1956 homemade (very) rustic caravan

G'day Sarahlou,

Thing is........ somebody went to the trouble of making that thing for a purpose..... be it to camp in at their favourite fishing spot, do a bit of travelling in (not in a flash way you understand) , maybe used as a toy carrier going by the size of that door

If you can show us photos of the inside layout that might provide clues as to it's original intended purpose.

Anyway............ I'd like to see it restored and kept on the road...... don't trash it, if you don't want it put it up for sale, somebody here will want it....... You bet

Cobber.

Hi there sarahlou,

Welcome to the forum.

It's a bit difficult to have an opinion on something you dont see in person, but from your external photos it has a cute and unusual looking shape, those twin round windows on the front for a start look interesting. A small van also has an appeal in that its smaller to tow, and possibly lighter, allowing for a smaller motored tow car.

What has the van been use for previously? Do you have any of the vans history? The door side appears to have a shutter or opening door where a window would be well placed, what exactly is it?

Some photos of the interior with close ups of some of its features would be helpful on gathering opinions on your van HOWEVER ultimately you need to decide for yourself what you will do with it.

You may find that if you are unwilling to do it up, and you have no emotional attatchment to it, that there is someone in the wonderful land of vintage vanning that might jump at the opportunity of doing it up instead of yourselves. A far better fate than ending up as a trailer especially since you've stated it's from 1956.

There are plenty of examples of peoples amazing restos on this forum where walls, ceiling,s wall frames, roofs and etc. have been replaced. Time consumiing and also money consuming if you need to do all of that.

In the end if you weigh up all your options along with all that needs doing and all that you've researched you'll arrive at a decison that suits you.

From our end we wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide.

regards retro64

Hi Cobber and Humpy,

Thank you so much for your encouraging feedback.

As I said, we were a bit deflated that it is a bit more ruggedly built than we were expecting, but if you guys say "go for it" then we will continue with our plans to put in the hard work.

Cobber, here are some internal photos that you requested. It's sort of like it was built to be a slightly bigger-than-teardrop-sized caravan, like something you would sleep in but do your cooking outside - like the fisherman scenario that you mentioned.








Sarah

Retro64 and Roehm3108, Thanks to the two of you for your very encouraging feedback. Roehm, you know, the thought of converting the roof to a pop top did cross my mind. It would make the caravan much more practical if you could at least stand up in it(!) But seriously, the two of you make some really good points. Perhaps we were a bit harsh on the poor little van. I think we just needed a bit of positive affirmation from someone who knows stuff to say to us, "the caravan's not as bad as you think, just go for it".

Retro, the round windows are not actually "windows", it's clear perspex that has been screwed over the glass window and painted so that there's see-through "portholes". I guess they wanted to protect the glass from being broken by stones. The perspex is a bit clouded and sratched up and if we can't buff the clouding out then they might have to be replaced. I haven't mentioned that out loud because those portholes are my other half's favourite thing about the van. My favourite thing is the wooden floorboards. There is some water damage but no rotting. It *should* come up nicely with a good sand. Here's the general plan of we're planning to do:

Fix leak in roof, replace walls, install a ceiling, sand and polish floor boards, install a seat that converts to double bed, install a small section of storage cabinetry (either for storing clothing, or dishes, or even as a little entertainent centre consisting of DVD, TV, radio, ipad/laptop), polish the aluminium sheeting exterior (looks like it might nearly come up with a mirror finish after we used a little bit of brasso to see how it will come up), replace the glass (perhaps replace the windows if we feel confident), make a new awning using the original as a template.

Great blank canvas to work with, at least there's no debating as to what to keep! ;D ;D That roof looks to be in poor shape, just itching for a rebuild with poptop (Seeshell will tell you how easy poptops are to build!!)

Whatever you decide on, don't wreck it. Someone else will want that van, even in "as is" state!

Ray

Hi Sarahlou

What a charming and practical little van - back in the day there were a lot of "bigger than a teardrop" but not full size vans. An example is the late 1940s Cabin Car:



The idea is that you had a dining area (which broke down to a double bed), some storage and some had a small sink area too (usually no cooking - that was outside). Not for standing up in all the time, but a nice place to sit, read and whatnot on a rainy day - teardrops don't offer you as much flexibility in that regard.

