My First Vintage Trailer!
A 19 and 75 Layton
My first attempt at owning what I thought was a 'vintage trailer' (the 1975 Layton), didn't work out so well, as I soon found out it sat too low to the ground! That meant dragging it back and forth on dirt roads to get to hunting camp wasn't such a good idea, and it didn't take long to sell "Delilah".
In the mean time before I put her up for sale I got back to scouring the internet for hours and days looking for something a little more 'vintage'. I finally came across a 1971 Aristocrat that I thought later to be a Land Commander and it was near me so we loaded up the truck and took off for a peek.
1971 Aristocrat
After meeting 'Bob' and hanging out for awhile at his place in the country we decided that he was a nice enough guy that just wanted to get rid of that old trailer he had sitting around. I loved it the minute I saw it sitting pretty under a shade tree in the front yard. It had been freshly painted on the inside (it looked antique white to me) and seemed to be in good shape and tow worthy so we made the deal, hooked her up and drug her home to sit beside the now officially for sale, "Delilah".
It didn't take me long to realize that the new 'antique white' paint was far from that and it was actually a light peach color and I didn't like it one bit. How hard could it be to paint over it? Well after picking out a couple different colors for the walls and cupboards I found out just how hard it is! Have you ever painted a bathroom? Small, easy, no problem, well guess again!! Painting a trailer is like painting 4 bathrooms!!
Painting the interior of a trailer is very time consuming and lots of detail work.
I painstakingly took all the cupboard doors and drawers off to repaint. I removed all the window coverings as well. That wasn't good enough as I noticed the original hardware including the curtain brackets looked pretty shabby so I gave them all new life with a fresh coat of 'brass' spray paint even down the screws! What a difference that made and well worth the extra effort.
Next was the decorating! Time to hit the thrift stores again as this trailer had a whole different feel and look to it than my first one and of course I had to find the Melamine plates, bowls and cups to fit the period year of the trailer as well as the little things like the salt n pepper shakers down to the napkin holder. The bedding had to be just right too so I had a great time hunting for deals.
After tearing out the old bedding and folding the back bed down I was horrified to find some rot in the corner. It was nothing major, now that I look back, but at the time being such a 'newb' to the trailer scene I didn't know what to do so I got online and dove into renovating and repair work videos and lurked around trailer forums for information.
Well, after more digging I found more problems, nothing insurmountable but disappointing still the same! Stay tuned for my first adventure at repairs!
