Extreme Makeover

Hello, my name is SHANA. For Christmas 2018 Shana, the 1958 retro red Shasta Airflyte Deluxe, received the gift of a personalized vanity license plate from the state of Georgia emblazoned with her name: SHANA. Now enthusiasts and passers by know her by name.

As part of the kitchenette upgrade we added a few convenient appliances. Decidedly without dedicated gas lines, which would require us to tote a propane tank, we opted for a pure electric mini fridge instead of the more costly units that run on electricity and gas. This either limits where we can camp to grounds […]

When we purchased Shana her interior had been rebuilt with benches lining the interior. This presented an option for us to either rebuilt the interior like the original design or chart our own design. With a growing family and 58 years of innovation, we decided to design an interior to balance our budget and needs […]

When we purchased Shana she had oak plywood benches around the interior perimeter. The rear would have originally had a cushioned bench that would fold into an almost full-size bed with storage cabinets overhead. In redesigning Shana we decided to install two almost full-size beds in a bunk bed configuration in the rear. This bunk […]

One of the things we weren’t aware of prior to buying Shana is that she had no title. This became annoyingly obvious when we tried to insure her, which is impossible without one. In order to get one we had a policeman come to our home to supposedly investigate the safety of a “homemade” trailer. […]

Reconstructing the walls of a retro Shasta camper requires attention to detail. This is especially true when using expensive materials like premium plywood. For this rebuild a red oak flexible plywood was selected with walnut trim. Because of the curvature of the shell, each piece was custom cut then applied to the framing using a […]

This is a camper. It will be used camping. There is no expectation of maintaining a perfectly comfortable 75 degrees inside. But we do have a heater and an air conditioner. So, a thin one inch layer of fiberglass and foam insulation was installed between the outer and interior walls. The insulation helps with temperature […]

The first step in refurbishing a 1958 Shasta camper is removing the rotten, damaged interior. In this project we needed to remove everything except a section of interior cabinets. The walls and rotten framing boards were carefully removed. They made way for a new and improved framing system.

The cabinets inside our 1958 Shasta Airflyte were in good enough shape to partially restore and partially rebuild. The original craftsmanship of these cabinets is precise and almost a relic of yesteryears camper construction. Out of three sections we were able to keep two sections intact and rebuild the third section to match. This involved […]

In restoring a 1958 Shasta Airflyte there are certain aspects that require more precision and detail than others. Retro camper door replacements are not readily available at hardware stores nor online, so rebuilding is the only option. In the pictures below you can see some of the painstaking steps required to reconstruct this Shasta door […]