Designing Small Spaces

​A 1971 Airstream
www.Heffrons.com recently received a testimonial from a customer named Eric who has always enjoyed a good project and fixing up old things. His family had a 1964 Alaskan Camper when he was in high school. Fast forward to today, and after 2 years of searching, he bought a 1971 Airstream.
 
Eric was happy to share with us his adventure and transformation which you can read below.
 
Early Struggles
I wanted a something that I could gut all the way down and start over with my floor plans. I’ve been a cabinet maker all my life and I love designing small spaces so it seemed to be a great fit.  From the early goings of the project I had a lot of not so pleasant discoveries. For example, there was a rat’s nest that went 10 feet into the trailer. I also discovered that this era camper didn’t have gray water tanks. Finally, many of the parts were missing from the camper, even though I was tearing it down because they had been sold off. ​

​Sticking With The Plan
I drew up the plan in CAD and I’m happy to say that I was able to pretty much stay with the original design that I had come up with. I have remodeled and built many homes but this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Planning for gas electric and 12 V throughout the trailer was a bit of a task. In my experience the RV world appliances are not user-friendly to obtain information on and install. I thought when I got to the woodwork it would be a piece a cake. I love working with angles and I have worked on many boats and difficult projects. Airstream trailers are in a different class. I spent two days just putting the wood up in the front. There wasn’t a single piece of wood that didn’t go in and out at least 3-4 times. 

Hard Work Paid Off
I got it livable and stayed in a week. I did some more work and took it out on a 2 month road trip. During my trip I met lots of people with trailers and Airstreams and visited some Airstream shops. Turns out I was on the right track all along and many people have asked me to share my story. As of this writing it’s at about 90% now, but she will never be done of course!

We couldn’t be more happy for Eric and glad to hear his restoration was a successful one. Every photo Heffrons receives from customers is unique because a little part of the customer can be found through their hard work and vision.  No matter the project, big or small, we hope this story give you insight and inspiration of what is possible and help you come up with ideas for your own camper, trailer or motor home. To learn more you can visit our website: www.Heffrons.com. We look forward to hearing from you!