Tinnie's new aquisition!

[tinnie]

G'day,
This is kind of a puzzle and kind of a continuations of Reddo's thread in General ("Overheard in Reddo's Shed Of invention").

Anyways, after recruiting expertise from a close mate, a short road trip (1.5 hrs one-way, no-van) began. Keys to the shed of a holiday house were picked up from an estate agent and the fun began. Here is the first picture and the end of chapter 1. (well the picture follows assuming I can figure out the fotobuket-thingie).

I bet no one can guess the brand!
There will be a prize!
Buggared if I know what it will B !

Cheers,

Tinnie
(And maybe some Woodie)

[Daggsey]

My guess Tinnie, is it the drawbar of a Globetrotter?.......tow hitch and jockey wheel locking tab look very similar......

Daggsey

[tinnie]

Nope, not a trotter.
Mind you I was very happy someone made the choice to knock out bricks instead of cut off the draw bar!
Good spot on the hitch!
I now seek a 2inch towball, the 50mm got me home, but only just, and as you will all see there was no brakes (bring on the East Coast Tour 2007!!!!!)

There's another clue or 2, I guess.

Cheers,

Tinnie

Tinman.......

[tinnie]

Oh yeh, the photo was not doctored, it is legit. Someone really did bang a hole in the wall and poke the draw bar through!
Bloody hitch was siezed up nicely too, took some CRC and time to free it up.....

Tinman

[raym]

Coupling (hitch) could be a J.C. Forbes or Hold-Fast brand, in which case the ball size would be 2 1/8th inches or 2 1/4 inches both from South Australia.
Raym

[wildmanaus]

Hello Tinnie
Would it be a Aluim Murrumba star

[tinnie]

Greetings! ;D

Raym, thanks for the hitch info, I will have a look at the markings on it.

Wildmanaus, I don't think she's a Murrumba Star. It has some aluminium, but not full aluminium.

Chapter 2 of the retrieval.
Upon arrival at our destination, we unlock and open the garage where the van is, the first comment from my mate is "Geezuz the front is close to that wall! Hey, has this thing got a drawbar?" Some other comments are uttered until he is relieved to see the drawbar poking through the hole in the wall.
Comment number two "We're not gunna get it out under that roller door! I reckon the van was put in & then the door put on!" At this stage I was a little concerned (Visions of having to remove and refit roller door). Roller door gets pushed up hard against its stops, we stand back scratch heads and agree "It's gunna be real close".
Unload goodies from boot of car (tools, wheels, 12v compressor, spare 12v battery, trolley jack etc, etc). Remove van off its blocks and pump up tyres, push van back far enough to fit power jockey wheel (ratchet type). Then the van cruises backwards until the roof hatch is almost up to the roller door. My mate climbs up and looks at the door - roof hatch situation. Some interesting comments are uttered. I ask how much room we don't have, the reply is 3 inches! Proceed to deflate the recently inflated tyres, hoping that this will drop the van by the required 3 inches!

Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Meanwhile, here is another clue:





Cheers,

Tinnie

[Deleted]

Hi tinnie

Love the story so far.

I'm guessing about a 10ft Bondwood - Castle, Atlantic or similar from around 1960 to 62. No brakes fitted so also indicates a small van. Cant be any earlier than 1960 as it has laminex on the cupboard doors. Appears as though it has a front table most likely for 2 people ( can see corner of table in picha) .
Just under a normal sized double bed down the back but will be slightly cramped up as the van will only be just on 6' wide .

Will have aluminium stone guards on either side at the front.
More than likely running 13" holden wheels .
If it is earlier than '58 it could possibly have 15" FJ holden wheels


So... there ya go . A lot of summising . cant wait for the next installment.

Oh bye the way... ditch that old coupling and fit a quick release 50mm coupling. lot safer and quicker to use .

Reddo

[firefighter]

HI TINNIE
its the one from lock sport on e,bay that you said had your name on it, bondwood sides with a blue strip ,in the picture you can see the the roller door & blue stone wall (so wheres my buggared if i know prize ) sorry to blow you contest so early but i wanted the prize
geoff

[tinnie]

Sorry Geoff, gunna have to string this out a bit longer (so I can think of a prize )
Anyway ya haven't guessed the brand yet. Matter of fact neither have I - but I'll explain that soon.

Tinnie

[tinnie]

Reddo,

Hows the glass-rash, hope it's all cleared up. Maybe try some calamine lotion - apparently works for poison ivy?!?

