wanted outside light

[chippydave01]

Hi guys, Im going to paint the gypsy in the near future but notice the outside light is very 1970s. I know the van did not come with one so does anyone have any suggestions or have a light from the late 50s.All ideas welcomed,the big round 70s light has to go.

Cheers Dave.

[wildmanaus]

Hello Dave
What you going to do with the old light
Ian

[Roehm3108]

Hi Dave
How about one of those bunker lights and paint the "cage" part to look like old brass? Could look quite 50's-ish
Ray

[humpty2]

I have seen a setup where an ornamental jar (jam or whatever) was used to make an outside light.....verrrry 50/60ish....looked good and looked the period part
The globe holder was through the lid and the jar screwed off for bulb changing.
Just use your imagination
No patent fees will apply!!

[Franklin1]

G'day Dave,
Have a look at the range of Italian-made lights from "Palagi" in Italy...
www.palagi.it
Click on centre-left box "english version" ...and then click on top-right box "catalogue". Look through all the categories for "exterior lights", particularly the second category "recessed ceiling lights for interior and exterior". Many lights in this catagory have the appearance of a porthole window, eg. Item 2002 (2nd light, middle row). You could maybe fit it into the top half of the door.
If you look through all the different models in the exterior categories, there are different diameters, 12V or 230V options, with aluminium, chrome, stainless steel, or brass metal surrounds. All shades are glass.
You can do a Google search to find Australian stockists of palagi lights, but one I found was Amelec Australia over in West Aust, www.amelec.com.au/index.html . I'm sure there would be others.
Last year I managed to get some Italian-made light fittings (not Palagi) at a clearance sale at Bunnings. 50mm downlights, originally $30, were going for $5. They are chrome plated with glass shades, and they are very, very good quality and very classy items. I can only assume palagi would be equally as good. Prices???...don't know...but you and your van deserve the BEST!!!

cheers,
Al.

[cobber]

Dave,

Outside light....now that's interesting, when you look into it.

My "Driftwood" and Ticko's van, Marks "Joker 11 and "Playtime" and probably others as well, have a similar light to yours.
Mine and Ticko's at :
vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=runevent1&action=display&thread=1128419198&page=4

I've had a look through my pile of books from the 50's and the majority of vans shown, either in articles or adds, have no exterior light fitted at all, and the few that do, have one that appears to be no more than about 3" in diameter.
The "Gypsy 10" van of 54/55 has no outside light and I don't think the "Don" did either.

Does this indicate that the majority of manufactured vans back in the 50/60's didn't fit outside lights as standard but the homemade ones did, and that the big round white lights you and I have were a common choice at the time to retro fit to manufactured vans or to use on homemade vans. ?

I agree, I don't think they're pretty, but I suspect they 'belong' ;D.

Cobber.

[chippydave01]

Thanks guys for your replies, The Gypsy's owner bought the van second hand in the mid 60s and he told me he got the light installed,imitation gold look but im not sure what year it is.
My 1966 Fairland has no external light. One thing I noticed that most vans that have exterior lights have annexes.Were the lights installed to see in the annex or for sitting outside at night or both.
Cheers Dave

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Cobber and everyone,

Interesting investigation you've done on when external lights began to be installed on caravans, Cobber. I am 99% certain you're right about the lack of such lights on Don caravans. From the Dons I've seen "in the wood" or in pictures, none of the 1934-1955 models had external lights. The later 150 and cadet models don't appear to have had them as original equipment either, judging from the photos and newspaper articles posted on the forum.

Mark T's Don Cadet (1959/60?) does have an external light, but I am guessing that it was probably fitted aftermarket, given that there is no evidence of lights on other Cadets and judging from the look of it. Mark might like to comment on this hypothesis.

I'm thinking that external lights as original equipment were a 60's or maybe even 70's thing. It will be interesting to see what others can add to this discussion.

Don Ricardo

[krisbee]

Here is Belinda's reply, she suggested that we move this thread to here from the Wanted/For Sale , good idea Belinda.

A separate enquiry about buying/selling external lights ended up as quite informative technical discussion, so I thought I'd post my reply in this section.

All the other comments are at: vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=forsale2&action=display&thread=1180058108
The moderator(s) might like to move them some time.

Here is what I found in the archives:

John D. Porter's How to Build Caravans (1948-49 edition) makes no mention of exterior lights and none of the illustrated vans seem to have them.

Ditto for the English book The Caravan Manual (7th ed. 1956)

In my 1963 edition of Plans for Caravans none of the vans seem to have exterior lights, but Keith Winser said:
"Few caravans come equipped with an exterior door light to illuminate the soon wanted annexe. It will pay to plan your wiring to take one eventually, perhaps from your orange width lights. These are low wattage and give no illumination, but if the glass is easily removed a plug-in extension can be used. If you find this a make-shift arrangement, use a small waterproof nautical deck light, fitted flush to the wall."

For an annexe you definitely need some sort of light, and the other essential is a door roller to stop the door wearing a split in the annexe roof (see separate thread on annexes). For authenticity the roller can be made out of a wooden cotton reel - these are often found in antique shops.

[Deleted]

May not be everbodys cuppa tea but.. spotted this currently on ebay.
240v and 12v
would make a practical outside caravan light fitting.
cgi.ebay.com.au/CARAVAN-AWNING-LAMP_W0QQitemZ120133309097QQihZ002QQcategoryZ102703QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Reddo

[Franklin1]

Chippydave, there is an Italian exterior light on ebay at the moment... Item # 280132940853 , with a starting bid of $149 .

I guess this would give us an idea of what the palagi lights would cost...

cheers,
Al.

[humpty2]

Haven't they got "Bunker" lights at Bunnings that would do the job and look pretty original for around $20??