What to Know Before Buying a Vintage Trailer
If ignorance is bliss, consider me in a state of ecstasy. I knew little to nothing when it came to airstream renovation other than the very basics when I purchased “Gloria”. What I had was confidence that I could figure it out and I had the budget big enough to cover it. Both of which turned out to thankfully be true. I had been looking at airstream renovations online for YEARS before biting the bullet and buying one myself. What I knew was when it was all done I would either have something that would make me extremely happy or something that would make someone else extremely happy and I could turn a profit on. To say that it was more of an undertaking that I anticipated is a gross understatement.
What made me pull the trigger? After years of pricing out vintage airstreams that were selling for 5 figures and needed to be taken down to the shell, I found one that was within my budget and in incredibly good condition. I knew it wouldn’t last on the market so I drove two hours to look at it the day it went on the market and paid cash the next day. What did I pay for my airstream? $5,000. Yes you read that right. For a price like that, I could do minimal cleanup and double my investment. So I bit the bullet and bought it.
What I did right:
Negotiated with the seller to tow it for me if I offered to pay full price and in cash.
The man who we bought it from was a good guy. He was also about two hours from Eugene. It was sitting on his property for a few years with the hopes to flip it into an air bnb. He became too busy with his other projects and just wanted it gone. So he was more than happy to deliver it with such a quick sale.
I had the seller tow it to an RV service center immediately so it could be looked at.
I immediately had the axel, wheels, and tires checked out. The tires needed to be replaced but the rest was in good shape. Hallelujah! Then I had the electrical looked at. Mice had chewed all the electrical wires and probably about 20 years prior. So the electrical needed a complete overhaul. The first bid I got was for $6,000. It was from a major national chain of RV dealers and servicing. I also got the vibe that they were high balling because they didn’t want to do it. I was correct. We were able to completely rebuild all of the electrical wiring, panels, lighting, cords, and battery replacement for around $2100. So significantly less than I anticipated.
I immediately hired a legitimate contractor.
I recommend this if you have ZERO experience building RVs, like me! At minimum hire a handyman to help you or someone with the knowledge of RV’s. My contractor actually enlisted help of two specialists to help him since it was an RV and that wasn’t his specialty. He knew a lot about RVs and boats for that matter so he was able to do most of it. Try to find a contractor that will work strictly for an hourly fee and allow you to bring in your own materials. It will be way more work and patience will be needed on both your part and the part of your contractor. It will save you a ton of money.
I made a plan for what materials we were going to use taking into consideration flexibility and weight.
I will say that there were areas I refused to skimp on. I refused to have formica anywhere. I wanted real wood, real tile, and yes in some place… real marble. BUT I use marble tile rather than slab… I’m not completely ridiculous. finding things out like what grout to use (rubber grout), and what kind of wood was the lightest and most plyable was important. So research research research, and then research again.
I selected what areas I wanted to restore and what areas I wanted to rip out completely.
I wanted to keep the original footprint, some of the fixtures for a cool factor, and upper cabinetry in both the kitchen and the nooks. Beyond that, it was an overhaul.
Found my place within the online airstream community.
The airstream and vintage trailer community is VAST. Many people with many different ways of solving problems. Lots of people who have done multiple trailers and even do it for a living. Here is the thing about vintage trailer people… They WANT to help you. They want to be a part of your buildout because they are passionate about the process. It took little to no time to be found by many builders online who were doing projects just like me all over the world. They check in with me. I will ask a question online and I get two responses… the answer to the question and people asking that I share what I find because they are trying to troubleshoot the same problem.
I searched for specific models of airstream and refused to buy anything outside of the Airstream make of vintage trailers.
I looked specifically for models of Airstream trailers that were more sought after. For what I was investing in the airstream, I wanted to ensure that if I ever sold it, I could get the most money I could for it. I looked for specific years and types. Just so happens that 1970 was a great year and the Sovereign: Land Yacht is very sought after as well. Truly all the stars aligned when I purchased my trailer.
What I did wrong:
This is a big one and you will think I’m a complete idiot… but at the time I bought the airstream I HAD NO PLACE TO PUT IT!
I’m not kidding. It was a very quick purchase. Plus, I knew it needed considerable work, so I figured I could just bounce it between renovation locations while I found an RV storage place. Here’s the thing about that… Lane County is like the RV capital of the world. Monaco and Marathon coach is located here on top of several other manufacturers! Most of the tour busses for musicians and entertainers are made here. So finding RV storage here is IMPOSSIBLE. I figured that one out the hard way. My airstream has been stored not just in Eugene, but also Bend and Newport in the last 2 years. I’m blessed that my contractor is located in both Bend and Newport so this was no problem for him. There were moments I was sweating this. It is currently in a heated storage facility/airplane hanger in Newport for now and will eventually be moved back to Lane County where it will live for the summer on private property that we can camp on and get used to all the bells and whistles of the new trailer. I don’t regret jumping on buying the airstream because there was no way I was going pass up the opportunity to buy it at the price I did. That being said… it was very stressful for the first month or so of ownership!
