Vintage polished Airstreams are some of the flashiest campers on the road. I know I practically snap my neck whenever I see an old silver bullet that’s still kicking. How do you make an old Airstream even more eye-catching? One builder found out by combining a first-generation Ford F-Series truck with an Airstream Safari, creating a unique polished aluminum motorhome that you won’t see anywhere else. And now, some lucky person will get to enjoy this masterpiece.
I’ve said this several times in the past, and it’s certainly the case here: custom RVs are some of the coolest ways to go camping. Sure, what you see on your screen might not be to your specific tastes, and that’s fine! The wonderful thing about making your own RV is that you can build exactly what you want – and you can make sure that the quality is as high as it needs to be.
In this case, this 1948 Ford F-5 has been turned into a kind of Airstream motorhome that never existed. I think the kids call this sort of deal a “one of none.” For context, Airstream itself never officially got into the motorhome business until 1974, and when it did, those Argosy coaches looked nothing like this. If the exterior looks aren’t enough to sell you on this thing, wait until you see the inside.
The Genesis Of The F-Series
The base vehicle of this custom motorhome is a 1948 Ford F-5, which makes it one of the first of Ford’s dominating F-Series line of trucks. As Mac’s Motor City Garage writes, Henry Ford II took control of Ford in late 1945, and one of his tasks was reinvigorating the brand for post-World War II America. Soldiers were returning home, and families were ready to begin spending money again.
As the publication notes, Ford II focused on trucks first because they were quicker to develop than cars and had high margins. I’ve written some about the F-Series story here:
Much of the lineage of the Ford F-Series is tied to both work and play. Ford notes that after World War II, America experienced a bit of a migration of people from rural lands into suburbia and cityscapes. Many of those Americans took their pickup trucks with them. But these trucks were entering a new sort of life of less hard work and more just daily drives.
In response, Ford began the development of a new truck that wasn’t purely for work. The result came in 1948 with the F-Series Bonus Built truck line. These trucks were still utilitarian vehicles, but now Ford focused a little more on creature comforts, including improved radios and heaters. Ford also gave the F-Series a striking style with two-tone paint. In the handful of years after, the trucks gained improved armrests, dome lights, sun visors, and lower cabs.
According to Ford, among its objectives with the first generation was to make this new truck drive a little closer to a car. After all, many of these trucks were no longer working as hard anymore.
This is reflected in Ford’s investment in these new trucks. Ford equipped these early F-Series trucks with a purpose-built frame. That sounds weird now, but back then, it was common for pickup trucks to have a passenger car-derived chassis. But it wasn’t enough to just give the new F-Series a new chassis. Ford also gave its new truck series a fresh suspension and then spent a million dollars revamping the cab.
The so-called “Million Dollar Cab” was seven inches wider than previous cabs and featured larger doors, more legroom, a taller windshield, and more headroom. Ford was so proud of this new interior that it said the cab would feel like a living room and that you’d be driving the truck with “easy chair comfort.”
This formula of catering to a broader set of customers has proven to be a winning formula, and it’s part of why the trucks of today rival cars in comfort and features.
The 1948 Ford F-5 line was a member of Ford’s heavy-duty fleet. This truck featured a gross weight limit of 14,000 pounds and a payload of 9,500 pounds. In terms of performance, Ford said that this truck could climb a 3.9 percent grade in high gear, and its top speed on flat ground was 58 mph. Buyers also got spiral bevel rear gearing, removable drum brakes, a four-speed manual transmission, and up to eight-ply tires. The strongest engine option was the Rouge 239 Truck V8, which was good for 100 HP.
The Fordstream
None of the above would be particularly impressive today. For sure, an RV that went only 58 mph would be like a rolling roadblock. Depending on how you feel about classic trucks, this truck, having been restomodded into something more capable, is a good thing.
The builder of this truck started with a Ford F-5 that was found in a worn state, then changed just about everything about it. The truck now rides on a Chevrolet P30 chassis with an Air Ride Technologies air suspension, hydro boost brakes, and hydro boost steering. Powering the beast is a 454 cubic inch Chevrolet V8 that’s bored 0.060”-over and fitted with an RV camshaft. A Holley Sniper EFI brings the fire, and Sanderson headers add music. The rear wheels are spun through a TH400 three-speed automatic sourced from Gear Vendors of El Cajon, California, and a 4.10:1 geared rear end.
That’s all great and fine, but the really impressive work happened with the body, from Bring a Trailer:
A Ford COE cab was extended and modified with rear doors, and a chopped and narrowed portion of a second cab was grafted onto the roof along with hand-formed panels rolled with an English wheel. The front fenders were also smoothed before the cab was painted blue, and custom windows were installed in addition to side steps, a Le Mans-style filler cap, and covers concealing dual 25-gallon fuel tanks.
