Vintage Caravan Magazine Issue 34 | Page 13

“We went right away and looked at it. I opened the door and said I’ll buy it! It was in great condition compared to all the other trailers we had looked at. The joke is I bought Jeri a trailer for his birthday! He spent the next year, or as he likes to say: 52 Sundays restoring it!” The first job when it came to restoring the Oasis was to put in a whole new axel and new tires. Jeri and his friend Rick then gutted the entire inside to repair damage from water, saving as much original wood as possible. They removed the windows, took out the heater, scraped off the floor tiles, and repaired the holes in the floor. Then they replaced the 1 ½” x 1 ½” framing and glued and screwed everything back together. They also replaced all electrical and water lines, put in a new water tank and pump and then put all of the windows back in. Next, new oak paneling was pickled and varnished to match the original cabinets before they were all re-installed inside the trailer. In the meantime, the original stove and fridge were powder coated in a vibrant red. They were lucky enough to be able to keep the original Formica on table and countertop but had to replace the backsplash Formica. Barb then had all the cushions recovered, lay down new floor vintagetrailermagazine | 11