COMMERCIAL&NON TOURING CARAVANS BUILT OR MODIFIED POST 1970

[cobber]

A thread for commercial, or non touring caravans, built or modified after 1970

There is another thread HERE for commercial vans built and/or modified before 1970.

And here are a few just to get you started.

Atherton food festival Qld.




In Perth W.A.




And then from Don R.

Hi all,
One of the satisfying parts of being involved with the forum for 7 years (and 3 years as a 'lurker' before that), has been watching the growing interest in vintage caravans amongst all sorts of people, and hearing about the fondness people have for old caravans - often because of their childhood holidays.

In the last week I have seen two instances of this growing interest. The first was when Dona Ricardo and I visited a cafe called 'Jam & Cream' in Heidelberg Heights, a suburb of Melbourne. Food-wise the cafe specialises in all sorts of scones which are baked on the spot after you order. The decor is very retro - 40's and 50's gear throughout, including the china on which the food is served and the owners' and waitresses' dresses. In the backyard is a little 60's Franklin which can be booked by people wanting to enjoy afternoon tea in a holiday environment:


'Jam & Cream' in Heidelberg Heights Vic


Read more: vintagecaravans.proboards.com/thread/13323/vintage-caravans-popping-all-over#ixzz32ZyWNwyL


From surftragic


This isn't a café with a van in it, this is a van with a café in it At Candelo market. This Chef worked in a restaurant in Bega, he was very happy to come out & have a chat, said they spent $30k on the setup with ovens in the van & was very well done. The food was rather special & this is the way they did additional advertising for their restaurant. This van was the item of greatest interest at this particular event, although I did pick up some ancient cast pillars to suit a vintage boat windscreen. 

Surf Tragic



Hi All
The husband went out for a farewell for someone from work and he passed this place on his way to Fat Bob's Burgers - which is a bit of a hotrod/diner place.
But DakDak is different - it has a caravan in it as a kitchen.
Looks like a good nosh might be had there...www.dakdakcafe.com.

Cheers
Seeshell

The DakDak Cafe - Cochranes Road, Moorabbin VIC

[akeepsake]

Here goes!
An early Millard (The owner said that what was on the rego)
Originally bondwood cladded in Aluminium then recovered over that in ply an stained


At Agfest last month in Tassie

[Don Ricardo]

Jennison has asked me to post the following photos for him:





Jennison's comment:

"A fantastic 'new/old' purpose built van built by 'Woody' vans (seen them advertised in the VV mag) and owned and operated by a lovely lass called Erin. Fitted in very nicely at the ACT EJ/EH show today (25 May). A quality build and good coffee and cakes!!"

[murray]

Another couple from the Taste of Tasmania

[Franklin1]

"Colleen" the travelling teapot - Adelaide

Here's a fascinating story about "Colleen"...




In March 2014, ABC News ran a news item, starting with: "The homespun philosophy that any problem can be eased with a nice cup of tea has been adopted by a welfare agency to bring communities together. Uniting Communities is taking a brightly decorated caravan, dubbed Colleen and looking like a giant spotted teapot, into Adelaide's suburbs..."

You can read more and watch the interesting news video here: ABC News

And even a caravanning website in the UK picked up the story, which includes a video made by the Morialta Community Shed who did the restoration work: UK CaravanTimes

But wait - that's not all!! Not content with creating just a caravan teapot, the local recycling community called upon knitters, crocheters, and wool hoarders to help create a huge tea cosy to cover the caravan with: Calling for help for the Tea cosy

By May this year, the teapot van had already participated in a number of community gatherings, and a photo and round-up story can be seen on the Uniting Communities website: Colleen's story

What a great community story!

[and I did notice that the cupboards in the van have the same push-button handles that I'm looking for, for my project van. Wonder if they retained them in the rebuild or threw them away??]

cheers,
Al.

[humpyboy]

And here is one I saw earlier this year, a coffee van, actually have seen it once or twice more traveling down the road.





P.S. the humpy in front is not his, my mate parked in front of the van so he could get a picture, my mate texted the picture to his wife and said "look what I just bought" her response? "does it have a toilet & shower"

[stevej]

My 12/9 Carapark commercial refurbishment, one of 4 Caraparks I own.

Attachment Deleted

Steve

[Surf Tragic]

G'day Steve

       Well what a surprise !! Glad you made yourself known, I read what you said with the history of the van, but it seems to have disappeared, I wonder if I just imagined it I thought you had saved it from rotting away on its own, I was right . Thanks for spending the time to discuss the van when we were there, it was a very pleasant chat. Hopefully we will pop in & see you when we are over next, & this time see your whole family of vans

The photo of the van at Ford oval Merimbula is in a very nice setting.

