The Glen Restoration.

[Richard]

Before I started to line the inside of the van I needed to work out what I was going to do for the clearance and tail lights, as the wires will be hard to put in once the inside is lined. For clearance lights I will use the original one that came off the van and I have another that matched for the other side. I will also reuse the original Lucas "king of the road" stop and tail light but will also add a pair of parking lights and a pair of blinkers to make it safe for road use.

Wire and timber mounting block for the clearance light.

Wires and mounting block for the tail lights as well as a block to screw the number plate to.

I also had to install the original window winders to the framework before lining. When I dismantled the original Glen alot of the set screws holding the winders had come undone and fallen out, so to overcome this, once they were installed and tight I then smeared the thread with glue, which should stop the nuts from undoing.
This photo also shows the "gutters" that are installed at the bottom of the windows, to catch any water that runs down the glass into the frame. The water is collected in the gutter and runs down a small copper tube to the under floor.

Part of the inside being lined.

Looking to the front with the inside lining completed and the installation of the original frame work for the furniture started.

Looking to the back.

[Richard]

Now that the internal lining is complete the next step is to line the outside with the 5.4mm Tempered Masonite, but before I do that I need to run the cables for the 12 V and 240 V power. Since the Glen frame is a complete rebuild it was an ideal time to add some insulation to the wall cavities.
The insulation I preferto use is called Polyair, it is basically 2 layers of foil with a type of bubble wrap in the middle and is about 6 mm thick. It will give the walls and ceiling an R2.0 rating and is Fire Resistant, Waterproof, extremely light weight and most importantly is safe to handle .

The insulation was cut to the size of the cavity but the sides were cut 40 mm longer so that 20 mm could be turned up each side and stapled to the frame so that the insulation will not move in the frame or sag over time.

[Richard]

To start sheeting the outside, the tempered masonite sheets had to be wet down 48 hours before use, so you need to work out how many of the sheets will be installed in 1 day and the rest of the sheets wet down for the second day.
Masonite Tecnical Information
To start I fixed the vertical front sheet first, keeping it "plumb" so that the two horizontal sheets would butt up against this. ( remembering at the very beginning I levelled the caravan floor. )

I also had to keep in mind that the outside wall sheets need to extend 6 mm past the window frames, as the sheet forms part of the runner that holds the wind up windows in.

When masonite sheets are to be butted together I put a small chamfer on the edge of the sheets so that when the 2 sheets are joined together it forms a small V groove, I also keep a 1 or 2 mm gap between the sheets to allow for expansion, especially on long sheets. This butt join is later filled with paintable mastic and covered with one of the original aluminium joint strips.

Both of the side walls of the Glen were sheeted with masonite, then the front and back was sheeted, so that the sheets lap over the side wall sheets, then the roof was sheeted so the roof sheets lap over the wall sheets as well as the front and back. Sheeting the van this way helps in keeping the van waterproof.

To start sheeting the lantern roof the 2 outside lower sheets were installed.

Then timber blocking had to be fixed in position over this sheet to carry the side curved sheet of the lantern roof.

Once this was done the Lantern roof sides can be fixed.

[Richard]

Well it has been a while since I posted some photos as I have been very busily working in the shed.

All of the cladding is now finished, the painter has undercoated the whole van and then filled the 436 countersunk screw holes holding the exterior cladding.( which Iam not too happy about as he sanded the filler and covered the inside of my shed in a thick film of dust.)

Then all of the prepared V joins in the masonite were filled with a flexible and paintable mastic, and the van was given another undercoat. In total the van will have four coats of enamel paint.

It was now up to me to waterproof the joints in the roof. This is a shot of the joint ready to waterproof. Using strips of unbleached calico and enamel paint I will paint the strips into the roof to make a waterproof seal.

Note. Stay clear of using waterbased paint as it dries too quickly and may fail later down the track.

I also used pinking shears to cut the calico, as this gives it a fancy edge and also helps to stop the edges freying.

Firstly the joint is given a liberal coat of enamel paint. When covering large areas you may need to cover about 300 to 400 mm at a time so that the paint stays wet..

The strip of calico is then positioned over the joint.

