Customer Wings

Here is a customer wings gallery where you can see my wings on customer's campers. This should give you a good idea what they would look like on your Shasta. I will be adding more photos as time goes on.

This of course is my 64 Astrodome... I am a customer of myself, I guess.

(42" X 9" Beaded lines with standoffs)

Adams 61 SC. Great looking camper

(42" X 9" Creased lines, wrap around tail)

Bill's Shasta, (and a template donor, thanks Bill)

(36" X 8" Beaded lines with standoffs)

The FIRST set I made for Jims 59 Airflyte. "Miss Daisy"

(42" X 9" Creased lines, wrap around tail)

Ready For Camping

I thought I would throw a few finished shots of the Shasta up. I have finally delivered her to the house in Connecticut and now have it registered! Not too much in the way of issues during the trip but notice that the white walls are missing in the pics below... almost lost the port-a-walls on the way home. If you are going to buy them DON"T get the 3" ones, go for the 1 3/4"... I had to reorder and spend another 60 bucks.

The Family came down a couple weekends ago so I thought it was an opportune time to get some pictures. I even got my awning from VTS... and I could not be more pleased with the look! The maiden voyage is booked for April and we are really looking forward to it. Jen (my wife) has gone on a trip planning extravaganza.

Me with the two Pepperes. Thanks again for all your help guys.

Three generations, hopefully the camper stays in the family for a long time.  

The new awning, (black and white stripe). Love it!

Bet my neighbors just love my camper in the front of the house... can't be any worse than my wood pile! In reality many of them have stopped by and have had plenty of compliments.

Looks like the place to be if you ask me!... or at least the place to get a shave and a haircut for two bits.

SHASTA WINGS!!!!

NEED WINGS? I AM YOUR GUY:

The wings on a Shasta are so ridiculous that they are awesome. Unfortunately many original owners took them off and threw them away thinking that they were perhaps too gaudy. But today they are so iconic and no Shasta camper is complete without them. They represent a different era in vehicle design. For a Shasta they are the cherry on the sunday.

I am now offering reproduction wings for sale. These are very high quality reproductions of the originals. I have built several sets to date and would be happy to help make your Shasta complete.

ORDERING:

Ordering is simple. You just need to contact me via email at Tylerbes@gmail.com and give me as much of the following information as you can:

1) Wings Size (if you don't know tell me your year and model):
     - 42" X 9" , 36" X 8" , 27" X 7" , 25" X 6"
2) Line Style:
     - Beaded or Creased (currently not offered, will be adding in the near future)
3) Mounting Style
     - Standoffs , Direct , Direct with wrap around tail (typically only done with 42 X 9 early Shasta's)
4) Mounting Holes Drilled or Undrilled?
        Most customers get the holes undrilled so that they can drill the holes in their new wings exactly where they were on their campers and not make new holes in the skin. But they can be predrilled if you like, however i cant gaurantee they will line up with your camper holes... every Shasta varies a little bite.
5) Payment: (See payment terms)

Note: I am also willing to sell parts for the do-it-yourselfer (contact me for pricing) or those folks looking to repair existing wings. If you have a custom request with your wings, let me know and we may be able to work something out.

PAYMENT TERMS:

I ask for a $100 deposit check (I will give you my address once we work out the details of your order). Once I finish the wings I will send you a photo of the finished product, if you're happy you send me the balance due and I ship them out. Once I get it, the deposit goes straight toward offsetting some of my material costs so if you decide half way through you don't want them (let’s say you find a set on Ebay or something) I can't refund your deposit as I would have already spent it on the materials. However, If I can't finish the wings for some unforeseen reason  (I see NO reason why this would ever happen) I would happily refund your deposit in full.

Obviously I have no issue if you want to pay the total amout up front.

PRICING:

By Check:
42" X 9" and 36" X 8"   :  $300 plus S&H
27" X 7" and 25" X 6"  : $250 plus S&H

Shipping and Handling  : $30 (US),  $70 (Canada)

I also accept PAYPAL to (tylerbes@gmail.com). The paypal fee is added to the total cost
+2.9% Domestic
+3.9% Canada


WHAT YOU GET AND HOW I DO IT:

You get both wings with brushed aluminum skins. They are a nice bright finish (like the look of a stainless kitchen sink), not 100% polished. You can polish them if you so choose. The moldings that wrap the wings are also aluminum and are a double molding look (see photos). The molding is held on with stainless screws.

