section10
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Post by section10 on Nov 30, 2014 18:21:32 GMT -8
I have discovered what I think could be a Palace trailer from the 1940's. I haven't talked to the owner, but have just driven by it. It's not far from where I live. It's probably around 18-20 feet long or thereabouts. It looks like it's been sitting there for some time but it seems to be tight and intact. I'm afraid this might be a bit too much for my first project and I don't even know if it's for sale. Is there any demand for one of these? Even if I didn't attempt it myself, would it be worthwhile to buy if it was cheap enough? Maybe I could sell it to someone else if there was any interest in these. thank you Jim |
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John Palmer
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Post by John Palmer on Nov 30, 2014 18:25:43 GMT -8
Photos, or it does not count!
Lots of Palace photos are on the Net for you to confirm what it is.
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mobiltec
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Post by mobiltec on Nov 30, 2014 18:43:14 GMT -8
Are you just looking to flip it or restore it? Both?
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Post by vintagebruce on Nov 30, 2014 18:49:30 GMT -8
I posted a CL ad for a beautiful Palace trailer in Fort Myers for sale for $12,000 in the Talk About Anything section, just because I was so impressed with the beautiful interior. Anyway the ad is gone so I guess it either ran out or someone bought it. Here is a thread to a Palace found with a house built around it. On the right side of the blog it gives some history of the Palace which I thought was steel shelled and then appears to have been made from pressed aluminum sections starting around 1947 if I read the history correctly. There are only one or two interior pics, but the final pic shows the curb side of the Palace. That shape seems to be the Palace shape I have seen in all Palaces at least from '47 on. If what you are seeing looks like that, it is probably a Palace. If you can get it cheap and the interior is intact and it needs refurbished, even if you don't want to take it on, I imagine you could flip it to a rebuilder if you don't get greedy, LOL. Ben has made a couple good finds recently he might be able to give you some insight. Here is that thread. Good luck. vintagetraileritis.com/restorations/palace-trailer-corp/1948-palace-royale/home-at-last-and-original.html |
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John Palmer
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Post by John Palmer on Nov 30, 2014 19:30:10 GMT -8
I posted a CL ad for a beautiful Palace trailer in Fort Myers for sale for $12,000 in the Talk About Anything section, just because I was so impressed with the beautiful interior. Anyway the ad is gone so I guess it either ran out or someone bought it. Here is a thread to a Palace found with a house built around it. On the right side of the blog it gives some history of the Palace which appears to have been made from pressed aluminum sections if I read the history correctly. There are only one or two interior pics, but the final pic shows the curb side of the Palace. That shape seems to be the Palace shape I have seen in all Palaces. If what you are seeing looks like that, it is probably a Palace. If you can get it cheap and the interior is intact and it needs refurbished, even if you don't want to take it on, I imagine you could flip it to a rebuilder if you don't get greedy, LOL. Ben has made a couple good finds recently he might be able to give you some insight. Here is that thread. Good luck. vintagetraileritis.com/restorations/palace-trailer-corp/1948-palace-royale/home-at-last-and-original.htmlThe last Palace trailer that I went to look at, also had a house built "over, and along side it". The "house roof" likely saved it from the years of weather. But somewhere during time, it had the rear door removed, and I looked high and low, but could not find the rear door that went with the trailer, so I passed. It was located in Arizona.
There's a couple located in Prescott, AZ., one is restored into a bar.
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Post by vintagebruce on Nov 30, 2014 19:48:13 GMT -8
John, it seems like most of the refurbished Palaces I am seeing have been converted to some commercial arrangement. Recently there was one I think in South Beach (Miami) that was a wine bar type thing, very custom interior. They wanted $35K if I remember. I do like the look, but that door might have been hard to replace and expensive. I've also seen one converted into a very cool diner, with outside seating at tables. OOPS! Have to correct myself. I went back and reaized that conversion to a bar was in Prescott too, I think. It is the 6th one scrolling down in this thread. Beautiful conversion but nothing like the original interior of course. www.messynessychic.com/2014/04/16/10-vintage-trailers-sale-just-in-time-for-a-summer-road-trip/Love the interior (and exterior) of no. 2 the 1950 Spartan Carousel! $55K. |
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John Palmer
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Post by John Palmer on Nov 30, 2014 19:58:48 GMT -8
The last Palace trailer that I went to look at, also had a house built "over, and along side it". The "house roof" likely saved it from the years of weather. But somewhere during time, it had the rear door removed, and I looked high and low, but could not find the rear door that went with the trailer, so I passed. It was located in Arizona.
There's a couple located in Prescott, AZ., one is restored into a bar.