[A 1962] Airstream Safari travel trailer provided the rear portion of the bodywork, and lower finishing panels and storage compartments were added before the aluminum exterior was polished. The seller tells us that the entire exterior has been ceramic-coated, and the vehicle measures approximately 30′ long, 8′ wide, and 12′ tall.
The seller says that the cab was built by grafting on a second first-gen F-5 cab and then creating a completely custom pair of windows.
Don’t worry, I’ll tell you about the trailer. The Safari was launched in an effort to attract younger buyers to the Airstream brand. This was done by finding methods to lower the trailer’s price to be about 20 percent cheaper than its contemporaries. Airstream also engineered the Safari to be easier to maintain for those younger buyers. The Safari was a smashing success, with nearly half of Airstream’s production going to the popular trailer.
Open the door, and the wow factor continues, from Bring a Trailer:
The forward cabin features four swiveling seats trimmed in “Tobacco Leaf” leather upholstery that extends to the door panels, and color-coordinated squareweave carpets line the front footwells. A Vintage Air climate control system has been installed, and an overhead console with a brushed aluminum bezel houses a Pioneer touchscreen head unit, a display screen for the backup camera, and controls for the air suspension and power windows.
Automatic motorized steps provide access to the living quarters, which is accented with polished copper sheet at both ends and also along the overhead light fixtures. The walls and floors are covered in woodgrain vinyl, and the laminate cabinetry features wood doors, solid countertops, and hammered copper sink basins. House equipment includes an Onan generator, a roof-mounted air conditioner, LED lighting, a 25-gallon fresh water tank, and a 35-gallon waste water holding tank.
A dinette has reversible seat cushions trimmed in brown leather and plaid cloth, while appliances include a refrigerator and microwave oven. The central lounge converts into a bed, and an accordion-style divider provides privacy for the bathroom, which houses a toilet, a sink, and a shower with a gel-coated pan.
Other notes from the build include hickory wall trim, walnut cabinetry, and solid surface countertops. The seller says that it took them a whole eight years and a whopping 10,000 hours to create what you see here.
Not For Everyone, But Still Cool
I will admit that the design is perhaps an acquired taste. Personally, if this were my rig, I would embrace the copper a bit more and go for a steampunk look. But that’s just me and my admittedly questionable tastes. One thing seems pretty sure to me, and it’s that the ‘Rairstream’ (that’s what the owner calls it) appears to be a well-done build. Honestly, the quality of work here looks better than what Airstream itself does, which is great.
According to sales data, the seller last tried letting this go in a Barrett-Jackson auction earlier this year. It failed to sell in that auction for some reason, but now it’s back for another round on the auction block on Bring a Trailer. Bidding is at $28,454 with six days to go, so who knows where it’ll end up.
Regardless of how this auction goes, I’m in love. This is the kind of motorhome that will break necks, but also wasn’t built just for pretty pictures and magazine articles. You can actually drive this thing around the country and sleep in it. Again, I recognize this thing won’t be for everyone, but it’s still pretty cool so much work put into something so far out there. The only thing I’m really disappointed by is that I haven’t driven it or taken it to a campground.
The quality of the work is meaningless when the concept is brutally ugly. Would have been so much better as a separate truck/trailer. Kind of feel sorry for the builder, they’ll never get back anywhere close to what the rig is ‘worth’, at this point they should just keep, use, and enjoy.
When Airstream did get around to making a class A, it was on the P30 chassis. I don’t recall which engine it was, but it was a 3 speed auto. It was not exactly a silver Twinkie, but did have aluminum coach work.
“Ford II?” I think you mean “Hank the Deuce.”
Just at a glance that looks like a pretty good custom job. Not a big fan of the color choice and the copper but that’s not a big deal. I love the look of the upper roof window area. Reminiscent of that article The Bishop did about making an RV in the style of the old streamliners.
The ol’ P30 is a good choice for the chassis. It’s been around forever and has shown to be pretty durable. My class A runs the Workhorse version of that same chassis and I have no complaints. Mine does have a 350+4L80E instead of the 454+TH400+GV though, so drivability is going to be different.
is it a 3 speed TH400 from Gear Vendors? or does it have a Gear Vendors OD attached to a TH400? The latter being preferrable here considering girth of the vehicle and Gas Big Block GM power.
That being said, it is very interesting, seems a little monolithic with the Cupola windows on a COE already, but I don’t hate it.
Some cool ideas here, but the overall execution suffers from poor aesthetic and mechanical choices. The underwhelming 454 and TH400 combo screams “BBC CHEBBY IZ THA KING HOSS,” and other details like the steering wheel and those atrocious wheels (and let’s not forget the cringey “Rairstream” name) are straight out of the Boomer-custom playbook.
