Preserve? Make new? Retrofit? 'Do up'? What else?

[hilldweller]

Greetings all
I'm pondering Mabel's future and would love to hear how others have approached the business of deciding what to do, and what not to do, to an older van. I'm not suggesting there's a right or wrong but I feel I need to get my head around some different approaches.

As light began to appear at the end of the Caravelle tunnel I started thinking about what I'd look for in a second van and what to do with it: 50s, cute, bunks, 11-12ft, plywood, make pretty and sell. A bit loose, but the beginnings of a plan.

And then Mabel popped up ;D, completely irresistable, close to where I live, and at a price I could more or less afford (after a couple of upwards adjustments of the budget LOL ) but other than being cute she misses the above brief completely . And though she's not entirely original it seems to me she's old enough and rare enough that she deserves a bit of thought before rushing in with crowbar and pink paint .

At this point the only thing I feel certain of is that it would be a waste if she had to spend the rest of her days hidden in a shed where no-one will see her, and that's really the only option if she remains entirely as is.

[cobber]

G'day hilldweller,

I personally think..... with a van this old and this unique.... You're on the right track when you say,

Jan 5, 2013 13:31:31 GMT 10 hilldweller said:

Greetings all

" And though she's not entirely original it seems to me she's old enough and rare enough that she deserves a bit of thought before rushing in with crowbar and pink paint ."

As is the case with my Ol' 36, no matter how much you butcher and try to modernise Mabel she will never be as comfortable as a younger van, and the more you interfere with her originality the less interesting she will be as an example of "the way things use to be "

I would encourage you to restore her as much as possible to her original condition, even if that means replacing some of the bits that have been modified over the years...... It can be great fun trying to find those missing bits.

But as they say in the classics........ "It's your van, do what you like with it "

Cobber.

[Roehm3108]

Hi HD

I agree with everything wot cobber said

There are some vans around that lend themselves to being dressed up and even modernised. I think they would fall into the category of "there's plenty others around that are still kept original". I had no qualms about modernising Rubik's Kube, the Propert. But if someone's waiting to see what I might do with my Rowvan that might be along the same lines as RK, they'll have a long wait. Not saying I won't be adding some modern touches, but none as overboard as RK.

But when you have a van such as what you found and even Ol36, I think you almost owe it to posterity to keep it as original as you possibly can. Vans such as yours and cobber's (and others) are very rare and when you come across one, I think it should be kept as true to original as possible in your restoration. It becomes a TRUE restoration. I think that the Trail-a-home I found in Qld, which is now owned by another member also falls into that category. It's a totally impractical van in many ways when it comes to layout, but BECAUSE it's the only one of its kind, I don't think you can play around with it too much. Of course the new owners may have different thoughts and that's their right. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed about that one ;D ;D ;D

I'm thinking that with yours, it wouldn't be too difficult to separate the original from the add-on stuff. So, I guess I'm hoping that with this resto, you'll be kind!!

Ray

[hilldweller]

Hmmm well I'm still keen to hear other thoughts but I think Cobber (seconded by Ray LOL) may have hit the nail on the head in terms of Mabel's value (in a broad sense, not monetary):

Jan 5, 2013 14:12:36 GMT 10 cobber said:

... no matter how much you butcher and try to modernise Mabel she will never be as comfortable as a younger van, and the more you interfere with her originality the less interesting she will be as an example of "the way things use to be "

It'll take a bit of getting my head into that space - it's so easy to think of 'improvements'. Not to mention that adopting Cobber's words as a mantra would mean a shopping list something like:

Window stays with tap-like knobs (x4 for replacement front and back windows)
Stove (coal range?) and matching chimney (x1)
Old style roller blinds (x5)
Hens teeth (a few )

And then there's the things that have been done over the years, like the electrical fittings which might not be original but are certainly very old, and the things that were never done but need to be, like road lights.

On the plus side, I won't have to build another kitchen! Yippee no drawers ;D

[hilldweller]

PS Love what you did with Rubik's Kube Ray - an inspired design

Cobber - is there a thread about Ol' 36? I've tried searching but the search function needs a longer string of characters.