John, it seems like most of the refurbished Palaces I am seeing have been converted to some commercial arrangement. Recently there was one I think in South Beach (Miami) that was a wine bar type thing, very custom interior. They wanted $35K if I remember. I do like the look, but that door might have been hard to replace and expensive. I've also seen one converted into a very cool diner, with outside seating at tables. Bruce, the one that you saw in a CL from Miami, was the same "bar" trailer that was built in Prescott, AZ. It was at the Pismo Vintage Trailer Rally. This guy has a couple of them, one has some sections removed, and the rear door opening removed, making it a short trailer. He builds to a very high quality level. He told me he has an early 1950's Chevrolet Suburban that he would like to build into a matching trailer puller for one of his Palaces.
Many of the for sale ad's posted on this site are from CL ads that are not in the same geographic area as the trailers are located. I'm only guessing(??) that CL bundles the ads and shows them in other areas on items that have a "high viewer" count, but "few actual listings". Vintage Travel Trailers could easily fall into this group.
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Post by vintagebruce on Nov 30, 2014 20:08:45 GMT -8
LOL John, While you were posting I was correcting myself. You are right it was in Prescott and when you click on the full ad it is a TCT ad. I just shotgun all over the web looking for beautiful conversions as well as restorations. Used to enjoy doing Pinterest sites for hours until you had to join to look. Sometimes I remember where I saw something, sometimes I forget or mis-remember.
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section10
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Post by section10 on Nov 30, 2014 20:32:07 GMT -8
I'm a long way from being an expert, but it sure looks like a Palace trailer to me. I will try to have my camera along next time I go by it. I would like a trailer to fix up, but like I said, I'm afraid this one would be too much for me to handle never having taken one apart before. However, if it happened to be available, I was wondering if it would be worthwhile for me to try for it, anyway. If these things are more trouble than they're worth and no one would be interested, then I don't want it, but if it's something I can resell, maybe I should. There's a lot of maybe's in this I know, but I'm just trying to get an idea as to the desirability of one of these.
thank you
Jim
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John Palmer
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Post by John Palmer on Dec 1, 2014 8:59:01 GMT -8
I'm a long way from being an expert, but it sure looks like a Palace trailer to me. I will try to have my camera along next time I go by it. I would like a trailer to fix up, but like I said, I'm afraid this one would be too much for me to handle never having taken one apart before. However, if it happened to be available, I was wondering if it would be worthwhile for me to try for it, anyway. If these things are more trouble than they're worth and no one would be interested, then I don't want it, but if it's something I can resell, maybe I should. There's a lot of maybe's in this I know, but I'm just trying to get an idea as to the desirability of one of these. thank you Jim
Jim, It's just my opinion, but my best advice would be to purchase it, and flip it. You only want to buy it if it meets the following, the aluminum body panels have to be complete, and also in good condition, ie: not torn, major dents, no corrosion. This trailer is rare enough, I would buy it even if it was "only bill of sale". The restoration would best be done by a "high end" autobody professional.
Although it might be true that very rare vehicles (Trolley Tops, Palace, Air Flight's, Shelby Cobra's, Bugatti's) will command top resale dollars, they also cost the most to restore. In the case of a Palace your looking at $50K and up. When the discriminating buyers are willing to spend big bucks, they are also very picky about who restored the trailer. These trailers are best in the hands of a professional restoration shop (like Flyte Camp) that have a long history of doing "high end" "big dollar" restorations on very rare trailer's. I'm in no way an employee of Flyte Camp, but respect their work. These trailer's fall into the less than 1% group of restored trailers at a large rally.
If you buy an old Duesenberg, Randy Ema is the guy that does Jay Leno's Duesenberg's. Leave the high end restorations to the pro's.
Take a look at Vintagecampers.com They have a 1950 UNITED 17.5 foot for $7K in their for sale section, that looks exactly like a Palace trailer. It's a good reference.
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section10
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Post by section10 on Dec 1, 2014 10:08:05 GMT -8
Thank you all
I will try to get a few pictures. I live in a snowy part of the country and winter has come so nothing will get done until spring. Then I think I will talk to the owner and if it is available and cheap enough I will try for it. I'm not going to tackle it myself, but maybe someone else will be interested.
Jim
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section10
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Post by section10 on Jan 2, 2015 18:23:19 GMT -8
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John Palmer
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Post by John Palmer on Jan 2, 2015 18:31:42 GMT -8
It's a Palace, or another trailer that looks exactly like a Palace is called a United.
If it's in good shape, I'd recommend you buy it, if it's for sale!
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RJ
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Post by RJ on Jan 2, 2015 18:47:54 GMT -8
Poor, cold, frozen old bird. It needs you buddy. Go get it  |
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section10
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Post by section10 on Apr 6, 2015 8:49:15 GMT -8
I thought I would resurrect this just to say that I drove past the trailer yesterday and now that the snow is gone I see the trailer is sitting flat on the ground. It looks like there is no undercarriage at all or else it's been sitting there so long it is sinking into the ground. I'm not interested.
Jim
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Here are some pictures of the Palace trailer.
