Quest for a Quest

[Roehm3108]

You could have saved a lot of hard work Dennis - just gutted the van and thrown in a couple of refrigerator cartons for you and Boots to sleep = problem solved.

[JBJ]

Hi All,
Well more progress. I've been a bit slack lately. Fell off the step going into the van, & caused a bit of grief to my leg. Luckily not the one I hurt a year or so back. But its coming good

I finally removed the fridge, & cut out the rotten floor under it.




Welded all the required steel bits in, & cut a bit of ply to fit opening.



Interesting that its a legal requirement to have ventilation thru the floor, under a gas fridge. So I bought a vent & screen from Bunnings, & cut the floor to accept it.

A bit of mucking around is required to refit fridge, but nothing too difficult.

I built a new larger shelf at left hand rear, & installed railing same as Deejay had. Its still available from Camec.




Then I fiited railing to existing front left hand shelf



Then a few bits left to do, & I can put final primer in place, then final colour.

Its all (mostly) fun

JBJ

[JBJ]

Hi All,

Well I got back into this rebuild a week or so back.

I removed the original fridge as the body was badly rusted at the bottom of the door, & I didn't want to rebuild it & spend big dollars on new door rubber like I did in the Olympic.

So its getting a 65 litre 240 volt bar fridge. I will paint door to match cupboards, & live with it. 

Just got the first coat of interior paint on.
I used exterior water based enamel as exterior paint has more elasticity in the dried paint than interior paint, according to the "experts".

These vans are flimsy, & I reckon there will be a lot of movement in the interior panel joins over time. So hopefully the paint will reduce the cracking that probably will happen.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will get a second coat on, then start assembling it.
The cupboard doors are orange, to go with the late 60's paisley (sort of) roller blinds we restored that were in the van.



Hopefully all finished before Nationals

JBJ

[JBJ]

hi All,

Well lots happened since my last post.

Interior is finish painted, doors & inside cupboards painted, doors rehinged & handles/hinges cleaned up & refitted.
Interior lighting & switches are original.

The roller blinds were in the van when we bought it, so we based our colour scheme to match. As far as we know, the van was built around 1968, but we know of no identification one way or another. Certainly colours are late 60's from my recollections.
We are reusing original seats at this stage.
You can see the new fridge in place. The 3 round knobs next to it are slide out tea towel rails, with storage under them from serving trays.



This is the inside of the original wardrobe, where I modified it to accept storage trays for clothes. There is a narrow hanging space alongside,
with storage for the Portaloo below the trays. It has storage alongside for chemicals & papers





I constructed a storage shelf, & installed a rail & posts from Camec. The mirror door to the cupboard is original.














We found the fridge at Masters with a separate freezer compartment. By raising the sink 25mm the fridge fitted in place, so I played around cupboards & got it to work. Only had to trim the splashback on the sink

Electrical is nearly finished, & will be completed next monday.

Still a little bit to do, but it should be ready for rego in a month or so, certainly before the nationals.

I'm not worrying about tidying up exterior at this stage, as we just want to use the van while I can.

I've got my Dodge a bit more user friendly, & will be using it towing to Evens Head tomorrow, & hopefully the Nationals

My Doctor has given me 50% chance of still being around for the nationals, so I'm taking the positive side to his opinion.

I'm still enjoying rebuilding the van, & hopefully I will get it useable & get to some more functions.

Other than my Pancreatic Cancer problem being a bummer, I still think it's all fun enjoying life

I'll go out smiling ( I hope)

JBJ

[Rodnet]

Looks  good Dennis, any enlightening details on the fridge please mate?
Drive safely to Evans
Rod

[JBJ]

Hi Rod,

When I bought the fridge from Masters it was $297.

A friend bought one the same yesterday, down to $197 to clear stock.

They are Asetto brand.

Also they have a black gloss one, with dummy retro style handles.

Look them up on the web.

JBJ

[Rodnet]

Thanks mate, bar fridge I assume at that price. Will see Dr Google

[JBJ]

Hi Rod

80 litre bar fridge

JBJ

[JBJ]

Hi All,

Well its registered today, under historic registration.

Over weighbridge, after Boots put everything in it because we sold our Olympic, it weighed 960 Kg. I guess a lot of that was my new floor, but I was recently told that I over engineer everything, but that's me. I would never put anything in that I was not satisfied with the strength off, & I have no interest in falling thru a floor twice.

So a few more little bits to do around entry door & front table, & we will be using it.

Health wise I am cruising along, towards the ultimate ending, but without much pain. We hope to stretch my time to beyond Christmas in July at Canungra, but who knows whats going to happen.

We are taking things day by day, & being positive.

Its still all fun

JBJ

[boblor]

Hi JBJ
Chin up mate and you will be around long after Christmas in July. Now be positive my friend. Look at me, I am enjoying trip around Tassie in a hire car no van. But I surprised my friends touring around down here with my presence.
Cheers boblor

[JBJ]

Hi,

Well thanks to help from a couple of Forum members, we got the van o completed except for vinyl floor.

You guys were unbelievable, to give up your time, & to travel here to help.

We managed to find a vinyl layer, who just put down the Bunnings supplied vinyl in a short time, & a pretty reasonable job on the surface.

So thats it, ready to go.



















JBJ

[boblor]

Hi JBJ
What a great job you (and your helpers) have done on this van. I look forward to seeing it in the flesh.
Cheers boblor

[morgan865]

Great work looks so nice.

[Mustang]

We love your choice of interior colors, very nice.

[Deleted]

Looks fantastic if only I could find one like that her indoors would be happy    Sadly I have been told Dennis has recently passed away does anyone know what is happening to his van please ? if so let me know as I live 40km from Alstonville and would be a definite buyer