Pete’s 1964 Shasta trailer — an Astroflyte — a gorgeous restoration
pam kueber - Updated: August 31, 2021
Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.
Since pretty much Day #1 of this blog, readers have been hocking me to write about restoring vintage travel trailers. Just like remodeling a midcentury house, right? Except all the rooms — kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom — are all crammed into one small space, on wheels, and you get to go on vacation in it..
So here I am, finally, with a story — and it’s a fabulous one: Reader Pete shows us his 1964 Shasta Astroflyte travel trailer, which he gut-renovated inside and out. Wow, you must admit this baby has the va va voom goin’ on! Click on through to read Pete’s story…and to get to links of more photos chronicling the entire restoration process.
. Pete writes:
Hi Pam, .
About five years ago we (wife Cindy, daughter Charlotte and Lane) were in the North Georgia mountains near Clayton, Ga., and I saw this strange looking trailer parked in the Walmart parking lot. It had large silver wings on the back, and I thought it looked awesome. Being a fan of late 50’s early 60’s cars with fins (I have a 1961 Comet) I did a u-turn in the street and pulled into the Walmart to take a look. It was an early 60’s Shasta Airflyte. After marveling over it, my wife and I decided that one day we would get one of these..
After doing months of research on all types of vintage trailers, we decided that we had to have a Shasta with wings, so we found one on Craigslist in Virginia. It was not an Airflyte but a 1964 Astroflyte, which is just like the Airflyte but it has a cabover to sleep two more people, which we needed with our family of four. Living in Atlanta I didn’t go up to Virginia to look at it (mistake), but had it shipped down. I knew that it would be a restoration and would be in rough shape, but when the courior pulled up to the house and we walked in the trailer, we were horrified. It was totally trashed. Dead mice on the floor, infested with ants, and the biting stink bugs were all over the place. It stunk like nothing else and rotted wood was everywhere..
Renovation in progress. Look familiar to RR readers?
I thought, “I just spent $1,200 on this.” We talked about selling it, but I decided to give a restoration a try. I’m a mechanic at Delta Air Lines and like working of things, but I’ve never restored anything of this magnitude. I worked on the weekend shift, so I had four days off during to week to work on it. A year and a half and $6,000 later it was all finished as of June of this year..
We have camped in the North Georgia state parks about six times and LOVE the trailer. It really gets a lot of attention, and it is great, inexpensive activity to bring the family together. On Wednesday we take our longest trip yet to Disney World Fort Wilderness and are really looking forward to it.
The Shasta Astroflyte all set up at Disney World Fort Wilderness. Don’t try to tell me you don’t Wish You Were Here!
[Update: Photo live from Disney World, provided Friday, above. – Pam]
Restoring this trailer is the best decision we have made. It’s not perfect and I make plenty of mistakes but we enjoy it. I received a lot of help from the internet, especially Repairing Yesterday Travel Trailers.
What an amazing job, Pete — thank you. And I have to say, this is yet another example of: Disasters make for better stories. I love, also, how you talk about how the trailer brings the family together. It’s those trips in the vintage trailer that the girls will remember — not more toys..
How many readers have a dream to buy and restore a vintage travel trailer? (Me!) Or do you have one already?
For the ladies, there is a group of women all over the country who have vintage trailers and camp in them called Sisters on the Fly. Their website, http://www.sistersonthefly.com usually has trailers for sale, some restored, some needing restoration, but I was having trouble getting pages to load today.
I have a friend who was a member for a while until she sold her trailer.
She said they are a hoot, and can give you lots of help finding recourses for materials. But it is just for women. No Boys Allowed.
Cindy Loo Whosays
I don’t mean to sound like a know it all, but the sisters on the fly site WILL take male members. My husband is on there. He is new at restoring trailers having only started about a year ago. He has learned a lot from his facebook friends at sisters on the fly and others he has joined. They all LOVE to give and get advice on any restorations. Thay are a family who love restoring these trailers.
Lynn-O-Maticsays
Wow, Pete, that is just absolutely spectacular inside and out! Congratulations! I’m sure the whole family will enjoy it for many years.
If I had a different husband I’d LOVE to undertake a restoration like this. But my realistic fantasy is to find a small vintage slide-in camper to put on my dad’s pickup. An old boyfriend of mine had a 1959 Ford pickup and we put an old camper on it and traveled all over the west and Baja, Mexico. Fabulous way to go. Our kids will have SO much fun with the camper, and my city-boy hubby might feel slightly less vulnerable to man-eating bears and such. Ha ha! But it won’t be as gorgeous as your trailer, Pete!
Pete Whitleysays
Thanks Lynn!
