Our Touring Past

Recently a chance came up on eBay to purchase an older, apparently homebuilt bondwood caravan, about 16 foot long, unknown age, but described as 1940-50ish, located in Victoria. That in itself was a problem as there was no way I could get to look at it, but I studied the photos, rang the seller and asked lots of questions trying to satisfy myself everything was as it seemed. I was put onto other vintage caravan owners who lived in the same town and were prepared to have a look at it for me so after they advised it was good and sound, and as good as it looked I went for the ‘buy it now’ button and became a bondwood owner.

An agonising wait of another month ensued before I could get down there to pick it up, and the seller was fine with that before I bought it. I had intended to pick it up with the Velox, but the longer it went the more I thought that might be unwise as the weight was unknown, but it was known that it had nothing in the brake department other than a handbrake. My son in law had offered his 4 x 4 Toyota 3 litre diesel ute if I ever needed it to tow a van so I put him to the test and booked it up for early in August.

With an assortment of tools, big bits of wood, little bits of wood, screws, cable ties, jacks, 2 x 16” spare wheels, yards of rope and what seemed to be a host of odds and sods we set off for Whittlesea, Victoria. We stayed with the Good Samaritan assessors in Whittlesea, Ian and Robyn, and I hoped I’d be able to get a look at the van on the afternoon we arrived. That wasn’t to be as the seller was otherwise occupied with his business, but he would tow it to his workshop in the morning for 9.30.

At 8.30am the phone rang and the van was on site, but of course we weren’t ready and it was still 9.30 before we finally saw it in the flesh. I must say I was pleased with what I saw and Barbara even more so, she couldn’t see the need for a second van with the perfectly good Olympic showing us good times.

I paid up the balance of the deal and set about checking a few things out, tyres were good and solid despite their age (unknown) a quick jack up and the wheel bearings were fine, I secured a bit of low hanging wire underneath, checked the windows and hatches all stayed shut and then set about applying some Earls Wood Hardener to the front where some paint had flaked off and exposed some ply. Plugged in the electrics and brakes, blinker and parkers were all fine so it was just a matter of getting an unregistered vehicle permit and we were done. The van was staying put in the workshop for a couple more days while I went to see my son and some friends in Melbourne which was great, I didn’t have to leave it in the open.

The hardest part was getting the UVP from Vic. Roads, not because they make you jump through hoops, just the opposite, you can even get it on line, but because their offices are few and far between, and no one I subsequently asked could tell me where there was one. Sorted in due course and back to pick it up on the Friday morning, 5 degrees in Melbourne and pouring rain as we headed back to Whittlesea. Fortunately the rain eased off to the lightest possible mist when we picked it up and headed back to the Hume Highway.

Absolutely no traffic on the connecting roads and the Hume was quiet as we set off for Benalla to get it weighed, to satisfy my curiosity. It seemed easy to manoeuvre in the workshop, despite the small metal dolly wheel and I was hoping it might fit the old formula quoted for vans, 1ft = 1cwt, but that was soon dashed when it weighed in at 1.3tonne with 100kg on the tow ball. I wasn’t really surprised as nothing about it looks lightweight. It towed well and easily behind the Toyota and after checking the tyres a couple of times we completed the trip on cruise control travelling between 100 and 110kph with absolutely no sign of misbehaviour. I’m spoilt now for a tow vehicle now though and I’m wondering if I can graft a Velox body onto a Toyota ute. Now the detective work begins to find out something about it. The vital statistics are; 15 foot 4 inches long (4.7m) and 6 foot eight inches wide (2.3m), all lighting is 12 volt only and there is only 2 x 240 power points fitted. It has a built in ice chest and a 12 volt valve radio. It is plywood with a timber frame with Masonite used on the curved ends beneath the windows, and an aluminium stone guard over the Masonite at the front. I don’t know what the roof material is as yet but it is the only part that needs any real work as the thick paint which is on is it is cracked and coming off in places. The fabric underneath and the roof seems intact though. It has a drop axle with what appears to be Chevrolet 16 inch, 6 stud wheels. It has only spent the past 12 months or so in a shed in Whittlesea and the seller could only tell me that his father found it at Mathoura in N.S.W., a tiny blip on the Cobb Highway between Echuca and Deniliquin where it was still in the ownership of the original builder’s family. Thought to have been last used about 1969-70 it is certainly a nice solid van which will require minimal work to get it where I want it. There are lots of interesting features which I will document as time goes by, and whatever its age I’m more than happy with it.

