I'm a fan of all things 'retro' and have seen many cool old campers from the 50's - 70's online and had been keeping my eyes open for a decent deal for some time. Our budget does not allow for running out and buying something fabulous that has already been restored, what we needed to find was something under $1000 that would be 'campable' without major expense in repairs and renovations. We are fairly handy and I have no problem tackling do it yourself type projects so I was thrilled when a 1968 Shasta Airflyte popped up on Craiglist for $750 just a few towns over. (I know, this blog is called '1971 Shasta Airflyte refurb'.. read on)
We looked at the 68 Airflyte and it had some good qualities.. It was sitting on new tires (including the spare), it had 2 new propane tanks, the trailer frame is nice and solid, it had a working propane / electric fridge, and was water tight..mostly due to at least 5 tubes worth of silicone that had been 'liberally' applied to every single possible water entry point.
The downsides that were obvious were that the interior was partially painted white, the fridge cabinet area had been reconfigured in a very amature way, the door handle was broken, and the trailer wiring that hooks up to the tow vehicle doesn't work.
Still, for $750 deliverd to my driveway, we went ahead and purchased the camper.
Here are a few pictures of the camper as delivered, taken the day we got it:
Some quick measurements revealed it would fit in the garage! Bonus. We'd at least have a covered spot to work on the trailer. My plans were to take out the fridge side cabinets entirely, and rebuild them in a better way, seal off the potty hole and put a new floor down, repaint the interior and reupholster the cushions. Not too ambitous, and certainly 'do-able' by springtime.
So the camper was parked in the garage and a few days later... something came up...
This is a Shasta Starflyte. I have the identical camper and its written on the title "Starflyte" Mine is a 70 so it could be a change made in the 71 that deems it an Airflyte but its the same color as your beauty and all. I love mine and admire the fact that yours is even the same yellow color. Only thing i see that sets the 2 apart is that mine has 2 pains on each window and yours has the slim panes, making it 4 or 5 instead. Is your sink left of the door and then the stove or opposite? Mine is sink first and follows by the 3 burner gas stove. Just honestly curious as to the name difference and why but i am a big fan of the travel trailer posted in the pics and hope that its as much of a jewel to you as mine is to me. Thanks for the time and the read. Hope to see more of it as progression takes toll. Im remodeling mine a bit but still would like to see the inside to do a comparison to aee if theres any other differences. How about the one stop shop of a restroom it has. Huh? Lol. All 3 S's in one sitting. Hahahahaha. Have a good one.....
ReplyDeleteI sealed mine off as well and did remove the fridge and the closet space as you mentioned and im currently rebuilding that section. I removed the first board from the upper bunk as well to avoid the nasty head busting it gives if standing up too fast is normal to do in that back bed/seating area...hahahha. It still fits my daughter on the bunk and makes for a lot more spacing in that back area to move around.
ReplyDeleteI got mine through a trade to a friend who has another. I had a $100 accoustic guitar that a friend wanted and had to get the camper i purchased out the way so we made an even trade and now the thing is my little getaway and my buddy loves the 6 string so i reaply lucked up bit it was a few things wrong that helped. It had glass in only 2 of the windows and the rinning lights all had busted covers. Its all fixed now though and pulls perfect as it dis on the trip home from the friends house i got it from.
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