'67 Aristocrat - a build thread

[souske]

Two summers ago, I moved up to WA to build a house. Loaded everthing I would need in the Jeep and headed north.

Located this gem in Wenatchee, Wa and drug it to its home for the summer, Tonasket WA

Here it is setup in camp:

It came with some "mods" from the previous owner:

Wooden bumpstops:

And a suicide cord on the AC:

Job ended, and I headed home for winter. Barely made it over the Snoqualmie pass before chains were required.

Finally added a trailer brake controller to the Jeep in Pacifica Ca, before heading home down highway 1.

Got it home, and the neighbors didnt think it was quite so neat, something about property values. So it went to stay at a friends house in the high desert, about 45 mins from the best wheeling on earth:

build to follow

 

[souske]

Made a scale model:

And replaced the leaf springs, along with new trailer tires, there were passenger car tires on it from 99. Then I started to repair the damage from the PO on the front end. After a few too many nights driving around looking for camp in the dark, the front of the box would lift 6" off the frame when going through woops. Here is what it looked like after the stone guard was removed:

You can also see in this pic how much higher it sits with the new springs. The two that were in there werent even the same. Onne with 6 skinny leafs, vs one with 5 fat leaves, no wonder it leaned and swayed the whole trip home!

Repaired the wiring while was in there, as the gyration of the box had smashed all the wiring between it and the frame. Stained the front bulkhead/shear panel replacement while it was out, along with the dinette.

Originally i was thinking a lighter cherry, but this one was named "gunstock" so I went with it. Probably going to do a two-tone interior.

 

[jakeWI]

nice. my girlfriend and I have been looking for a small shasta to purchase. Want to keep the weight down.

What length is it? How heavy is it (roughly)?

 

[Lowrange2]

A small dead pony?

 

[souske]

no, a small s h a s t a.

The box is 13', 15' overall

 

[souske]

After doing a bit more research online it looks to be a 59-63 land commander, weight is listed at 1800-2000 lbs.

 

[jakeWI]

A small dead pony?

no, a small s h a s t a.

The box is 13', 15' overall

no, I did mean pony...

haha wow.

Yeah the shasta I have been looking for should be around the 1000-1400 range. But looks like you def. have a good start!

 

[souske]

Thanks! I would be ok with something a bit smaller, as I don't need to seat 4 people for dinner. Considering ripping out one bench and adding a bathroom/ shower.

 

[souske]

Took the GF to help pick out the main (lighter) color, as color co-ordination is not really my thing. This is what we came up with.

 

[GSequoia]

Made a scale model:

Looks like that is about as weather tight as the 1:1 version.

 

[souske]

My first attempt at polished urethane, happy with the results vs. amount of time spent

 

[bigalpha]

Nice; we started a camper resto but ended up selling it.