Monday, January 23, 2012

The Holiday House Model “X” Geographic

I’ve always loved airstreams.  Who doesn’t?  But THIS.  Now THIS is a truly unique and incredible trailer.

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Evidently there were only 5 ever made, and this is the only one still in existence.  In 1960, it had a sticker price of $8,495.  This was a time when you could purchase a decent house for $13,000.  America just wasn’t ready for luxury mobile living, so after a couple of years of trying to make a sale, the showroom closed in 1962, and this trailer was purchased for $5,000 by the showroom manager.  In 1995 she passed away, and her sister sold the trailer for a couple hundred dollars.

In 1999 a Los Angeles architect named Bardy Azadmard saw the trailer along side the road with “for sale” painted in the window.  The trailer was so rat infested that you couldn’t breathe inside and all the wiring and plumbing had been chewed to bits.  However, after nearly a decade of work and careful attention to detail, he brought the project back to life in all its original glory (from the teak cabinets to the original appliances).

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The restoration cost around $20,000, and the trailer has since been sold (Sept. 2011) to a buyer in France and shipped over seas. The selling price?  Undisclosed, but Azadmard says it went for as much as you’d currently pay for a house!

The whole story, including the history of its design and production, scans from the original appliances, some scans from the original advertising campaign, available floor plans and options, information about the restoration project, information from the assembly line, etc. is available at this website: http://1960prototype.com.  The site is nothing flashy, so you may think you’re in the wrong place at first, but the information and photos are all there.

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8 comments:

  1. My boyfriend Wayne Butters did all the restoration on this Geographic, also known as the Model X when he was part owner at Iowa Boys LLC, in charge of all restorations. The Geographic is definitely a beauty and one of a kind in design. Wayne Butters had the magic restoration touch along with many late nights and sweat drenching days spent to ensure that this unique travel trailer was restored exactly to its condition the day it hit the showroom floor. He has since moved to Acton, California (near Palmdale) and opened his own restoration company called Trailerfixer and continues to perform his restoration magic on Trailers of every kind you could imagine. If you enjoyed this geographic restoration then you would definitely like some of his more recent projects. For instance, he restored a completely gutted 1937 Covered Wagon (travel trailer)and when he was done, every inch of that Covered Wagon was identical to the original design interior, exterior and everything. You can check out some pics of the Covered Wagon and more recent restorations if you want on https://www.facebook.com/Trailerfixer or at trailerfixer.com. There are even pictures of the restoration of this Geographic on one of those sites too. Just thought I'd let you all know about the man behind this awesome work on this awesome, one of a kind Travel trailer...
    Robyn P.

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  2. Thanks for your comment, Robyn. Wayne did REALLY nice work on this, and as I see from the link, his other restorations. Perhaps I'll do a post on Trailerfixer in the future!

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  3. This was designed by Charles W. Pelly a race car designer who later opened a design firm called DesignWorks. In the late 80's his firm was purchased by BMW, Chuck is no longer there but still on the board, it now houses over 300 BMW designers.

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  4. Cool. Thanks for the extra info, Dan!

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  5. My dad has a geographic sitting in his drive way full of car parts

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    1. If that is the case... please conact me. Mark_lucas5689@comcast.net.

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    2. oops... make that mark_lucas56089@comcast.net. typo!!

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  6. I am looking for one please help

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