Summati
THE
n Weekly USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C om mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n ta Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 17, No. 34
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Restoring History A Q+A with Tim Heintz Tell me about your business: Well the business kind of started from a hobby. I’m only 34 years old but I used to be an architect. In 2007 the economy just got a little rough and so I turned to my hobby as a career. I did that and have never really looked back. My business has grown very successfully. We’re one of the largest restoration companies in the country. We keep about a two, two and a half year waiting list for a full restoration. We have a crew of about six or seven in our shop that keep about eight trailers going at any time, plus repair. We love what we do! Do you have criteria for what you will or will not work on? We’ll pretty much do anything. We prefer to work on trailers from 1969 or older of any brand, make, and models, but our specialty is actually 1930s–1950s. What’s one of the rarest campers you’ve ever worked on? We did a little bit of work on a trailer —but the main thing we did with it was consignment selling—that was the world’s oldest airstream—a 1935. We ended up selling it to a museum in Amarillo Texas. What is one of the rarest campers/travel trailers that exist? Oh my gosh, that list is very long! I tend to be a collector of brands that most people have never heard about. This industry is kind of like the car world. You have those every-day people that the majority of the collectors are collecting like the Mustangs, the Corvettes and the cars like that. Then you have the serious collections that are into the Pierce Arrows and the Packards and the Rolls Royce—even some of the brands that people have never heard of. And in the 1940s and 50s alone there were over 5,000 different manufacturers, so there’s a lot of different brands out there that most people have never heard of. Some of the rarest trailers out there—I owned at one time a 1937
Pierce Arrow trailer. They were only built for one year. Only about 10 of those are known to exist. I had one of those. I have a 1941 Palace trailer, which is probably only one of three known to exist from that period. So there’s a lot of rare stuff out there. How many do you own personally and how many have you owned through the years? How many I’ve owned through the years is at least 30 to 40 plus. I think I have about 12 or 13 in my collection right now. How big is your operation? My collection is housed in my private barn out on my property. But here in Panama City we have about 18 to 20 vintage trailers on site right now—nine of those are inside being fully restored at this time. We work on about 10 at a time. What is the average cost of a restoration? Professional restorations are a bit pricey. There’s a lot of work in them. It can vary so greatly because we do everything here. Even down to the upholstery and the curtain work—and that fabric alone can be anywhere from .50 cents a yard to $300 dollars a yard for material with some of our clients. The average starting price is $2,000 a linear foot of trailer. That’s what a professional restoration starts at. Do you have any tips for people who are thinking of buying a vintage camper? Number one most important thing is to find out the legal status of the trailer. Every state is different. Here in Florida, you really have to have a title. Even if someone is selling it to you and says ‘I’ll give you a bill of sale. It’s easy to get a title’—it’s not in Florida. Florida has been a title state for trailers since 1925. Unfortunately with other states that are very close like Alabama and Georgia, they were not title states back then. As a matter of fact, Alabama is still
August 30, 2017
1 Section, 12 Pages
Tim Heintz of Heintz Designs Vintage Trailer Restorations has been collecting and restoring vintage campers and travel trailers for over 17 years. His Panama City shop offers high quality custom restorations for a variety of eras, but they specialize in campers made between the 1930s–1950s. Trained as an architect, Tim’s passion for restoring vintage campers as a hobby became a business in 2010. Now, he is considered one of the premier restorers in the U.S. with customers coming from all over the country and paying top dollar for his detailed, historical approach to restoration. Tim’s skills have garnered national attention with appearances on the Travel Channel, HGTV, Motorsports Magazine, Extreme RVs, and RV Nation.
