caracraft mid 60's

G'day Stu8 .......luv ya rig .......the EH "oot" is a pearla

......this is what we're all about, hook up a smart lookin' mid 60's van to a stock as a rock mid 60's car ..... and get out there and have fun

Your rig probably doesn't owe you a fortune, but it looks great on the road .......enjoy

.....plan to use "daggy" tea towells and venetion blinds ...mint ;D ;D

I have a pet named Dizzy also ......woops I mean Ditzy, she's a pet partner ;D ;D

thanks for the smiles guys.

the ute is stock. the stripe is the only after market bit but it's a period accessory.

the surf stickers were all recent brand names. i would have gladly left them on if they were even more than 10 years old. i dislike brands and advertising but will see past it if there is some vintage cool about it.

we're going to use the tea-towel curtains as a sign of where we've been.

the next trip is to Wilson's Prom in a week.

here's some more pics, i like posts with pics.


how's the new tow vehicle? 50cc of raw grunt.

Hi Stu,

A great little van you've got there. Looks good behind the ute too.

I've done a bit of a search through the V V forum, and can't find any previous mention of 'Caracraft'. I've also googled the name (as you may have done yourself) and the only couple of references are to boats.

Because of the location of the Caracraft sticker (on the rear only, under the window) my guess - and it's only a guess - is that Caracraft was a caravan sales place, or maybe a caravan and boat sales place, rather than a manufacturer. I note that Al has suggested a link between Caracraft and Carapark because their business addresses were so close, so maybe Caracraft was Carapark's used caravan business where they on-sold trade-ins, or something like that. All this is pure guesswork of course.

One of the things that interests me about your van is that it is plain (ie not painted) aluminium with the coloured panel at window height, which is a 60's style. See for example Mgal's Roma (Reply #6) on the following thread: vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=chat&action=display&thread=2044
For another example see this thread on Glida caravans: vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=chat&thread=3066

However your front window is a horizontal split window, which looking through both the V V forum and the Classic caravans forum, seems like a 70's style. See for example the Valiant caravan Ditzy was looking at a while back: ditzygypsy.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=photos&action=display&thread=22

There are quite a lot of caravans on the Classic Caravan forum which have a very similar window to yours. In contrast, almost all 60's aluminium caravans seemed to use a 2 or 3-panel vertically divided front window (similar to Mgal's Roma or the Glida vans). So maybe your caravan is very late 60's or very early 70's?

Somebody will probably shoot me down in flames on all of my speculation by pointing to something I've missed in your photos, but it will be interesting to see what others think...

Maybe somebody will be able to find something about Caracraft in one of the Winser manuals from the 60's as Al has suggested. In the meantime keep on enjoying your van! It's obviously pretty light if you can use that motor scooter as a tow vehicle!! ;D ;D ;D

Don Ricardo

Looks like your van is coming along slowly but surely. As for your Hallstrom fridge check behind the grill under the bottom of the door for Id number/s. Alternatively at the back in about same area. Cheers & happy camping at Wilsons Prom.

Hi Gristy.

I had a 4 day weekend down at Shallow Inlet in the Teardrop over Cup weekend.

Shallow Inlet is near Yanakie/Wilsons Prom. Nice spot.

Either there or Tidal river would be good, have a think about it.

cheers, Leigh.

Good thinkin' Leigh. In some ways Shallow inlets easier, half hour odd less travel than going right into the prom. Never camped there myself, but I expect it would be beautiful.
Name a time and I will check the calender.

Cheers,
Gristy

here's a pic of the van at the prom.



i sewed a rope into a calico drop sheet for an awning. then ran it through the annex track. it worked a treat.

when we got back from the prom two days later we headed to big river for a night. all to ourselves and free.



we camped right next to the river. it was quite the garden of eden. i didn't take a pic of the river for some reason.

here's a couple of shots of the tea-towel curtains. we need to collect more. i think four on each of the smaller windows.





there are more photos of the prom to follow.

on another note the fridge worked fine for 24 hrs then lost all of its cold. the flame was still burning. could this show a need to re-gas?

thanks

we sure are using it. lots for camping. including from next thursday through to tuesday out past ballarat at a music festival. we are the envy of our friends, especially when it's raining.

but the silliest use it gets is when our friends come over to ours in collingwood, where it has sat on the street for a couple of months and we sit in the van around the table and entertain. it makes a great bar.

we're thinking of writing to the council to see if we can't get a significant building permit.

;D