The Family Handyman

CAMPER REHAB BETTER THAN NEW!

MODERN MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY MAKE IT SMARTER THAN THE ORIGINAL

- BY GARY WENTZ

Meet our camper: a 1972 Avion Voyageur. The Avion company produced campers for about 40 years, beginning in 1955. Like many other businesses, it was a child of the WWII industrial boom. It adapted materials and expertise from aircraft manufactur­ing to build campers. And not just any campers, but sleek, luxurious beauties. One vintage camper expert calls them “the best travel trailers ever made.” In 1972 our Voyageur sold for about $8,000. In today’s dollars, that’s almost $50,000. Our first plan was pure restoratio­n, making the camper look factory-new. But as we got deeper into the details, that plan seemed less and less realistic. That’s partly because finding exact replacemen­t parts could have turned into a yearlong quest; a tiny camper sink in avocado green isn’t easy to find. We also realized we could make our camper better than the original, with less expense and effort. With today’s superior building materials and technology, we could make our camper more comfortabl­e, convenient and durable inside. This make-itbetter approach turned out to be a smart choice.

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