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Post by cobber on Nov 9, 2013 12:42:54 GMT 10
G'day Stephen 'n Julie, Wavy glass ....that is good news , thanks for letting us know. I'm trying to get confirmation that caravans built in Australia before 1938 (and probably for a couple of years after that ) will have wavy glass windows. When I realised Ol '36 had wavy windows I started doing a bit of research and learnt that from about 1919 until 1923 flat glass was made by the "flat drawn sheet" method. In 1923 the process of polishing the plate on one side was invented, not perfect and the glass still had a wavy appearance. In was not until 1938 that the "double grinding" process was invented making flat glass virtually distortion free. In about 1959 the "float glass"process was invented allowing large sheets of distortion free glass to be made economically. All the above dates are approximate and relate to the industry in the UK because different countries adopted the processes at different times. Australia imported most of its flat glass until about 1935 and first started making "float glass" in 1974. If anybody has specialised knowledge of this subject feel free to comment ( and this post might finish up in the Technical section of the forum ) Cobber.
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Post by stephen&Julie on Mar 28, 2014 17:50:58 GMT 10
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2014 20:02:10 GMT 10
Hi S&J The "KH" on your rims stands for "Kelsey Hayes" an American wheel Co.... Probably find a whole lot more info about them if you gie em a google... Either that... or Wait for Col to spot your post and get an informative answer from him.. Kelsey Hayes... well I think that's how ya spell it??
Interesting though... I got a couple of chrome FJ rims off the kaybees a while back for "Old Blue" the '56 Supalite van ... 1 of these rims is a KH rim ??
Word of advice.. don't mess about with wire brushes and wheels etc trying to clean up rims. Get em sandblasted ... You will never have rust issues or flaking paint again. Brown means rust is still embedded in the metal and will give you trouble again in a year or so.
Love the van.. Hawthorn?? Greythorne..?? S.A built .. and with that running gear ,,,, given that the gear would have been used from a car that had been retired from active service...I would say straight after the war era ..1946 /47.
Regards
Reddo
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Post by kaybee on Mar 28, 2014 21:15:21 GMT 10
Wow Reddo....you're getting better at that spelling thing ....and yep, Kelsey Hayes made them for Ford, they are a U.S. company and the wheels are to suit V8 Fords from 1940 through 1948 ,and also the pickup trucks from the same era ....and like the Redman sez, get them sandblasted to get all the rust off. Wire brushing only polishes the top of the rust ,doesn't get down into the pits and just gives you a false sense of security as the rust is still there and still working away ....same with all the instant brush on fixes like POR15,etc....costs you a bunch of dough and you think it's all fixed ,but it is still beavering away under the shiny black.....on that happy note, G'night!
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Post by stephen&Julie on Mar 29, 2014 7:32:32 GMT 10
Wow, thanks you two, went into google and KH certainly made a lot of wheels, I'll take the advice given and have them blasted on Monday Cheers S&J
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Post by hilldweller on Mar 29, 2014 16:31:57 GMT 10
They look good now - bet they'll be fab after the blasting Mabel's wheels are the same as yours. I must try to remember to look for the KH stamp next time I take them off - thanks for pointing it out. Looking forward to more pics as things progress - it's an awesome looking van.
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Post by Don Ricardo on Apr 1, 2014 21:43:58 GMT 10
G'day Stephen&julie, Great to see some more pics of the bits and pieces on your van. It certainly is a lovely example of the early caravan builder's craft! With reference to Reddo's comments, it definitely isn't a Hawthorn or Greythorne van, but I think he may possibly be on the money about it being a South Australian built van because of its tudor style ceiling. Tudor ceilings seem to have been a bit of a South Oz specialty. Looking at it, the style and size (16 ft) is typical of 1930's rather than 1940's caravans, which to my way of thinking suggests a 30's build date. Given what Kaybee has been able to tell you about the axle and suspension, Seeshell's thoughts on colours, and Cobber's info about wavy glass, you'd think the van was probably built in the late 30's. Of course if it was a home build then it might have been built by someone in the early to mid 40's using a 30's design. Does this all fit with what I gather you've been told by the last owner? It is interesting that the floor is ply rather than boards. Not sure when they started using ply for floors in caravans, but some manufacturers were still using floor boards in the early 50's - not that I'm suggesting that indicates anything about your van's age, it's just an observation. You mentioned that you'd found some newspaper clippings, and Barkpaint suggested there may by some dated newspaper under the lino, which I guess you've looked for? If you can't find any newspaper with a date on it, you might be able to find the source of the clippings using the newspaper search on the Trove website. If you look through the clippings you have and find an unusual phrase (3 or 4 words) or a person's name (preferably not John Smith or Fred Brown ), then enter it into the Trove search, you may be able to find the clipping(s) and identify the newspaper(s) they came from, which will then give you some dates. Trove also allows you to select for (say) the 1930's decade or 1940's decade for your search, which will limit the number of hits you get for the phrase or name you try. If Reddo's guess (and mine) about the van being South Australian built, it joins a select group of South Australian vans that we don't know the precise origins for. Other examples are Willow5075's caravan and the van I was shown in Mildura (and I have speculated about on the Rowvan thread in the DHL section). Maybe they were all built by some home builders? On the other hand maybe one day we'll find a photo or other piece of information that will reveal all about each of them. Don Ricardo
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Post by stephen&Julie on Sept 7, 2014 22:45:41 GMT 10
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Post by Geoff & Jude on Sept 8, 2014 9:41:42 GMT 10
hi s & j a couple of years ago we stripped the aerolite back to bare plywood and repainted it, including the roof, with oil based Australis Stain Block Undercoat and Norglass Weatherfast Opal White. 2 years later and the paint had cracked so much that the timber surfaces were beginning to show signs of deterioration so we have just about finished redoing the whole of the roof area again. this time we stripped the roof back to bare timber again, then followed kingfisher's model of sealing with bondcrete (which also has the added advantage of acting similiar to a pva glue to bind any small splits) laying calico between water based taubmans 3 in 1 primer, sealer, undercoat then finishing with water based taubmans endure exterior gloss. we figured that the "plastic" paint will be better than enamel because of it's ability to absorb the movement in the timber better than the enamel did (the calico will also help here). only time will tell but so far there's no signs of any problems (and it's been almost two days since it was done. ) i'd prefer to use enamels because of the better gloss finish but it didn't work for us. the next decision is whether or not to completely re-do the sides again since the enamel on them is cracking up as well. if we ever do another timber van, we'll definitely use plastic paint all over. geoff 'n jude ps - as an aside, a couple of days ago, i stuck two pieces of timber together (without clamping) using only the bondcrete and when i split the join with a chisel today, the glued faces kept the bond and the timber split just beside the join, so bondcrete will not only seal the plywood successfully but will also glue any tiny faults in the surface of the ply. (thanks kingfisher for your research)
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Post by Geoff & Jude on Sept 9, 2014 13:32:53 GMT 10
hi again s & j i've just calicoed the hatches for the aerolite but this time i did the final colour coat in white enamel, so in about 2 or 3 years time i'll be able to give you a true comparison between the two finishes. i also didn't use the bondcrete as a waterproofing base. (only because i forgot to. ) i know that's no help right now but it might be useful in the future. geoff 'n jude
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