1957 Purdon Caravan: Facelift by HALPS

[halps]

Dear Vintage Vanners, It has been some time since I have posted on this site apart from grabbing the odd annexe from time to time. Not that many would be interested, but I was preoccupied with commitments on the homefront, out in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and a major renovation of our home. So after a purchase of a van from Reddo over two years ago, it is now time to get stuck in and complete some work.

I have had the pleasure of purchasing two vans from Reddo. This one will be familiar to many of you as it was previously owned by the 'Strugglebrook' (featured on this forum).

For some it was called the "Domino's Van"...but for the life of me I can't understand why?

The van itself had some water damage inside, which is to be expected for a van of nearly 60 years old.

Structurally the van had good bones and the bones that had some signs of dry rot would be pretty easy to fix.

To those that have followed my previous facelift of a Capricorn Van would know that I have a love of old VW Kombis and the thought that this was a single-skinned, little 10f Purdon would be easy towing for my Kombi.

The VW Kombi above is not my Kombi. I wish it was. Later in this thread I'll explore my Kombi in more detail because it has an interesting link to the little Purdon.

After the deal was struck with Reddo I borrowed my boss' work car and drove down to make the exchange at Kempsey NSW. Reddo very generously offered to meet me there saving some 4-6 hours of driving for me from Brisbane. I left Brisbane at 2:00am in the morning and set my sights on having breakfast at Coffs Harbour. I stopped at a local coffee shop in Coffs and loaded up with coffee and then returned to the main road to make my way out of the town. It was slightly drizzling at the time and I slowed to stop at a set of traffic lights. Do you ever get that feeling when you are sitting at a set of lights at the bottom of a hill...you glance in the rear vision mirror and notice that a car just doesn't seem to be slowing down?
BANG!

I'm not sure whether it was the fact that I attempted to accelerate to the shoulder, the impact/crumple design of the Holden or the combination of both, but the damage from the young female driver didn't look that bad. She had smacked into me from behind, pushed me out into the intersection and by the grace of God...no other traffic was coming. The young girl was on her way to Sydney from Brisbane to buy a dog washing business. My boss' tow bar had gone through her radiator. It was a disaster! Not because her radiator was damaged, but because the carton of beer that I had for Reddo was in the boot. Luckily it was intact, but I didn't want to risk popping the boot for fear of not being able to close it later. "What about dropping the rear seats?" I hear you ask. I thought about that, but the impact must have compressed some aspect of the upper boot lid and the seat drop-down catches wouldn't pull up. Details were exchanged. She cried. I felt like crying because it was my boss' car, but we were all uninjured. That is a lot to be thankful for.

Reddo again with his generous spirit assisted me by hitching the van and I made my long way back to Brisbane and then onto Ipswich (where I am currently working). The van was tucked-up into a large shed for the night. The following day we began the task of sanding some of the many layers of paint off. It was so therapudic for the first 30 minutes. A great sense of achievement washed over us...and then it was just crap. Who am I kidding.


More to follow shortly...
HALPS: Brisbane

[Roehm3108]

Glad to see that van getting a colour change!!! I remember seeing it on its first outing when the strugglebrooks came to their first gathering! Munmorah Power Station, if I remember correctly. He used left over paint after painting his business premises. Can anyone guess the franchise?? Keep at it HALPS

[strugglebrook]

HALPS, Shock, horror the Strugglebrook Mona Lisa just sanded away !! Looking forward to seeing the old girl all freshened up. That was our first van and our introduction to many friends and the first couple of the famous Reddotel Tours. Hope it brings you as many good times.
And yes Mr Roehm our building got painted then so when your names Strugglebrook left over paint sure does help.
I seem to remember turning up to Munmorah and thinking there`s someone more way out than us, a Rubic`s cube Propert.

[Roehm3108]

Aaahhhhhh Rubik's Kube!!!! Star of stage, television and Brisbane Caravan and Camping Show!!!!!!!

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Halps,

Great to see you back in the (caravan) park. And to see the Purdon out and about again too.

Don Ricardo

[halps]

Well it has been some time since I posted on here and we all have been busy bees working in the centre to make the little Purdon more comfortable.
It was very quickly decided that (as I am 6f 2”) that the king single-style bed that also flipped up to be a place to have an additional meal had to go. (I am not sure if it came like that originally as there was a small table and seating arrangement at the front). I and my wife needed at least a full sized double bed.

The solution was pretty simple and it has been done by many others on this site. We cut into the wardrobe and the kitchen/stove compartment, demolished existing small bed and rebuilt the whole end of the van, replacing the rotten ends and panelling. I left the water tank in place. During the demo, we were able to see inside the tank and it was very clean. So I told the boys to leave it in place in case a future owner would like to connect it back up.

I don’t like cooking in a small van and in particular I have a real reluctance to carry gas appliances. I know that modern ones are very safe, but it just rolls around the back of my mind that something could be leaking in the early hours of the morning gaging me to death. Front was demo’d too. The general condition of the floor was good, the inner ply on some roof and front/back sections needed to be replaced. This was achieved by the boys cutting the sheets to size, a heap of liquid nails and screws to hold it in place. Cover strips were replaced to make the whole thing look like new.

