Third Annual TCT Northeastern Regional Gathering 
The little Winnebago that won third place, and I'm sure the bright yellow studebaker out front had nothing to do with that :-) Rolf and I were debating between this one and the Shasta that ended up winning first, so I guess we have good taste! Our camper could be as shiny as this one... Dad? you planning to come visit this fall?!
As you can see from previous pics, our trailer is one awning and light string short... hopefully by our next camping trip (Letchworth? the Adirondacks? the Pennsylvanian Grand Canyon?) we'll have that fixed. Literally, as Rolf drove into a tree branch when reparking to get ready for the rally and dented the roof line and awning strip... oh well, it's probably not going to be the last dent & bruise :-)
For more, check out my Picasa web album Tin Can Rally 2010
After seeing pics of the new handles I really like (as did she) but did not choose, my sister wanted to see what the other handles look like. For reference, above is a pic of a horizontal chrome handle original to the trailer - all the other cabinet doors and small drawers had wooden knobs.
Here you see the vintage chrome drawer pull knobs (they came out of our 1960's kitchen) and the chrome cabinet handle I found at Significant Elements. It has the same "bent curve" up front as the original drawer handles, and I really like the asymmetry of the vertical use (bigger on top, smaller on bottom). I did not drill the second hole yet, though... and the retro knobs are still on my desk as well... (I did not get the return mailer yet, honest!)
g the 1962 trailer has an extensive metzendorf blog with many for sale listings. If you have any interest in purchasing and / or renovating a metz this is the blog to keep your eye on: www.Metzendorf.blogspot.com
Here's our little camper (14? feet long?) parked conveniently close to some trees. This way, you can't see the bad roofing tar job the previous owner did on the window sills and roof line! Unfortunately, the trees did not block the shade from the back roof during naptime so the top bunk bed was too hot, but Simon did not seem to have issues sleeping in the bottom bunk during daytime as long as we blocked it off visually. I'm thinking of installing a small curtain rail at the bottom of the bunk bed frame for next time's trip... I've got a feeling these "small improvements" will never stop - I was already contemplating a different curtain fabric as well :-)
A peek into the bed/kitchen and kitchen area where you can really see how the color jumps out! Even though it might not be strictly period correct, it did get quite a couple of positive remarks and had tons of pictures taken of the inside. People seemed surprised by the contrasting doors/cabinet colors, and we did seem to be the only camper painted like that!
I thought this an interesting picture... father and son playing with a modern cell phone in a 1958 metzendorf camper! It sure looks like a "beam me up, Scotty" devise from Star Trek when seen from way back when...
When we would close the camper door, the handle would close but the top and bottom corners of the door would stay open... Fletcher had told me that very likely the inside of the door was compromised and needed a new frame to be sturdy again, but I had not expected the extend of decomposition on the inside! Basically, there was nothing left and the two pieces of wood that kept the handle in place were floating around the empty inside...
The door is like a sandwich, crimped around the edges, with a stiff corrugated cardboard lining. Most of the cardboard was composted into a bit of dirt in the bottom of the door, which explained the loss of rigidity. Rolf made a frame of ripped to size wood and used left over insulation panels to fill the gaps real nicely. The door sure is heavier now, but it does close nicely :-)
Of course, the bunk bed is perfect for the kid! Except the kid is a two year old and the top bunk is 4 feet of the ground... So, after some heavy brain crunching we came up with a sliding door to keep the kiddo from rolling out, with a latch from keeping the kiddo from breaking out.
The bed gate is made up of three panels, one fixed in place behind the hanging closet and two sliding panels with car / camper silhouettes. I'm thinking of blocking up the camper hole (orange backdrop?), the space is larger than the space between Simon's crib spacers. The volvo should be fine, and I'm sure Simon will LOVE peeking thru it! He definitely loved playing with the other part of the cut out, and recognized it was supposed to be mama's car! Smart kid.
