Fixing Up the Airstream, Part 3: Bringing in the Pros

A lesson my dad taught me when I was young that I’ve never forgotten: There will be points in your life when you’ll have more time than money, and points when you’ll have more money than time. It’s rare to have an abundance of both at the same time. As our plans to live in the Airstream and work in the national parks became firmer, one thing became crystal clear: we were rapidly running out of time. Rob is only one person, and he could only work on the Airstream during the warmer months—the very months that in 2024 he was spending in Yellowstone. So we made the decision to spend some money and work with a rehabber, preferably one who specialized in Airstreams. And after a bit of a search, we found one just 4 hours away from us in Wisconsin: Vintage Camper Restoration! This father-son team and their crew specializes in restoring vintage Airstreams, and judging from the work they display on their website, it looked like they would be the perfect fit for what we needed done!

We contacted them over the summer and learned that there was a waitlist for getting work done. We were #12 on that list, but they estimated that they would get to us within the year. This was no problem for us, as we knew we could be somewhat flexible with the timeline, and we wouldn’t be able to bring our trailer in until Rob returned in the Fall anyway. And as luck would have it, we got the call just as Rob returned and were able to tow the Airstream up to Wisconsin in late October before the snow set in. VCR has a full-service workshop on a couple acres of land and can actively work on several trailers at a time. So we dropped off our Airstream, knowing that we’d get her back sometime in the Spring of 2025, and went over our laundry list with Clayton and Steve Prouty. They were incredibly professional and provided a detailed estimate after inspecting our trailer and listening to our needs and vision. And I was pleased that their extensive knowledge of trailer living led to specific recommendations (like puck lights in our ceiling, or getting our new electrical system set up with an option to convert to solar down the road) that Rob and I would not have thought of on our own.

One of the decisions Rob made early on in our own DIY work was to do away with the propane lines completely. While they made sense on the original trailer, there just didn’t seem to be any reason why we couldn’t go all-electric, given our needs and the way we plan to use the trailer 99% of the time. So Rob installed an electric induction cook-top where the old propane stove had been. That stove definitely needed replacing as it was leaking propane when we got it. However, the outlet that we needed in order to plug in the new stove was non-functional, so VCR repaired it. They also installed an electric water heater and pump, and a new A/C unit with a heat pump so there was no more need for the old propane furnace. Finally, they upgraded our electric service to 50-amp, with new wiring and circuits throughout the trailer, and fixed all the non-working outlets so that we now have both 120-volt and 12-volt electric everywhere we need it! Thanks to the new 50-amp capacity, we won’t have the problems we previously had of having to turn off our space heater to avoid blowing a fuse when we wanted to make coffee.

VCR also re-configured our plumbing to accommodate Rob’s bathroom remodel. Because we had moved the bathroom from the rear to the side of the trailer, the toilet was no longer over the black tank and it was proving difficult to figure out how to rig it up properly. Our preferred solution for this ended up being a composting toilet, which they wired into our electric and vented into the gray tank. We went with the OGO after reading several reviews, particularly this one: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/cars-trucks/installing-composting-toilet-camper/. Finally, it turned out once they got everything hooked up that our kitchen faucet from 1975 was leaky so they provided us with a new one from Airstream.

But these were just the changes we could see on the inside. Outside, our trailer hooks up to power and water completely differently than it did before. Turns out you’re not stuck with 1975 technology in a vintage Airstream, as everything on the trailer is upgradeable! Our Airstream now has ports on the side for water and electricity. One side benefit of this new system is that we think this will help keep mice out of the trailer, as one of their ingress points was in the back where the old plug went into the trailer body. As you can see, nothing can get in through these new ports, other than the intended utilities. But VCR also found a couple of holes in our subfloor and belly pan and repaired them, which will undoubtedly also keep the critters at bay and will keep the trailer body more stable and intact. Finally, we also got a few “nice to have” upgrades, including built-in ceiling fans that each contain a sunroof, a new rock guard (the plexiglass “sunglasses” you see on the front of Airstream trailers that prevents any rocks that fly up from the road from smashing your expensive windows) and, best of all, an electric tongue jack.

My dad’s lesson was right-on: money and time can be interchangeable. But in this case the value received for the money we spent far surpassed our expectations. Some of the work VCR performed involved things that we might have been able to do ourselves, if we’d had enough time. But one of the main advantages of working with a professional shop is that they work on trailers like ours every day of the year, so they can finish the work much faster. Plus, as I mentioned above, they already know what’s worked well on similar trailers and what to recommend to solve the particular issue we were facing. We were totally thrilled with all the recommendations they made as we went along, and it felt like they really understood our vision for the trailer. They also were willing and able to work within our budget, so some things that didn’t absolutely need to be done right away (like new axles or solar panels) will be projects for another season. And, of course, some of the work, like the new PEX plumbing or installing the rooftop A/C, were things we never would have been able to do on our own no matter how much time we put in or how many YouTube videos we watched!

So with the guts of the trailer completely finished, it was FINALLY time to fill it with all the things we’d need in order to live in it for the next six months: cookware and utensils, clothing, cleaning supplies, books and games, and endless other things, most of which we’ve spent countless hours paring down to the bare necessities. Hopefully the Great Outdoors is going to be our living room anyway, so let’s keep the clutter to a minimum.