It’s cool and all but I wouldn’t buy it simply because I’d have to answer questions about it wherever I went, forever. And I wouldn’t have good answers.
How many gallons per mile?
Gallons per mile???
Referring to the 454 and 4:10 rear. Old folks know you could watch the gas gauge drop when you accelerate just a little with that behemoth.
If you have to aske the question, you can’t afford it.
I’m confused by the R. I’d have named it Fairstream, what with the F-5 up front and all.
Pretty cool rig overall – two great tastes that taste great together… almost. I could do without that extra roof on the cab – from the side view it looks like they turned a pickup topper around, slapped it on and called it a day.
The interior is pretty wild. “Tobacco leaf” is nice and all, but with that much mirror-finish ceiling area some “Bordello red” would have also been appropriate.
I amost had the same thought, ’till I saw the front.
A big block with a 3spd hauling that around? You had best have your own oil well, even with EFI. Shoulda had a Cummins, pre-emissions, of course. Or better yet, for period sounds if not much better economy than the V8, a Screamin’ Jimmy. A 6v71 Detroit would slot in there nicely, I bet.
For sure the auction result is going to be a small fraction of the build cost. A bargain for someone who wants something like this.
Yeah, a 454 3 speed combo seems underpowered in this application. It says the TH400 came from Gear Vendors – one of their O/D units installed would help with cruising.
That’s a hell of a lot of driveshaft for 4.10 gears. I’m guessing its critical speed is somewhere around 40 mph.
probably at least 2 carrier bearings and 3 shafts. pretty normal for the box truck type frame they built it on.
Power would not really be the issue. Efficiency would be is what you mean. The OD would help on flat stretches, but not that much.
Downright psychedelic. If a giant bag of money dropped out of the sky just ahead of a giant pole barn, with all of that falling onto land that somehow has my name on the title, I’d buy this immediately.
Remove the back of the truck and it’ll look much better
I was thinking the extra cab should go, the whole camper moves forward and the rear wheels go as close to the rear as possible, but that would affect the airstream shell and so on more than necessary.
If it has a reserve price, my bet is that it doesn’t reach it or sell. This is a classic case of “another person’s project,” where the money and time invested will never be recouped on the open market.
Plus, this appears to sleep, at most, two; one on the dinette and one on the settee, and neither comfortably. This is more of a football tailgating and/or cars-and-coffee conversation vehicle than a useful RV.
My observation as well. Not even good for a couple, unless you have relations on the one bed and then go sleep on your separate one. That’s a huge amount of space for not a huge amount of function.
I think this is pretty cool…but I think will have trouble getting to a price that makes financial sense to the seller. The market for this is going to be thin without much overlap between those that want vs those that can afford. I think moving the powertrain a bit upscale to a diesel would help, but I don’t think seller is going to come close to being made whole on this.
It looks like two love bugs in flight. I’m sorry I don’t appreciate it more.
Not necessarily to my tastes, but also not so far outside my tastes to hate it. And the craftsmanship looks fantastic, I must admit.
As somebody else said below, as much as I admire and respect the build, I too will absolutely question the choice of powertrain, especially given how little of the overall budget could have been spent on something a little more modern and efficient. Even a 6.2 LS and 4L80E would have been a better choice. Weird place to cheap out.
Lost me at 454 and 3-speed automatic, but the interior looks cool
I wouldn’t want to own it personally, but I love the weirdness of it. And, like every good Ford restoration should be – it’s built on a GM/Chevrolet foundation 😉
This just doesn’t seem cohesive, like at all.
And the copper plating on the inside is an odd choice, generally want non-reflective surfaces in sleeping quarters or any morning light that creeps into, say the front windshield which I don’t see anything blocking, gonna light up the whole inside with the light of a 1,000 suns, or will at least seem like that at 6am on a Sunday morning after staying up late Saturday at the campfire.
I feel like a cabover like a Jeep FC would’ve been better, and maybe instead of deep blue go with a monochrome like black or something.
Yeah, I would have gone with a different color for the cab. Maybe not black because I like a little color, but not that blue.
Or maybe tie in the blue in the airstream like around the door and window trims, just a really sharp break between the two.
Oh, that’s smart!
The copper is my only real complaint here. All I could think about is glare, glare and more glare!
There was an airstream motor home in the classifieds that claimed to have been built in the 60s.
Looked very buslike, and appeared to have a hand built can, all in aluminum.
As someone who has seen a obscene amount of dissimilar metal corrosion I’m pretty apprehensive with attaching a bare aluminum airstream to a steel bodied truck.
There are coatings you can use or a rubberized isolation tape.
It’s also probably not directly mounted to the frame.
It may be directly attached to the body, never claimed it was directly mounted to the frame.
That interior makes this a mobile house of mirrors.