As much as we love our 2021 Airstream Classic, this week at the Airstream International Rally,
we are going to take you behind the scenes of not one,
not two, not three, but six vintage Airstreams. And they are amazing.
Welcome to a 1976 Argosy. This thing has been completely gutted
and built from the ground up. And she is beautiful.
Her name is Gnome Away From Home because this is where Pepita lives.
He says, "I got this camper here, it's called an Argosy built by a couple of guys that used
to work for Airstream." I started researching [inaudible 00:00:55] this is a Airstream. It was
the division of Airstream where basically it's a test division. So I went back,
talk to him. His big mistake was that he had told me how much he paid for it down in Mexico.
I looked at it, everything was working. So I offered a thousand dollars more than he paid. So,
"No, I want more than that." That's okay, cool. So I drove off and about 10 minutes later,
I got a phone call. He says, "My wife says I got to sell it." I found a guy up in Austin,
Texas. He finished the interior, all custom everything, all new everything, and upgraded
retro mod. And my wife did the interior design and with the truck that was the 59 Apache was two-tone
1957, 56, tropical turquoise. And then a Ford Creme Brulee. So we did it the same and that's
why in most Argosy's they're usually wide on top because it's cooler to think. But I want
on the color scheme of the truck, so when you're traveling down the road [inaudible 00:01:50].
This area right here was actually a couch. To make it more functional space, they removed
that and created this wonderful booth setup. But the finishing touches with the wallpapers
and the tiles, it just really makes this place feel homey. And here, we are in the bedroom.
It swivels, so you can watch it in the bedroom, you can watch it in the kitchen. How cool is that?
Last but not least is the bathroom and this one has an even bigger shower than we have.
Boom. Usually in an Airstream toilet, we got a little lever right here that flushes it,
but not this guy. It's all electric.
This is a 1969 Airstream Overlander. Ever since I was a child, I always loved things
with curved rooms, old train cars, old diners with the curved roof and I loved Airstreams. I
didn't really want a big truck. Most Airstreamers have a big truck to pull their Airstream, but I
did some research and started looking at pictures from the late sixties, early seventies to see
what people were towing them with and they were towing them with
big cars, Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Travelalls. So it has the original engine,
although it's been rebuilt. It's an International Harvester 304.
When Fred originally bought this place, it was completely decorated and all cream,
but this is the 1960s and the colors of the decade are avocado, sunshine, burnt orange, and brown.
So he said it needs to think. Starting to see more modern cabinetry and tons of storage space.
There's a refrigerator and an oven. Check out this stove top.
In the original setup, this was actually a couch, but since Fred is traveling alone,
he decided to put a bed here because that's a whole lot more comfortable.
You could straight up have a bubble bath in this thing.
And now we're going to show you the inside of this gorgeous 1965 Airstream Caravel.
Went on the internet and saw that all sorts of people bought old ones and renovated them.
And so we thought maybe we could do one. It's been a fun process, a lot of learning,
hard work, and sweat, but very rewarding, Extremely rewarding. If you have thoughts
at all of doing it, do it. It was fantastic. So when Jenny and John put this trailer together,
they gutted it from the very ground up and rebuilt her. And they did all of this gorgeous woodwork on
their own. And because this was the very first time they had ever put together a trailer,
there were some mistakes. So when John was putting these cabinets, he actually made them just a tiny
bit too short, and Jenny is a genius. So she came up with these amazingly designed woodwork pieces
to put in the middle. The little mistake turned out to be a good one. They also created really
smart storage solutions. Behind this beautiful custom cushions, they have cabinets.
I also love some of the features they put in the kitchen. Full size drawers, check this out.
Cutting board? Yes, please. And if you've ever stayed in an Airstream, you know that a trash
can is always an annoying thing, but they created a cool solution for that too. They
used the space where the wheel well is to create an inlaid trash can. And I think of every toilet
shower combination I have ever seen in a trailer, this is the most well done one I've ever seen.
You caught me. Why don't we go check out this 1950s trailer.
This gorgeous 1950s trailer is a Safari and it is an adventure for sure.
Isn't this like stepping back into history? We fell in love with it the minute we saw it. We
saw its potential. It had won best in show in 2006 at an International Rally up in Washington state.
So it had the plaque, it had the good bones, it had credentials,
so we figured we'll go ahead and take it. We thought it had good bones, but it had a lot
of things that needed to be fixed, like everything underneath the front end where the facilities are,
and that was on the verge of going away. And like any home do you live in, you want
to change the paint, you want to change the decor and the linens and the bedspreads and pillows. And
so you slowly start adding your own touches. And then finally, one day you walk in and go, "Wow,
it's done." It's ours.
It's ours and we're ready to go. How adorable are these Airstream place settings?
One of the things that makes this model so unique is the front kitchen and bath.
Look how cute this is. My absolute favorite part about this trailer
is the incredible ceiling you see behind me. The things and places this trailer must have seen.
Now, we're going to show you this stunning 1954 Flying Cloud. And before we go inside,
I've got to show you the back. Back in 1954, there were two factories,
one in Ohio, which is where it is today, but also one in California. And the one in California,
well, they had some liberties to do some different stuff. And what is known as the whale
tail that you see here is one of those things. They figured out a way to get away from doing 13
panels and went down to nine panels, which saved a ton of labor plus the material that they saved.
If you squint just right and think you're in California, you'll see a whale's tail there.
Wood paneling in this particular Airstream is one of a kind, probably something you may
never see again. This couch turns into a bed for a secondary sleeping area and these cool lights were
from a movie theater in the 1950s. They didn't necessarily put bathrooms in all these trailers,
but in the renovations done of this beautiful one, they have a very sneaky bathroom.
These Airstreams didn't have tanks, so it's a composting toilet.
It's a modern refrigerator. They created this beautiful wood panel that actually
houses the air conditioning unit too. Hands down,
my favorite feature in this bedroom are these beautiful handcrafted copper nightstands.
It's a 1947 Curtis Wright and we was looking through Airstream classifieds and found it.
And a gentleman in Texas had it and he had had it for years and people couldn't
believe that he sold it, but we was just at the right place at the right time.
The gentleman that started Airstream, he worked for Curtis Wright during the war and then left
Curtis Wright and went back to making Airstream, so you could say it's probably pre-Airstream.
When this trailer was built, it was just after the war.
They were taking unused planes, removing the aluminum and creating these trailers,
so the owners decided an airplane theme made perfect sense.
Things about this kitchen is that it is all authentic to the time period. They have
a forties juicer, a coffee pot, and even a little coffee holder.
This beautiful couch is even authentic to the time period. It's been reupholstered, but they used
a gorgeous, big pattern that was very similar to what you would have found in the forties.
As you come back into the bedroom, you'll notice, unlike our trailer, it doesn't have a bathroom,
but in campgrounds you can always easily find one. He's got it set up with the two twin beds
and it even has these original lighting systems. They turn to make it super easy
to change the direction of your light when you're laying in bed. How neat is that? Another thing
you'll find here that you probably won't find in a modern trailer is a lady's dressing table.
Now that you have seen six beautiful trailers from four different decades, you got to let me know
what's your favorite one. Leave a comment below. And if you enjoyed this video,
make sure to subscribe to our channel and click that little bell
so you'll get notified when the next video comes out. But until next time, my friends,
make sure you wander local this week because as you know, it's good for the soul.