1953 Fleetwood travel trailer

Hi Brian, it's great to see such a nice looking trailer. I am going to be a bit of a party pooper though, because in the picture of the kitchen and rear street side corner I can see very bad discoloration of the wood paneling. This quite often points to rot and water damage.

I know you said that the previous owner had done a lot of work on the trailer, but do you know if they pulled the skin off and repaired any of the framing? Did you see pictures of the work they said was done? Unfortunately many people will just fix up the inside to look good, slap on a outside paint job and say they restored the trailer, when in fact they didn't touch any of the important stuff. I'm really hoping that this isn't the case for you, but with that much discoloration and also some I see near the front window, you would be better off to remove the skin and check the framing and skirt and sill boards.

There are a couple of resources you should really check out. They are very helpful and full of all the information you could ask for about repairing or restoring these wonderful vintage trailers.

The first resource is mobiltec. He makes videos and posts them on YouTube of his work sharing how to do everything on a trailer from start to finish. His website is: www.cannedhamtrailers.com and I recommend you watch this video first so you better understand why these things have to be repaired from the outside in: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDdpZgSD1JM . He does all these videos for free to help others who are interested in vintage trailers, he does accept donations from his website if you find his information as important as I have and are so inclined to help.

Next is a wonderful repair manual put together by another long time member that restores trailers whose forum name is vikx. You can find the manual here : vintagetrailerrepairmanual.weebly.com

Plus there's lots of information and helpful people here on the forum who can answer just about any questions you might come up with.

And I'll finish by saying that you have found a very nice looking trailer, and also that I want to see that bug you have. My first car was a 1967 super beetle and I've been in love with the original bugs ever since.

There is just so much class and cuteness in these original body vw's. They have soul and this one is just beautiful. I love their simplistic motors that can just about run forever. Even though mine was totaled in a wreak, the engine still turned over first try. I only have two vehicles I wish to this day I still had, my vw, and my '69 dodge dart. Thanks so much for sharing.

And definitely take a peek under the skin in the back corner before you go taking your trailer too far down the road, bad stuff happens when wood rots. There's enough cautionary tales on here of people buying what they thought was a good trailer, only to find out as they were going down the road that it wasn't even safe enough to pull. This thread right here is on of my favorite stories of a buy gone wrong deal, but like I said there are others:




vintagetrailertalk.freeforums.net/thread/173/worst-experience?page=1


I really am not trying to scare you, I just want you to enjoy your trailer safely.

I remember why you passed this one up too, Bruce,




It was because you couldn't get the owner to throw in the shoehorn with it! 


Brian, the VW is fabulous.  I wish you all the best with the Fleetwood too, as I join the chorus of "Ooohs" and "Ahhhhs".  You have a great piece of history there, and I hope it serves you really well!

Congrats and welcome. The three of you will make some wonderful memories with your new family member!

Curious to see how your 1953 Fleetwood is going! That's the trailer I'm looking at right now, too - it looks to be pretty much the exact same model as yours, only in a heckuva lot worse shape I haven't been able to find hardly ANY information out there about them.

It's adorable! Glad to see is going to have a loving home.

I'm a newbie here too. Everyone is very helpful and the YouTube stuff is really helpful!

Ginger