Vintage Avion Travel Trailer Bathroom Progress

A little bathroom vanity, sink and hamper- we have been working in the vintage Avion travel trailer on getting the details of the bathroom up and running. And so this week- sharing a little bathroom progress update.

Vintage Avion Travel Trailer

We started to tackle this redo a few months ago now- and to be honest, a few things that boggled our minds a bit then- are doing that even yet. It is mainly because when we bought the trailer- it was already stripped down and the original parts mostly taken out. Which unless you can see how/where different parts belong- it does make it a tad harder to figure out how all those things go back together to function correctly.

Bathroom Issues

Take the bathroom for example. The people who owned the trailer before us had removed everything from the bathroom and ordered a new tank for the waste. The tank sits under the toilet- we could see that by googling this year trailer and happening upon a few reference photos. A replacement tank came with the trailer but it doesn’t seem to work. The vanity won’t fit like it should- it is way high on that side now (the tank is the black area on the right of the photo. So that means it requires some retrofitting of everything else to make it work. And once you start that, well you know how that goes. haha. So we have been going back and forth on how to move forward- with or without this tank.

Here is how it looked when we brought it home-

Here is how it looked when we set it back in place below. No bueno.

The previous owner had created a curved ‘frame’ with 2×4’s since the tank has a rounded shape like it would nestle right up against the rounded wall. But there is no way to get it near the rounded part of the wall based on where the holes are for draining- so that is one reason why we think it was not the right size. We removed that wood framing as it was adding another bit higher than the tank itself -and then spent a good hour scratching our heads. Going out to look underneath (where you would empty the tank) and then staring at it again. We will be abandoning ship with this wrong size tank and going in a different direction if we cannot make sense on how to get it to work.

Vanity Details

While the tank may be giving us a bit of pause- the vanity itself is such a charmer and I am loving how it looks. We moved it up to where it would need to be to make the tank work (to see how the outlet would fit, etc. I am a sucker for original vintage details- and this one has all of them. From the old faucet to the louver doors to the speckled formica top.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a project without something needing to be fixed right?

One of the original drawers is missing and will need to be rebuilt. But the other two are in good shape and we can use them as a pattern for building the replacement.

Louvered Doors

Behind that big old louvered area is actually a clothes hamper. You lift the top of the counter up-toss your dirty clothes inside and voila.

Frame Repairs

As with most vintage travel trailers- the original bits and pieces end up with some water damage at some point. That is one reason why they had removed all the pieces- to be able to repair the floor and get rid of the damage. The base of the vanity has wood veneer peeling off- but even so, we are thankful that it was one of the things they kept since we are putting it back together rather than reinventing. So we will be removing the damage and fixing before installing permanently. Right now- we are ‘soft’ installing so to speak- we need to get some of the larger pieces in place so we know where all the pipes connect and go together and get that done. When the bathroom walls are up – it will be a tiny little spot to be trying to work and fix plumbing issues.

Birch Veneer

We are using a birch veneer to replace the pieces that need replacing. I have used this before- and found it at our local small town hardware store. It is called a ‘door skim’ and is the layer you would put over a hollow core door. We had some leftover in the basement and it was a near perfect match color wise.

Up Next

All the outlets and wiring have been updated – and as I shared last weekend- obsessed with how cute the trailer looks all lit up at night.

Once we get the bathroom plumbing back together- the walls and tub elements will be put in place and we will be working on the bed and dining areas. We also got one of the closets back inside and so we can start to see how the layout of the trailer will come together.

For now- I am kind of looking past the head scratching work and enjoying the little corner of the kitchen that is pretty.

You can read more about where we started with this vintage trailer project HERE

Happy Wednesday all.