We have been wanting to get a tent trailer for a number of years, but the price and the number of years we would use it seemed to make the price too high to justify the purchase. I looked at used ones and did the research and you can easily get into $1500+ of costs just replacing canvas, tires, springs, etc. So it was great that last weekend we ended up being given a 1984 Coleman trailer and it met my lowest price of “FREE” and it is in decent enough shape for being 25 years old. The canvas needs some attention to patching, but it is worth keeping. The undercarriage is intact and with some POR-15 treatment, it will last a long time. The paint and sheet metal showed no “rusting through” and so I figured it was a candidate to easily fix up and paint. The last issue is to repack the wheel bearings, replace the springs and get new wheels and tires. All told, I figure 500 bucks should do it. I plan to replace all the electrical (after I just rewired the Porsche, this should be a piece of cake), add new lights, mattress covers and new water & gas lines.

I have been wanting to test the internet legend of the “$50 Paint Job” using high density rollers and thinned Rustolem paint and the Tent Trailer Restoration is the perfect project to test this out and see if I can recreate the results everyone is raving about. We ended up doing a lot of work this weekend to get the trailer prepped for painting and have most of the sheet metal and aluminum exposed and ready for primer.

I will update the posts over the next couple weeks as I finish the restoration and get camping!