|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jan 12, 2013 8:07:19 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by humpyboy on Jan 12, 2013 8:34:41 GMT 10
Bets being taken for how old he will be when finished! ;D How long will depend on how hard a worker he is
|
|
|
Post by Don Ricardo on Jan 12, 2013 15:52:51 GMT 10
...Morning all, my very handy 15yo was looking for something to do so I acquired this for him... Yep, SGTL, sure, uh-huh... We can see through your little ruse... Buy a van and then persuade a poor defenceless kid that he wants to fix it up so that you can use it! Yep, we're a wake up to that one...except that in our case our kids weren't so open to suggestion! Seriously, looks like a good project. I'm sure your son will do a great job on it. I think he may take the mantle of being the youngest V V restorer on the forum from Yellowuki who has had his licence for a couple of years now, and so is definitely "over the hill". (Not sure what that makes me? Probably "over the hill and far, far away". ;D ;D ;D) Don Ricardo
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jan 12, 2013 17:54:20 GMT 10
Oh dear, you can see right through me! Gotta hand it to him though, we towed it home, a whole 9kms today & he's already out there poking around & thinking of ways to fix it. He's googled repairs etc & I've promised to show him some of the full restorations on here. Don't know how such a big project is going to fit in with YR 10 though
|
|
|
Post by King Fisher on Jan 14, 2013 11:21:31 GMT 10
I think it's great for him to have an outlet and some other interest to keep him 'out of trouble' as they say. He has the opportunity to learn a heap of great skills along with time management skills. You've got a great little doer upper project there, should come up a treat. Gotta watch the VV bug though . Good luck with the project .
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jan 14, 2013 11:33:07 GMT 10
Thanks for your kind & supporting words KF. Got to hand it to him, he's already pulled everything out except for the cupboards. He's watched youtube vids on resto & got out all the woodworking books we have. Far more determined & patient than his parents ;D The van is very rotten unfortunately so will be a mammoth task.
|
|
|
Post by Franklin1 on Jan 14, 2013 15:07:47 GMT 10
G'day sgtl,
One of the best sources of information for your son to refer to are the posts by long-time member frankidownunder. His 1967 Franklin Caravelle was well-documented throughout the forum back in 2007/08 when he restored it. There are also other threads where he's talked about window rubbers, the coupling, the axle, etc etc.
If you know how to use the search function for this forum, put the word frankidownunder in the search field at the top, and then scroll right down to the bottom and change the days field to 3500, and the results field to 100. You'll get 84 results show up (I did just now). Trawl through those results and look for the threads/posts relating to his Caravelle.
Your son will know he can bookmark any of those threads once he's opened them up in a separate window/tab, in the same way he can bookmark any other website on the internet.
Cheers, Al.
|
|
|
Post by greedy53 on Jan 14, 2013 15:29:08 GMT 10
that is one thing you never said in my i'm bored, there was always things to do like washing a interstate truck washing out the dairy yard cutting corn yep! to busy was the best answer !
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jan 14, 2013 15:58:41 GMT 10
Thankyou Franklin. That is fantastic, & yes, son is far more compooter savvy than I.
|
|
|
Post by hilldweller on Jan 15, 2013 9:24:04 GMT 10
What a great project! Wish I'd been that enterprising as a teenager. Is he going to stick with the original look or create a 21st century teen cave? Looks like a nice van - and of course Caravelle is such a lovely name
|
|
gertie
New Member
1960 German Jomi Wohnwagen
Posts: 49
|
Post by gertie on Jan 16, 2013 11:38:30 GMT 10
What a wonderful project for your son! Having just purchased my derelict gem, Gertie, I am hoping I can rope my 14 year old into assisting too. We'll have to compare notes!
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jan 26, 2013 11:01:45 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jan 26, 2013 11:03:18 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by humpyboy on Jan 26, 2013 12:02:59 GMT 10
Lets hope he doesn't give up on it now, to far into it to go back ;D is it just me or is everyone trying to get into the "lets damage myself club" or is it a vintage van thing that's come to haunt us? ;D any how looks like the young fella is making some good progress and now we can see under the cladding it doesn't look to me to be to bad as far as rot goes, it's very pleasing to see him having a go at such a project, keep the pictures coming please.
|
|
|
Post by Franklin1 on Jan 26, 2013 13:44:21 GMT 10
G'day Son of sgtl Like humpyboy says, we've seen far worse on this forum when people have taken the cladding off, so I think you've got a pretty good starting point to work from. If you have to replace any of the curved timber in the four lower corners, have a good read of the jamesandbel Harris Caravan thread to see how he did it. I reckon you could fix this van up with one arm tied behind your back! ;D ;D cheers, Al.
|
|
|
Post by olympicriviera on Jan 26, 2013 14:15:40 GMT 10
got to admit, doing a van is a great father/son project after rebuilding/refurbishing the olympic with dad. Im a lot older than 15, and have some great memories, and a great van to boot......... both enjoy it and eventually you'll look back when its done and laugh about the tense times......... just make sure you get plenty of photos.........mainly to show how far you've come when you're feeling you're getting nowhere
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on May 4, 2013 13:33:55 GMT 10
Corner frames help required!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have had several attempts at steam bending Meranti with little success. I've had varying advice but need to clarify technically what people mean.
