Post by DaytonaGTS on Mar 12, 2018 14:14:26 GMT -8
I would like to first introduce our selves. My name is Ron and my lovely wife is Miriam and we call Bremerton Washington home. Our journey to owning this Deville and being involved in the vintage trailer community started about 15 years ago when my wife would sit for what seemed like hours and look at and read about tiny and vintage trailers. In 2006 we decided to jump in and get ourselves a Teardrop, so we began to get serious and start researching and shopping around. At the time restored vintage teardrops were very few and far between so we decided to look at new as several manufacturers had recently started to make several different models. We started to look at the Lil' Guys but we really didn't like the look and feel and then came across the Yoder Toter Silver Shadow and fell in love with it, and ended up buying one from a dealer over in Seattle. We really enjoyed the teardrop and couldn't go anywhere without everybody stopping us to ask questions and talk about it.
Fast forward to 2016 and our kids were getting older and we really wanted something that we could all camp in not just put the kids in a tent. So with a slightly heavy heart we sold it to some friends and they are now really getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. My wife then went back into looking mode and we started to plan out big trip for the summer of 2018, at the time was over a year and a half away. We started looking at all kinds of options of new small trailers to used trailers a few years old but we always drifted back to vintage travel trailers. Not wanting a project we looked at a lot of already "Restored" trailers but couldn't justify the price tag of almost every one of them and finally we would probably just keep looking at vintage unrestored but in good to great condition. I really wanted a late 50's to early 60's Shasta because that is what my parents had when I was younger and I really love the looks and style. It was a real challenge to find one in our price range that didn't disappear in minutes after it hit craigslist. I decided to start looking at other options since time was now less than a year until our big trip.
It was during my looking and research of all the hidden things that I needed to look for when shopping for vintage trailers that I ran into Larry and his '58 Deville rebuild and I watched all of those vids and while doing so fell in love with the trailer, but having seen a couple for sale knew they would be way out of my price range. After we went down to Oregon to look at a Aristocrat I found that I really liked the LoLiner and started shopping for those as they fit into our parameters and were more plentiful and available than the Deville. We found a very nicely kept Loliner in Spokane and made arrangements to go see it. After an 11 hour drive due to passes being closed and having to drive through Portland we finally got there, but she never responded back to our phone calls, texts or emails. It turned out to be a blessing...
When we got home there was a '58 Deville that came up for sale and so we called the gentleman and asked for more detailed pictures and made arrangements to come over the weekend (another one in Eastern Washington, This time the Tri Cities). Long story longer! I while looking the next day I saw it had been taken off Craigslist. I texted him to see if we were still on for Saturday and He texted me back and told me someone had made him an offer and they were on their way to get it. By this time we were pretty bummed!!! The next day he texted me and said the deal fell through and it was mine to come look at if I was still interested, I then asked him if he would hold off putting it back on Craigslist until we come and look at it and he agreed. We ended up going down the a week later and after a lot of back and forth negotiations we ended up driving away with it for a little over half of what he originally wanted for it. The trip home was another adventure and we will be doing a full blog and the restoration of this trailer and more details of the Journey.
So as we prepare the trailer for this summer there is undoubtedly a lot of work in store and it looks to be a fun time for all of us! We have about 84 days and counting!!! No stress at all... LOL! Here are a few pictures as it is right now.
