1964 Trailblazer Chief Camper Build (1 Viewer)

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Bozeman, MT
I bought a 1964 trailblazer Chief 10' camper on FB recently and have been started working on it. I thought folks might find a build thread interesting so I'm going to start one and see if I can keep it up to date. Starting condition I thought was pretty decent, shell wasn't to beat up, most of the lights were missing, had some separation of the skin along the back edge, one window has a broken pane and one has a dent in the frame otherwise they were all intact.

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Interior has some obvious water damage in the rear along the curves, and a lesser amount on the front by the window. I'll know exactly how significant it is once I dig in. Layout is a bed with a bunk in the rear, this bunk may have been a homemade add in, kitchen on the drvieside middle with sink that was a direct connect to a hose, 2 burner stove connected to a 5 gal propane tank, and ice box, front had a dinette that turned into another bed, there was a vertical closet on the passenger side middle, there is a propane heater in the floor, and a manual vent in the roof. The camper had an exterior plug which operated 1 light and a standard outlet in the camper, there was also 1 gas light.
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Planning to redo the layout to better suit our desires and needs, once I get it gutted I'll spend some time figuring that out, better bed, fridge, solar setup, maybe a fireplace in the brainstorming. I know the wife wants some kind of bathroom, not sure it fits but we'll see.
 
Have the camper about 3/4 gutted, all thats left if the front dinette area now, couple photos in process for reference. Water damage is worse than expected, you can see the discoloration in the wood all along the roof edges.

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Front window sill is pretty much toast, there campers used a layered plywood to create the curve in a lot of areas, that plywood was still wet even after being in my garage for a few weeks. Its pretty much completely rotted from the midpoint of the camper back.
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Rear top and bottom used more significant lumber cut to the curve, I'm assuming for more strength. It's really rotted on the passenger side, but a little better on the driver side. A couple of the studs across the rear are just floating at this point.
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The rear wall is supposed to have an air gap, right? Surprisingly almost no rot on the floor anywhere along this rear wall, just a small spot in the corner pictured. The support underneath that the wall was attached to is pretty rotten though.
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Cool project...love the Chief next to the door. That is kinda rough as you peel back the layers. Also makes you realize how "easy" it is to build out a simple frame on a trailer chassis and cover it with flexible sheetmetal...voila, camper! Lol.
Might consider some treated lumber going back in.

Sub'd
 
Some years ago I had researched similar restoration scenarios for vintage teardrop trailers. That interior/frame rot is very common, I learned...

Would you call that a "kidney" trailer?
 
Most call that style a canned ham.

We had a '65 Bell 12' with that same layout, loved the hydroflame heater in there. No electricity necessary.
The sink and cooktop were flipped in our Bell, was really nice to get coffee going without getting out from under the covers!

Good luck with your project, looks like it will be mostly new when done.
 
Some years ago I had researched similar restoration scenarios for vintage teardrop trailers. That interior/frame rot is very common, I learned...

Would you call that a "kidney" trailer?
Yeah I think it's pretty common. I'd call it a canned ham, but I don't think there is any real standard for what that is it's just generally tossed at every aluminum trailer of that general shape made from the 50's-70's.
 
Most call that style a canned ham.

We had a '65 Bell 12' with that same layout, loved the hydroflame heater in there. No electricity necessary.
The sink and cooktop were flipped in our Bell, was really nice to get coffee going without getting out from under the covers!

Good luck with your project, looks like it will be mostly new when done.
I think I'm going with a cubic mini cub wood stove for heat but we'll see. I think the layout is pretty much the same in all the 10 and 12 footers I've seen.
 
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Yeah I think it's pretty common. I'd call it a canned ham, but I don't think there is any real standard for what that is it's just generally tossed at every aluminum trailer of that general shape made from the 50's-70's.
Canned ham. That's the one...
 
I think I'm going with a cubic mini cub wood stove for heat but we'll see. I think the layout is pretty much the same in all the 10 and 12 footers I've seen.
Wood heat is nice! You just out of room in a 10' pretty quick. We outgrew ours when the girls were 7&9, they no longer fit in the top bunk without a squabble.
We used a bagger toilet with a small tent for the loo, never could find room in the trailer for one.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the chief, I miss the time when the camper was behind the cruiser full of carseats.
 
Got the last of the interior ripped out this weekend. Front window sill turned out to be a lot worse than I thought. Rotted all the way through the sill and the stud and when I actually just fell out when I was checking it out. Amazingly the support in front of it looks brand new though.
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Inside is fairly well done now, got the heater out of the floor, propane tank off the front, pulled all the copper lines and old wiring, cut and pulled all the nails sticking out of any salvageable wood. Moved on to taking the J channel off, most of the gap between panels is in the 1/4-1/2" range but some of it is more like an inch, somebody didn't cut real straight the day they built this one. It's amazing they sealed all these edges with nothing but butyl tape and it lasted this long.

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Butyl tape is one of the best sealants made, it never hardens and will "reseal" if a leak develops. I have restored vintage trailers 50 years old and the original butyl tape is still very soft and sticky. I highly recommend you use butyl tape for sealing an RV, stay away from silicon products.
 
Butyl tape is one of the best sealants made, it never hardens and will "reseal" if a leak develops. I have restored vintage trailers 50 years old and the original butyl tape is still very soft and sticky. I highly recommend you use butyl tape for sealing an RV, stay away from silicon products.
I wasn't knocking butyl tape by any means. I think its amazing that is all you need and it lasted nearly 60 years. The surprise was more with sealing a gap of that size. I will say probably only 25%ish of the tape is still tacky, most is pretty dried out and hard.
 
I wasn't knocking your comment either :) Just stating the butyl tape is an awesome product. Service life of true butyl tape is about 40 years, there is a cheaper product available, butyl putty which only has about a 10 year service life. In general butyl tape has a smooth brown release paper, butyl putty has a wrinkled, crape paper like, release paper.
 
Made a sketchup model to see if I could fit everything I wanted in here like I thought. I think it will work, but I guess I'll find out when I start building. Front end is going to have a wet bath, sink, stove, fridge, water tank pump and heater, couple drawers and overhead cabinets.
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Rear has a fireplace on a wall mount, queen short bed, a couple little cubbies and a large drawer on the front edge, and a larger cubby on the rear edge, and some overhead cabinets. Theres also storage underneath accessible from the outside hatch.
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200w solar on the roof to power the fridge, water pump and heater, a few LED lights and a couple outlets and USB chargers in the rear cubby.
 
Is it still considered progress when you have less of a camper at the end than when you started? It's amazing to see just how little structure is in these campers.
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Couple shots of the rot.
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