Our Touring Past

After my recent appearance on Collectors, I have been flooded with emails from people that watched the segment. One of the people that have contacted me was Ron, he is a 92 year old gentleman that lives at Urunga just South of Coffs Harbour and he has told me that he built my Yellow Caravan back in 1958.
I was originally told that the gentleman that built it had passed on, but not so. Ron had traded the van and his in at a car yard in Coffs harbour, and I purchased the van of the car yard owners wife, who told me the history of the van.

Ron and his wife still live in Urunga but now at a different address from where the caravan was built. He owned and ran a small panel beating workshop there and Ron built the caravan over a 12 month period in 1957 with the official registration on the 28th of September 1958. Ron has described down to a T the chassis construction, stainless steel watertank and the registration date that he stamped into the van underneath.
He has told me that the sheet of ply for the roof was cut from a sheet that was 90' long and it was a sheet used for the construction of a train carrage roof. All of the plywood used was waterproof coachwood ply and the roof was waterproofed with 10 oz duck painted in with red lead paint.The van originally had an ice box but he took that out in 1960 and replaced it with a fridge that is still in it now.

Ron is going to dig out some photos so hopefully Ill have some original photos soon.

Cheers.
Richard.

How good is that.
Information on a vans history is priceless. Especially being able to identify the builder and the exact date it was built and then the date of first registration.

The power of television never ceases to amaze me.
You never know who is out there watching.

Here's hoping that old Ron can come up with some original photos.
Keep us posted.
Reddo

Speaking of the Collectors program,this Friday nights episode includes a segment involving a guy who owns "ugly" vehicles. The owners word,not mine. cheers gordon

You've gotta be happy with that news Richard, like Reddo said that sort of info is priceless - looking forward to what photo's they can uncover
Kingy

Yep, as others have said, the history of the van is pretty much priceless,and it's good to see the original builder still around and willing to tell you the vans story.

Make sure you keep us up to date.

Cheers,

Terry.

Hi.
Well I have sent a heap of photos by mail, so all I can do now is wait a few days and Ill give Ron another ring to see if he got them and to ask if he found any of his photos.
It looks as tho Linda and I will duck up to Urunga one weekend after Easter to surprise him with the van, just hope its not too much of a surprise for him.

Cheers.
Richard.

The posty left a bit of a surprise today. The Original owner of our caravan sent a photo of the van at Cresent Head in 1961.
I could not believe that he use to tow the van with his FJ Ute as well. If you have a close look at the back of the van it has a number plate but no other lights, it also ran FJ rims and hubcaps.

A Very Happy.
Richard.

Miss Daisy and the FJ ute are the November pin up for the Caravan and RV magazine 2014 calendar.

Hollywood 7 rules the rent till your name goes up in lights
Hollywood 7 you can dream your dreams for 7 bucks a night. !!!
That backdrop sure looks like one of the beaches along the Coalcliff to Thiroul strip??
I don't think its Coledale ??

Good to see another vintage van rig making its way into a magazine that is devoted to late model caravanning.
I bet when the owners of the 2014 calender flip over to November they will do some reminiscing about the good old days when they spot that photo..
Good stuff.

Reddo

Digging through my old photos I found one of Daisy when I first purchased her in Coffs Harbour in 1990. She is in all of her glory including the baby poo brown paint job.

The second photo is Daisy and the ute headed for Broken Hill around 1997.