Time to cut!

So in today's adventures..

I went on the hunt. (Not for the red October. Sorry..had to)

For a tongue coupler.

This proved difficult.

But! I found it at Koch bros in long beach. Turns out, the older lady is the second generation to run this shop. Her parents opened it in 47!!!

She had just the right one, and for only 30 bucks!
So I grabbed that, a new tongue jack, and.. Some vintage rustoleum paint. Coral pink!!!
She had some rad stuff!! I think I'm going to order most of my parts through her.. I like supporting small business! ..and I love paint so I'm probably going to buy all her old paint!!

So I headed on home from lovely long beach (...err..not lovely.)
I dropped off the hitch for hubby to tackle... Poor guy. Didn't realize it would take him hours just to get the old one off..

Meanwhile, I found a foam shop to make us a new bed.. The old one is just rotting away..

I headed on over to Anaheim foam..
They were super helpful!
I got some great black fabric (originally 14.95 per yard, got my 4.5 yards for only 50!) and 4 inch high density foam for 140, with the upholstery cost of 50! NOT BAD!!

I had called a couple rv mattress places.. I was quoted 700 bucks!!! Eek!!

WAY BETTER DEAL!!

I got home..and hubby still wasn't done..
So I started cleaning and prepping the inside of the trailer..

Crossing my fingers she'll be ready for the first camp this weekend!

A little bit of work, a little bit of windex, and a whole lot of confusion.

So we both had a little time today to start tackling the Shasta. I busted out the cleaning supplies, while the husband put her up on jack stands and crawled underneath...

After we finagled her into the driveway, that is. Our driveway is sideways.. And you can't block the sidewalk or have tires on grass.. A high lift jack and a 3 ton rolling jack later she was in the right spot..

I started off with cleaning up the Princess stove, which only took a bit of windex to get the porcelain all clean. I'll need some steel wool and mothers for the top, though.

I opened up all the windows and all of the jalousies work beautifully. I even cleaned all the windows.. And I generally "don't do windows".

Then.. The hornet incident happened.

Yep.. This big gnarly fuzzy bug thing flew in and made his home on the window screen.. Scary!

After a bit of planning, and "HE'S LOOKING AT ME! He just TURNED HIS HEAD and LOOKED AT ME!" Yelled by the ol man, he grabbed the shop vac and proceeded to vacuum up the little bastard.

Back to work.. Brandon spent quite a while trying to figure out just what the green wire was, an the blue, an the red, and the brown, and just why the taillights aren't working..
On the bright side, when she's plugged into shore power, all the lights work!!

We really didn't accomplish all that much today.. But it's a start.

Bringing her home... And anointing her with a name!

She has been named.. After my cat, Lux Kittenterior, Who I named after Lux Interior of the Cramps.

From this point on, she is Lux Intrailor. (Yes I know I spelled "trailer" wrong!)

So B and I wake up at 830 am (blasphemy!) and start our journey towards Bakersfield. That's how you know Brandon loves me, he's willing to tow a Trailer back from Bako!

So after a couple hours in traffic, we arrive in the lovely awful terrible town of Bakersfield. We agreed with the PO (previous owner) to meet there, since we didn't want to drive all the way from Fresno where Lux used to live..

That's when I see her.. ADORABLE. instantly attached! Brandon even seemed excited.

That's when we see him.. The seller.
Oh. My. He's a huge Alaskan dude.. By huge, I mean probably 6 of me. Very nice, super awesome to talk to, and funny. But man..if I ever own a bar, I'm having THAT guy be my front door security dude.
Sumo wrestler equivalent, seriously.

We check out the trailer, which is in better condition than I was expecting.
Always expect the worst when buying from Craigslist. Then, if it's better than you thought, it's a nice surprise!!

I check out the Interior.. Stove (which supposedly works) and a fridge, not an icebox, also is supposed to work!
The dinette is nice, it has the original lights and some that look like they might have been added.

