1955 Airstream Flying Cloud As Found

I have been after this trailer for about five years. My friend Marc, who owns a '53 Ohio-Made Flying Cloud, happened upon this trailer one day while out for a drive with his family. Ironically, he had just stopped at my house earlier that same afternoon to see my '66 Caravel, Percy, and my '64 Safari, Mavis. He told me later about this Flying Cloud that he had seen. I spent the next four years driving past it any time I was in the area. I was not ready to make any offers, so I just wanted to make sure it was still there. In the fall of 2007, I decided to actively pursue the trailer. I left my cards on the owner's doorstep a couple times. They finally called. I went to see the trailer and below is what I saw.

The trailer had been sitting for the last ten years. It was used as storage during that time. Unfortunately, the family was even using it to store bales of straw. The trailer belonged to the father of the wife in the family. He passed away, leaving the trailer to the family. The wife grew up camping in this trailer and really wanted to see someone restore this trailer to its former glory. She didn't want to see it sit and rot away.

I wasn't exactly prepared to buy it at the time and they weren't exactly prepared to sell it. And that was that. Until early August of 2008 when the owner called me. She wanted me to have the trailer, but her husband wanted to sell it on ebay. She decided to give her husband and kids until the start of school for them to do something with it or she said it would be mine. Well, they didn't do anything with it and several days after school started, I got the call. "It's yours", she said. I picked it up on Sunday, 9/7/08.

Below are the pictures from the first time I saw the trailer.

I have named the trailer "Arthur" after the owner's father who purchased the trailer from its original owner.