not a title state with trailers. A lot of these trailers made it across the state line in Florida, whether it was fishing camps or hunting camps, or they just used them for the summer but they stayed here and were kind of just left here without any legal documentation. So there are a lot of them in this day and time that are left on properties and these people in Florida are trying to sell them and it’s not that they are doing it on purpose. They just don’t know the law. We’ve had many people who have bought a vintage trailer, put $10,000 or $15,000 dollars into it and then they go to try and get it legalized and they have nothing but a piece of yard art that they spent a lot of money on, because in Florida there is no process to get a title without a title. Florida has to have some sort of legal documentation that it’s not stolen. Now they will tell you there is a process that you have to petition the court, you have to hire a lawyer, you have to have them do the inspection. I’ve had people do that and in every case the judge has ruled that there is, without a doubt, no way to prove that it’s not stolen so they deny the process after you’ve paid all that money. Now, if you’re buying a trailer from Alabama—I’ve bought trailers from Alabama before and they’re a non-title state, but they still tag their trailers and they still get a registration kind of like we do in Florida with boat trailers. You don’t get a title with them, but you get a registration. So the key is to make sure it has a title or at least a registration. Those two are legal documentations Florida will recognize. Next tip is over all condition of the trailer. If it looks like it’s got some damage or some rot, my personal rule of thumb is that it’s going to have at least 30–40 percent more damage than what you can ever see. That’s just the nature of vintage trailers. Make sure the framing is okay. A little bit of surface rust on the framing is normal but if you’ve
got holes in the frame and you can stick your fingers through, there are some potential issues there. Originality also will help with the value. Now if you’re looking for a trailer to modify yourself, that is not as big of a concern. But if you’re looking for something to keep its value, maybe resell on down the line, originality is the best way to keep it. You can do a little modification, but over modification does tend to lower the value of trailers. If you go and paint pink flames on the side of it, there’s not as many people interested in it as if you’d kept the original paint line. Always check around where the wall meets the floor—this is where you will see some of the big signs for water damage as well as underneath windows. Also, the key with damage in vintage trailers is that a little bit of damage requires the same amount of work, and effort, and cost as almost a lot of rot. They’re not easily repairable a little at a time. You have to take them pretty far down even to repair the smallest damage. My biggest tip is don’t get discouraged. It’s all pretty easy work, it might just take a lot of time but it will be worth it in the end. If you get discouraged, just take a little bit of a break, think about it, map out a plan and then tackle it again. The rewards when you’re finished will be so worth it. If possible, it’s always good to keep your trailers under a covered structure. I do not advise putting a cover on them. These vintage trailers have sharp edges everywhere. If you can do a lean-to or a pole barn, something to keep them under cover, that will greatly increase the life of the vintage trailer. How often do you camp with your family? I camp quite a bit. As a matter of fact, I think I’ve camped every weekend in the last six weeks. What’s your favorite spot in NWFL for camping? Pretty much any state park. I re-
ally like the state park systems in Florida. I love to camp at St. Andrews State Park as well as Grayton Beach and even Blackwater. Tell me about Tin Can Tourists. I am the Southeastern representative. We are the oldest and largest camping club in the world. We were founded in 1919 outside of Tampa, Florida. It’s a great organization. We have most of our vintage trailer rallies in the South in the fall and winter and most of our rallies up North are in the spring and summer. Those are our biggest rallies. We also have smaller gettogethers and rallies throughout the state including one in DeFuniak Springs in February. Is there anything else you can tell me? Why are people so interested in buying vintage trailers vs something newer that might need less work? You know, the vintage trailers are a great investment. As far as the usability, they tend to have very well thought-out plans. I’m amazed when I take some of my vintage trailers out, people from big rigs will come inside and be like, ‘Oh my god, it seems so big and there are no slide-outs or expanding rooms or anything like that!’ It’s also a smart monetary investment because you can buy a vintage trailer, even a professional one which can be very expensive at $40,000 to $50,000 dollars and if you use it for 10 years and sell it, you are going to get almost that exact same amount of money back or even more. We’ve had several trailers come through our consignment lot that have been fully-restored and every time they have come, multiple times they have sold for the same amount or even more. If you buy a brand new trailer and use it a year then decide to sell it, you’re not going to get anywhere near that original retail value.