I mention the floor feels solid, and the seller laughs and says if it held him, it's probably fine! No kidding.. If plywood floor held that dude up, it's not rotted!!

For the tech stuff.. It's got the 3 burner Princess stove, Krefft fridge, rear bed with a cot above it, front dinette with a nice table and what appears to be aftermarket seats. They feel like car seats, And I think they were originally foam.
Even the countertop seems nice!

It has the original propane light above the dinette, a few other electric lights (that I think are Shasta but later model, I'm not sure.)

The cabinets and most of the birch appear in good condition! It has the rounded cabinets, which are awesome! Even the screen door is in good condition.

Some of the windows have been replaced with jalousie windows (the little slats that open up!) although not quite correctly.

It even has the original hubcaps, although they're pretty rusted out.

The skin is peeling up around the bottom of the trailer.. So that's the first thing to get fixed.

But.. It has original Ca black plates! Yay!

The seller says he has a job of cleaning up people's properties around the Fresno area, so he's selling off any property that was left there. This trailer is one of the first things he was selling.
Supposedly the PO owns a car resto shop.. Got this and never got around to fixing her up.

Towing her home wasn't too bad, she stays right behind the jeep with almost no swaying.
Although going up the grapevine sucked. 35 mph in second gear.. Trying to stay in the right lanes, while dodging the big rigs passing other rigs trying to keep momentum up the hill.

I'd like to take this moment and say : don't drive like an asshole near big rig trucks.
First, they are 100 times bigger, heavier and tougher than you. Second, it's way harder to stay in control and keep momentum up the hill.
And if they run you over, you'll feel like a small speed bump.

Same goes for anyone towing.. A couple people nearly hit my little trailer!

On the way back we parked Lux for the first time at Don the Beachcombers and stopped for a well deserved Mai Tai. :)

She's parked outside now, on the a-hole neighbors side.. I wanted to give him something nice to look at!! (Eat my rust, douchebag!!)

Stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel, for my attempts at restoring/refurbishing this little trailer!

Lux Intrailor !!

And that day, I bought my Shasta trailer.

So it all starts.

Yesterday, my mom emailed me a link to a Craigslist ad for a (possible 58?) Shasta for sale up near Fresno.

Well, let me start from the beginning here.
My name is Savannah, I live in a very cute bungalow house in Orange County with my husband, Brandon.

For our wedding present, he bought me a 63 Mercury Meteor.. Custom, shaved, lowered.. All in all, awesome.

We're restoring our house, although more to an atomic early 60s style more so than the 1927 style the house had when it was built..

Well, his deal is Jeeps. So, we've got a jeep, and we go offroading quite a bit.

This left me sleeping in a tent. I'm not a princess by any means.. But I'm petrified f spiders, and I'm not a huge fan of sleeping on the ground.

So my compromise, since we both love vintage, and were camping.. Was to buy a vintage trailer.

There's a TON of beautiful canned ham style trailers out there.
But the nice ones are 3-5 thousand dollars, easy. If not 12.
..that's a lot of money.

So, considering I enjoy designing, pai ring, and fixing things.. We got a fixer upper

And this is her story.

...welllll.. She doesn't have a name. Yet.

Anyways, back to that email.

I fell in love with it. Exactly what I wanted. A little beat up, but tow-worthy.

I arranged with the seller to give him a down payment, and give him cash when we meet up in the lovely town of Bakersfield.

Why Bakersfield?

He doesn't want to tow up the grapevine.
Reasonable enough.

So in the meantime, I get to research and daydream about my new little trailer.

I don't quite know what year she is.. Pre-58. She might have windows from the 60s (jalousie windows!)..

I get to meet her on Monday or Tuesday.

And this will be the not-wonderfully written chronicling of her resto-mod journey into becoming a cute little towable camper, part time guest house, (with her own lawn and picket fence..and flamingos, of course!) and my obsession for the next few months. Or years. I won't give it a time frame. Haha!