I assumed the best place to have maintenance done on the trailer was through the local airstream dealer.
I knew it would be more expensive, what I didn’t know was by how much. They have one way of doing things and that is to “make it perfect”. As in when you have a dent, they don’t pull it out, they replace the panels. Vintage airstreams don’t need to be perfect. Their signs of age contribute to the cool factor. So when I sent them images of a pretty basic dent, they quoted me $3000 to fix it. my mouth dropped. I said “3k to pull out a dent??” they proceeded to tell me that the dent couldn’t be pulled out and have it be perfect so they would replace two panels to fix it. Well, cut to a month later and my contractor pulled out the dent for $30. done. perfect. You can’t tell that there was ever a dent there. I learned very quickly that I was going to need to research everything and avoid the dealership if I could. In most cases independent contractors were going to be the most knowledgable and the least expensive. You have to dig to find them… think deep dives on craigslist. However they are there and they are great!
Do the research in advance to know what it is going to cost… then assume it is going to cost double.
I was lucky enough to have a high budget because I set a budget in advance for what I wanted to spend on this project long before I made the purchase. That was a good thing! I was also very lucky because I was able to use a small amount of the budget on the airstream itself. I was counting on purchasing the airstream for 10k-15k if I wanted anything that wasn’t missing doors, windows, or was completely rotted from the inside out, that would be the cost. Finding such a great trailer in tact for such a small amount of money, was incredibly lucky.
Assume that if your vintage airstream had/has a bathroom and is older than 30 years… there is dry rot.
I did not know that this was a thing. I figured they were built for the outdoors and they are made accordingly. That is all true. However, when manufacturing the interior of a trailer, airstream inc. was not counting on it being out in the elements for 50 years without protection. Homes that aren’t on wheels need updating. You probably aren’t buying a trailer that has regularly updated. Count on needing to completely demo and reinforce the bathroom, even if you aren’t planning on using it for a bathroom anymore. Whether you are in wet Oregon or Palm Desert… the bathroom is going to have issues. I knew that the bathroom needed a complete demo, but we also had to rebuild the floor and all interior panels.
Bigger isn’t always better.
Looking back now, I think a major reason why this airstream was inexpensive was because it is large and they wanted to sell it quick. It is a 32 foot trailer. So it’s a bus! A bus that will eventually be towed by a truck! I was all about it because it comfortably sleeps 4 people/3 beds. It can sleep our whole family comfortably and still have a bathroom and a kitchen. So I saw it as an asset! In many ways it is, but also a larger trailer means a heavier trailer, a longer trailer, and more limitations on travel. I wanted it to be a trailer that doesn’t sacrifice comfort. In doing so, I also made it more complicated. I think If I were to do this project over I would have looked for an airstream that was around 21-26 feet in length.
Vintage parts can be very hard to find.
Even aftermarket newly manufactured parts, can take months to get. For us a big delay was the tabletop. The wait was 4 weeks, and it ended up taking 4 months. Our back window needed to be replaced. I called every RV glass place in Oregon (and there are many!) none of them had the ability to fix the window. I had to reorder the glass and the entire window assembly. I ordered it from a wonderful manufacturer of vintage trailer parts but they were out of it when I ordered. So that took a month. Order your parts early and expect it to take a long time for them to arrive. There were moments when I didn’t know how we would fix something. I couldn’t find the parts and so I would need to come up with something else entirely. Know going in this is going to be a continual issue. Use that online airstream community to help you! I found so many solutions from kind strangers who had vintage trailers they had built and were happy to help.
I underestimated how long it would take… by over a year.
I knew there were a lot of people who were selling unfinished airstream renovations. Which means they hit dead ends, life happened, they burned out. Lots and lots of reasons to abandon projects,. One thing across the board is true… renovating a vintage trailer is a MAJOR undertaking. So patience is a virtue. This is especially true if you are trying to budget. You may find something that is going to cost a ton of money to fix. Whether you are saving your money to fix it or taking the time to teach yourself how to fix it on your own… its all time. So expect it to sit. Expect road blocks. For me at least, even with a professional taking the lead on the rebuild, there were whole months where we had to wait on something.
All in all, I don’t regret taking on this project. I love my airstream and how it turned out. Had I known what I know now, I would have done things differently for sure. However, the end result is worth struggle. The juice was worth the squeeze.