[greedy53]

I have found that if you do a piece by piece look at the kitchen and decide what that needs and go from there,if you look at the whole rebuild i'st just to hard so a bit at a time will win out,and the first work you do will guide you for the rest
good luck

[Roehm3108]

Hi HD

Thanks ffor your kind words. In regard to cobber, if you look at any thread he writes, you will notice he has a list of his vans in blue, just hover over it and left click it and you will go direct to the item.

Ray

[cobber]

G'day HD,

As you say the search engine requires at least four letter words to operate but.....there are ways around the search facility, Ray has mentioned one.
Another way, for those of us who have utilised the "Members profiles" thingo is...you click on that near the top of the forum home page.
You can see our vans together with a link to our members photo album

Another good lurk is to open the "Members photo album" board...... Click on the word "started by" at the top of that column.... that puts all the people who started a thread into alphabetical order (more or less).
I just happen to know .... that Cobbers posts can be found on page 6, so you just jump to page 6 and there you will find Cobbers 1936 Plywood caravan

Personally I'd go with Rays suggested method in my case but, that last suggestion of mine enables you to find just about anybodies photo album....... if they have one...... If they don't, they should have

I don't mean to give a lecture but there are a lot of new members on the forum at the moment and I just thought it would be an opportunity to point out a few ways of showing the system who's boss

Cobber

[Franklin1]

G'day hilldweller,

Some people may be reading this thread, and thinking, "Who the heck is Mabel, and what does she look like?", so I'll put the link to Mabel's story here:
It's become an addiction!!! Mabel the vintage van

I personally think you have to do a bit of homework before deciding which way you go with the restoration. If you discover the van is fairly rare in the wider NZ vintage caravans sphere, I think you owe it to history to try and preserve its originality as best you can. If you find that Mabel is a "dime a dozen", then as long as someone else has preserved one like her, you could do what you liked (which you could do anyway, as they say... )

You already have a van that's useable, so there's no pressure on you to have Mabel finished by any particular date. If it's a rare van, why not set yourself a challenge to return it to its original state? Anybody can modify/modernise stuff, but it takes somebody with a lot of gumption to create an antique (like somebody who might have done a fantastic job on a restoration recently, on a ...um, oh I don't know, say a CARAVELLE?)

Even hens teeth can be made, by casting with molten brass. The hardest part is getting the hen to stay still while you put the dental mould in its mouth. Once you've accomplished that, the rest of the van would be "pretty easy".

cheers,
Al.

[hilldweller]

Jan 8, 2013 23:33:45 GMT 10 Franklin1 said:

Even hens teeth can be made, by casting with molten brass. The hardest part is getting the hen to stay still while you put the dental mould in its mouth.

Would you be able to demonstrate the technique Al? A link to a short video clip would do it. With soundtrack ;D.

As is presumably the case in Oz, it's impossible to know how many of these older vans are tucked away in sheds. I would guess there could be a fair few (in NZ) but I haven't noticed any on the road and none of that era on trademe other than one or two English imports. The latter are real works of craftsmanship and not something I would buy or attempt to work on. They do make Mabel look rather like a backward country cousin but to me her Kiwi DIY styling makes her far more interesting .

Thanks for the various advice on ways to find particular threads. Ol' 36 is one seriously posh van and you've done an incredible restoration job Cobber. Take a bow .

[cobber]

Thanks HD

If you noticed on page 3 of that thread about 'Ol 36 I go on about finding the different bits to make up an Enoch Tonks dead lock for the van to make it look period authentic, even though one wasn't fitted originally.
Nobody would notice it or appreciate the amount of searching I did to find those bits but...... it gave me a big thrill at the time

We all get different kicks from this vintage caravan hobby, but for me it's about preserving them as close to original as I can

Cobber.

[Franklin1]

G'day hilldweller,

This is the book that Manda Scott really wanted to write...

[hilldweller]

;D