While work was going on inside the van, there was a lot of sanding, filling, sanding and un-screwing of nails and screws that had been added over time. I am sure in the life of the Purdon that each and every one of those screws and nails would have served a purpose. Perhaps holding a set of keys, holding back a curtain or hanging a mug? Each of them was removed and the hole filled. Eventually we arrived at this point.

The tape was used as a guide to split the van. One day I may own one of these… and the van would be a perfect “VW Splittie” match.

Until then, I’ll be happy with my VW 1975 Kombi.
I am very blessed to have the boys and the facilities to work on the Purdon. Recently the school had an open day and an Old Boy returned to the campus to have a look around and see how things had changed. He saw the Purdon and it was an instant conversation starter. Eric was in his late 70’s and was retired from the railways. We pointed out a bit of ply splitting in the roof. He recommended using canvas and sealing the whole section. The next week he came out for a demo. He brought with him two lighter weight canvas sheets, both equal in size and easily covering the whole roof section. He advised my father in law and I to thoroughly clean the roof, liberally apply an oil-based contact adhesive, carefully apply the canvas and while the contact was still wet, liberally apply a silver, oil-based roofing paint with metallic “stuff” in it (that’s the extent of my technical knowledge…but it was about $130.00 for a 4L tin). We repeated the process this time with the canvas placed “off bias” (something to do with the angle of the weave). Again heaps of contact and about 4 coats of the paint (allowing a full day to dry in between). While we were waiting for the roof to dry we placed a rail on the side of the Purdon and put 1 coat of the colours that we thought would look pretty cool.

[Don Ricardo]

G'day HALPS,

Excellent to see that the work on the Purdon is continuing.

Nice idea to incorporate the Kombi styling. The only thing is...when you do get a Splittie, you'll need to divide the front window of the Purdon into two with a central strut...

Don Ricardo

[Roehm3108]

Hi HALPS. You're making good progress there!

It would be good for members to read what you actually did with the calico, including the glue and paint used. You're using a different method to what has been demonstrated on the forum, so anything new is always welcome information.

[halps]

While this was going on, we took turns in repairing each of the cupboard doors. Working to a roster, we spent time sanding each door, gluing the split ply back into place and then filling any dints, deep scratches etc. If anyone has ever done this job you would realise that it doesn’t hold the same “cool status” as climbing up onto a ladder to repair the roof or make a new wardrobe carcass… so it was with some reluctance that we finished about 9 doors leaving them to set overnight. The gladwrap that you can see is to stop any glue that may be squeezed out during the clamping process sticking the door to the scrap ply. I thought this was a pretty good idea. The tuckshop ladies didn’t.

While working on a project like this with students it gives you a lot of time to discuss… how much paint you use, per square metre? Then estimating how much more we may need? Working to a budget, setting achievable goals and then working to them and also it provides you time to talk to students (who have their own challenges) about what life may have been like for WW2 veterans and their families? The roots of the Purdon stem back to Arthur Purdon and his service. I spoke to the students about how life was like on the home front in the absence of so many men and women off answering the call in distant places. We arranged for some veterans to come in and retell what it was like for them. One veteran recalled that he saw Japanese planes over Townsville with amazement, to then be supporting the boys on the Kokoda track some month later… Another spoke about his conscription to the Vietnam War and the night before he left, his grandmother’s friends (like they had done in WW2 when one of their neighbours left for war) organised a care pack for the soldier and his family. The boys thought that this was a great idea so they organised a care pack for the veterans who took time out of their day to come and speak at the school. That night the 12 boys went home and returned with the following for the two veterans (one from WW2 and the other from Vietnam).

That will take some working through. I hope the 80 year old likes noodles?
After the ply had been replaced and the new bed and front seats had been built. It was time to paint.


The Purdon was pretty old. We think it was about 1957. It had all the grime and stains that you would expect for something that was about 50 years old. If I am going to get my wife into that van, everything in everyplace is going to have to be painted and look like it rolled off the showroom.

I borrowed some ideas from Reddo and others on the VV scene and I think the best bit of advice was don’t think of your Vintage Van as your lounge room, colour is good.

A new table was made out of thick ply and painted.

Then put into place.

There was a space in-between the new double bed bases that were made. So I asked the boys to build a drawer that I could use as storage. I didn’t want it to go the whole length of the space because if it was too long, there would not be enough space for the drawer to be fully pulled out in the kitchen floor area. Again it was painted inside and out.

To make it easier to pull out I added small rollers.


These were added on the back, just to make it easier to roll out. In a coming instalment I’ll show you how I stopped it rolling while under-tow.
I also took the opportunity to paint the hinges with special paint. Here they are “before”. Remarkable considering how old they are.

It was about this time that the Head of the Department requested that the Little Purdon make way for larger projects. Each year the students make these cubby houses and donate them to child care centres, special schools, aged care homes (so that visiting children can play inside them).

So I quickly put some windows back in the van, bought a light set from an auto dealer, installed the click and snap together tail light combination. But it didn’t look right so I added some spats.

And then began to bring it to my house about 35km’s away from where I work. This is how it looked when it arrived home.

More internal stuff to come. HALPS

[scootman]

Love this Van

[Mustang]

As an active "ebayer" I would love that red box on my nature strip.

O'h the van is fantastic to!!!

[hitched]

Transformed from a Domino to a Goumet Supreme - looks beautiful! Congratulations