You also get all of the required mounting hardware for your style camper and desired mounting technique.


Here is how they are constructed:

Step 1: Making the Skins
I cut the blanks in the .020 thick 3003 exterior grade aluminum from templates that I have created using original wings. I used a bead roller with a custom made set of rollers that form the bead style lines. This took a ton of experimentation to get it right.  After quite an effort these lines exact duplicates of what was original beaded lines and later skins and straight as an arrow! Its a step and repeat process every inch.

Note: I will be using the same process for the creased lines (rollers are not yet available).

The Roller Set

Finished Set

Inside of Skin

Outside of skin



(CREASED STYLE COMING SOON.)

Step 2: Frames
I make the cores out of PVC Board... its pricey stuff but wont rot. Everything is glued, nailed and screwed and all of the areas the areas that will have mounting screws in them have full support so the wing won't dent when mounting on the trailer. These frames make the wings very strong and light (only a few pounds each) They are much more rigid than the original wings.

This is the only shot I took of the core structure. which is on a finished wing, but you get the idea

Step 3: Moulding

Next the mouldings get wrapped around the wing, trimmed, drilled and screwed in place. The skin is pinched behind the molding.

These are 42" X 9" Standoff style mounting

Step 3: Mounting Shasta Wings
I found the best way to mount the wing was to make a paper template so I could mark the original holes in the skin and align the wing the way I wanted it. I then transfered the hole locations to the wing and drilled the out on a drill press (and drill would also work but keep it straight).
The wings are mounted with:
Standoff Style:  #10 Stainless Screws 3" long with 3/4" tall Nylon spacers.
Direct Mount:   #10 Stainless Screws 2 1/4" Long
Direct Mount (wrap around style): #10 Stainless screws 1 1/2" Long with Stainless washer spacers.

I think the results speak for themselves. I recommend UNDRILLED wings to all of my customers so that you can do the same process and not have to add more holes to the skin of your camper. I can however predrill the holes in the wings if you so desire.

Here are some Photos of the wings mounted on the camper. Also take a look at my Customer Gallery for photos of my wings on customer campers.

Curtains!

I think if I never use a sewing machine again it will be too soon. I spent about 20 hours making these curtains and I think it worked out well. The color matches the exterior green nicely. I still have to make the tie-backs, which will be made out of the circle pattern material I used on the cushions.... so I guess my sewing days are not yet numbered. If they ever have a trailer trash edition of Project Runway, I am IN!.

Finished the trim around all the windows as well. All mahogany with stainless screws, took a while but I am really pleased with the results.

The center dome light is finally installed. I had to wait 6 months to finally get that thing!

I finally got to some of the fun stuff too... adding cool interior items. Over the 2 years it took me to finish this trailer I had plenty of time to find nik-naks to fill it with. I have a few more items in mind but the majority is here.

A whole bunch of items on this side... I went with the original 1080P LED flatscreen that these campers had in 1964. You know, gotta keep it original. I am trying not to over-do-it. Its hard to do as I keep finding cool stuff I want to nail to the wall.

I converted an old Coke bottle carrying box into a set of shelves. Going to add some straps and store coffee cups in it... you can still see the rings frome where the bottles rested. Very cool. The box was marked 1955.

There will be a bit more over here eventually. Right now just a tin Coke sign and Teddy Baseball peddling Moxie, the worlds most horrifying "soda"

Yup... I like coke. Even salt and pepper flavored

I found an old Ivory soap box in an antique shop. Added the shelves, and stained them to match the box.... I love the final look

The stain was just the right color, and the polyurethane really made it clean up nice.

In the same shop I found these old gauges. thought they were cool. Temp, humidity and barometric pressure. Looks like they were sold at Sears, and are "Made in West Germany" so they are post WW2... but certainly have some age on them.

My super cool Shasta clock from my sister-in-law. Thanks Jessy!

This was a Goodyear sign off of a Tire rack. I think its rather old, the wierd thing is that its brown and not the traditional Blue and Yellow. In fact I could not find another one like this on-line.

Just wanted to show the floor in the bathroom as I dont think I ever really showed a good picture of it. I am standing in the shower to take this picture. Roomy, if I were the shape of a broom stick.