George

Hi George.
Glad you got the new van home safe and sound.
We will be looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, but till then we will just have to check out the photos.
Cheers.
Richard.

A few more photos then. While it was on eBay I found it difficult to work our just where some of the photos were, especially the radio. It is positioned in the end of the wardrobe unit on the right, at the very top as you step in the door. As you step in, facing you is the kitchen sink with the stove to the right and the ice chest directly in front under the sink. Above the kitchen area are some cupboards with an open storage area at each end, maybe for glasses, condiment bottles? The cupboard directly above the sink is for storage of plates, cups and saucers with built in racks to hold each size plate, and special holders for cups, 6 of each is provided for. The cup holders are on the doors. In the first photo above there is what appears to be a door under the cupboard, and this too is for plates. The cupboard is only half depth in fact. When unlatched you pull down what is a vertical draw with a couple of spring loaded fittings on the side, I think I've seen them on old sash style windows. The scalloped piece on the vertical side of this unit arrowed, and the left door had me wondering, but it turns out the plates are such a neat fit it needs the cut out to get the last one in fully. Above the stove the double cupboards are lined with stainless steel and has just a grate in the bottom. I guess you can store a few saucepans or warm plates when cooking. In the top left hand corner of it is an opening with a small hatted chimney. More to follow. Nothing has tuned up yet to let me date it positively, but I'll keep looking.

George

The bed, which converts to a sort of seat, is at the rear and is a simple slide out affair, the base of which is supported on the ends of the cupboards each side when extended. There is no back support as such, just the rear curved wall of the van. The existing mattress, which may not be original, just seems to push back and give you some support against the back of the van. Maybe someone can explain it to me it I've got it wrong. The mattress weighs a ton and I dragged it out and had a look at it, undid the zipper and found it is filled with what I think is kapok. I remember mum and dad talking about kapok mattresses, but I don't remember having one, it is almost solid it is so tightly packed. The mattress has been crudely sewn threw with a stout cord at regular intervals for some reason. I don't know where the mattress is headed yet, 'she' is not too enthused by it. The matching cushions are tightly packed with broken foam rubber, and again I'm amazed at how much is stuffed in them, I'm sure if I let it out I'll never get it back in. There is three storage cupboards across the back roof, an access door on the seat/bed riser to the tent pole storage area and to the right a little dressing table area, more storage area above and a set of four drawers underneath.
And, while not to everyone's taste, I just love the old colour scheme. Hopefully most of the inside will just get a clean and polish, most of the paint is very sound, unfortunately a lot of the hinges have rust on them, but that will be sorted in time.

George

Hi George.
You just don't see colour schemes like that any more.
I hope I don't upset you but I think the mattress is off a modernish futon bed, the Chinese writing kind of gives it away.

In a couple of my vans part of the bed base, either the back lifts up to form the back rest and the front pushes back to it, or the back stays in position and the front section is lifted up to form the back rest. I think you will also find the mattress for the back bed would have been in two halves.

Hope this helps.
Richard

No offence there Richard, I too think the mattress is more modern, I was just surprised it was filled with Kapok, I didn't think anyone used it these days. I find it really comfy and it is oversize for the area of the bed. I just found an item on Trove for Kapok and it was suggested as an insulation for caravans in 1939

There is nothing I can find to convert into a backrest for the bed/seat, just another little mystery, maybe one half of the mattress originally formed the back?

After another week of tinkering I still haven't made much progress on anything, a bit of cleaning, peeling off the roof paint and general messing about. A lot of time spent trying to get the simple Lockwood door lock repaired, after three attempts with professionals I've now taken matters into my own hands and see how we go.

My major concern is to get some form of operational brakes on it. At present the brakes are just a handbrake and the long lever to operate them gives plenty of leverage, but then has no way of locking them on apart from dropping a piece of wood between the lever and the frame The brakes are big enough, 12 inch drums with a good shoe area to make contact, but another oddity is that they have no adjustment to take up wear other than to adjust the turnbuckle near the lever. They have never had much use, one lining still has the manufacturers printing on it. The drawbar has been extended sometime and a 50mm coupling welded on, but there is no sign of any other coupling having been in place and certainly no sign that any over ride system worked on the lever. With its weight it needed to have brakes and after much head scratching I'm still none the wiser.

