Our Touring Past

I was contacted by Sylvia a couple of months ago, and she was letting me know that she has a Propert and the serial no is 7.289. It turns out that she was only the second owner, after she and her husband purchased the Propert in 1969 from the original owners.

Sylvia promised to send some photos, but I was very surprised to find out a couple of months later that she could not get into the shed to take photos, and at this stage she was thinking of selling her Propert, and wanted it to go to a good home .

After making a phone call to Sylvia and finding that she only lived about 45 minutes away at Camden I made a very quick trip over that day to have a look at the van. Well the rest is history ( so to speak ) as I was very impressed with the van, and it was also built the same year as me.

The photo below shows what I found after I had opened the doors to the shed that had been locked since 1983.
Propert 7.289 finally reaching the light of day after 27 years locked up in the shed. I could not believe that it had not been used for 27 years, let alone have its original and current registration.
Propert 7.289 hooked onto the ute ready for home, after I had pumped up the tyres and given the bearings and lights a once over, amazingly all were OK and working. The Propert came with a few accessories that were also loaded onto the ute.

Well I have been a bit busy over the last few nights editing a video of Propert 7.289. I have finally finished it and it is now on You Tube.

I have given the Propert a good clean out and I came across the original electrical certificate for the van, which is dated the 11th of May 1967. This helps to narrow down my list of build dates, as the certificate would have been issued when the van was first sold. So I now know that Propert 7.287 was built in either April or May of 1967.
This is a reciept from the then owned Wollongong Council caravan park at Windang, which was where the Propert was last used. The cost wasnt too bad either $18 for 4 nights.
And this is a news paper that I found in the van also dated the 28/1/83

Well if you have watched the video of 7.289 on Youtube you would all ready know that it has an annex. Actually the roof of the annex is an original Propert roof and the sides have been added at a later date.
You can see in the photo below the green washed out canvas roof, with the red edge binding. And the newer green sides that were added later.
Its funny, the roof canvas would be about 43 years old, and it had a small tear. I had Dad take it to a canvas maker to repair it, and when he saw it he said " I cant do anything with that, its too old and rotten " and proceded to show Dad that he could tear it more, only to find it wouldnt tear any further. Just goes to show how things will last when they are taken care of.
The annex has another nifty little idea, the small trangle section from the annex roof to the caravan roof is zippered, so that it can be rolled up to let the hot air out that would be trapped in the roof area.
My Dad was very impressed with the guy ropes for the annex, as they have double springs at the bottom as well as a pulley for the rope.

I have been carrying out some work on the main website up dating topics and photos etc, and I realised I didnt have any photos of the lift up roof section on Propert 7.289.

Since this little van always attracts a crowd I have added a website logo to the rear.
The photo below shows the roof section down in the normal position. Apart from the two angles running up the roof you wouldnt know it had been modified.
The roof section lifted up, giving a good 6 foot headroom right through the van.
There is also a flyscreen that fits into the back section above the door to keep the mozzies out.