Our Touring Past

Hi All

Those of you that have been around the vint van scene for a few years will remember me rescuing an old van from down near Blayney NSW.back around Feb 2010.
Here is a link to that story...
http://vintagecaravans.proboards.com/th ... op-caravan

Fast forward to the present day.
We are all aware of the sad passing of Geoff Tansey ( Firefighter ) earlier this year. Geoff had bought the old van off meback then , and had intentions of restoring the van back to roadworthy / useable condition.
Unfortunately time and sickness caught up with Geoff and he didnt get around to doing much with the van...
I recently contacted Geoffs wife Gaye and enquired about what the situation was now with thier vans and what Gaye intended to do ??

Without going into too much detail the vans are for sale... a very nice Roadhaven ( anyone interested could phone me and i can put you in contact with Gaye ) and the old 1928 Eugowra Camper trailer.
So... we agreed on a sale price and off i went to Victoria on Wednesday..
I stayed at Seymour that night.. Then rolled on down to S.E Melbourne on Thursday morning. Had a good yarn with Gaye while having a cuppa.
Then set about loading the van onto the back of a hire ute.. Block and tackle.. ropes ,, tiedowns.. took about an hour to secure everything and then set sail for home.
Called in at the kaybees for hlaf an hour and caught up on the gossip and whats doing in the sheds.
Col gave me a hand to put a cargo net over the top of the van.. time and weather hasnt been kind to the roof since i sold it and bits of ply roofing was starting to come away at 70 KPH.. so woulld have disintergrated at 110 KPH on the highway.

Stayed the night at Holbrook.. Will post a bit more later.. can only post 3 pix per story .. apparently
Reddo

The next bit..
Had a wander around the Holbrook caravan park and spotted this little TD on tour from Victoria...
Breakfast at the Holbrook Bakery Cafe... yep,, yep.. i know that meat pies arent the right thing for breakfast... but it was one of the nicest pies i have ever had... I done well to stay away from the rows of slices, lamingtons etc... If you are ever in the area make sure you drop in for a snack..!!

Also.. i can recommend the caravan park for anyone planning a tour etc.. has a great camp kitchen Had a reasonably uneventfull run home on Friday..... until i came across this.... Apparently old mate trucky decided to visit the land of nod and exited stage right into the median strip giggle weeds..... musta woke up and tried to bring it back onto the road.... the lost it completely.
Didnt get to talk to the emergency services to find out if he was Ok??

Hope he was.

Arrived home about 3 O'clock Friday arvo..
Unloading it this morning was pretty much a reversal of the loading procedures..

More pix and story later...
The roof is badly rotted , split and will require a total rebuild. The stabiliser legs are coming away from the tongued and grooved flooring...There is a lot of "looseness" around the van .. all which can be fixed.. with hammer, nails, screws and a big dose of enthiusiasm.
There was some debate when i brought it home last time wether to rebuild or general just stabilise things and use as is....
Given that the roof is almost certainly a rebuild, and the canvas is thin in a lot of places ( probably just patch the canvas and save as much of that as i can).. it looks like its guna be a mix of the 90% old and 10% new.

Havent climbed inside yet.. but i notice the rear step is missing ???

Cheers fa now Reddo

Well done Master Reddo Sun, safe down and safe back. Van park looks good, it is a wonder we have not been there before as we always go to the pie shop.

After unloading ..
Spent a few hours removing the canvas off the roof.
First job was to take a heap of photos and measurements before removing the 1/2 round timber moulds , the roof latches that hold the lid shut while travelling , and then finally all the small tacks that hold the canvas on

It has been patched several times over the years with black "Rip stop" gaffer tape... This stuff sorta holds the canvas from ripping any further but is not all that waterproof.. hence the moisture getting into the roof ply. When i brought the van home the first time i remember commenting that the roof felt " sorta spongey".
Turns out that the roof had been covered in felt before the black canvas was stretched over the top.. So.. Canvas and felt can be easily found. Will hold off giving the old material and my measurements to an upholsterer to make a new top until after i have the old timber off the top and a new frame built oregon or something similar.?????
The problem with using softwood in the roof frame is that it has to take a hell of a strain when pushing the roof up into the raised position.
Last time i had the roof up back in 2010 it took 3 of us to shove it up using the barge pole that came with the van..


