1962 Shasta Compact

At Retro Restoration we have a "boneyard" of trailer projects available.  This owner picked out this poor little Shasta Compact to have us restore it to their choice of colors and style.  A previous owner had started to restore it by stripping the paint off with the intent of polishing it, lost interest and it sat in his back yard for years.  It had been wrecked in the back, looked like the tail had been dragged hard over something solid, the ceiling was caving in, and it was missing the upper cabinets.  And the wings were gone!  It had new upholstery... too bad it didn't fit the camper.

Shasta Compacts are not know for sturdy floors.  They have only one long board down the center of the chassis and short ones along the outside edge along the frames outriggers, covered only by a thin plywood base.  After we cut off and welded in a new rear crossmember to the chassis to replace the wrecked one, we added a bit more framing structure.  We put down a layer of Celtex, to add some insulation under the trailer, then new OSB underlayment.  Final step was new flooring, this time a neutral gray/blue, the owners choice.

We refinished the birch interior in amber shellac, the owner liked it better than the original Shasta blonde finish.  We built new "furniture" inside, reassembled the body, added new wiring, insulation and then all new aluminum skin.

The interior featured new old stock coral boomerang laminate, an orange stovetop and icebox salvaged from another camper, new polished backsplashes, and a custom wrap around seating, not the normal Shasta layout.  The big table does lay down to make a king size bed in such a small space.  The outside was painted Omaha Orange to match the theme.

It is now often seen displayed in front of the owners cool architectural salvage store on Main Street in Florence, CO (the antique capital of Colorado).  Great stuff in the store, stop buy and check it out if you are in the area.

The new owner supplied the new upholstery material, a gray/blue tweed that was actually NOS airplane fabric from the early 60's.