1963 Shasta Airflyte Project/Rescue!

I parked it at my mother-in-law's for the summer. She immediately started crying when she saw it knowing her daughter and grand daughter would be sleeping in this thing. Through her sobs she actually pleaded with us to let her buy us a better camper. i told her she couldn't possibly buy one better than this!

I spent last summer removing all the junk, gutting all the additional cabinets, beds, shelving someone had added, and cleaning it as much as possible. I would say "WE" spent last summer doing this but my wife refused to spend any amount of time in it because of the stink. The stink was the smell of death and mouse piss and sh*t coming mainly from these...


I put the dinette seats in the bed of my truck for most of the summer and OMFG did they stink like rotting corpses in the heat.

While cleaning i started taking inventory of what was missing which wasn't much actually. 3 drawers, cabinet door with mirror, rear window, magazine rack, some hardware.



Under the red carpet was two more carpets and the original floor which actually isn't bad.


And gave it a quick pressure washing...

I'm one of those other Airflyte owners. Looks like a very salvageable trailer! And $500? Great! The door handle and wings are worth almost that much!

Welcome!

This spring i decided to finally tackle the mouse cemetery dinette seats.

This is AFTER I had already thrown out most of the mouse nests...


This dumpster was empty when i started...


I somehow managed to completely disassemble the seats without contracting the plague. Made new wood frames from measurements of the old and busted ones.


Reinstalled the no-sag springs (TIP: drill holes slightly smaller diameter than the springs before pounding them in, easier to space and pound them in).


Covered in burlap.


CLEANED Coil springs installed, I used poultry staple nails if anyone was curious. Hinges wire wheeled and installed.


I'm taking these new seats along with one of the original seat covers to an auto upholstery shop to make new ones and install with modern foam.

The plan at this point is to finish the dinette seats and get a temporary mattress in the rear so we can use the camper this summer, repairing and replacing what we can while still keeping it usable. Eventually, maybe this winter when our house is built and i have a garage, we can remove the skins and start replacing some of the water damaged paneling and frame.

Will post more pics soon!

Couple questions...1, How's the Tacoma tow? Do you have a V6 with tow package? 2. Have you tried Mobiltec's "ice pick" test? I see a lot of cosmetic tweaks, but wonder when else the mice, termites, ants and water have been eating inside the walls.

After reading threads like this

vintagetrailertalk.freeforums.net/thread/173/worst-experience

And now seeing the massive rot and destruction under the skins in my own little trailer, I would be terrified of towing it even across town before it's completely reframed.  When I bought it, it looked totally sturdy, with some water damage at the vent, and rear corners, but with just a few hours of demolition, I can see it's barely held together at all.

Rebuilt the rear window with a new piece of plexiglass and new gasket (although i forgot the gray gasket, just siliconed the plexiglass in).


This took a while. There was so much silicone and caulk and i-dont-know-what-else securing the piece of plastic. Only had to drill out 3 screws though.


New fully functional window! installed with new black gasket and butyl tape. Hopefully its water tight! we'll see soon enough.

ShoeboxJoe, I am really enjoying this thread! Beautiful job on the seats.