All the best................ST

[griffin]

This link, instagram.com/thatvintagecaravan/#, will take you to photos of several vans that would have been modified since 1970 and now put to various uses, there is a link to their web site. 

I can't imagine how the 'Shed of Invention' didn't come up with a Caravan Bar for hire

George

[Don Ricardo]

Jun 2, 2014 16:40:50 GMT 10 stevej said:

When I first posted here regarding commercial use of vintage vans I received several terse posts that made me feel unwelcome and clipped my enthusiasm for the forum, I retracted but I am fairly resilient so still hung around in the shadows. Before retraining as a Chef I worked for 28 years in the museum conservation industry, my interest in conservation/restoration goes beyond my current food business (hence I am still here despite the ‘your not welcome’ insinuations from some). I feel I have a lot to offer, I worked on the NMA Propert prototype van, the ABC outside broadcast van, a host of significant objects of national significance in a range of National cultural institutions. There are a lot of people that may only post here once and get ‘ ruled off’ that have a lot of relevant skills and experience to offer. This should be considered if this forum is to grow or remain relevant.

I have 4 Caraparks now, yes I am doing another food van conversion but I am also doing a refurbishment of another as a touring van. I am searching for that rare original (none water damaged) Carapark that I will conserve or restore to pristine. Not all vans are actually suited to being restored to original, some are only good for refurbishing, some are not suited for anything but converting into food vans... I will continue to buy Caraparks that are going to the tip as they make better food vans than they do scrap metal. Oh yer, I am being interviewed by ABC tomorrow on saving farm wrecks :-)

Hi Stevej,

Great to hear about your various Caraparks and about your background in museum conservation. Fantastic, too, to hear about the actual vans you've worked on, some of which are now practically national icons - you've obviously got skills and experience that a lot of us wish we had, but don't!

I'm sorry to hear that you got an off-putting terse reply when you first posted, and I know you weren't the only one. But I'm glad you're resilient and have hung around. Having formerly been involved in the forum as a moderator, I know that the moderating team found it pretty hard to find the right line between being welcoming on the one hand, and discouraging people from stripping well preserved - and sometimes historically important vans - to be used for commercial purposes on the other. However, as you have pointed out there are plenty of vans out there that have already been stripped and will end up at the tip if someone with your initiative doesn't grab them and set them up for their business. From my point of view it is a lot better that they are retained in that way than ending up at the tip! And as you say - again my opinion - vans which are used like your food van do a lot to generate interest in vintage vanning, which can only be a good thing. (I recognise that not everyone agrees with my opinion - but that's life I guess!)

I think this thread, that Cobber suggested and started (and I think was trying to point you to in his last post), is an attempt to provide a more friendly welcome to people like you that have converted vans, and to provide a place where your excellent work can be displayed and discussed.

By the way, I'm not sure whether you've seen it, but Cobber has also started a thread for vans that were converted for commercial use prior to 1970 here, and there is discussion in various places about vans that were built for a commercial purpose in the first instance. I guess the ABC van would be in that last category?

Don Ricardo

[stevej]

ST, it was great to meet you at the market, taking the van out I get to meet thousands of interested and interesting people, you fit both categories :-) . We get a really positive response to what we do with the shiny Carapark as you would have seen. Would love to catch up again when you're up, there is a Don on the farm next to me that you may wish to have a look at (before I chainsaw a hole in it to sell donuts from..... just kidding ;-))

Thanks Don for such a considered and kind response, I was very lucky in my professional career; I got to work on some amazing objects over the years. I appreciate the new threads; I think it affords the chance to provide information on appropriate and sympathetic conversions and refurbishments rather than pushing potentailly good forum members away. For better or worse food vans are going to become far more popular over the next few years as it is the fastest growing trend in the food industry, the forum (and broader VV community) needs to embrace such changes and try to put in place mechanisms to protect significant vans, preservation includes an element of prevention. To say no conversion of a vintage van is acceptable is sticking heads in sand and pretending that it does not happen; such blinkering will see donuts coming out of significant vintage vans. Better to educate people as to what is appropriate, those that think no loss is acceptable are living in a dream world.

Steve

[melanco]

This van was a travelling dentist van and was converted in Tasmania in 2005 for use in a number of Big hART projects. We toured it around Tasmania and to the Melbourne Festival on Federation Square as a live radio station.