1. glue several layers of ply together to make corners. What thickness ply, how many layers & what glue?
2. Cut the corner shape out of ply. No bending involved. What thickness ply? & does it come thick enough?
Thanks in advance, any other tips gratefully accepted.
SGTL & son
|
|
|
Post by humpyboy on May 4, 2013 13:57:09 GMT 10
Corner frames help required!!!!!!!!!!!! Have had several attempts at steam bending Meranti with little success. I've had varying advice but need to clarify technically what people mean. 1. glue several layers of ply together to make corners. What thickness ply, how many layers & what glue? 2. Cut the corner shape out of ply. No bending involved. What thickness ply? & does it come thick enough? Thanks in advance, any other tips gratefully accepted. SGTL & son OK I'll have a stab and if I'm wrong somebody can come in and correct me, Question 1, number of layers of ply will depend on how thick the original piece of framing was ie: 25mm thick? using 5mm ply 5 layers using 3mm ply 8 layers ect ect,Glue? PVA would do the job but it is really up to you in how much you want to spend on a good glue the choice is endless, when laminating this way if you use a thinner ply it will tend to bend around your mould better thicker ply will be much harder to pull around the shape you want. Question2, If you go this way you can pretty much use any thickness ply you want but keep in mind the thicker it is the harder/longer it will take you to cut, using a thinner ply will make it easier to cut but then you will need to glue pieces together to get the required thickness/width you were wanting, if it was me I would probably go with a 25mm ply, glue 2 together for 50mm 3 for 75mm ect ect to achieve what you need. Hope some of this makes sense. Derk.
|
|
|
Post by Franklin1 on May 4, 2013 22:15:22 GMT 10
G'day sgtl, Wow...steam bending meranti! Congratulations on at least attempting the impossible! ;D Your son can achieve what he wants to do by either the laminating method or the flat sheet method. It depends on whether he wants to learn about laminating or whether he just wants the job done! Laminating is the more fiddly of the two, but gives a certain sense of achievement when it's completed. If he goes the laminating method option, he can use strips of 3mm-thick ply and glue enough strips together to match the thickness of the rest of the framework (which looks like it's about 18mm thick in your photos earlier in this thread). Six strips x 3mm = 18mm. I'm only suggesting 3mm ply because it's readily available from Bunnings (about $13 for a full sheet of 3mm lauan ply). But you do have to be able to cut the sheet into a number of straight strips that have a width equal to the existing framework width (which seems to be about 30mm wide from your photos). And yes, PVA glue is good enough. Just remember to use LOTS of it when coating the surfaces of the ply strips. It tends to soak into the ply and can give you a "dry joint" if you skimp on the amount applied. The flat sheet method (or block timber method) is far easier to achieve. Your son is simply trying to copy the method that Franklin used in the top four corners of the van (as per your photo in Reply #12 above). Again you have to match the 30mm width of the existing framework, either by layering ply sheets to make 30mm, or glueing wide timber boards together to get the required thickness, and then cut the shape out with a jigsaw. Impress upon your son the importance of "thinking outside the box" when trying to achieve the job. "Recycle and reuse" can be a really cheap and satisfying way of doing a resto. Timber venetian blinds can be a ready source of slats that can be laminated together. Old solid core doors (and I mean really old doors that were made from proper timber, not the reconstituted sawdust crap they use today) can provide large pieces of solid timber that can be joined together. Pine timber packing crates; Building site offcuts; Bunnings damaged timber (cheap!); etc etc. The possibilities are endless if he develops a "How could I use that piece of trash?" mentality. cheers, Al. ps. How's his arm going?
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on May 4, 2013 22:47:18 GMT 10
Thanks Derk & Al. The meranti was a big disappointment, especially after he built his own steam box etc but all a great learning experience. The arm is fully recovered but badly scarred from a teenage misadventure Definitely trying to keep costs down, thanks for all the tips. I think he's keen to cut out the shape he wants with the jig saw. Will keep you posted
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jul 17, 2013 15:03:26 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Jul 21, 2013 16:10:54 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by Franklin1 on Jul 21, 2013 18:23:12 GMT 10
I can see an engineering career ahead, SGTL! He should probably be the keeper of the bike keys while he's got the rope hook connected there. It wouldn't be a pretty sight to see the whole roof cladding go through that pulley wheel up in the rafters, heh heh. He's doing a real fine job on the van. Give him a pat on the back from me! cheers, Al.
|
|
|
Post by shesgotthelook on Aug 19, 2013 16:23:39 GMT 10
Ceiling going in
|
|
|
Post by frankidownunder on Aug 23, 2013 17:51:47 GMT 10
Congratulations on a really good, well thought out restoration. My Caravelle was in no where near that poor a condition when I started my re build, just rot in most of the lower frames. A little hint, if you have not picked up on it, use plenty of glue between the inner lining and the fame timbers, I used NO More Nails and all the recovered brass nails I could salvage from the old structure. Also use plenty of silicone sealant under the roof to side wall J molds as this is where the water gets into the side frames. These are a terrific old van and tow beautifully, you should get plenty of pleasure out of the finished product. Frankidownunder.
|
|