Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hey everybody.

Here's my restore so far. Purchased the camper on March 19th. It's a 1960 BeeLine. I've been told it is the Weekender model.









Old lug pattern... 5 on 5 1/2".





That's actually an icebox, not a refridgerator.











This is when I decided this is going to be a rebuild rather than a restore. The wood rot was just too bad to repair.



Most cross members in the front were cracked in the middle. The ones in back were just completely rotted away.

















All stripped and wire brushed.







New floor cut.



Starting the wall rebuild.





Door side wall almost complete.



Thanks for looking.... Mikey

Outstanding job. How big is it? The design is close to my 15.5 ft Kenskill.

dmb90260 wrote:Outstanding job. How big is it? The design is close to my 15.5 ft Kenskill.

I think it's considered a 13' but my title says 14'.

Nice,

Looks like a fun project!

Rob

Got the birch on the interior side walls tonight. Too dark to take pictures.

A router with a trim bit saves hours of work.

Now it's time for more

Mikey

Fenders were in worse shape than I thought.





Took one apart to use as a pattern.



This is what I used to build the new ones.





Here are the floor and fenders officially permanently installed.

Just wanted to update this thread with some pics to show my progress.


Flipped it over and tarred it up.


The finished walled waiting to be shellaced.


Shellac is a pain in the a$$.


Floor color picked out.


And the walls start going up.














Pulled it 90 miles skinless to my parents house to get the skins painted.


Worked on the dinette seats.






And some paint goes on.






Didn't get all the paint done, so I drug it home to work on the inside more. After a long drought we had a week of drizzle.






I always manage to get injured somehow.


Upper Kitchen Cabinet.








Some ladies stopped by to check out the camper.


Back to my parents, panels drying.




Starting to put the skin on.




The next morning was a complete heartbreaker.


After trying to fit the side panels I realized I re-built my walls wrong. I should have used the skin as my template and not the paneling from the inside of the camper. When trying to fit the side skins, the skin was 2 inches too short on the front and the back.

<<<<---- To Be Continued --->>>>

Your trailer is looking better all the time. Sorry about the side skin, that is a hard lesson to learn.
You might find some suggestions at Rob's trailer site, there are a number of experts on building and repairing trailers
http://repairingyesterdaystrailers.yuku.com/forums/70/Vintage-Trailer-Discussion

MikeyLikesIt wrote:Some ladies stopped by to check out the camper.

Chicks dig campers.

Nice work on the resto!

I'm starting to think BeeLine trailers weren't built to shed water very well. I bought a 63' BeeLine that was too rotted to have much salvage value other the components, frame, windows and stove. That's OK though, because I didn't much care for the layout of the original trailer. Your progress looks great.

Thanks guys!

After finding out the skins wouldn't fit right, my dad and I started brainstorming with solutions. I knew I wouldn't be happy with any of the quick fixes and I didn't want something I that I wasn't proud of after working so hard on it. So, the only thing that we could come up with was a complete tear down and rebuild of the walls.

Nearly sick to my stomache we jumped in the truck and headed to Lowe's for lumber. Stopped for lunch to gather my thoughts before the tear down and came up with a Plan B.

Since I was planning to rebuild the walls anyways, why not save what I've done. Right? So the new plan was to find a cheap trailer frame and unbolt the existing shell and move it to the "new" frame.

I'll start a new thread for the rest.

Mikey

josephhanson wrote:I'm starting to think BeeLine trailers weren't built to shed water very well. I bought a 63' BeeLine that was too rotted to have much salvage value other the components, frame, windows and stove. That's OK though, because I didn't much care for the layout of the original trailer. Your progress looks great.

Joe, I think you are right. I've never seen a Beeline without extensive water damage. They look fine from the outside and maybe even the inside and then when you start digging in, it all falls apart.

You have a nice start going there. Wty not just make you own like Len does? His looks good and is affordable without looking cheap. You can find instructions here: http://serroscottycamperenthusiasts.com ... IDING.html

wagondude wrote:You have a nice start going there. Wty not just make you own like Len does? His looks good and is affordable without looking cheap. You can find instructions here: http://serroscottycamperenthusiasts.com ... IDING.html

I did weigh that option but I had already spent over $300 in paint and supplies that was already on the original skin.


BTW.... I started my Plan B thread.


Mikey

Wow!