I checked with the boss to see if this build diary was OK, and he said to go ahead and post it. Not exactly a vintage car restore, but rather a vintage trailer restoration. The victim is a 1959 Shasta 13 foot travel trailer, or "Canned ham" as these were called. They are really cool little pieces of history, and this one is going to need a full restoration. The first step is to remove EVERYTHING from the trailer so that we can replace the floor. This is when we realized that not everything in the trailer is easily removed. The cabinets, ice box and other items wont fit out the door! a little research found that these items were put in the trailer BEFORE the roof was installed and they never entered through the doorway. With some effort and destruction we got everything out. a royal PITA! Here's a small portion of the contents: Removing the existing floor was a lesson in 1950's construction techniques. There was a layer of 1/2 inch thick "mushboard" layed across the frame. (I'm not sure of the correct term, but its a 4x8 sheet of fiber with a layer of asphalt on each side. This was used to sheath houses up until the early 70's.) We called it mushboard in the day. on top of the mushboard was a 3/8 layer of plywood. You could feel the floor dip as you walked across. Another interesting fact was that the sides were not set on top of the floor . The floor sits on the frame. The sides fit OUTSIDE the frame and are nailed into the SIDES of the frame. After the old flooring was removed we replaced each bolt that attached the 2x4 frame to the chassis. There were several broken welds on the crossbraces, so we ground and re-welded those. One section of the wooden frame needed to be replaced so we did that at this time as well. We replaced the old floor with a 3/4 inch layer of marine grade plywood. We fit the floor, then removed the pieces and rolled 2 layers of truck bedliner on the underside. This will provide water resistance to the underside. After the bedliner had dried we re-installed the plywood. We still have to screw it down, but the whole trailer feels much more substantial. The floor does not give when you walk across it . A good foundation is ALWAYS the first step. I'll keep posting to this as the work continues. I hope this is not too off topic for you Hambers....
Chuck.I was prepared to cuss you,, I have been looking for one of the Early Shasta's for a long time,,but since it's a customers car,your safe! BTW,If I ever do locate one I will have a excellent build manual with this thread! HRP
Cool little trailer. Look forward to watching your work, thanks for posting it! I have a 10 foot Aljo. Should be starting on that soon.
Good luck with your build, I've never done one but since my brother use to restore vintage campers i've been around a lot of them. Your correct about the cabinet's ect going in first, actually they went in and all the plumbing ran before even the walls went up. The panaling went onto the studs too and finished befor install as well, they were truly built from the inside out. Makes it a bitch if you just need to restore part of one without total dissassembly!
Great thread and thanks for posting it. Do you have the famous Shasta wings as well? Always wanted a Shasta but at this point, do not have anything to pull one with. Subscribed
Sure is cool to see these old trailers being fixed up, can't even tell you how many of these I have owned and driven through to end up with huge piles of " dented canned hams! " ;-)
I am in the middle of redoing a 64 Shasta Airflyte. Infact it has been in my family since it was new. After a 25+ year rest I have got it back up and will use it for the first time in about 2 weeks. In hindsight it probably would have been easier to pull it down to the frame and start from scratch like you are doing than just trying to replace the rotten and braken parts like I did. Brian
Cool project! Post pix over here when it gets close to done. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=368140
This should be a fun build. I will bet many of us have thought about a project like this at least once. Thanks for sharing. chuck
There is a 10' model Shasta just up the road from my house. It doesn't have wings either. I'm hoping to be able to buy it at some point. It hasn't moved in the 13 years I've lived here. Looking forward to watching this one come together. JH
About a year ago, I almost bought an early 50s Aljoa canned ham. Everything needed repair or replacement which would have constituted using the original trailer parts as patterns to fabricate all the new parts. I couldn't commit to the workload or the cost involved, but it would have been a great project. Hats off for you for this undertaking,I can't wait to see how it turns out. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
This one has the wings.... I've got them removed in the photo cause we are re-building them. The wings started in 1959, so this is one of the first series that had them. The wings are a defining point of the Shastas, and kind of a cool nod to the art deco era, as are the rounded corners on the cabinets.
Yeah,I can see where the were attached,,I remember the Shasta my Grandparents had and it was a earlier model without wings. HRP
If you want to learn how to restore vintage canned ham trailers you need to know about Mobiltec Larry and his series of videos on Youtube. There are 2 or 3 series covering the restoration of different trailers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nUdSruMEz0
Shastas are very popular. They must have built a bunch of them because there is still a bunch of them around. Restored Shastas use to go for around 3K on ebay. A lot of the vintage trailer roofs leaked and it caused the wood inside to rot. I have been told there are a lot of vintage trailers in Idaho and that's where you can find some good ones to restore. I found a vintage trailer in AZ that was from Idaho, I talked to other people and they also had vintage trailers that came from Idaho. There are a lot of vintage trailers in AZ that the snowbirds brought from other places. Finding the good ones to restore are not easy. You will know if the roof leaked from the black stains on the paneling on the inside. The really cheap vintage trailers also used very cheap wood for construction. Just like cars some vintage trailers had a few different manufacturing plants.
I just found a rare size for this model of trailers. Here is my 15ft 1957 Aljo. Started the restoration a couple of weeks ago and can't wait to tow behind my '53 210.
That looks like a good one to start with. Is the skin in good condition? Aircraft paint stripper should take the paint down to shinny aluminum. A lot of the old trailers used a Ford 5 on 4.5 wheel patern and you can use custom wheels from cars on them.
My dad had one of those back in the day. We used it to go deer hunting up in the mountains, good times those. Thanks for the reminder.
ya, all the tin is perfect , no tears or major dents. Bought it from the original owners. You should the restoration i'm doing, all the rocker areas, front and rear bay windows down were rotted. But is 3/4 done already, very easy repairs . I can post more pics if you want me too??
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