Have used up my 3 shot photo quota of pix..
More to come later...
Reddo

Just finished removing the rotted 3 ply and felt from the roof frame..
Its getting ugly up there. The centre strip and 2 cross members as well as the front main beam seam OK.. its just the 2 side beams and the rear beam that have suffered. Partially due to rotting and also the weight that the side beams take when lifting the roof... one side up and locked into position.. then the other side.. you are also dragging the weight of the timber framed windows front and back that stand up when the roof is fully pushed up.
Unlike modern campers that canvas front and rear panels.

I still havent figured out how i am going to secure the sides and front and back when i remove all the timber work from the roof frame.. its more than likely gunna collapse like a big jelly....
Its too tall to erect in the shed so will have to set it up in the yard with a tarp over it while i rebuild the roof...

Reddo

Its still a great little early camper Reddo.
When you mentioned it a few weeks ago I could see the glint in your eye of a road trip coming up and you didnt let me down.
Speaking of Geoff and Gay, the 2018 calendar has a little tribute to him in August.

OK..
Got the roof off and measured everything.
Took off to Bunnings and bought all the timber i needed ( Meranti) and a couple of boxes of screws ( phillips head.. wont be seen when roof is covered with canvas ) .. plus a bottle of wood glue ( Tarzans Grip.. an oldie but a goodie).
Took most of the day but managed to get most of it built

The oldie.. The Newy Finished off and fitted it yesterday.. Old frame was only 2 " high at the sides X 3/4" thick..
new one is 66mm X 18mm cuase thats the standard D,A.R you get at Bunnings.

Gotta wait till the panelvan comes home so i can buy a couple of 8x4 sheets of 3mm ply to sheet the roof. Once thats done i might be game enough to raise the roof and see what other evils is in store for me.

Over and out
Reddo

Looking forwards to watching another Reddo rebuild unfold!
Good stuff Reddo
....vale GEOFF/FF

Ok..
Finished sheeting the roof with 3 ply the other day... Then gave it 2 coats of oil based primer .. and one coat of oil based top coat
Original colour was green... But i will leave the paintwork as is
Moved on to check out the wheel bearings etc...
Left wheel was loose so adjusted the T model bearing up... bit different to the Holden set up i am use to .. but end result was a repacked bearing and the wheel spins silently .. no rumbles .. so bearings must be happy !!
Here is a pix of the system used to keep the T model front end on the straight and narrow when towing with .. what i call the " Steel BBQ plate" stud conversion from T model stud pattern to 36 Ford pattern... i was concerned that the studs may have been "off centre" causing the wheel to be out of balance on the hub. so while the wheel was off i checked it.... all good. spinning true with no out of round.
Keep in mind that the old campa has never had lights or any sign of a number plate on it ( although it did have a rego label with it when i sold it to Firefighter that stated last rego 1953??).. so i doubt if it was ever subjected to speeds that would be fast enough to cause the van to start "hopping" due to wheels being out of round..
Probably just got towed through far flung paddock gates into the next property that was due to start shearing ??

Reddo

Had a bit of a fiddle with all of the brass latches and locks etc...
Nice to play with something that doesn't involved cutting, welding, grinding, nailing, clamping etc.

Also a play with tailight number plate position The light is a repo off a Harley.. bit too shiney and new ... but sorta looks right for the era.??
Could get it dechromed or etch prime and paint it the same colour as the van.

I have another NOS tail light off an army Norton.. tiny little thing with a "window " that shines on the number plate.. drab olive colour and only about 1 1/2" round...tail light only , no stop lamp ... but can, with a bit of fiddling be converted to take dual filament lamp.
Would look a lot more discreet than the flash chrome item.

Indicators wil be another issue... you can buy tiny orange lights about 15mm round in a bullet shaped chrome base... they use em on trail bikes and custom m/cycles. would hardly notice them up under the rear corners of the van...

Yep.. i know i could simply make up a removable light bar to bolt on the back.. but if permanent things can be done that don't detract from the look of the van ... i will go in that direction.

Anyway.. this is just mucking about and there is bigger challenges to tackle than just messing about with lights.

Reddo