Shelly in PHXsays
Sitting here in my 1958 Universal Terra-Cruiser trailer reading this story. Ours is a 40′ park model, with its original asbestos tile floors, pink sinks (kitchen and bath), pink tub, pink toilet, AND a pink gas stove! Our friends all love it so much that we are going to get a vintage canned ham trailer to go along with “The Love Shack” as a guest cottage.
Nancysays
What a wonderful job! We had an older version of a turquoise Shasta growing up. It brings back great memories. Thanks for sharing.
Pete this is absolutely fabulous! I adore it as I am sure you guys now do!!!
Carolinesays
We are picking-up our restored 1958 DeVille Lounge Model trailer next weekend! It was stripped down to the base & completely back up by a professional restorer, as we lack the skills & time to do it anytime in the next 10 years ourselves. The restorer worked with my direction for how to outfit it, decorate it, etc. The color scheme overall is 50’s Aqua, Pink, Yellow.
Picking out exterior paint colors was very fun, at http://www.tcpglobal.com/autocolorlibrary , where they have the actual old paint chip cards to check out & can match any of those colors. We picked out the ’56 Studebaker Seaside Green as our dominant exterior color, as well as the ’57 Oldsmobile Sunset Glow & ’61 Rambler Waikiki Gold as accent colors.
Doing all of the interior was a blast, too, finding exactly what I was looking for. Though, challenging, too, as I would often find that what I wanted had be discontinued – like the pink & white awning fabric I wanted (ended-up going with Turquoise & white) and the pink vinyl I wanted for the booth (found another pink that was close, but not exact). Picking out the flooring was tough, as I had a hard time finding the exact shade that I wanted, too. & we had the sink re-porcelained in a nice yellow. One of my favorite parts is that I was able to find enough of the 80’s reissue of the pink boomerang Formica to do the countertop, tabletop, etc. from a vintage dealer/friend in Toronto.
The restorer has been awesome in sending pictures along the way, I can’t wait to see it all “live” next Saturday & take it home! Yippee!!!
Ah-mazing! I love seeing how it went from creepy crawly to pristine vintage gorgeous. Does it easily sleep four people?
Pete Whitleysays
Yes, it does sleep four comfortably Eartha. The rear and cab over can sleep four adults with ease. That’s why we chose the Astroflyte over the Airflyte, the cab over. If you want to fold down the table and put an air mattress there it will sleep five comfortably.
donnasays
This is GORGEOUS! Love the turquoise, the warm wood, everything about it!
Laurynsays
Oh. My. Goodness. Pete, that is GORGEOUS … you have done an amazing job. My husband and I are musicians and always fantasize about having an R.V. (vintage, of course) so we can just skip all the hotels, bad road food, and late night drives that come along with the shows. We found one from the 70s that was all original and in impeccable shape but way out of our budget. You have given me hope and inspiration that one day we can ride in that kind of style. Beautiful, beautiful job.
Since pretty much Day #1 of this blog, readers have been hocking me to write about restoring vintage travel trailers. Just like remodeling a midcentury house, right? Except all the rooms — kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom — are all crammed into one small space, on wheels, and you get to go on vacation in it.. 
So here I am, finally, with a story — and it’s a fabulous one: Reader Pete shows us his 1964 Shasta Astroflyte travel trailer, which he gut-renovated inside and out. Wow, you must admit this baby has the va va voom goin’ on! Click on through to read Pete’s story…and to get to links of more photos chronicling the entire restoration process.
Pete writes:After doing months of research on all types of vintage trailers, we decided that we had to have a Shasta with wings, so we found one on Craigslist in Virginia. It was not an Airflyte but a 1964 Astroflyte, which is just like the Airflyte but it has a cabover to sleep two more people, which we needed with our family of four. Living in Atlanta I didn’t go up to Virginia to look at it (mistake), but had it shipped down. I knew that it would be a restoration and would be in rough shape, but when the courior pulled up to the house and we walked in the trailer, we were horrified. It was totally trashed. Dead mice on the floor, infested with ants, and the biting stink bugs were all over the place. It stunk like nothing else and rotted wood was everywhere..
We have camped in the North Georgia state parks about six times and LOVE the trailer. It really gets a lot of attention, and it is great, inexpensive activity to bring the family together. On Wednesday we take our longest trip yet to Disney World Fort Wilderness and are really looking forward to it.
Restoring this trailer is the best decision we have made. It’s not perfect and I make plenty of mistakes but we enjoy it. I received a lot of help from the internet, especially Repairing Yesterday Travel Trailers.
