13: Polishing and Brightwork
Polishing Tools
Small-Scale Polishing
Large-Scale Polishing
Preserving Your Work
Chapter 14: Traveling with Your Trailer
Empty the Tanks
Towing Preparation
Hitching Up
Choose a Destination
Accessorizing
DEDICATION
To the memory of Judy’s dog, Charles … high fives and biscuits forever, little buddy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like restoring or building a camper, producing a book on the methods and concepts involved with a travel trailer is no small achievement. And, even though I work on these things every day, I can’t pretend to know everything about the subject matter.
With that said, this book contains a mass of information from the tradesmen and professionals at Camper Reparadise. Camper Reparadise is a restoration shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, that began as a small family business and has since grown large enough to occupy a 10,000-square-foot facility, employ around 12 professionals, and produce more than 20 restorations a year. Among those specialists, a special thanks needs to be given to Bryan Rowe and Chad Nielson for their contributions in the woodworking and polishing sections.
Likewise, Brandon Zinninger, aka the-best-boss-ever, needs a hearty thank you for allowing the time and resources this book appropriated from the needs of a quickly growing business. From photo taking to long hours at the computer screen, the following pages required much of my attention and devotion over the past year, while other significant responsibilities sat on the back burner.
Additional thanks go to Steve and Melanie Zinninger for providing the stepping stone that Camper Reparadise needed to get off the ground. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today and there would be no avenue to professionally restore campers. Similarly, a special thanks go to the clients who trusted in the shop’s ability and commissioned the restorations you see on these pages.
Thanks also to my inspiring group of friends, and thanks to my supportive family, especially my parents, who put a tool in my hand at an early age and encouraged me to pursue my passions. Finally, I thank my wonderful wife, who kept me on track and graciously supported me throughout this whole experience.
INTRODUCTION
Despite Airstream being the first brand to come to someone’s mind when discussing shiny vintage campers, there are many alternatives to choose from, like this polished Barth.
When I started this book, the only camper I planned to include was a 1952 Airstream Cruisette. As soon as writing began, however, it was apparent that more than one restoration should be featured to cover everything you need to know to resurrect an old camper. Besides the Cruisette, I included a 1950s Boles Aero Ensenada and a 1970s Airstream Sovereign.
Boles Aero Ensenada
Pulled from the palm desert where it sat for decades, the Boles Aero Ensenada required a couple of days and a well-equipped tow rig to recover. Sometimes retrieving a camper requires traveling to remote areas and using minimal resources to fix it. Getting this gem from a sedentary state to roadworthy status required jacking it up in the sandy desert to remove the wheels so the dry-rotted and square tires could be replaced. Luckily, it did not have split rims, so the wheels did not need to be replaced.
It’s possible that the perfect camper restoration project is around the corner from where you’re sitting right now. But more likely, finding a worthy candidate often leads to traveling thousands of miles to retrieve, such as the Boles Aero featured in this book.
Finding the proper bolt-pattern wheels for this camper would have been difficult. Just finding a good set of tires took a day to complete. While the wheels were off, the hubs were disassembled and re-greased to ensure that it would make the trip to Salt Lake City. It’s always fun disassembling stuff in a dirty environment. If it had been windy, the hubs would not have been serviced because dust would contaminate the bearings.
Trailer lights were run under the trailer and zip-tied to LP lines and frame wheels. Because there wasn’t anything ferrous to attach the magnetic trailer light kit to, they were duct-taped to the original light buckets.
The Ensenada was originally a park model, which means that there were no fresh, gray-, or black-water tanks installed on the camper. To make it usable off-grid, holding tanks were added to the unit.
The basic interior layout was retained, but a few changes were made to open up the interior and accommodate modern conveniences. Now a 12-volt electrical system based on two 6-volt glass-mat batteries powers interior electrical components, including lighting and ventilation. When plugged into shore power, the batteries are maintained, and the 110-volt outlets are powered.
This is how the Boles Aero looked when it arrived at Camper Reparadise. Water damage was pretty rampant, affecting the usual locations, including the vent opening and windows, and some not-too-common places such as the galley.
Some custom cabinetry from a previous owner had taken the place of the original liquid propane heater, but thankfully, the heater was found in a pile of scrap in an adjacent field.
The galley retained its original faucet and the cabinets still had their art deco latches, which are the important bits. Sourcing hardware that matches these originals can be difficult.
Boles Aero Aluminum Trailers
The name Boles Aero carries just as much history as an Airstream but is less of a household name due to the company closing its doors in the 1980s. They are a riveted, lightweight, all-aluminum top-quality trailer that dates back to the post–World War II trailer camper boom. According to Tincantourists.com, Don Boles, the Boles Aero founder, was instrumental in founding the consumer rally and show that by the mid-1960s was the largest RV-related event in the world.
Boles Aero contributed many design features
