Some folks who restore vintage travel trailers decide to modernize the look, but we love the feel of the ’72 and we want to keep it as original as we can. The dark faux wood and harvest gold of the interior are so warm and homey. We also know we’re going to need to repaint the exterior, and even though we don’t want to stray too far from the original white, we’re thinking about adding a subtle opalescence to the new finish to really make the Shasta pop (no pun intended).
We’re looking at a few paint sprayers to do the job right. We’ll probably go for PPG paint because it’s high quality, it’s local, and members of the family have worked there for a couple generations. Automotive paint is a new area for us, and we’re learning a lot.
Speaking of paint, we discovered something unexpected and very interesting while removing some of the badges and trim—the silver aluminum accent stripe that runs along the sides of the trailer, and the aluminum panel that has been repainted white at the bottom of the front of the trailer, were both originally gold!
Buried gold!
The metal that had been protected from the elements was the golden color we’ve seen on other trailers of this era, but the color had been completely faded on the exposed surfaces. Now we have to decide if it’s worth the extra effort to restore it to the original gold hue. Stay tuned!
1972 Shasta 1400 