TOPIC: Giving my trailer a "retro" look.....

My 66 Superlite clone sits on a modern jet ski trailer and it is a perfect fit. BUT it just doesn't "look" right. Does anyone have some suggestions - hopefully easy and low $$ - for making it "look" better? Off the top of my head I think it would help to change the color and strip off the "Karavan" stickers. What color would you repaint if it was yours? I'm thinking a dark color since the boat is white. I've also thought about repainting the "wagon spoke" wheels. Is it possible to put hub caps on those rims? And I've thought about replacing the brake/tail lights with an older style light. I look forward to your input.

Thanks,
Peter

Boy Peter, hard to say much without a picture or two. Personally, I paint all my trailers red, white, or black, or some combination. My Power Cat trailer is red and white because the boat is. I have a utility trailer that is all black. I have trailers I have sold in all white, and I have an old Shipmate boat trailer I converted to a flat deck that is all red.

It usually is difficult to find hub caps for spoked wheels. You could always call Karavan and ask them. Is the trailer a standard 1" axle hub and 4 lug or 5 lug?

Frank

Go to your local VW dealer and get some hub cap clips used on the old beetle. They should hold any baby moon hubcaps.
If you have a "boat graveyard" nearby, go and look around for some vintage looking fenders..
A lot of vintage trailers seem to be painted yellow, and red rims seem to be popular.
Good luck

Go to your local VW dealer and get some hub cap clips used on the old beetle. They should hold any baby moon hubcaps.
If you have a "boat graveyard" nearby, go and look around for some vintage looking fenders..
A lot of vintage trailers seem to be painted yellow.
Good luck

unclbuz,go to the main forum,and on page 3,written by haynesfiberglass,is a post called "1957 sabre trailer",check it out he made made retro lights and they are really cool,i also put in that thread some retro lights ,check out that thread .john

I'm using a modern trailer, and a quickie fix was to paint the wheels. Mine were the gold anodized wheels, trendy at the time for a modern boat, but looking sad under my vintage boat.

I literally did it on the fly, taped the 'rims', to do them white, then the centers, painted red to match boat trim color. I think it takes the modern out of the wheels,,,

Of course some stylish fenders would help, too...

I love that suggestion! And that gives me an idea for a quick and easy "update": paint the wheels and fenders to match - in my case a light blue - and run a matching stripe down the sides of the trailer. And touch up the original white. Quick, easy, and inexpensive!

www.fiberglassics.com/glassic-forums/main-forum/1957-sabre-trailer

Pretty cool. Most I've done with taillights is "blue dot" them for my hot rod. Not easy to do!

Frank

I don't know about easy but it should be cheap. if the fender is a workable shape you could add a skirt to it. To me that always made the old fenders look good and much harder to change the tire. But who wants to do that anyway.

frank thanks for posting that link,john

We took a standard white rim and had a special silver paint mixed and made spinners and welded them onto the dust covers.

Here is a plain shorelander trailer that I made a mould from the side fins of my G-3 we are finishing, then I used a little dude winch stand, it will get the moon type caps with a g-3 logo, the boat is color matched to the white and then the silver will is the same as the center stripe and side fin, we put led lights and we are going to put 1/2 aluminium rub rail around the bottom edge to match the boat,I did a Heryers trailer with a metal copy of the rear fin a couple years ago, Good luck Bill

Here is the other pic, new tires tuesday, Bill

Here is the Herters on a Herters trailer but they are ugly so I revamped it the way I wanted,new axle,fenders,winch stand I dreamed up,,something different,,Bill

George Leonard Herter would have called it the Model Perfect Improved Hudson Bay Trailer.

Very nice looking Herter's Boat. They were made about a mile from where I am typing this reply. We see a few fishing models, but, very, very few runabouts.

Bill