Ryan & Sav.. Remodeled '84 Casita

[casasita]

Hi everyone!
This is our first post so please forgive any mistakes.
I (Ryan) work for the National Park Service seasonally and along with Savannah do a fair amount of traveling.
Sav and I, both in our very early twenties, do alot of moving around.
Originally from Missouri we moved to Washington State now on our way to Maine and after that it will be the southwest. We decided we were tired of car & rental life.

Over the winter we came across a completely gutted, windowless, bare bones 1984 Casita. It came with plenty of holes in the shell, a couple unattached original parts and a little carpet on the inside and thats about it..
But we loved it!
With a completely blank slate and knowing nothing about Casitas we were free to completely construct our own unique home.
It was not easy and the plan didnt take off without several hitches.
With the help of family, especially my grandfather and this website we began constructing our new home.

In a matter of two months we have ended up with a trailer we love. The trailer is nothing like an original Casita (hope not to offend any purists out there) but it does have a few original Casita parts.. The benches and table are the original pieces and a couple small windows.. everything else came from scratch.

The exterior is still very rough with the original paint job and bondo spots. We hope to paint it at the end of the summer. The interior still has a few finishing touches to complete but for the most part it is livable and we are moved in.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and we look forward to any comments/suggestions!

Also thanks to everyone who posts on these forums as they were a great wealth of knowledge to have easliy accesible when difficult issues arose
Also we have a blog for anyone interested, it is very new as well
a wanderful perspective | A guy, a gal and an '84 Casita.

Ryan & Savannah

[Borrego Dave]

Hi Ryan and welcome to FGRV. Looks like you've got a great start on your rebuild, looks good
This is the place to get answers if you need to.

[casasita]

Thanks Dave! We have already gotten many answers from this site.
Maybe in a few years we will know enough to answer questions for others

[Borrego Dave]

You won't have to wait years Ryan to answer someone. There are many questions asked here that are not just about trailers and towing. If you have the answer or an opinion, don't be afraid to post it.

[carlkeigley]

to the Forum Ryan.

Congratulations on starting out so young.
You have my envy.

And your mod looks great.

[Nate R]

Welcome! Looks great!

My wife and I, also in our 20s, have an 81 Casita we'll be gutting for a total rebuild over next winter. Nice to see another old Casita cleaned up!

Couple questions: did you modify window openings, or find replacements that fit?
Did you have the axle replaced? Curious about specs/model if so. Any body/door sag issues? Frame was good to go, or repairs made to it?

[casasita]

Thanks carlkeigley!

Hi Nate I hope you enjoy your remodel just be aware it can be pretty tricky and lots of issues are ran into due to the curves of the trailer shell. Make sure and keep any thing you take out to use as a pattern! We made ours out of cardboard but it would be much easier if you already had the patterns..

As far as your questions go..
We were very lucky to find the smaller windows similar to same style as the old casitas and the opening only needed minor adjustments, for the big window in the back we used smoked plexiglass and a locking gasket (it took a few hours of wrestling to get it in) & i forgot to mention in my post the windows behind the benches in the dining area came with the trailer from the previous owner we only had to put them in.. i think you could use many different types of windows as long as any new holes cut or modified dont sacrifice the structural integrity of the trailer or get into any curves where they wouldnt sit flat and seal.. The axel and frame on our trailer are obviously old but seem to be in very sound condition. I dont believe this trailer ever saw many road miles but We did make sure to check and repack the wheel bearings before towing it...

Our door was very saggy and VERY out of bow.. we spent quite a bit of time trying to figure how we would ever get it to close securely and eventually we got back to our roots and devised an Ozarkian solution!

We reset the hinges after putting them on the anvil and hammering on them a bit and that got the door to sit straight. Then to put the bow back into the door that it needed to close securely. We put an eye bolt on the latch side of the door at the top corner and bottom corner. We then ran some thin cable through both bolts and connected the cable in the middle with a turn buckle. By tightening the turn buckle it pulls the cable and allows you to put as much bend in the door as you need to get it to close correctly.. it really doesnt look bad and it works great so we will just leave it that way..

Hope i have been a little help and also hope to follow your remodel on this site in the future

Feel free to ask any other questions. Its a joy to talk about it

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