My “Vintage Journey” began when I was young – about third grade. Even though my family never went camping, for some reason, we went to a new trailer show. I still remember loving the event. Walking around and looking in each trailer. My husband says I have aspired to be “trailer trash” ever since.
I’ve always had an interest, but I really got the “bug” when we attended the Palm Springs Vintage Trailer Show in 2016. I have a design background (twenty years of space planning and commercial interior design), and I loved looking at what others had created. I’ve also done a considerable amount of home improvement (the power tools in the family are mine) so I felt I could take on a project.
After sporadically checking out Craig’s list for about a year, in February of 2018, I found what I was looking for. It was in bad shape but, it was nearby (Riverside) and was the perfect size for my first project. One of my concerns had been where I would do the restoration. The HiLo could be backed into the garage and then cranked up. That’s where I did all the interior work. We pulled it back out into the driveway to do the exterior.
Except for the electrical panel, AC outlets, and propane hookup, I did everything from demolition to draperies all by myself. The biggest challenge was getting the electrical wiring from the top portion of the camper to the electrical panel in the bottom half without having the wires get tangled as you cranked the camper up and down. I tried several methods that didn’t work (lots of cranking up and down to test the results). Finally, I got the idea to run the wires through a PVC pipe, which lowers through the counter when the top goes down. The wires pool in a cabinet void. As I’m sure you know, sometimes you have to get creative.
You’ve seen my poster (above right) with the statistics and what it took to finish the restoration. On top of that, I would say what it took was a lot of desire and determination.
I really wanted to have a vintage camper, and I don’t give up easily. We love our camper and have already used it nine times since it was done in April of 2019.
