Our Vintage trailer adventure began in 2012 when I first saw them on Pinterest!! Soon after, we decided to find one of our own, catching what we now call “Trailer Fever.” These campers and the glamping adventures have become a hobby, a joy, and a beloved community. Instead of subtracting as we settle into this new retirement life, it has been a blessing to add glamping to our adventures. We are always planning new trips, meeting new friends, and attempting DIY hacks we see online or discover from other camp friends!
Our first camper was a joint attempt with our friends the Snavely’s, a 1967 Cardinal in 2014 we named and themed Autumn. We used their shop, and problem solved and built with them, from the frame up. Then those friends, of course, caught the ‘fever’ and had to get one of their own! Then we got a 1965 Oasis that we restored, named, and themed Summer! But our latest and longest project was a 1965 Fireball we named Rose!
We found and purchased Rose from Craigslist in October of 2018 mainly because it had PINK appliances!! Little did we know then that you can simply ship them to Missouri to get any appliance re-porcelained! My true love and dream of having a pink themed trailer could not be denied any longer! My husband Chuck began the remodeling, and I started shopping and collecting pink everything! You see, our Pink camper is special to us because in our family, we happen to have as many Valentine decor boxes as Christmas ones! Because why not!? LOVE is the reason for everything in every season, so our Pink Rose just fits with that spirit so we wanted to take this month’s magazine edition to share it with you!! My birthday also happens to be Valentine’s Day and I just so happen to HAVE a ton of pink and glittery things, but of course, we needed new Rose pink items!
Our Rose journey took a while to get started because after he had stripped Rose down to the frame, Chuck had to relocate his just cleaned and remodeled shop to a new location that also needed to be cleaned and remodeled! When he got set back up at a dairy grainery turned shop, the true work began! He sandblasted the frame, lengthened the tongue, and put layer upon layer of new insulated flooring down. To make our bed more comfortable, we thought to raise the ceiling up 6 inches. I bet all you pros can guess how something so small can affect so many other parts! After replacing a newly shaped showerpan, because they stopped making it in the correct size – we had to juggle and jangle all sorts of things to get it all back together! We rebuilt cabinets and doors, restructured the floorplan a bit, and made it work!
After much more work, we were finally ready to skin her up! Chuck ran down to Salt Lake City for some beautiful new tin from Derek at Best Way Trailers. The thing we will most importantly swear and advise against doing on any other trailer we work on is choosing to install paintable wallpaper on our ceiling!! It’s lovely but took so much work and collective grumbling to get installed! Maybe there’s a reason it is made for walls instead of ceilings!
I got the awning put together and curtains sewn. Our other glamping friends, the Jones’ happen to be painters, so the interior, exterior, and epoxy pink glitter swirl countertops and table were done by him! Another cool feature toward the end of putting Rose together was our custom brake light covers made by our daughter! Since the theme was rose, she made metal cutouts of roses to fold over the brake lights to light up as we travel! A bigger version works as a table topper or, as we’ve decided to install it, as a spare tire cover!
Our maiden voyage FINALLY came in the late fall of 2021!! It was a two-week trip to the Selway Rally, Northern Idaho, and Western Montana. This has been our longest remodel project and we learn so much and mess up on every build. I hope this story exposes a bit of the struggle and challenges that comes along with projects like this since we mainly only see the beautiful end product displayed at rallies or online. Every trailer has a story and a process.
