It’s a car, it’s a camper, it’s a House Car! The story of a Colorado man who hand-built over 50 homes on wheels

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13min 18sec
The front grille of a 1966 Pontiac Catalina with a peeling Broncos sticker on the front bumper.
Sarah Bures/CPR News
This 1966 Pontiac Catalina was turned into a Great Dale House Car. May 15, 2024.

The story goes something like this: Fidelis "Dale" Wasinger wanted a camper. In the 1960s, most campers were built on truck frames, and Wasinger couldn't drive a truck. He wanted a camper that drove like a car. But when he asked a Denver autobody shop to build a car camper for him, they declined. So he took matters into his own hands.

Having worked at local junk yards, Wasinger knew how to find damaged cars that still had life left in them. He found a partially wrecked 1961 Cadillac, cut it in half and welded it to a camper. Soon, Wasinger found another wreck and did it again. Then he did it again.

The Great Dale House Car was born.

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Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
The 1965 Dodge Coronet 440 parked outside Chris Werstiuk and Lina Dennison's Littleton home. April 1, 2024.

Over the next several years, Wasinger would go on to build over 50 House Cars on the chassis of Cadillacs, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Dodges. The exact number of his creations is unclear because Colorado's Department of Motor Vehicles didn't assign a new VIN to the first cars.

Wasinger only built the vehicles for about four years; he appeared to stop fabricating the House Cars in 1966. But the ones he created were driven great distances: the campers went on trips through the Colorado mountains, to Alaska and back, and to the East Coast. One car even made it to Sweden.

The people who met Wasinger describe him as an eccentric man, who was ahead of his time. He lived to be 93 years old and died in Denver on July 5, 2010.

The campers have acquired devoted fans, with people from all over the world connecting over their shared love of the cars and the quirks of Wasinger's fabrication. CPR News visited two of those fans to see their cars and the details Wasinger left behind.

1965 Dodge Coronet 440

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Lina Dennison sits in the passenger seat below her House Car's sleeping quarters. She and her husband restored the car and gave it 1950s flair. April 1, 2024.
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Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
The breakfast nook in Chris Werstiuk and Lina Dennison's Great Dale House Car, outside their Littleton home, April 1, 2024.
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Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Chris Werstiuk and Lina Dennison's Great Dale House Car built on a 1965 Dodge Coronet 440. April 1, 2024.

1966 Pontiac Catalina

Sarah Bures/CPR News
Dale Wasinger turned this 1966 Pontiac Catalina into a House Car. Still functional, the car now lives in a barn in Elbert, Colorado. May 15, 2024.
Three men stand in front of a car with a camper build into it.
Sarah Bures/CPR News
From left: Dennis Chamberlain Sr., Dennis Chamberlain Jr., and Paul Kastner stand in front of Kastner's 1966 Pontiac Catalina Great Dale House Car in Elbert, Colorado. May 15, 2024.
Sarah Bures/CPR News
The 1966 Pontiac Catalina and its original dashboard. May 15, 2024.
Sarah Bures/CPR News
A defining feature of Great Dale House Cars. Dale Wasinger used door knobs you might find in a house. May 15, 2024.
A man holds a photograph of three camper cars in a row.
Sarah Bures/CPR News
Dennis Chamberlain Sr. holds a picture of the three Great Dale House Cars he has owned. May 15, 2024.
The front headlight of a 1966 Pontiac Catalina that was turned into a housecar
Sarah Bures/CPR News
Dale Wasinger found old Buicks, Dodges, and Cadillacs at the junkyard to turn into housecars. This particular car is a 1966 Pontiac Catalina. May 15, 2024.
Sarah Bures/CPR News
The taillight of the 1966 Pontiac Catalina Great Dale House Car. May 15, 2024.