Greeny’s Coronet Mini

[greeny]

I also have an old 10 foot Coronet caravan and would love to find out some information about the old girl. I have never been on a forum before so have no idea where to start asking questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[hughdeany]

Hi greens,
Can you show a picture of your van so we can help you?
Cheers
Hughdeany

[greeny]

Thanks Hughdeny, I am having difficulty with upleading photos, Im not very tech savvy, however I will followq the instructions that have been posted and see how I go.

I found a welded in chassis number on the inside of the drivers side drawbar, the number is 3 7723.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers Greeny

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Greeny,

If you are having difficulty posting photos, you're welcome to email them to me and I'll be happy to post them for you. My email address is [e-mail]

Don Ricardo

[greeny]

Thanks Don, I will send through a couple shortly. I have created an account with post image and followed the instructions however when I click on “choose images” nothing seems to happen and the screen does not change.
Thanks for you help, stand by for email.

Cheers Greeny

[hughdeany]

Hi greeny,
Your van is a 1970-71 Coronet,they are a wooden frame with fibreglass insulation in the walls and roof.
From memory there was only one layout,a 3 berth with single dinette at the front and double day/ night bed at the back.They had a very short chassis that the walls rose up from front and rear,very much like a 10 ft Franklin Regent which was made just down the road in Ballarat.
Coronet also had their own timber and laminex colours which have them a distinct “feeling”.
Nice little van
Cheers
Hughdeany

[Don Ricardo]

Photos of Greeny's Coronet posted on his behalf:

Before:









After:







Hughdeany has dated your van for you already, but it's good to see some photos of it. Maybe you'd like to tell us a bit about your history with the van? Obviously you've done a bit of restoration on it.

Don Ricardo

[greeny]

Great work Don, thanks for assisting.

This is my first attempt at fixing up an old van and I still have a way to go. I am not that fussed about making it look like new again, I just want it reasonable. I like the fact that it has some battle scars (plenty in fact) it makes it interesting I think.

I got this old girl from a friend in Horsham who has since passed on, he had a few old vans on his property in various state of restoration, I suspect they are still there.

My wife and kids were not very impressed when I got it home and they all said that it was f...ing ugly so from that day on it has been known as fugly.

At one time she had a water leak that someone had tried to fix with about 20 tubes of silastic, they had smeared the stuff everywhere so I had no choice but to remove it and see what happens. After getting rid of the silastic I realised that the van would need a paint job. Once I made the decision to repaint I began the mammoth task of rubbing it back. This was a bonus because under the red stripe I discovered the original green and gold colours of the stripe and diamond.

I spoke to the local auto paint shop here at Ballarat, they gave me some advice, some paint and to cut a long story short I ended up with what you see in the pics, not perfect by any means however she gets the attention she deserves wherever I go.

The inside had been damaged by water and some rough repairs to the roof and walls had been done, I had two choices, 1. strip it down and replace the panelling or 2. repair and paint, I took the second option. I kept the original wood grain cupboard doors so it looks quite reasonable.

Of course the water had been entering via the roof hatch, someone had pulled out the original hatch and replaced it with one of them modern bubble types, which did not suit the van at all. I found an old 4 season hatch in the back of my sisters shed, she had pulled it out of an old van and was quite happy to give it to me, bonus!

I have since completely restored the hatch and installed it in the van, no more water leak.

The inside still remains as it was with the old Lino, stove etc, I did sew up some new curtains and replaced the cushion foam and had them recovered.

Today I installed the original fridge, I have been tinkering with it in my shed over the past few days. the heating element only works on 12v, I am not sure what it wrong with the 240 v element, it shows resistance on my meter so no open circuit. The Gas works quite well however the flame does not adjust as good as it should. I bench tested it all, checking for leaks etc and I am quite happy with the result. I am not that keen to run 240v through the old wires anyway so I will make do with the 12 v and gas.

