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ST131 · 07-11-2010, 10:46 AM

I've spent the last five months working on something that's a little different for me. I was driving down a back road in March and spotted a bizarre looking trailer that at first I thought was a small mobile home. I backed up and had another look through my binoculars and had no idea what it was. Me being me, I drove to the house and asked to see it. Once inside, I made them an offer on the spot. Though it needed a lot of work, it was amazingly free of water damage and had been kept fairly clean and rodent free all those years. The next weekend I replaced all the wheel bearings, seals, and tires and my 1962 Terry Coach model 22 Custom Park Model hit the road for the first time since 1975. Here are pics taken the first time I saw it. It was ugly and awesome at the same time but so different I had to have it. The front kitchen with panoramic windows, grey paneling with black trim, and pink appliances, and space age light fixtures blew me away. Definitely not like anything I'd ever seen before..

blacksheep · 07-11-2010, 10:58 AM

Awesome view out those front windows! Congrats on a unique find!

Godspeed,
Trent

ST131 · 07-11-2010, 11:12 AM

Once I had it home I did a thorough cleaning and assessed the situation. The ceiling was plywood covered with white vinyl. One of the earliest applications of that product I've seen. The vinyl had shrunk over the years and the glue had let go and it was hanging in sheets everywhere. The awesome grey paneling was so dry the grey would rub right off in places, the plumbing was completely shot, and there were two layers of carpet from the 70's. The top layer was cut to fit and not glued. No problem. The bottom carpet layer was nasty orange foam backed stuff. When looking under cabinets I saw the original floor tile. Absolutely beautiful black and white marble 9x9 tile! I had to see if I could be lucky enough to have the original flooring still be in good shape so I commenced to removing the carpet. The carpet had been glued down with the intent of it never coming up in the next century. Every inch of the floor had been trowelled over with copious amounts of carpet glue and then covered with the cheap foam backed carpet. This little phase of the project took me a month to finish. I discovered from someone who has restored many trailers that Easy-Off oven cleaner works well to disolve carpet glue. Once the foam had been scraped I'd do about six tiles a night using oven cleaner and razor scrapers. I estimate I have at least 100 hours into restoring this flooring but it was worth it.

My little helper.

Progress..

The hard work paid off this time. Six coats of commercial floor finish.

Oh yeah, from under the nasty bedding when found, were factory chaise lounges with the original upholstery. They cleaned up nicely and are also very comfortable beds.

Snowey BC · 07-11-2010, 11:30 AM

What a fun project. Love the pictures of course, and the shine on the tiles is unbelievable.

Keep us posted.

ST131 · 07-11-2010, 11:32 AM

I'm convinced this trailer is held together with its' plumbing.. Galley in the left front, water heater in the right rear, shower in the left rear.. I used 135 feet of 1/2" pex water line in an 8'x20. area. Every inch is now new. The water heater was shot so I put in a new 6gal. electric replacement. All traps, hookups, and most drain pipes were replaced as well.

Ambie '64 · 07-11-2010, 11:44 AM

That is an awesome job!!! Congratulations. You found the pony under the pile.

ST131 · 07-11-2010, 12:06 PM

Now it's down to the detail stuff. I won't bore you with everything. After extensive research I discovered that Terry Coach used baked on enamel on their siding. The paint looked pretty bad but I like to keep my renovations as original as possible, so I decided to try to restore the original exterior finish vs. repainting. I found a professional product that you can't buy in stores and it really did the trick. It was all done by hand and took a couple months of careful and tedious work. I did minimal touch-up painting but it's largely still all original. I also found a source for high quality vinyl pinstriping so I could match the originals. The only painted area that couldn't be salvaged was the roof over the front, so I got a wild hair and polished it along with gutters and a few other items that needed a little bling. I couldn't find hubcaps for the unusual wheels so I went for new chrome mods. Lights, wiring, new putty tape, propane tanks, roof repair, etc. were also on the list. Now the neighbors are starting to warm up to my latest driveway addition..

