Morning coffee

jseth83 · 2014-12-01 22:34

Those are awesome books, thanks for sharing. My wife and I are thinking about building one of our own camper trailers, probably based off the Glen-L plans.

Jeff Norwell · 2014-12-02 04:12

Speaking of camping.. last summer we picked up a 59 Shasta, Plans are to haul behind our 57 when its done.100% original inside,very little water damage but the usual bumps and dents.With a little elbow grease it will be all good.My wife was not entirely impressed when she arrived home with it parked on the front lawn.

I spent less than an hour on one of the eyebrows and it polished up nice.If you still dig around,these can still be had cheap.

Limey57 · 2014-12-02 04:31

Now that is seriously cool, I don't say "cool" very often it is only reserved for special occasions.

We use a trailer a lot, usually buying a new one evry 2 or 3 years for holidays around England, Scotland and Wales, but todays bland white offerings are a far cry from some of the more elaborate 50's & 60's designs. I'd love to restore one after I finsih the Ranchero but the wooden strauctrues used in old English trailers are usually rotten due to water ingress and while I don't mid metalwork, I am not so keen on carpentry!

Jeff Norwell · 2014-12-02 05:59

Thanks Limey57, we have lots of camping areas around us and we are looking forward to a fun next summer.I really dig vintage campers.Trying to get my wife into it as well, ha ha ha

RICH MUISE · 2014-12-02 08:19

Really really cool Jeff...I use "cool" alot..just not too often with two reallys...Looks to be in great shape. Heck of a find.

Jeff Norwell · 2014-12-02 08:46

Quote from: RICH MUISE on 2014-12-02 08:19
Really really cool Jeff...I use "cool" alot..just not too often with two reallys...Looks to be in great shape. Heck of a find.

Ha ha ha Thanks Rich.
We bought from an older very nice lady just an hour north of Hotroddonnies whereabouts.The previous owner told us she was the second to own it and I was the third.She is a very neat lady,loves antiques and such, has her own workshop where she loves to build stuff.

hiball3985 · 2014-12-02 09:20

I love old trailers and camping, very cool indeed!! In my dreams I think about finding an original Teardrop to haul behind mine. Now we just camp out of the back of the panel truck..

Zapato · 2014-12-02 11:03

We have a 1947 KIT Teardrop trailer. Wife was not too keen on it when it first came home. Then she got into rebuilding it and all was good after that. She did probably 90% of the teardown and spent a bit more on it than planned. Glad she did its more comfortable due to her influence.

Zap-

Jeff Norwell · 2014-12-02 12:03

That is cool Zap

hiball3985 · 2014-12-02 14:00

ZAP, do you have any pictures to post? All the originals were kits and each one was individual and a one of a kind. I ran into a club of people who had all theirs on display a few years ago. Really nice restorations. They are making new ones now but I'm not interested in them, too much modern crap on them...

My second choice would be a small vintage Airstream

Zapato · 2014-12-04 21:15

Will see what I can find. If anyone is planning on building a teardrop trailer there are 2 things that have to betaken into account. First you better really really like whoever is sharing it with you. Not much room in there to move around, when we first redid it we had a king size bed and it sure felt cramped in the trailer. Second is make it a 2 door, its not easy getting out of them as is but even harder trying to get out while crawling over your partner.

When we first started on it I contacted "KIT'' Trailers in Idaho. They started in L.A. right after WW2 by 2 returning servicemen. The idea was to provide simple plans, frame and fenders and the average guy (they guessed) could build the rest. One of the original partners actually wrote back to me and sent me a few things. Most important was an original sticker logo that went with every trailer kit. It had been pinned in his office for years. He shared a lot of the company history,the fenders were fiberglass almost from the beginning built by a couple of other G.I.s down there. He started flirting with their counter girl and soon they married and still were when we got in touch.
Now as simple as the kits were to build they stopped selling them because they ended having to hire a guy to answer questions for guys who couldn't figure out how to build them. And long distance wasn't cheap in those days. They stayed in business for a long time and a few years ago shut the place down.

Zap-

Limey57 · 2014-12-05 01:54

Zap, that's an interesting story, I love hearing stuff like that. There's quite a few home-build tear-drop style trailers over here, usually built and used by hot-rodders looking for something a bit more comfortable than a tent, but easier to tow than a full trailer. Some are built in the style of the original US trailers where as others are, well, a bit "unique".........

I love the look of some of them but I like the comfort of a full trailer so I can roll out of ed and into the bathroom without having to step outside!

Zapato · 2014-12-12 10:55

We had quite the windstorm yesterday, lost power for a few hours. Have a lot of respect for the guys that go out in those conditions to restore power. Lots of debris and leaves all over the place, will walk thru our woods and see if anything came down. Lots of old cedars on our property and when the wind blows hard some will snap up high and lose 20-30 feet of the top. Am always surpised how far they'll fly. So in you wanderings you spot an old cedar with a wimpy looking top its just rebuilding itself and in a few years will be just fine. Couple of ours now have multiple tops (points) and a few that did this in the past the top trunks are massive and a bit top heavy looking.

Zap-

lalessi1 · 2014-12-13 08:58

Saw all the storm coverage on TV. It looked pretty bad. Weather here is great... highs around 70, lows in the mid 40's. My banana trees are still green. Of course we get hurricanes but we haven't had one here since 2008. We typically lose power for days and I second your kudos for the guys restoring power. I have seen some crews here from as far away as PA. The highest gust of wind here has only been 91 mph, but the ground is soft and saturated so trees get uprooted. Pines may break but they do at several feet from the ground. I'll keep an eye out for cedar top sightings1

RICH MUISE · 2014-12-14 12:05

Lynn...I saw your post with the comment you had bought that car from a member here..out of curiosity I looked back at the want ads for 2012, and found where you had bought it. I remembered him, because I sent him an outside door handle and made the mistake of putting it a padded mailing envelope instead of a box...all he got was an empty mailer with a big hole in it. Mike was a retired cop if I remember correctly.....only did a few posts here, but that's why I remembered him.

News:

Morning coffee