I replaced the 13 inch rims with 14 inch Sunraysia rims and L T tyres, I was conscious of it being a bit taller however she seems to tow heaps better. I have replaced one spring, my father in law had one brand new one that he gave me that was exactly the same, new u bolts and shackle pins and the job done. I am now trying to find another spring, the local trailer mob seem to think that the springs may have come from a car however I am not convinced.

Of course I have replaced all the brake components, refurbished the water tank and installed a 12v gally pump.

She has a full annexe which is in excellent condition which I have used a few times, I got a mate to sew up a canvas awning from some old HD canvas that I got from a clearence sale. I prefer to put up the awning because the annexe takes a bit of work and takes away some of the classic look.

Anyway that’s the “Readers Digest” version of how it came to be, I hope you enjoyed the read.

Thanks heaps for assisting with the photos, I am sure that I will work out how to put them on the forum.

If anyone has got any further information about the model of this van I would love to hear from them.

I found a 11 foot bond wood van here in Ballarat that I gave to a mate, he has renovated it and that’s a story for another time.

Cheers Greeny

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Greeny,

Thanks for telling us the story of your van. It’s great to read a bit about what you’ve done to restore it, and that you found the original colors for the flash under the red stripe. It looks great now.

You mentioned that your wife and kids weren’t very impressed when you brought the van home. I don’t know how many kids you’ve got, but they may have been wondering where they were all going to fit! Is it 2 or 3 berth? Hughdeany said that as far as he knew the 10 ft 6 in Coronet only came in 3 berth layout, but I’ve just looked at some literature that talks about both 2 and 3 berth layouts.

In your email when you sent the photos, you mentioned that you would like to know the model name for your van. Hughdeany has indicated that your van is 1970 or 1971. Reading through some of my information about 1971 vans, Coronet seemed to have two model ranges at that period: Crown and Prince. Beyond that they were identified by length. Outwardly the difference between the Crown and the Prince seems to have been a different profile to the front and rear windows, and the roll above the windows. Looking at photos of examples of each model, your van seems to fit the profile of a Crown model. So yours would be a Coronet Crown 10 ft 6 in. That’s what the literature I was looking at says anyway - it lists both the 10 ft 6 in Crown/Prince models. Hughdeany may be able to shine some more light on that.

I don’t know how to interpret your serial number. As far as I am aware the serial numbers for early Coronets were just sequential: 1. 2, 3...59...108..., etc. However they may have changed the serial number pattern at some point, resulting in your number. 3 7723 may mean that your van is the 7,723rd Coronet built, and the 3 indicates the model or the number of berths, or it might mean that yours is the 37,723rd van built...or something else. Someone many be able to help us with that.

Now that we’ve identified your van and got some photos posted, I think it would be good to move the posts about your van to a new separate thread in the ‘Members’ Photo Album’ section where you can tell us more about your fridge or some of your trips if you want to. That will leave Lilripper’s thread for discussion about her van, seeing that she is still looking for info, and her thread is still ‘live’ in that sense. If you are happy for that to happen, let me know, and I’ll do what’s necessary. We can call your thread ‘Greeny’s Coronet 10 ft 6in’.

Don Ricardo

[Roehm3108]

Welcome to the forum. That is one cute looking van you've got there. I'm sure you're getting lots of attention wherever you go. You may get a complaint about naming her "fugly", because another forum member already used that name on his van some years ago. As he has now sold it and probably forgot to copyright it, he probably won't complain!

Be careful about replacing springs. While you might easily find separate springs that are the same length, they may vary in height. The result would be that your van won't sit straight. It's generally a better idea to replace springs in pairs from the same source and with the same height.

[hughdeany]

Hi Don Ricardo,
The Coronet Crown and Prince were a different shape to the mini that Greeny has.
The mini had a smaller chassis that the body rose from at each end,the Crown and Prince were more squared off.The mini also just a had a curved wall that went straight up to a top roll,Crown and Prince had two incorporated rolls on the front,and one on the rear on a reverse angle.
Can you put up photos of the models you mean so I can see the difference you are talking about?
Cheers
Hughdeany

[greeny]

Thanks Don great info, I really appreciate your help.

