Phase Two

After getting Hammie picked up from Parker Trailer, we have scheduled and rescheduled with K and K and K Kampers do to the weather refusing to cooperate!  Rain and snow in the mountains keeps delaying us, but they have been wonderful about communication and our current plan is to meet this coming Wednesday.  We will go through the camper together and put together an solid plan and an estimate.

The biggest things, which I have mentioned before, are making sure that the camper is solid and rot free.  I can't wait for someone with experience and know how to take Hammie apart and put her back together with brand new wood.  It will allow me to breathe easy as we travel across the west this summer.  The other thing is the pulling and resealing of the windows in order to prevent future leaks.  They'll also paint the camper and do a few other things, but the rot and the windows are our priority as we feel that we can do some of the other items.

In preparation for paint, I have been looking for someone who could possible recreate the logo decal for us, as it will get painted over.  While on the Vintage Trailer Talk forum, I came across Custom Vintage Trailer Parts and they are going to make us a new logo.

This is our current logo.  Notice that none of the three decals are the same.

There is just no information out there regarding North Star Travel Trailers so we really want to keep the original feel as much as possible.  We may even leave the inside paneling alone instead of painting it, simply for this reason.

Looking forward to Phase Two of Hammie's restoration!  Can't wait to move forward!

Hammie Comes Home for a Visit

Yesterday we picked Hammie up from Parker Trailer.  I cannot say enough incredible, good things about them.  They did everything we asked of them and they did it at a cost $700 less than what we set as a budge.

Driving in to their lot, we saw Hammie sit up tall and straight, a far cry from the way we drug her in.  The list to the drivers side was gone and with a flipped axle, she was raised several inches higher off the ground.  Perfect for off road camping.  Parker Trailer fixed all of the suspension issues and put a five bolt pattern trailer tire with matching wheels back on.  Previously Hammie had been running off of small car tires.  So glad for the new wheels!

The brake wiring is all new and instead of coming around outside of the trailer, it is now all tucked away and you can no longer see it.

Stabilizer jacks were put on the back to make for easy set up at the campground.  All the inside electric and gas work perfectly and the door I thought would be the most expensive part, they were able to repair!

We can't wait to begin the inside remodel, with new paint and the cushions I sewed.  We are also going to have the outside painted and some rotten wood replaced.

Scary Things

Over the past month we have gone back and forth about Hammie, from being wary, to excited to scared of her.  After spending lots of time here, http://vintagetrailertalk.freeforums.net/ , we began to realize that doing the suspension and windows and wheels, etc., wasn't enough.  While Hammie seems sturdy and strong, we have lots of long distance camping trips planned for the summer and I began to have panic attacks that she would fall apart as we drove down the road.  It became such an issue to me that we pull the skin and get rid of all the rot and reframe her, that we actually decided to sell Hammie and buy a Scamp instead.

It felt very overwhelming to take on a project ourselves and Parker Trailer was honest in letting us know that they could do the reframe, but it would be incredibly expensive. For a week, we stalked the Scamp websites, looking for one that fit our needs.  Then we stalked the Craigslist adds to get price comparisons so we would know what to sell Hammie for.  Late on a Friday night, I came across this website - http://www.vintage-travel-trailer.com/ Someone who could possibly fix Hammie in the ways that we can't!!

I called them the very next day and sent over pictures of Hammie.  They gave me a soft estimate that seems reasonable and we are currently scheduled to have them take a look and give us a hard estimate in mid February.  Hammie might be done at Parker Trailer by Friday of this week and so we are excited about the next step!  Apparently this little vintage camper has worked its way under our skin and we want to do all we can to keep her.  For me that means solid corners and framing, solid axle, wheels, bearings, etc. and turning her into a camper that we can keep for the next ten years or more.

Inspiration

While Hammie is getting all of the important things taken care of, I have spent many hours looking at other remodeled and restored vintage trailers.  I have yet to find another North Star of any year, let along a 1969, but I have come across many other really cute trailers.  I think this is the look we will be going for in Hammie, only instead of the teal or blue, green.  It's fun to think about the inside and the cosmetic. We are scheduled to have our camper back around the end of January.                                                                             

Recovering Cushions - Pictures

While Hammie is in the shop, I decided it was a good time to work on new cushion covers.  I spent an afternoon at the fabric store, going through the discounted and discontinued fabric, looking for outdoor fabric that I liked and that would hold up well in the camper.

After finding what I thought would work well, I set to work sewing new covers.  I have never sewn anything in my life, so this was a major undertaking.  I ended up with this:

The dinette cushions are floral, the sofa is green with a floral back (that's it above in the second photo laid out as a bed) and the bunk is the striped.  I plan to sew curtains as well.

I was lucky that the cushion foam was in really great condition.  It was old, but not brittle at all.  In fact it was soft and clean.  I sprayed them all down with lysol and then febreeze before putting the new covers on them.  It was a huge savings not to have to buy new foam and I'm happy with the way they all turned out!

The Importance of a Clear Title

Hammie came to us from a man on Craigslist who traded building a deck for a camper. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that before he could sell it to us, he should have re-titled the camper in his name.  When we bought the camper, there was so much else going on that Kyle didn't realize that it hadn't gone through the process of transferring the title.

When I finally made time to go to the DMV and get it titled and registered, this oversight became a major issue.

I waited for an hour for my turn at the window only to be told they could not transfer the title because it was not in the seller's name.  The woman helping me was agitated by my questions regarding what the next step was if we couldn't get it titled properly from the original owner, to the seller.  There is a myriad of paperwork with complicated instructions, that become even more complicated as you go through them and her best response was that we needed to go back to the seller and get it done right.

My concern was that it was a Craigslist sale and so what if we couldn't get it done correctly?  I wanted the big pile of paperwork, just in case, and she didn't want to have to spend the time to go through it with me.  It was incredibly frustrating and ended up with me in tears because I asked her to do her job and help me and she called the security guard over and told him she felt I had threatened her.  It was a nightmare.

I called Kyle and cried on his shoulder about how nothing with this camper was easy!  He assured me that he still had the seller's phone number and would call him and get this straightened out. Thankfully the seller is a super nice guy and he was willing to go to the DMV with Kyle the following morning to get the title transferred to his name.  They arrived just as the doors opened, only to be told that the title printing machine was down and they would have to come back the next day.

The following day, they arrived at the DMV again, were called to a window right away and began the process of getting the title put in the sellers name (the man who gave it to him had already signed the title).  Another snag arose when the woman helping them could not find a North Star Travel Trailer anywhere in their system.  Originally she though she was not going to be able to help them when she remembered another database she could look in and was able to print a new title.  The seller then signed it over to Kyle and it was done!

Lesson learned.  ALWAYS make sure the title is properly signed and transferred.

Hammie Gets A Name

In those first weeks after the camper came to be ours, the kids and I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the idea that we would be giving up our tent camping for a broken down trailer.  Tent camping is how we identify getting out in nature and doing outdoor things.  Having a camper, especially one that needs more work than I was willing to do, seemed overwhelming.

After finding Parker Trailer and getting such good news from them about repair costs, we finally were able to think about a future with the camper.  I began to refer to it as "her" and "she" and one day as we drove by the trailer place and saw her up on the lift through the big glass windows, we decided she needed a name.

We tossed around a variety of names, among them Ethel and Norrie, but what the kids settled on was Hammie.  Hammie the canned ham camper, because it is impossible to say it three times fast.  You know what it means once you name something.  A name means it stays.  So Hammie is ours and we are all finally excited to have her.