Or as Ray (Roehm) has indicated, you could do some sort of vintage "pop-top" roof which would give you more headroom. Cruz's Mayfair has a very nifty feature which does just that!



I think your van could be a real little charmer - and by no means would I give up on her. As others have said, with the blank interior, you can decide exactly what configuration will suit your needs. And if you were to add an awning, there is space for sitting out and cooking. Regardless, she's very practical and light for towing.

I think she has many more possibilities than she has deficiencies. Have a look at jamesandbel's 1961 Harris for inspiration: vintagecaravans.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=photo&action=display&thread=9000

Best of luck with your first vintage van adventure - and keep us informed as you go. We love pictures!
Seeshell

Hi Sarahlou.Now that is something a little different from the norm & so much can be done with it. The size is pretty much the same as my teardrop camper & like others of that ilk were designed as a sleeper with matching cupboards either side & kitchenette at rear.As has been mentioned you could fit a pop top or have a lift up like Cruz has. You could of course add a door opposite,fit a drop axle or run the axle over the springs giving it a better towing ability & look.Countless possibilities for a really unique `van.

According to the people that we bought it from, the guy that they bought it from slept in the van for 3 years. The owners that we bought it from pulled out all the fittings hoping to do it up but they found a better van and decided to sell this one on. Apparently there was a sink, a cupboard, two seats, a fold down table and a bed (sounds much the same as DC3 and seeshell has described).

Prior to that we don't know what the van was used for. We do know that some of the interior lining is made from modern day road signs. So perhaps the guy that slept in it for 3 years used to work for the Department of Main Roads or worked on a road maintenance team or something.

From what the rego stickers say on the van the van was first registered in Tasmania in 1982. It appears to have come from Victoria. There are plates on the front and the back that say "Trailer Homes 423 Ballarat Road Sunshine Victoria". The styling of these plates is more 70's than 50's so we don't think that these are original.

Retro64, you asked about the shutter window thing on the door side, that shutter is actually a window. The shutter is made of ply. You open it with a latch from the inside and when you open it there is only fly screen - no glass (and doesn't appear to have ever been glass there).

It's going to be a little while before we can make a start on the projet because we have to do some house jobs first but I will use this thread to post the photos of our progress and ask questions, if that is ok.

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement. You'll hear from us again soon!

Hi Sarahlou,

It may look like a big job. But enjoy it. My wife originally said we would never do another one after the job we had rebuilding ours. But there has been mention of another.

Anything can be done, and we had no experience whatsoever.

Good luck. I will be watching.

Hi Sarahlou,

Intriguing little van you've picked up. Very individual - and as others have said, that's meant as a positive!

You mention two name plates saying "Trailer Homes". I'd quite like to see some pics of them if you can manage it. It may help us to figure out a bit more of the van's history, possibly...

A few of the people above mentioned providing more headroom via a "pop-top". Here's another van along those lines, but with a similar general shape as yours:



This van is probably much the same size as yours, including about the same height when the roof is folded down.

I'm not sure how serious Roehm et al were about the pop-top idea though. The roof on your van gives rigidity to the frame. If you just chopped the lid off and turned it into a hinged top you'd lose a lot of the rigidity. So you'd have to be very careful about how you reinforced the frame. That's probably a fairly obvious comment, but maybe still worth saying.

Don Ricardo

Thanks to all the new posters for your kind comments


Ray, Don't worry about that, our skills aren't that great so I can categorically say that there won't be a pop top or hinged lid of any sort going in here!

Don Ricardo, here is a photo of the plates that you were interested in seeing.


Sarah

My wife and I stumbled across this van in the town of Pioneer while on honeymoon in Tasmania late 2010. The owner then was the guy who lived in it while restoring his house.
From memory the brand that was painted on it was Trail-a-home they can be found in down history lane but none of the vans look like yours.
I don't think I ever got around to posting the photos of it back then but I'll see what I can find for you.
Andrew.
P.S. very cool quirky van!