A retired artist spent $70,000 resurrecting the 'holy grail' of vintage trailers and turning it into a retro tiny home on wheels

• A retired artist bought and restored what he dubs the "holy grail" of mobile homes.
• Dan Reiser spent roughly $70,000 bringing the 1960 Spartan Carousel back to life.

A retired artist spent the better part of a year gutting and restoring the "holy grail" of mobile homes, which is now on the market for $210,000.

The project is far from Dan Reiser's first rodeo renovating vintage trailers.

In fact, Reiser, 78, told Business Insider he's been fixing up dilapidated mobile homes since he retired from sculpting and making music 15 years ago.

"I do maybe one trailer or two a year," Reiser, who is based in Asheville, North Carolina, said. "It's somewhat a hobby and retirement business."

For over a decade, he's scoured websites like Craigslist and eBay looking for vintage trailers he can work his magic on. "As soon as I find one, if I really like it, I jump on it right away," he said.

There is one condition — the trailers must be vintage Spartans.

"They're the best vintage trailer you can get," Reiser said.

As Reiser explained, these special trailers were built by a company called Spartan, which manufactured military aircraft during World War II.

"After the war, they needed something to do, so they retooled. Because all the troops were coming back, getting married, and working on the interstate highway system in the United States, they decided to make trailers," he said.

What sets Spartan trailers apart is how the framings are built using aluminum rather than wood, meaning that it doesn't rot and that it's much more lightweight.

Toward its final years, Spartan came out with several trailer models that were bigger and better than anything else on the market, Reiser said. One of those was the 1960 Spartan Carousel, which Reiser bought in February and has now put up for sale.

Nicknamed the "Carousel" for the retro circular kitchen, the one-bedroom trailer is a whopping 10 by 50 feet, Reiser said. It comes with a cozy living room area and a funky tiled bathroom with a pink tub.

A feature Reiser is particularly fond of is the unique Sputnik-style lamp hanging from the circular skylight in the kitchen. "That's the iconic feature," he said.

Reiser did not provide the specific price he paid for the Carousel but said he usually pays between $35,000 and $50,000 for a trailer and spends an additional $70,000 fixing it up.

The renovation process took roughly five months — and the first task was completely gutting the interiors.

"It was in pretty bad condition, so we didn't feel too bad about stripping it completely out and starting it again," he said.

Reiser got rid of the walls, insulation, and wiring, essentially turning it into an "aluminum can," before rebuilding it from scratch.

"It's like a brand-new trailer," he said, adding that it's also now perfectly suited to full-time living, as he's providing a new owner with two mini-splits, a type of ductless heating and cooling unit.

The trailer also very much encapsulates the era it was built in.

Using vintage magazines and old photographs of Spartan Carousels from back in the day, Reiser was able to tap into the mid-century modern interior design aesthetic of Spartan's heyday.

"We modernized it as far as the functionality," he said, with additions like an on-demand water heater, but otherwise left it "period as far as the aesthetics."

Reiser's ability to capture 1960s interior design has struck a chord with real-estate fanatics online. Since the listing went live, a post sharing photos of the trailer was shared on Zillow Gone Wild and has received nearly 50,000 likes as of Saturday.

All of the interest just goes to show that people have a soft spot for retro aesthetics, Reiser said. "Everybody seems to be going crazy over mid-century modern now," he added.

And as much as he is proud of his work on the trailer, Reiser said he's ready to find it an owner who will appreciate the trailer for what it is.

"It's a piece of art, functional art, that they'll never make anymore," he said.