Dinette - new table

Dinette - new table
Originally uploaded by dwstucke

The new table is a little bigger so that it can support the foam cushions when set as a bed, but it's the same shape as the original. Seating works well without feeling too cramped because the foam cushions are a little bit shorter and softer than the original box-spring seats. No more dragging an extra piece of plywood around to set-up the front bed! After much looking decided to go with the VirrVarr formica pattern, I have enough to do the countertop and upper storage doors to match if we decide that it's right. VirrVarr was a best seller in the early 60's so while it doesn't have gold flecks like the original table it's from the right time period and looks like it belongs.

custom jack stands

custom jack stands
Originally uploaded by dwstucke

Tired of having the aluminum jack stands be about 3 inches too tall for most set-ups I finally just built some new bases out of plywood. I searched on eBay and other places for months but never found anything that would work as well as I hope these do.

Tin Can Tourists 2010 NE Regional Rally

I haven't posted for a while because all our campering time over the last few weeks was spent getting our Airflyte back together in time to attend the 2010 Tin Can Tourists NE Regional Rally. We made a lot of progress with everyone in the family pitching in, and all our efforts over the last couple of weeks (and years) really paid off as we came home with plaque that says "Best in Show" on it! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who voted for us!

This was our second year attending the Northeast Regional TCT rally and again it was held at Sampson State Park on Seneca Lake, the largest of New York state's Finger Lakes. This year there were 54 trailers and the variety of makes, condition, and renovation/restoration approaches seemed broader than last year. Another big thanks goes out to Bill Fletcher who does a really great job running this rally, if you're in the Northeast you should consider attending next year. When we first got our Shasta back on the road we were intimidated by the apparent seriousness of the TCT rallies, but I can assure you that if you show up with any kind of vintage trailer you will be welcome and folks will be interested in it. Two of my favorite trailers at the show had just enough work done during the last month or so to make the trip, I can't wait to see the progress on these ones next year! The open sharing of knowledge and experience at these events is just amazing. If you want to see some of the other trailers that were there I've posted a bunch of photos from the rally in a Flickr photo set here. (now fixed)

I also highly recommend attending smaller vintage trailer rallies. For us attending one of these small events gave us of the comfort factor that we needed before registering for the larger event. If you enjoy sitting at home reading about what others are doing with their vintage trailers just imagine how great it would be to sit around a campfire and talk about this stuff in person!

Always something more to polish..

The drawer pulls are now polished, some are pitted fairly badly but overall they look pretty nice. I noticed that there was a design patent number on the back of them so I looked it up, it includes the designers name, assignee (manufacturer), and notes that the ornamental design was protected for 14 years starting in 1958. As for what's next.. the plan is to shellac the last 1/3 of the interior tomorrow, then hopefully on Sunday to put the cabinet doors and drawers back in. At that point we'll be able to camp again and can focus on some smaller details and props as we prep for a vintage rally.

Doors & Drawers

Been spending some time with the cabinet doors and the the drawers over the winter. Getting down to the last coat or two of shellac. Then onto working on the interior surfaces that I haven't done yet. Still not sure how best to tackle the ceiling, probably just needs a light sanding and one coat of shellac but with what technique?

Design Concept: POP/CLASSIC

When we were shopping for a trailer we often were tempted by basic pop-up tent trailers because of a couple of features. A couple of things that we liked are easy to tow and easy to load boats onto. Also even though the footprint is similar in size to small travel trailers like our Shasta, they seem smaller when not in use plus you can store the boats on them. Personally I could look at our Shasta all day long but I've heard folks say that they like pop-up's because they don't block their view when parked in their driveway and are less noticeable when stored in the yard. We did run into a few Hi-Low trailers that are hard-sided as opposed to canvas but all the models that I saw didn't have much style, especially when compared to a vintage trailer. Recently I've seen that there are a some vintage Hi-Low's and we know another Shasta owner who has this super rare 1962 Compak Keuka which is really cool, but it's pretty hard to find a hard-sided trailer with the pop-up feature that has any style to it.

So kicking all this around a bit I worked up this Pop/Classic design concept. It has obvious overall form inspiration from trailers like our Shasta Airflyte but is also mashed up with the pop-up or Hi-Low feature. The forms are pretty simple and I think could be achieved in plywood using some boatbuilding and teardrop trailer building techniques. Perhaps if you started with the guts of a pop-up you could use both it's frame and lift mechanism. I really haven't thought much about how to seal the gap between the top and bottom from the elements, but with the glass mounted inboard it's definitely one of the larger engineering challenges...

Spare Keys!

I've been working on getting spare keys made for the Shasta ever since we got it. On our first trip into the woods I broke our only key for the storage doors and was lucky enough to save the parts and get a blank cut at a local locksmith once we got home. For the main door we also only had one well-worn key, the problem has been finding a correct blank. The lock is the now un-obtainable Bargman L-66, it's really common yet impossible to find replacements for. I've seen a couple L-66 locks for sale where they were asking as much for the lock as we initially paid for the trailer. So over the winter I've been doing some desktop campering and was able to identify the correct key blank. I got one cut and it works perfectly. The blank is a called a "Curtis H5" and was used by Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury from 1938 - 1948, it also might be identified as a Taylor 125H and an Illco 1125H. I got my blank from eBay seller rfurtado1 who specializes in vintage automobile keys and helped figure out which H series key was correct. Some of the other H series Ford keys I looked into looked close but are too thick or have the edge of the groove on center which won't work.