Using liberal amounts of paint, paint the calico so that it is soaked through with paint, I also use a dabing action to make sure it is throughly soaked.

Once this is done the strip can be positioned so that it is perfectly straight, and evenly over the joint. Then it needs to be left for a couple of days to dry.
All that needs to be done now is to lightly sand the calico to get rid of any fluff then it is right to paint the the 2 finishing coats.

[Richard]

Now that the frame work and cladding has been completed on the Glen, I have turned my attention to the "add on bits" to it. First of all I stripped the old masonite off the original door and was left with the frame as pictured below. I added some extra timber to the hinge side of the door to give the hinge screws extra timber to screw into. I also added a piece of timber to the lock side to strengthen it, as over the years the slamming door had fractured the stile where the lock was cut in.

The original frame clad with new masonite, with the window opening marked out ready to be cut.

The photo below is of the leading edge of the door and it shows the number of coats and the varying colours that have been put on the van over the 68 years of its life. With the colours starting with Cream in 1942, yellow, grey, dark red, red, white, pink, pale blue and finally grey.

Well here she is in all of her first coat glory !

[freeway]

It looks fantastic!!! you've done a great job

[Richard]

Hi Freeway.
Thanks for that, there is still a fairbit of work to be done but it should be ready for rego very soon.

Cheers.
Richard.

[Richard]

The next job was to fit the springs and axle, so the boilermaker came around and welded the front spring hanger to the chassis making sure that they were the same distance from the tow ball centre so that the caravan would track in a straight line.
The spring was then attached to the front hanger to work out the correct position for the rear hanger, which was then welded into position, the axle was the lifted onto the springs and the springs lifted into the rear hangers and bolted. The axle was then bolted onto the springs.

Now that the wheels were fitted and the caravan was finally back on the ground I made up some "boxes" to cover the wheels on the inside. These were simply made from Masonite and 20mm x 20mm timber, but remembering that they need to be high enough to clear the tyres including spring movement once the van is loaded.

With the van nearing the stage where it will be ready for rego, I needed to fill in the front and back curved panels. The original aluminium panels were too damaged to reuse so I ordered 2 curved aluminium panels with a 300mm radius on them. The rear panel would be easy to fit but the front panel needed to be cut neatly around the 2 steel arms of the draw bar. To measure accurately the position of the draw bar I ran a string line across the front at the most important points that I would need to measure to.

Then using the template that I made up for the sheet metal worker, I marked the top and bottom of the draw bar on this. I then transfered these marks to the aluminium panel. Then measuring from the sides I marked the top amd bottom position of the draw bar on the panel ( sounds very complicated doesnt it )

The front right hand cut out marked.

The front aluminium panel placed into position.

The finished front panel with all of the loints sealed with mastic.

Another point to remember is to keep a good photo diary of what you have done, as I found out today, I couldnt remember how I ran the wires for the 12v lighting but after a quick look back at some photos I now remember what I did.

[Richard]

I have been tinkering down the shed and I have now installed the rear tail lights and the photo below shows the original clearance light being wired up. The Glen was originally registered with only one clearance light on the drivers side, but I luckily had a spare that matched so I could install the same style lights on both sides.

The front window after being glazed and installed on 3 galvanised hinges. The original front window was a fixed window, but because the Glen does not have a roof hatch the client asked if I could make the window openable.

I have installed window stays to the front and back windows. It is very important to keep the screw positions on both the arms, the same distance from the centre of the hinge pin to make sure the stay is not misaligned.

This is how the stay tucks in between the window and wall frame. The original windows were held shut with window catches on the outside.( not real high security. ) I have now changed the catches to bolts with wingnuts on the inside.

[Richard]

Well, we have finally had a cause for celebration, the Glen has finally made it out of the shed and into the sunshine for the first time.

The Glen has had its first finish coat of Enamel Paint and I just need to fit all of the bits and pieces, and then remove them and give the van a final rub down and the final finish coat of paint.

The sills along the bottom of the windows serve a dual purpose, as the external masonite sheeting is not supported across the windows, these help stiffen it and also the external flyscreens sit on top of the sill.