Finding Time

Its been a little while since I did my last post so I thought I would give an update. Its been almost impossible to get much of anything done on the Shasta with the new little one. He has been a bit of a handful. However, we think we might have that under control (is there some wood around here that I can knock on). I did get a chance to start my curtains. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics but they are coming out great. For those of you out there that are thinking of doing you own curtains, its not hard but it is VERY time consuming to do it right. I have them all made for the dinette area and the one for the bathroom is done. This took about 10 hours and is less than half of the camper.

There has also been some progress on wings. I have made a set of early wings for a Shasta friend of mine on the west coast. This gave me some experience to make sets for sale and I am half way through a set for '59. They are looking great.... again finding time is rough. Also thanks to some work from Peppere B the rollers for the later years (including mine) are just about done and the work fantastic! makes the bead lines in the wings and really looks original.

The camping season is coming so I need to get crackilackin. Here is what is left:
- Battery Box and wire Battery
- Cable lines
- Fix bad solder joint on exterior lights
- Fix and mount screen door
- 2 more window screens to make
- Mount cabin dome light (just got it in)
- Install side front window which I recently BROKE!
- Finish trim for dinette windows (80% done)
- Interior shelving
- matress for the bunk
- shower head
- shower curtain
- exterior TV mount
- WINGS!
- REGISTRATION and INSPECTION!

Its mostly small stuff but it adds up into quite a bit of work and that means time... anybody have some I can buy? ... No... Didnt think so.

Dinette is DONE

It's been a while since I have had a chance to post. Lets say its been a busy month with the birth of my second son Jacoby. Another happy camper joins our ranks... lets hope he stays happy. On top of that, a car accident, a leaking roof, and a Thomas themed extravaganza for my 2 year old.  Even during this busy time I was able to sqeeze in a little work. With a little help from my in-laws, I finally I got the dinette cushions recovered. I have had this material for about a year! I went full on with sewn corners and the whole deal. I posted the rebuild of the frames in a previous post if you are interested in seeing that. The rubber hallway runner from home depot worked great!. I used hog rings to hold it on top of the springs and then a layer of foam on top of that. The rubber really helps to distibute the load of you butt! Very comfortable.

I was trying to go for a modern take on a Retro look with the material... I have no idea if I succeeded in this but I do think it looks fantastic. It was about 20 degrees in the barn when I put these in last night. Peppere B,  being a bit of a veteran in this kind of stuff, was checking out my first attempt at upholstery work. His rump seemed to think I did well.  

The scrabble table is ready. I am looking at you Derek and Julie!

Getting Closer to the Finish Line

Well I made some great progress again this weekend. Whenever I think I am almost done I fine yet another item that needs to be checked off of the list. This weekend some big items got the DONE stamp. First the bumper. She is in, painted and I have incorporated some very cool stabilizers. I get this idea from Jen's (my wife) uncle Dick he did something similar on his Airstream, Thanks Dickie! Looks like its going to work well. Have a look. You just drop the two pipes down the welded on tubes, tighten the pinch bolt, and crank the front up. DONE

This is what it looks like with the pipes out.

Also all of the trim for the windows is made and urethaned. Ready to be installed. Looking forward to getting that done. The trim alone took a whole weekend to cut to size and make. Tedious crap.

Finally the Dinnette cushions... OHHH the disgustingness of it all. The mouse urine was thick that day my friends. I think these photos show some of the damage. I tried to salvage the frame. I found the best way to get mouse pee out is to burn the piece of wood that has pee soaked in it and make new frames from scratch. They are done and I am very happy with the results.

New frame next to old frame. The black marks are the stains from the mice... my whole garage stunk

I used rubber hallway runner as the backer for the springs instead of burlap. its cheap and I think it will work great. I was able to reuse the upper frames as they had not been invaded by rodents.

OHHH but thats not all. I also made new screens for all of my windows. They sell all the stuff at Home Depot. Its not very costly and once you get the hang if it... its pretty easy. They look like they might be original to the camper, very happy with the final product.

I also restored the original dealers metal cast name plate. Shasta owners like to keep and show these on their trailers as they originally were, its kinda a thing. Pretty cool, tells you where the camper originally came from.... not too interesting for me in this case, it came from 40 minutes away from where I bought it. I was hoping for Albacurky, or Kalimazoo.... anywhere more interesting and perhaps where Bugs Bunny might have frequented.

The Floor is also all done... think I might have shown this on some previous posts but oh well. Here it is.