ST131 · 07-11-2010, 12:35 PM

Back to the inside.. This trailer has an amazing amount of storage and the ceiling height up front is 6' 10". All 31 interior cabinet drawers and doors were removed and repaired as necessary and I applied two coats of clear poly finish to all the grey paneling and doors to protect the finish. The product I used was such a good match I had a hard time seeing where I'd been half the time. Not rewarding work but worth it to preserve the original finish. All edges and wood trim were originally stained black and had faded away over the years. All edges were masked and repainted in satin black enamel. Tedious work again but the contrast really makes the interior come back to life. This was also a good time to replace rusty screws and broken door catches too. I also sucessfully finished repairing the vinyl covering and trim on the ceiling. All light fixtures and appliances were also repaired and restored as necessary. The huge refrigerator runs like new and is really cold. I rebuilt the furnace and it works great too. I depended on it heavily while working inside during our long cold spring.

After looking everywhere for a couple months we finally found a nice curtain material that matched the unusual color scheme. It took 15 yards of fabric to make curtains for all the windows in this coach! When they are closed you'd swear you are in a swanky early 60's apartment, not a trailer.

Ambie '64 · 07-11-2010, 12:43 PM

Sensory overload! Phenomenal end-product! But...you couldn't find a pink radio????

ST131 · 07-11-2010, 12:55 PM

In early June we took it out camping for the weekend as a shake down trip to make sure everything was working as it should. After that it was time to get ready for its' first rally! We finished decorating and headed for the Rollin' Oldies Vintage Trailer Rally near Sweet Home, Oregon. It was a huge hit and it was so rewarding to have so many positive compliments from the public and other vintage trailer owners! Very fun weekend! We even hammed it up and dressed the part.

OK. This was a fun little Sunday morning thread. I hope you enjoyed it.
I spend way more time researching vintage trailers than I should and as far as I know, this is the only documented example of this model known to exist. I spent a couple weeks tracking down the original owner, a wonderful lady who is now 92. It was apparently custom ordered in 1961 for a well planned cross country trip when she was an upwardly mobile single gal. Thanks for reading, and if you ever see another one of these please let me know!

HankandLois · 07-11-2010, 01:50 PM

I am just loving the pink kitchen and the original tile. You truly came across an gem. Most of all, your hard work created a very beautiful, fun, vintage unit. LOVE IT!

/Lois

Minnie's Mate · 07-11-2010, 02:56 PM

Congratulations on your unique find. Love the end product and glad to see you enjoying it. Maybe we'll see you down the road with it one day. You just need an early 60s station wagon or maybe even an early model T-bird for a tow vehicle.

Thanks for sharing.

Becky B. · 07-11-2010, 02:59 PM

Really beautiful & great work on your part. I LOVE IT!

jdalrymple · 07-11-2010, 03:03 PM

Very nice work. Thanks for the tour! Makes me want a Martini just looking at it...

NJtoNC · 07-11-2010, 03:46 PM

OMG! GEORGE-ous!
the work on the floor is especially amazing. your dedication paid off, big time!

thanks for sharing. its fun to see a reno , start to finish, so concisely in one thread.
most of the time its spread over 100 pages + 3 years

ASwifey · 07-11-2010, 06:13 PM

Wow! What a great resto job you did, and a fabulous trailer. Reminds me of a Holiday House with the rounded front windows.

ST131 · 07-11-2010, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASwifey

Wow! What a great resto job you did, and a fabulous trailer. Reminds me of a Holiday House with the rounded front windows.

Agreed. I've had three Holiday Houses and love the styling. Terry used these curved windows starting in 1957 on their higher end models. 1962 was the only year they used the dramatic forward leaning forepeak. This coach is at least twice as well built as the Holiday Houses. I was really amazed at how solid it is. It's heavy too. 4400lbs. dry. Thanks everyone for the kind words. We're really having fun with it!

uluwene · 07-11-2010, 07:17 PM

I love it!! It is beautiful!! That floor is amazing and I love the pink with the black, white, and gray.

NJtoNC · 07-11-2010, 07:27 PM

BTW, where did you find the exterior vinyl Trim? is it chrome? looking for "L" vinyl 'chrome' trim. thx.

Airslide · 07-11-2010, 07:36 PM

How do you find these gems? I think I want to be your neighbor and just follow you around so I can be first on the scene to watch you tear an old barn down and build a road to carefully extract some vintage trailer that hasnt seen the light of day for 50 years!

Great job.. thanks for taking us along!

Vinnie