Tom Howarth,

You get no argument over modernizing systems from me, (I want to travel in comfort as well as style) but there are a couple of points I'd like to make.

I would like some of each model to exist somewhere (and I don't mind having one or two myself) which are restored to orgional condition only - even though this would mean no updates on any appliances and fixtures [something like wiring is invisible and can be replaced without changing
the look]. Anyone who can afford to keep these trailers up does us a service - they are living documents and base-lines of historical accurracy.

Most trailers won't be in this condition and there is nothing wrong with redoing a trailer ANY WAY YOU WANT.. My personal preference, even for other people's trailers, is that the updates be invisible wherever possible. I have a really cool 50's refrigerator in one of my trailers that I intend to spend big bucks to have the works redone rather than replacing the case and door. I recently had a rounded 50's refrigerator redone and repainted for a TV show about the Web that I designed and the paint job was only $90.00 and the repairs to the system only $150. My 58 Bubble has a small holding tank under the toilet that is rusting out and I want to have it refabricated out of stainless steel. It won't be cheap but it will exactly duplicate the shape and function of the origional. The guy who
redid my 22 foot Globetrotter redid the fresh walter tank and hid it under the bench seat of the built in dinette and put the waste tank where there was a drawer under the stove. I would like to see people make an effort at period restoration rather than a complete rehab, replacing everything. It would be great if we all left a file of photos and notes in our trailers for posterity about work we did on them, too. We need a data base or a home base for parts, also. Some trailers are totally stripped out or ruined by abuse. These are the best candidates for the kind of remake that changes the whole
interior in design and function. Nothing wrong with that; I just hate to see a beautiful trailer with origional everything turned into something other than it was. You can almost always hide system updates in the structure somewhere and not have to sacrifice great origional woodwork, light fixtures, etc. Like I said in the origional Streamail on this; curtains, upholstery, carpeting, bedding and paint usually make enough of a reversable change for most people's taste - with systems installed unobtrusively as possible.

Off the soap box for now,
Tom Walden