Even though we’re having an incredibly grueling, drawn-out, relentless end of winter here in the upper Midwest, most of us have spring on our minds and for me, that’s motorcycles and vintage campers. In this case, trailers and this 1960 Shasta Airflyte. The seller has this little project listed here on eBay in Shreve, Ohio, there is no reserve, and the current bid price is $1,900.
You can see that the cool “Shasta Wings” are missing, but no worries, the seller has them and they go with the sale. Yes, this 17-foot Shasta Airflyte trailer has been painted and not by a professional. It should be white on the top portion as in where the little wings go on each side. At least those were the typical colors, people can do what they want to with a vehicle once they own it.
The Airflyte was one of three seventeen-foot-long trailers made by Shasta. The other two were the Astroflyte and the Starflyte, which came in both seventeen and nineteen-foot lengths. The Starflyte was the fanciest one of the trio with a shower but come on, who showers when they’re on vacation?! (hey, where’d everyone go?)
Montana showed us a really nice Shasta 16 SC a year ago here on Barn Finds and this one could look like that, according to the seller, with some work. Anything can be restored, of course, but is this one usable while it’s being restored? It has new tires so there’s that.
The seller says that this trailer is complete, with a “stove, furnace, refrigerator, battery, water tank and most of the cushions” so that’s good news. The not-so-good news is that none of the appliances have been tested. The wood is original which is great, a lot of these interiors have been painted. I’d rather deal with repainting the exterior than the interior.
Speaking of the exterior, there is one slight hitch there, the right rear corner has sustained some damage in the past so that’ll take some work to sort out. It’ll be a fair amount of work to restore this trailer but these vintage trailers are hot so if a person could do most of the work themself, it may even pay off monetarily other than just having a fun project to use when you’re done with it. Are there any vintage trailer fans or owners out there? Let’s hear those stories.
I have found a few through the years-never kept them long though. Right know my brother has a chinook camper that we are mostlikly going to destroy. Its a 1959.20 years agao we got it and it was preety good shape.rough now. We loved sleeping in it comphy. Somebody want it? 509-710-5838
Gosh darn, I do declare,,if this doesn’t hit a nerve with me, start diggin’ the hole. The old man ordered a new Shasta like this in the early 60’s, the only thing besides food I remember my old man buying new. He ordered it bare inside, and finished it out himself. As much as I rip on my dad, he was an amazing carpenter, skills that obviously didn’t transfer to his middle son. We dragged that camper all over creation, with a plethora of vehicles to pull it, each worse than the last,( and a story with each one) until he went the Chevy Suburban route. There had to be jillion camper makers, all seemingly with those crank out windows that would gouge your head, but Shasta and Winnebago were about the biggest. I secretly am keeping an eye on these, you know, just in case. If I have to tell you “in case of what”,, better check the news,,you know,,,”just in case”. Great find from THE KING,,of oddballs, that is. More please!!!
Ha! The only thing besides food, that’s gold, my friend. You’re way too kind, but we’re nothing without the readers filling in the blanks.
I had a 1962 Shasta (back in the 80s). Restored it to like new condition. Back then they weren’t cool. But mine had a furnace and a bathroom besides. Interesting that you can get the wings now. Mine had a crumpled tip on one of them. We hauled ours with an 87 Broncos II many hundreds of miles in the NY mountains and otherwise kept it parked at a lake side lot at a nearby campground. Good times!
Why buy this one and go to the trouble and enormous expense of restoring it, when you can buy a much newer one that has the same vintage look on the outside, and modern, but retro, on the inside?
Shasta offered a reissue of the Airflyte trailer in 2015. I would love to have one in blue to tow behind my ’65 Impala. How the heads would turn!!!
Here’s a link:
https://www.roamingtimes.com/2018/07/09/2015-shasta-airflyte-16-reissue-vintage-travel-trailer/
The reason you restore this camper is everything is made of REAL materials. Wood, aluminum, chrome, ect. It was hand crafted and made to last. New campers are particle board and fiberglass. You wont be restoring todays campers 50 years from now, the materials are too cheap. They dont make things like they use to any more. Old houses, old cars, old campers, there’s a reason why they are called clasdicd
Moms and Pops had a cute teardrop trailer in 1964. It was used so I have no idea what year it was. We took it to Arizona twice from New Jersey, down south to Florida and Mom and I took a few “local” getaway trips. The interior was similar to this Shasta only there was no toilet or shower.
Nowadays, the teardrops are nothing but one big bed with a small kitchenette outside. Rather difficult to make breakfast when it’s pouring rain.
Wow, I remember the late 80’s and early 90’s I would drive through the county and find them sitting in peoples yards basically rotting away I would either buy them for $50 bucks or charge the people $50 – $100 bucks to haul them off most of them got scrapped a few got cleaned up and sold for $500 – $1000
I remember (and napping in…after I thumbed through Argosy and other men’s magazines)) these as a kid in the Wyoming fields. I can still smell the combination of the paneling and the essences of the rig
I’ve done major repairs to several of these. What I’m seeing is a rear window with metal tape holding it in place, and water stains down the interior paneling under and around that back window.
Like many of these early campers, they were built from the inside out, that means the last body panels to be applied are the outside metal skins. Any internal wood supports have to be repaired/replaced after removal of the outer skins.
Besides the leaks around the windows, Each side wall has a “L” shaped flange running from one end, up and over the body side, then down to the other end. Both of these need to be removed to see how badly the wood is rotted underneath that flange. Once the rotten wood has been replaced, the flange can be put back in place, using plenty of caulk to seal it all.
If this Shasta was an upper mid-west trailer most of it’s life, I can pretty much promise it’s gonna need wood repairs. That said, if you have basic tools and woodworking skills, along with a table saw and band saw, it’s not difficult to make new wood pieces, But don’t use oak, use white ash.
I picked up 63 Aristocrat tore it down to the axels as there was so much water damage. Piece by piece I’ve rebuilt the entire trailer. Several times during this period I lost interest but kept at it and I’m really glad I did. It turned out beautiful with all the birch panels and cabinetry. Wish I could post a pick here. The asking price is to high for the amount of work that’s need.
I had the 1st post about the slide in chinok camper. I had a great conversation with a really nice guy and he and his friend love these old campers. They also have 100s or more of 50-70s cars in storage and i have a invation to visit i think. As far as the camper goes i have no space or time for it and my brother and i doomed it to death this summer. I hope this guy will take it,its a piece of history we have had it for 30 years. If it goes to someone,great! Even this is a camper-we had so many great times with it
I had the 1st post about the slide in chinok camper. I had a great conversation with a really nice guy and he and his friend love these old campers. They also have 100s or more of 50-70s cars in storage and i have a invation to visit i think. As far as the camper goes i have no space or time for it and my brother and i doomed it to death this summer. I hope this guy will take it,its a piece of history we have had it for 30 years. If it goes to someone,great! Even this is a camper-we had so many great times with it
@Erik Johnston
You said this guy has 100s of 50s thru 70s cars. Who is this guy? Where is he located, and get an invitation and invite me to go along with you.
SOLD for $3,050.
Thank you, sir!