Friday, September 25, 2009

random shasta stuff...

here's an old photo of a trailer similar to ours. the windows are all similar to ours so this is probably around the same year. maybe its the exact same trailer???







here's an old advert for shasta. the trailer above is not likely ours since there were over 38,000 produced!



this is one of my favorite pics on the web of a restored shasta. i hope to paint ours similar to this. not sure of the color we will use on the bottom portion, but it will be a dusty green or blue probably. we don't have any wings at this point, but i'm thinking about making some out of a water resistent wood like teak. if i can manage it, i would like to make a wood window cover for the front window as well. we'll see...





i hope to add a bunk to the back of our trailer similar to this. however, i plan to make it so it can be setup at night by adding wooden dowels and two pieces of plywood and then a foam mattress. i need to come up with an idea for a bunk ledge too so the kids don't go tumbling in the night...



Friday, September 18, 2009

Update!!!

so sorry for the ridiculous delay between posts. i have been working hard on the trailer and making good progress, but have been too lazy to make regular blog posts. i promise to update this more regularly!!! lots of additional pictures to come, but here are few showing what we have been working on. thanks!


i bent up the tongue of the trailer somehow (no idea how, there is no way it was my fault or i had anything to do with it... :)), so instead of trying to bend it back i decided to get nuts with a grinder and cut it off. notice my constant companion during this whole process, the little white chair...

From Darcy and Paul's Shasta


From Darcy and Paul's Shasta



here's the result of my handiwork....

From Darcy and Paul's Shasta


From Darcy and Paul's Shasta



i then hired a welder off of craigslist to come to the house and weld on steel extension arms and a new a-frame coupler. i then added a new tongue jack. i will be painting all of this gloss black with rustoleom paint soon...

From Darcy and Paul's Shasta



i also had my new welder friend put a new bumper on (the original one had apparently taken a blow at some point in the last 50 years and was cut off with a plasma torch). he also added a 2" hitch receiver which i will use for a bike rack and/or a cargo basket. finally, he modified a spare tire carrier i got at harbor freight so i can attach it to the bumper for our spare.

From Darcy and Paul's Shasta


i've also been working on the electrical system. here is a shot of the new power converter which takes 120 volt power and converts it down to 12 volts for the light fixtures in the trailer. it also has an AC panel which powers 4 new outlets we added in various places. i plan to pick up a small flat panel tv that can be attached to the walls in several places for movie nights when we go camping and other destinations. the converter also charges a deep cycle battery that will be stored on the tongue of the trailer next to the propane tank. i may get an inverter as well so we can convert the 12 volt battery power to 120 volts to run our new mini fridge, toaster, blender, tv, etc... not sure how well that might work, but we'll see...

From Darcy and Paul's Shasta



i've been working on the areas where the birch paneling was removed due to water damage. new support wood, cleaning, removing nails, and starting to put new insulation in:

From Darcy and Paul's Shasta


From Darcy and Paul's Shasta



finally, i broke one of the front dinette windows when removing the rotted support wood so decided to replace both of them with tempered safety glass. i installed them and then replaced the shrunken original gaskets with new rubber window moulding and sealed them up with black silicone around the window facing edge.

From Darcy and Paul's Shasta


that's it for now, but we are working on the trailer tonight so i will have more pics this weekend. cutting the new birch paneling and hopefully will be putting it tonight. lots more to do, but we are having fun and learning tons...

thanks!

paul and darcy