I'm quite happy to convert to electric brakes and I was hoping to retain the original axle and the 16" wheels. After visiting quite a few caravan and brake establishments it seems the axle will have to go as the only options seem to offer Holden or Ford bearing kits, neither of which will fit the axle, it's way too big. I can get 12" electric brakes with the correct 6 bolt stud patten, and some places said I could get away with 10" which come in the same pattern, but a manufacturer's web site shows that when using 16" wheels the weight capacity of each wheel is reduced, and 10" don't have a high enough rating, so it's back to 12" and I'm fine with that. The bit that bothers me is the bum steer you can get dealing with the "experts." The last brake place I went too said he had been in the business for 45 years and he had never seen a backing plate and brakes like it As a blue slip inspector he went and consulted his ADRs and confirmed the need to retain a 12" brake if I use 16" wheels, and mentioned a few other things I didn't want to hear
Maybe the whole axle and brakes are just a museum piece. I tend to think now they are not from any car but maybe specifically manufactured and supplied for vans in their day. The search continues. I had noticed that the axle had been strengthened too but didn't realise it was a piece of 50 x 25mm piece of solid bar welded to the top of it. It could be worth a bit as scrap

So, defeated on that front for the moment, I returned to removing the paint from the roof and that has been more successful. Mostly it is able to be peeled off in sheets leaving a fabric covering which is in pretty good nick.
It appears that it was originally painted with a red oxide and then cream, then two layers of silver and finally a very thick off white paint with a course grit in it. I've no idea why you would want the grit. The fabric is not bonded to the plywood underneath and I don't want to remove it so I'm testing a marine timber sealant in the hope it will penetrate the material, seal the timber and bond the fabric to it at the same time. I tried a test patch today and will see how it is when it dries. I decided I'd remove the front hatch and try my testing on that, but another little surprise, the hatch doesn't have the fabric covering, only a piece around the top edge and side. So the paint has gone straight onto the ply, and its held up as well as the rest of the roof I must say.

Otherwise my digging about reveals it was originally painted cream, probably with a black stripe. The current paint has been a quick coat at some stage and not very well done, but it is staying for the moment although I will have to repaint the ends.

The angle iron frame has never been painted apart from the front drawbar section and has a nice coat of surface rust. I'll be giving it a brush off, a treatment with one of my many rust converters and a lick of paint and it should last forever. I think it has always been in a dry climate area.

More curiosities to follow

George

Hi George.
You've been tinkering!!!
Converting an old axle to electric or any other brakes is always a problem when dealing with vintage caravans, especially when the axles, bearings and hubs are always odd ball sizes.
I have converted a few axles and I have had great help from All States Trailer Spares They use an easy plan to measure the axle, and the last one was delivered within the week. Oh and the price was great as well.
Cheers.

Tinkering is the right word, seems to be lots of it with little results to show for it. I'll be ringing that axle company for some advice, I found your reference to them on the Glen restoration.

The tinkering has continued and I have about a quarter of the paint off the roof so far. Its easy going when it just peels away from the canvas, I think I've decided the fabric on the roof is a light canvas. It has proved to be quite tough with my scraping and so on. Unfortunately not all the paint comes off cleanly with patches where the red oxide seems to have better adhesion and then the peeled layer separates on one of the silver layers which then requires a lot of delicate elbow grease to move it with a scraper, but it comes off in time. The good news is that the marine timber sealant seems to do as its supposed to and on the test patch has penetrated the canvas, and the timber and bonded the two together. The splash test they suggest to check it had the water sitting on it in drops and it didn't soak in at all. So some success, so I'll finish off the paint removal back as far as the rear of the first hatch and put the sealant on that area and work my way back.

Another head scratching point has been the water tank, or the lack of one. There is a filler on the off side, a brass screw cap on what looks like an old filler neck from a radiator. Inside it has a long, what appears to be an old radiator hose down to a hole in the floor, but its not connected to anything. Underneath there is no tank and no sign of anywhere that one was fitted. A nice bit of copper pipe with a screw fitting on the end comes out through the floor from the pump for the pick up.

To add to that little mystery the copper line for the stove enters the floor through the hole for the filler and has a piece of metal around it to seal it. I can only wonder if it ever got its tank or whether gas became a greater priority. Maybe there is a reason for the old gal dipper in the cupboard under the sink!

