OK, I’ll confess today …. I bought another Airstream last Saturday.

It’s a fixer-upper, over fifty years old. It’s going to be the next Airstream Life magazine project trailer. We are tenatively calling it “Project Vintage Lightning” (in homage to “our first project”).

The trailer is a 1952 Airstream Cruiser, 25 feet long. Richard Tedesco in North Carolina found it for us. It has some very cool 50s features, including the “sunburst” 13-panel front and rear domes, and a Zolatone painted interior. Of course, we’re going to do a total makeover on it, so when it is done it will be a beautiful showpiece, polished and outfitted with all kinds of cool goodies.

For you Airstream fanatics (like me): this is the only example we know of a 1950s Cruiser with two axles! It’s a California trailer, and we are working on discovering its history right now. I’ll report on that later. My only clue to its history at this point is a 1962 California title.

By the way, now you know why I was checking out that 1953 Airstream Cruiser we were parked next to back on December 3 in Santa Cruz … (The owner of that one wouldn’t sell.)

I’m very excited about this trailer. Not only does it have terrific potential, we have partnered with Colin Hyde for a professional refurbishing. Colin worked on my 1968 Caravel, and is currently working on Rob Baker’s “1958 Sovereign of the Road”, and will soon start on Steve Hingtgen’s “1956 Caravanner”. So we expect great things.

We hope to have it ready for the 2006 International Rally in Salem OR (late June). We’ll tour it around a bit in the summer and fall, and then it will be sold to some lucky person. Should be a sweet ride!