Renovate or remodel

[gregori1000]

I finally got my 1954 Flying Cloud home. 1600 white knuckled miles. Towed great and other than losing the glass out of 1 window she towed fine. Now the hard work begins. The exterior skin is in excellent shape. No major damage. Fridge vent cap is the only missing part. The interior is a whole other story. The fridge was removed and a toilet was put in its place. Some minor cabinet demo was done to make space for the toilet. Everything else is there but very sad condition. It appears this is a park model, so there is no infrastructure components to deal with. My dilemma is do I gut her and start over or get her back to original condition? Either way, I have alot of work to do. I am a cabinet maker and the interior work is just another day at the office, but the question is, do I go with mid-century modern or turn her into a craftsman man cave?

[pbearsailor]

Congrats on getting her home.

You'll likely get both sides on your question, particularly on a 50's trailer. I think that you should do what you want with your trailer.

I fulltime in my '57. I tried to keep the spirit of the original, but I have modern appliances, bamboo flooring, and recliners in the place of the gaucho. The layout is still mostly original. To me, it's important to have our old trailers going down the road where people can see them and whatever you do inside to make it work is fine.

cheers,
steve

[riv-nut]

Yeah...excellent question. We've asked ourselves the same thing!! Some of the stuff with plasma screens and hot-tubs make no sense to me. We're trying to go mostly original....especially the look, so not overly interested in NOS parts, ect, but mainly interested in the "feel" of the '50s. We're changing the interior color a little bit, and keeping all the original cabinets, except for any water damage. Not adding a toilet (ours didn't come with one) but adding a bunk in the back since our 4 kids have to sleep somewhere . Anyway, it's been a lot of work, and still don't have the shell back on. Hoping to make some progress this winter, but weather has been in the way.

Take lot of pictures and keep us informed on the progress!

Greatest luck!

Lee & Stephanie

[dwightdi]

No matter what you do, if you value your time at $10 per hour, you will likely not get all your money back when you sell it. It is better for you to enjoy your time with it. If you want to show off your cabinet skills, and have fun planning and rebuilding, you should do that. If you like camping or touring, you should just make it functional and enjoy your travels. If you enjoy showing off your handy work at antique shows, take it back to the original, and accessorize it to match the period and show it at the club vintage open houses.

[riv-nut]

Originally Posted by dwightdi

No matter what you do, if you value your time at $10 per hour, you will likely not get all your money back when you sell it. It is better for you to enjoy your time with it. If you want to show off your cabinet skills, and have fun planning and rebuilding, you should do that. If you like camping or touring, you should just make it functional and enjoy your travels. If you enjoy showing off your handy work at antique shows, take it back to the original, and accessorize it to match the period and show it at the club vintage open houses.

Excellent advice.....have fun with it, but don't plan on making much money :-)

Can't wait to see some pictures!!

Lee

[gregori1000]

Hi,
Here are a few shots. Many more to come. I'm thinking I will keep the original cabinets and veneer them with quarter sawn oak and replace the doors. Add a credenza under the rear window and put in a queen size bed with storage underneath. The fridge side I'm still figuring out what I will do. But there is plenty of time for that. And the journey begins

Thanks
Greg

[reinergirl]

Nice! She looks like a good one, I have a soft spot for the whale tails.

If you think you might ever sell, IMHO it's best to stay close to the original. A whale tail 50's Airstream is very highly prized. This is especially true the closer to original it is... You can add modern amenities unobtrusively and have the best of both worlds.

One caution, if you do a major redesign make sure you think about keeping the weight distributed and balanced. Have fun and post more pictures!

[HiHoAgRV]

My approach has been to remodel, but only do things that were 'possible' in the period...

I also have not done a bunch of stuff that could not be un-done...

Well, there will be those solar panels...and the exterior Television connections...and the LED lamps...oh heck, nevermind...

[reinergirl]

Hey, on the roof qualifies as unobtrusive! And saves on future polishing.... LOL

[65CV]

Greg-

That is a beautiful trailer!

How do you plan to fit the queen bed? We thought about fitting one in our late '50s trailer in the rear. We found that the room on either side wasn't adequate and that the wheel wells made it tough to get around. We ended up staying with the original rear layout.

Another consideration is utee94's concept of the "superbed", where he spans the gap between the two twins. See this thread. Hopefully my link lands you on page 8 of a long thread.

BTW, if you are discarding any old mahogany woodwork, there may be someone interested.

John

[gregori1000]

John, it's funny, but after closer measurements, a super bed is the answer.

[65CV]

We just put our original beds back in for a winter trip. I hope to do a modification to the streetside bed next summer.

I'll be curious to see what you come up with for a design.

John

[Minno]

You might want to spend a little time on the vintage AS site looking at some other '50's trailers for changes in layout and tweaking. We did that with a not-quite-so-vintage '70s trailer and found an alternate bed situation that suited us better than the middle bunk option. Just a thought.... Beautiful trailer!

Kay

[tphan]

Fantastic looking trailer- good score! How do you guys find trailers like these??