Carole says
Absolutely fabulous! What a gem. 🙂
Ann-Marie Meyers says
For the ladies, there is a group of women all over the country who have vintage trailers and camp in them called Sisters on the Fly. Their website, http://www.sistersonthefly.com usually has trailers for sale, some restored, some needing restoration, but I was having trouble getting pages to load today.
I have a friend who was a member for a while until she sold her trailer.
She said they are a hoot, and can give you lots of help finding recourses for materials. But it is just for women. No Boys Allowed.
Cindy Loo Who says
I don’t mean to sound like a know it all, but the sisters on the fly site WILL take male members. My husband is on there. He is new at restoring trailers having only started about a year ago. He has learned a lot from his facebook friends at sisters on the fly and others he has joined. They all LOVE to give and get advice on any restorations. Thay are a family who love restoring these trailers.
Lynn-O-Matic says
Wow, Pete, that is just absolutely spectacular inside and out! Congratulations! I’m sure the whole family will enjoy it for many years.
If I had a different husband I’d LOVE to undertake a restoration like this. But my realistic fantasy is to find a small vintage slide-in camper to put on my dad’s pickup. An old boyfriend of mine had a 1959 Ford pickup and we put an old camper on it and traveled all over the west and Baja, Mexico. Fabulous way to go. Our kids will have SO much fun with the camper, and my city-boy hubby might feel slightly less vulnerable to man-eating bears and such. Ha ha! But it won’t be as gorgeous as your trailer, Pete!
Pete Whitley says
Thanks Lynn!
Shelly in PHX says
Sitting here in my 1958 Universal Terra-Cruiser trailer reading this story. Ours is a 40′ park model, with its original asbestos tile floors, pink sinks (kitchen and bath), pink tub, pink toilet, AND a pink gas stove! Our friends all love it so much that we are going to get a vintage canned ham trailer to go along with “The Love Shack” as a guest cottage.
Nancy says
What a wonderful job! We had an older version of a turquoise Shasta growing up. It brings back great memories. Thanks for sharing.
Dawn says
Pete this is absolutely fabulous! I adore it as I am sure you guys now do!!!
Caroline says
We are picking-up our restored 1958 DeVille Lounge Model trailer next weekend! It was stripped down to the base & completely back up by a professional restorer, as we lack the skills & time to do it anytime in the next 10 years ourselves. The restorer worked with my direction for how to outfit it, decorate it, etc. The color scheme overall is 50’s Aqua, Pink, Yellow.
Picking out exterior paint colors was very fun, at http://www.tcpglobal.com/autocolorlibrary , where they have the actual old paint chip cards to check out & can match any of those colors. We picked out the ’56 Studebaker Seaside Green as our dominant exterior color, as well as the ’57 Oldsmobile Sunset Glow & ’61 Rambler Waikiki Gold as accent colors.
Doing all of the interior was a blast, too, finding exactly what I was looking for. Though, challenging, too, as I would often find that what I wanted had be discontinued – like the pink & white awning fabric I wanted (ended-up going with Turquoise & white) and the pink vinyl I wanted for the booth (found another pink that was close, but not exact). Picking out the flooring was tough, as I had a hard time finding the exact shade that I wanted, too. & we had the sink re-porcelained in a nice yellow. One of my favorite parts is that I was able to find enough of the 80’s reissue of the pink boomerang Formica to do the countertop, tabletop, etc. from a vintage dealer/friend in Toronto.
The restorer has been awesome in sending pictures along the way, I can’t wait to see it all “live” next Saturday & take it home! Yippee!!!
Sylvia Davids says
Thanks Caroline for all the positive comments on me (the pro restorer)…
It was such a pleasure building you the trailer.
Larry, Starlite Classic Campground
Eartha Kitsch says
Ah-mazing! I love seeing how it went from creepy crawly to pristine vintage gorgeous. Does it easily sleep four people?
Pete Whitley says
Yes, it does sleep four comfortably Eartha. The rear and cab over can sleep four adults with ease. That’s why we chose the Astroflyte over the Airflyte, the cab over. If you want to fold down the table and put an air mattress there it will sleep five comfortably.
donna says
This is GORGEOUS! Love the turquoise, the warm wood, everything about it!
Lauryn says
Oh. My. Goodness. Pete, that is GORGEOUS … you have done an amazing job. My husband and I are musicians and always fantasize about having an R.V. (vintage, of course) so we can just skip all the hotels, bad road food, and late night drives that come along with the shows. We found one from the 70s that was all original and in impeccable shape but way out of our budget. You have given me hope and inspiration that one day we can ride in that kind of style. Beautiful, beautiful job.
pete Whitley says
Thanks Lauryn!