Post by Don Ricardo on Mar 14, 2017 16:06:55 GMT 10
Hi all,
I'm hoping that some of the South Australian forum members - and anyone else who wants to chime in - may be able to help us solve a bit of a puzzle regarding some spats. I'm sure that John&jacquie will be interested in the answer as well!
A couple of months ago, John&jacquie posted some photos here of their newly acquired Fiesta caravan. One of the photos was of the spats on the van, which incorporate a map of Australia with the letters 'SA' imprinted in the map:
We are interpreting the 'SA' to mean 'South Australia', indicating that the van (or at least the spats!) was produced in that state, which fits with what we think we know about this particular type of caravan which are branded either as Fiestas or Pacifics. As can be seen here John&jacquie's van is the only Pacific/Fiesta we have seen with the spats.
However, the puzzle deepened at the Bridgewater vintage van event held in February, when I noted very similar spats on Maplegum's Miami Princess:
Maplegum told me that the spats on the two sides of their van are slightly different lengths, and there is some variation in the placement of the logo. And also note that the map of Australia is placed a little further back on Maplegum's spats, and that there is also a raised edge on the bottom of their spats.
Looking at the photos of the Miami caravans on the Miami thread in the Down History Lane section shows us that several of those vans - but not all - were adorned with the same or similar spats. For example, this Miami Princess sighted by Winterwood back in March 2008 (excuse the pixilation - I enlarged the photo so you could [almost!] see the design on the spat)...
...and Jula's Miami Contessa posted in March 2012:
It has been suggested previously that the Pacific/Fiesta vans like John&jacquie's were produced by Miami, and the spats might point in that direction. However, to my mind there are too many major styling differences between the two brands of caravans to indicate that they came out of the same factory. (I have listed the styling differences on the Pacific/Fiesta thread referred to above). In addition, the way the brand name was applied to the vans suggests different origins - Miami used stickers on their vans, while the Fiesta name was stencilled onto the vans, and the Pacific vans used what looks to be a flexible plastic nameplate.
My questions for the South Australian forum members about this puzzle are: Can you tell us anything about who produced the spats? Were they produced by a caravan parts manufacturer and used by a variety of South Australian manufacturers other than Miami? Could the spats have been produced by the South Australian caravan industry association as a way of promoting South Australian build vans? (The last question is sheer speculation on my part!)
I will be interested to hear whether anyone can tell us more.
Don Ricardo
I'm hoping that some of the South Australian forum members - and anyone else who wants to chime in - may be able to help us solve a bit of a puzzle regarding some spats. I'm sure that John&jacquie will be interested in the answer as well!
A couple of months ago, John&jacquie posted some photos here of their newly acquired Fiesta caravan. One of the photos was of the spats on the van, which incorporate a map of Australia with the letters 'SA' imprinted in the map:
We are interpreting the 'SA' to mean 'South Australia', indicating that the van (or at least the spats!) was produced in that state, which fits with what we think we know about this particular type of caravan which are branded either as Fiestas or Pacifics. As can be seen here John&jacquie's van is the only Pacific/Fiesta we have seen with the spats.
However, the puzzle deepened at the Bridgewater vintage van event held in February, when I noted very similar spats on Maplegum's Miami Princess:
Maplegum told me that the spats on the two sides of their van are slightly different lengths, and there is some variation in the placement of the logo. And also note that the map of Australia is placed a little further back on Maplegum's spats, and that there is also a raised edge on the bottom of their spats.
Looking at the photos of the Miami caravans on the Miami thread in the Down History Lane section shows us that several of those vans - but not all - were adorned with the same or similar spats. For example, this Miami Princess sighted by Winterwood back in March 2008 (excuse the pixilation - I enlarged the photo so you could [almost!] see the design on the spat)...
...and Jula's Miami Contessa posted in March 2012:
It has been suggested previously that the Pacific/Fiesta vans like John&jacquie's were produced by Miami, and the spats might point in that direction. However, to my mind there are too many major styling differences between the two brands of caravans to indicate that they came out of the same factory. (I have listed the styling differences on the Pacific/Fiesta thread referred to above). In addition, the way the brand name was applied to the vans suggests different origins - Miami used stickers on their vans, while the Fiesta name was stencilled onto the vans, and the Pacific vans used what looks to be a flexible plastic nameplate.
My questions for the South Australian forum members about this puzzle are: Can you tell us anything about who produced the spats? Were they produced by a caravan parts manufacturer and used by a variety of South Australian manufacturers other than Miami? Could the spats have been produced by the South Australian caravan industry association as a way of promoting South Australian build vans? (The last question is sheer speculation on my part!)
I will be interested to hear whether anyone can tell us more.
Don Ricardo