1968 Travel Queen Resto Mod - 1. Acquisition & Evaluation

thanks for posting, cool project. I love the old brochure.

I envy you your new hobby ,especially the ability to do the work inside. Looking forward to the progress reports, have fun!

Great project. Thanks for sharing.

Now, you need a cool vintage truck to carry your cool TC.

With the campers side by side, we began our evaluation of the project by expressing optimistic enthusiasm to local friends and family. We'll do this, we'll do that. The son says, "These old campers all smell the same".

The original plan was to build the 8' 1968 Lil' Queeny into our user camper. Then evaluate and work on the larger 10.5' as able. If it proved too far gone I had intentions of reverse engineering it for others to perhaps build a Travel Queen from scratch.

The front cab wall of the larger camper had already been replaced by a previous owner and was missing the original style front windows. It made the overall camper feel more confined and closed in. The larger camper also came with the original "Saf-T-Jacks". They aren't exactly safe, and yet I might be able to work them over for my smaller camper, but I would never try them again on the larger and heavier unit.

Here are interior pictures of the larger 10.5 camper, the one that became the donor, and the rest went to the landfill...











The smaller camper was very clean. We had, and have, found no evidence of mice. Here are some interior pictures of it...

















Within a few weeks, and after removing all the non-original, and a great portion of the "to save" original pieces, we had our plan.

Upgrade original 30 gallons fresh water to 40 gallons. Greywater, upgrade from none to 21 gallons. Blackwater, use a residential height Thetford Porti-Potti with 5 gallon waste tank. That debate has raged but we found the dump availability of a portable toilet much preferable to an RV dump site, at least for the places we like to go. We'll have room for two batteries, two waste cans, two 20 lb propane tanks, on demand water pump, perhaps outside shower, 6 gallon water heater, toilet closet will become a wet bath with shower basin, walls and door, low energy use catalytic heater, long-boy double bed, twin bed for the dinette, dinette convertible to lounge, TV, microwave, solar roof panels, kitchen double sink, stove/oven range, upgrade from icebox to 4 cubic foot refrigerator, and even a bathroom sink basin, all for four season use based on planned plumbing routing and grey water dump valve location. There was, and will be, no basement. Stock height of about 6'3" interior, narrow width of 7.5', and all within the confines of an eight foot truck bed. No, there will not be a lot of storage! That is what they make duffle bags and truck rear seat areas for.

I just love old vintage ANYTHING and cringe when I see those things destroyed or left to rot or ruat away. It's like throwing history away be it a car, house or TC. The old Shadow Cruiser we bought isn't as old nor did it need total reconstruction as yours but still....... After the repairs and refurbishing it now functions the same as a much more expensive newer camper. I believe that it will last us now until we can no longer climb in to use it. But then we're on the shorter side of life already. We were fortunate enough to have it inside for storage and work and got it done thru the summer. Our big barn isn't heated, but heat was the issue rather than cold, lots of sweaty days. LOL Good luck and happy winter project.

Wow, that's a great project. I loved following others as they completed similar restorations. I'm looking forward to following your project now.
You are lucky to have the workshop to do this, I wish I had a place to tinker with my camper but then I would need to call someone like you to help me put it back together. :B

Good luck , hope it all goes well restoring the 'Round Roof Inn" .

Bob