[Surf Tragic]

Great to hear what you had to say Don Ricardo, also what Cobber has done, because I am sure a person with enthusiasm & skills like Steve will bring a lot of positivity here. Makes me feel like doing more hours on my projects already.

Thank you.............ST

[humpyboy]

I try not to weigh in when people ask advice on converting vans for commercial use as there does seem to be a bit of conflict when they do, all I want to add is be it restored for touring or for commercial use does it really matter? the main thing to remember is it is another old van saved from the tip or destruction and is that a bad thing?

[Surf Tragic]

Jun 3, 2014 9:22:44 GMT 10 stevej said:

ST, there is a Don on the farm next to me that you may wish to have a look at (before I chainsaw a hole in it to sell donuts from..... just kidding ;-))

Steve

Listen mate, if you do that I will set up shop next to you in my best Don & run you out of town But I would sell hot doggies on a stick, this is what I remember of the sideshow alley when I was a

kid......making, baking, cooking all the while, hot doggies on a stick, a three course meal in one, roll up, roll up, yep, all battered & smothered in tomato sauce.

ST

[willow5075]

So here is my contribution which was previously removed, glad there has been a broadening of the rules - In Adelaide we have a lot of "pop-up" food vans - many of which are in VV

Oldvan by Willow5075, on Flickr

and Tacocat

taco-cat by Willow5075, on Flickr

and this lass with her VV stall at this years Rock n Roll Rendezvous - Birdwood

Dandyland by Willow5075, on Flickr

[Roehm3108]

You can actually hire a little Carapark 10/9's with side lift-up awning from the racecourse operators in Coffs Harbour! I noticed that last year when I was stranded there for a week!

[humpyboy]

Jun 22, 2014 16:57:34 GMT 10 Roehm3108 said:

You can actually hire a little Carapark 10/9's with side lift-up awning from the racecourse operators in Coffs Harbour! I noticed that last year when I was stranded there for a week!

At the racecourse or Coffs Harbour Ray?  

[Roehm3108]

That's right Derk

[cobber]

I have just returned from a great weekend at the Lane Cove River Tourist Park (great caravan park at a great location)
On Friday four American 'Airstream' caravans turned up... we looked at their vans..... they looked at our vans, and we talked.

Anyway..... fair to say they were all commercial one way and another, the largest was from 'Airstreams Australia' .


Another was about two days old and owned by a young couple who intend hiring it out for any and all sorts of occasions.
(The one closest to the camera in this photo)





Another was being used as a 'food van' and on Saturday afternoon they invited the 'Vintage Vanners' to sample some of what they had to offer..... which was a very nice gesture we thought 











I hope it's OK to post these photos here , they have nothing to do with Australian caravans except..... They're over here, oversized and over priced 

Cobber.

[Surf Tragic]

interesting stuff Cobber, those Airstreams do have a nice old-fashioned look, the one full of food is attractive

ST

[stevej]

May be of interest

www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-04/pigs-on-vintage-caravan/5569624

Steve

[atouchofglass]

The recent "discussion" on Stevej's business van for sale reminded me that the long running battle to get commercial vans recognised isn't over yet.

The simple fact that this thread is in the "Whatever" section and not the Down history lane section is just an oversight - right?

Because it would give a feeling of commercial vans not really being of value to the vintage caravanning community otherwise.

So perhaps it is time to shift it to a more easily found section.
Or maybe pinned to the beginning of this section at the very least.



Atog

[Geoff & Jude]

hi atog

since commercial vans have a history almost as long as the majority of our vintage vans that are used for recreational purposes, your comment about the commercial van thread being moved and pinned in the dhl section has some merit.

i'm not greatly moved either way, but since stevej's van is only posted as a sale, that post really belongs in the for sale section, not in the commercial van thread.

as an aside, earlier in this thread, there are three posts including photos of stevej's van at candelo markets and also parked outside the donut van at berri and some progressive rebuilt photos.

geoff 'n jude

[atouchofglass]

You are right Geoff.
By saying "this thread", I meant the "commercial and non touring caravans" thread. . . . this one.

It wasn't a reference to stevej's van sale.
That rightly belongs in the for sale section, where it already is.


Back on this (commercial and non touring caravans) thread.
If there hadn't been a link to it, it would have taken some time to find.
It was on page 3 of 4. in the "Whatever" section.

Thanks for posting.

I knew what I wanted to say. . . . just confused others.

Atog