It has a stabiliser leg on each corner that appear to be from a caravan parts supplier, but I can't identify which one.

The lighting had me confused too, it seemed doubled up with the round and pendant types at the bed end quite close together. None of the pendant type worked when I connected the 12v and when I took out a bulb to check it was a 240v That made a little more sense, I guess because there is no 240 volt inlet connection on it and just a bit of cable running up through the chassis, with no plug on it, then the seller assumed it was all just 12volt. So I quickly connected a plug to the bit of 240v cable which appears to be a 7/029 tinned wire, and good for far more amps than the van would ever need, with two core pvc with bare earth, but the outer covering is black Indian Rubber. I started an electrical apprenticeship in 1966 and never saw household cable with Indian Rubber cover!! Anyway, I was probably too hasty as I never checked the various bits of wire that are all twisted together with alligator clips for the battery, and it seems there might be a 240v one in there the one 12v light that was switched on when I plugged in gleefully exploded with a tinkle, leaving me to find another one sometime to replace it. They don't have offset pins and have a base with two connection pins, if anyone knows where to get them. The auto shops just look at you stupid

So the fun, tinkering will continue, sooner or later something will get sorted out I guess.

George

Well, some of my tinkering on the van has finally paid dividends. None of the many chores are completed or real progress made on any of them, but today I managed to identify an owner and establish a date, I’m EXCITED The yarn might be a bit long winded, but hopefully it’s of interest. So how did I find an owner? I’ve had one wheel off now for weeks trying to sort out electric brakes, all to no avail it appears, nothing will fit the old axle so it looks like a new axle and brakes. Today, after taking a few more measurements I decided to put the hub and wheel back on as I needed to move the van forward. The inside of the tyre and rim was pretty dirty with fawn coloured, mud/dust all over it so I decided I’d clean it, I’m told I’m a bit anal with some of that sort of thing Anyway a bit of water and a rub with a sponge was all it took and then I noticed a name in yellow crayon on the tyre. A common enough surname in Australia of Irish ancestry, so I thought what are the chances? How many might have called Mathoura home, where the van came from?

So onto the computer and the White Pages, punch in the surname and the town and up come four entries. One was a Mr and Mrs listing so I thought I’ll try it. An older woman answered the phone and I went through the tale of how I came by the van and why I was calling and asked if they had owned such a van. “No, never owned a caravan.” was the reply, a bit of a pause then, “but I did live in one for a while when I was first married, 58 years ago, big heavy thing, belonged to my father in law, he used to take it to Bright” Well I nearly fell off the chair, what are the chances; the only paperwork in the van apart from some newspapers was tourist information sheets from Bright! We chatted for a while and she told me the van was cream with a darker stripe on the side, it had a hand pump and a radio in the cupboard and a spirit stove, a draw in the end of the table, and red/maroon cushions on the seats. Things were sounding promising, but she couldn’t remember the two port holes or much else and said they had never actually used it on a trip, just to live in for six months.

Her husband wasn’t home and felt he would know more about his father’s van and she would get him to call me. It turned out she had an email address so I sent off some photos and waited. About 7pm hubby rang and after a bit of chat about his wife thinking I was some kind of strange nuisance caller said, “I looked at the email, that’s definitely dad’s old van!” He was amazed how good it still looked and said his father had bought it second hand in 1952 from the original builder, as best he could remember a fairly fastidious carpenter. He didn't think it was very old or had been used much when he bought it. His dad had built a shed for it and kept it under cover all the while he had it, and after his death it stayed in the shed until his mum sold it to a local businessman in 1996. He didn’t know what became of it then but that chap is still in town so he is going to follow that up. He could tell me the lino is the original from 1952, it had an over-ride type brake on it and his dad towed it with a Ford Zephyr. That made me feel better too, I figure if a Zephyr would tow it so would a Velox bearing in mind back then I think vans were restricted to 45mph. The stripe on the side was originally dark brown, and it did have a water tank originally, so I’ll have to look harder for signs of where it was fitted, but I was right about the gas bottle and stove being fitted at a later stage. He wasn’t aware of the draw bar modification.

So for me a very rewarding day in the life of the van, and all from a name on the side of tyre that may have been repaired or renewed and was marked awaiting collection. And there may be some old photos of it to follow as well

George (a very happy camper)

Classy van & interesting story George.You`ve done very well.