Funny comments, thanks for the humour, I have two kids however unlike their father they are quite tall, especially my son 6’ 3”, my wife is also quite tall so sleeping in this little van is not appealing to them. I use this van for camping camping and fishing trips with a few mates who also have old vans and one with a Chevy van he imported from the USA. My wife prefers our brand new 21 footer van with all the modern features, I must admit it is nice to have some extra room and creature comforts when you are away for long trips.

The van is a three birth with a day night bed at the rear and the table at the front folds down for a little bed. I will post some pics of the inside soon, at the moment I am just doing some odd jobs in it but it will be back together again soon.

I have seen a couple of coronet vans similar to mine however the front sections below the window are not as rounded as mine but everything else is the same. Perhaps the others are a transition into the new shape that came out in the 70s that I was reading about?


Being a new user I was not sure how or where to post on the forum so my apologies for placing info in the wrong area. I have managed to work out how to upload photos so I am happy with that. If you could replace my thread as you suggested I would appreciate it. I also posted another bondwood van which is also probably in the wrong spot grrrr.

I will get used to things.

Once again I appreciate your help.

Cheers Greeny.

[hughdeany]

Hi Greeny,
Your van was a stand alone model,hence the “ mini “ name,as distinct from Prince and Crown models.
It was a small van built to compete with other small lightweight vans and was 6.6 wide,with minimal interior embellishments,even a roof hatch was optional!They came factory standard with a 2 cubic foot fridge and a round ventilator in the centre of the roof,no front stoneguard or spare wheel.
I owned one in the 70s.
Cheers
Hughdeany

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Greeny and Hughdeany,

Greeny - I’ve moved your posts about your Coronet to this new thread.  No need to apologise for where the posts were originally posted, I just thought it was better to start a new thread just for your van.

It’s great to have Hughdeany’s depth of knowledge on the forum, and to hear about the Coronet Mini model, I do have a 1969 advert showing the layout for the Mini model, so I guess that’s your model.

Hughdeany - I’ll post the photos of the Crown and Prince models on the DHL Coronet thread. I will be interested to hear your comments.

Don Ricardo

[greeny]

Thanks guys your knowledge and advice is much appreciated. I am working on the van today and should be able to get a few pics of the inside then post them tonight.

Great info from Hughdeany, I will check out the measurements provided and let you know. The drawbar has a mounting point for the spare wheel but will only accomodate a 13 inch wheel, the way it is constructed indicated that it was factory made, it could have been an optional extra?

Don I would love to see the advert of the mini that you have, if you could post it that would be great.

The journey continues.

Greeny

[hughdeany]

Hi Greeny,
They came standard with 13 inch wheels and no spare,so the fitting would be aftermarket
Cheers
hughdeany

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Greeny,

I’ve posted the info about the Coronet models on the Coronet thread in the Down History Lane section here. The info includes a diagram of the layout of the Mini, but not a photo of the van itself, I’m sorry.

Apologies for taking a while to post the info. I recently bought a new printer/scanner and I had a bit of trouble getting the scanner to talk properly to my PC.

I’ll be interested to know whether the layout for the MIni in the diagram corresponds to yours.

Don Ricardo

[Gidget]

Hi Greeny, my first caravan was a 1979 10ft Coronet we called Wanda.  Seeing pics of yours is bringing some great memories of doing her up and taking her on weekend getaways.  I used to get so much interest from other campers - more so than I do now with my older vans.  The layout had an L-shaped kitchen across the front and one of those metal futon sofabeds at the back which probably replaced the original dinette/double bed.  There was no wardrobe or dinette so I eventually sold it for something a bit larger.  I'd love to see some photos of the inside when you're done.  I also have 2 '70's 11ft Yorks so I'm quite partial to the teeny retro caravans.
Good luck with the reno