck the vent covers and tilt anywhere other than direct center of the walkway. I have more clearance in the airstream than most basements I have been in. I usually clip my head in assorted parts of my own basement so I naturally duck when clearance looks low.

Anyway: Beats the hell out of tent! I want to turn the back bathroom into a sleeping quarters and move the sink and toilet. My wife thinks the shower will be awesome (she just got her eyes checked). I think when we get everything cleaned up, she will see the tub shower is there to say you have a shower/tub. Not for use by actual adults.

[Steinmetzmr]

Towed the Airstream 200 miles home, the brakes stuck a little the first 20 thirty miles but got home safe and sound. I found some unique trophies, flags, berets, trinkets from Airstream rallies. Big clean out today will post pictures later.

[spencerhut]

Made some progress last weekend. Did my first ever riveting! Someone should have mentioned that this is not a job for small hands. The bathroom mirror cabinet was hanging so we riveted that first. Husband sure made it look easy! It was very satisfying getting the mirror back where it belonged.

I was feeling confident in fixing the tub and getting it ready for paint.


Got all the way over done caulk pulled along with the duct tape. Goof Off is my all time hero on some of the junk I've had to clean off in this bathroom. The tub really needed to be riveted back to the wall and the seams fixed to make them more water resistant. While the rivet gun claimed two of my fingers, I still won. Glad I had no near by neighbors to hear my choice words.


After getting that part done and prepping it for paint this next weekend, I went to work on prepping the front half of the trailer for paint.

Can't wait till Sunday to start painting.

[Steinmetzmr]

Looks good, we started this week too, primed and painted. The more you start to fix, the more you see more things to fix!

[spencerhut]

So with lots of starts and stops along the way with this project, I seem to be constantly doing things in the wrong order or starting something that I should be finishing with! Ugh! Started out with cleaning, doing interior repairs to make it usable which lead to the desire to paint it.
I really liked the color but boy was it a to get it done. But after seeing how great the walls looked, the floor had to go!
Lo and behold! The PO decided to use the strongest sub floor glue made to attach the ugly parquet floor - in only some of the areas! Days on end were spent on the floor with a hammer and a chisel trying to get between the parquet and the sub floor. Some spots lost an entire layer of sub floor and I endured many hours sitting on splinters getting hit in the face with flying pieces of parquet wondering why oh why did I not just gut the thing from the beginning???
Today the husband came out to check on where all the profanity was flying from and asked if I needed help gutting the Bullet. I resigned myself once again that more has to go than I planned.
First out was the front couch/bed/storage. The PO had made galvanized boxes underneath and tossed out the plastic storage bins. I planned on putting sliding rails in them and making pull out drawers but after looking at the space with the bed gone, we would be much happier with two nice Lazyboys and a dining table. I will be posting pictures to "rehome" the unit when I get a chance.
This left me with the "well why stop there" feeling so next to go is the folding table that is hanging from a bowed piano hinge and drooping from not being attached correctly right up to the first wall to the refrigerator space that is rotted a few inches up and needed to be replaced anyways.
Then my adorable husband of 18 years asked me if I had more paint since I wasn't planning on pulling those pieces out and now they need paint to match. God it's good I love him!

[spencerhut]

Couldn't believe it's been so long since I updated. This summer I realized I can't work in a oven and now I know I need to replace the A/C unit in the trailer. I finally got the floor filled to help level it out so we could get ready to put the new floor in. Turned out the paint I had been using is now discontinued by Lowe's. GREAT! It took me a whole day but I finally found 1 gallon left at a store and promptly bought it. Another part of my project that I was finally ready to start was the back splash in the kitchen. Well low and behold, that was also discontinued. The tiles I picked out for it were at least still available online but of course cost me more than they were when I was looking at them. So instead of $7 per sq ft, it now cost me $12 plus shipping. Mental note to just buy what I want when I see it.

Now that I sold the gaucho and have to paint, why stop there. So after starting the painting and getting the back splash up, why stop here. Let's pull off anything that I want to get chromed and call it done. Off came all the window surrounds and knobs. As I'm punching out the pin that holds the window locks I find out the hard way it's made of pot metal. But at least they are out of stock at Vintage Trailer Supply! UGGH! Well, while I'm at it the gaskets around the windows and the fuzzy stuff that SHOULD be around the window lifts need to be replaced too. This is about the time my husband comes in and shakes his head. He was really excited yesterday when he saw stuff going into the trailer. Not so much today when I had a pile of aluminum to take to the chrome shop.

I really should have bought stock in Zip Lock bags. I have small plastic totes full of bags with labels and others ready to head to the chrome shop or the anodizer.

[spencerhut]

Super happy with how my floor turned out! I had made my own leveling compound for the low spots thanks to the well stuck parquet from good wood glue and sawdust mixture I had found from a couple of wood working buddies. I had no idea you could ask for sawdust at big box stores and they would happily bag it up for you!
Picking the floor color was almost as hard as picking the brand. My husbands biggest concern was how much everything weighed. Out went the bamboo that I wanted as well as a couple of other styles. I finally settled on a Lowes brand that was thin, the color I wanted and not subject to water bubbles. Only down fall was how easy it chipped. Learned some hard lessons and wasted a few boards just due to that. Thanks to life getting in the way, it took me three weekends instead of two to get it all done.
I also got some of my parts back from the chrome shop! Can't wait to get these up!

[spencerhut]

Finally got ALL of my parts back from the chrome shop and now the work begins. Spencer has gotten all giddy on me watching pieces go back "in" instead of coming "out" of the Bullet. Spent the whole weekend putting metal screen into the new chromed window frames. So happy with how they turned out but man, what a work out to put the screens back in seven windows!
Turns out the new JBL speakers Spencer ordered for me don't fit my original speaker covers Oh well. I like the ones that came with the speakers.
I called Vintage Trailer Supply to find out when they were going to ever get in the fuzzy bug seal for the window slots and they had no eta. So the hunt began. In comes a great company called Swisco. They had the same thing in a plastic slot for putting in a track in 25' lengths for 1/2 the price!. Now mind you, it took a little working with the plastic slot but I it worked just fine! I had left over two sided 3mm tape from back in the car racing days so I'm thinking it will be sticky enough to hold better than the hot glue gun that Vintage Trailer suggested.
Afterward, got the knobs put back on then ran around the trailer assessing my check off list. So nice to be closer to finally using the trailer after all this time.
I got my heart broke this weekend after finally finding the perfect reclining chairs for us. I should have known when I didn't get a response to my offer and now I'm told the estate can't sell them due to probate issues.