Choices, choices, choices... I found these really neat retro chrome enamel cabinet knobs, which of course are unbelievably expensive at $10 each. Of course, the day after I ordered them I found these real nice vintage chrome cabinet handles that have the identical design as the drawer pulls original to the camper... for $1 each!
Rolf picked out this rich orange called Arizona Sunset (guess where he would like to tow the camper too...) and I found a couple of fabrics to match. Even though orange is more of a seventies color, I do think it will work as the fabric patter of both the couch and the little curtains will have a distinct fifties design.
The small piece is upholstery fabric for the back cushions, the bottom couch cushions are solid orange. The dotted piece is the curtain fabric, which will be lined with vintage 80's curtain liner recycled from old drapes left in our house when we bought it ten years ago!
The bunk bed and kitchen area: side walls of the bunk beds need one more coat, and the bottom kitchen cabinet could use a bit too. Next is to clean the drawers, attach knobs and install both cabinet doors and drawers.
The kitchen and dinette area. What is white now stays white, though the couch covers and curtains will be colored as well so it won;t be as stark as it looks now. A lot of the chrome molding from the formica tops and window sills still need to be cleaned from old (and some new) paint marks & drips...
The left side of the camper, with the beds, kitchen and part of the table area. As you can see, I went ahead and stripped the kitchen cabinet to see what grade of plywood it was. Even though the bed frame is made of nice fine grain plywood the kitchen cabinet is made of cheap looking, course plywood - similar to several of the cabinet drawers... So instead I decided not to restore the original finish on the cabinetry but to sand and paint everything instead. Which takes a lot less time anyway!
Here's the right side of the camper, without the kitchen table and couch pillows. Eileen has offered to sew couch covers (and maybe even some throw pillows) and we're waiting for the ordered specialty fabrics to arrive. Clearly visible is the new piece of plywood which covers the replaced water damaged wall piece. I think I would have liked more of the wall to have been replaced, but it would have cost much more money (difficult angles) and it will mostly be covered by the couch pillows anyway... I'll just make sure to paint nice and thick around that area.
Here's the right side of the camper, with the new aluminum strip covering the hole in the wall / roof line. Fletcher did a good job! Now we only need to clean up the old roofing tar mess so the new shiny strip does not stand out so clearly :-)
Last Fall we bought a camper / caravan with the idea to do short weekend trips around the Fingerlakes and Adirondacks area with the two year old. Of course, it is a 1958, so there is some restoration / fixer upper involved. The biggest problem was a leak in the roof (some tried to fix that by putting a circular saw to the roof strip?!) we did not dare tackle ourselves but had local vintage camper expert Fletch from Fletchers Vintage Trailers out in Trumansburg fix up over the winter.
I found the camper listed on craiglist as a Hot Rod camper - whatever that means - in can be used right now condition. Of course, that was just a little exaggerated - leak in the roof, leak in the rear, one window frame almost pops out from the moldy warped plywood sheeting - but other than that in fine condition :-) Though I must say, by the time I got to the seller somewhere near Rochester I was ready to buy the thing and drive back, just so I would not have to drive all that again!
The camper seems to be built to sleep 5 people: one in the top bunk, two in the bottom bunk and two on the table/couch futon. This means that we do not have to alter anything for bed time, we can use the two bunks and be done with it! Most smaller Metzendorf campers - the ones that actually fit a standard garage - do not have the top bunk and that will of course be Simon's bed. We will have to come up with some sort of gate so he does not roll/fall/jump out.
The kitchen has a three pit propane stove and an ice box. And yes, it does look like a fridge but it's nothing more than a really well insulated cooler with a water drip to the outside! I'd never heard about these either, but apparently they work better than regular coolers which we'll be happy to find out. We might get a car fridge which plugs into the car battery via lighter if we need to. The camper also does not have a toilet / shower (it does have a small hanging closet) so an outside chemical toilet would probably not be amiss either for those midnight peepees!