Further hints - the van is bondwood sides and tin on roof and front/rear. I haven't yet measured the width, but she's a couple of inches under 15' (which was bigger than I thought when I bid on ebay for it. It does lack any braking and does run 13" wheels. IWill provide more info on what I know to try to unravel the mystery after Chapter 3

Tinnie.

PS - Great rescue mission on the glassvan! I had a great laugh at that.

[tinnie]

Howdy folks,

Here goes chapter three of the retrieval
(those of you that are ebay savvy can check out item no. 200050117438 - I knew Geoff would guess it ).

Tyres deflated (and my enthusiasm a bit too by now - but still saying "I love a challenge!"), I climb up to survey the situation; it's gunna fit!!!! still tight but it will fit! ;D
We all (three of us) proceed to the front of van and encounter the next problem and a valuable lesson. I know now how important tyre pressure is, coz even with three of us standing on the drawbar, the power wheel still slips!
Time for the tow rope. I back up the trusty Falcon, we hook up the rope and........

Before the van gives the rope starts to. (More interesting language banters about). We re-tie the rope.
Woah - stop the press! Did I mention the van is in the garage backwards??? Well it was.
Anyway, rope now retied (to rear chassis of van), mate standing on the blocks the van was on, using length of 4X2 to lever the roller door up over top edge of roof hatch, mate's son leaning hard against front of van (so it wont turn across into the wall), we try again.

Trying desperately not to unleash the full awesome power of the Falcon (yeh go on and laugh you GM fans), we edge forward, bit by bit. The rope creaking, but the van she keeps moving, until eventually we are free, the wheels drop an inch off the edge of the concrete in the shed doorway and the roof hatch is now well clear of the door. Time to re-inflate the tyres.
Next problem, the van has screwed across to about an inch off the garage wall AND we need to turn it to clear a brick fence thats in line with the shed (actually slightly off-line in the wrong direction). Anyway, the trim above the RHS friont window now has a slight buckle but we got the van out far enough to hook the car on the front.
Now the van was such a tight fit in the garage that the tail lights had been removed. Fortunatley I had the forsight ( for once in my life) to go to that particular auto store that sponsor Greg Murphy and buy new lights and ten metres of cable (and spend an hour the night before wiring it up). So, a couple of screws and some cable ties and hey presto lights! Some rope on the roof hatch ( since the catches were long departed) and some packing tape on some of the windows, give the tyres a kick and we are off!
Back via the Estate Agents office in Loch Sport (thanks Geoff)where I was tempted to ask if they accepted trade ins - he he -and the bottle shop, since my co pilot felt he'd earned a travellor and we were off home!
A couple of adjustments on the way home to keep the hitch real tight and all was going well, until my missus rang.
(No I hadn't BS'ed her that I was going to play golf). About three seconds after she rang, the front window on the van (which had been cracked) let go in as bigger way as a window can at 90kph. Anyway, I remove two panels from under one rear bed, some more packing tape and off agin.

Amazingly, after godonlyknows how manyyears in that shed, the tyres were fine and the bearings made the trip home fine too.
So here are a couple more pics:

This ones off the ebay listing:


This one is at home, just unhooked (note the on-road emergency front window cover up).


Not happy about the "Breaka" label on the door .

Tomorrow I will provide the rest of the info I have on the van and explain my mystery regarding it's build! Hopefully one of you real VV experts out there can help me identify it!

Cheers,
Tinnie

[Deleted]

Hi tinnie. ;D

You and your mates are to be commended on your determination and removal skills . If we want something bad enough we will always find a way of retrieving it. Love knows no boundaries !!!
Dont think we will ever see Jims " imprisoned' van back on the streets in one piece though .

Shame about the window blowing out . nothing that cant be repaired.
The van appears to be around a 62 to 64 vintage . a bit of a transition period for vans i reckon.
Part alloy part plywood. Bump above window, ice chest .. no fridge.
By about 1964/65 i feel nearly all vans where boasting fridges. Those manufacturers that stayed with ice chest would have been missing out on sales for sure.

Most of the old viscounts, millards, Escorts etc went with the "bump on the forehead" look by the mid 60s right through into the late seventies.

unusual for a 15 ft van not to have brakes??? have you had a look underneath to see if the hubs have backing plates with brakes ( possibly mechanical overide) fitted. Previuos owner may have changed the coupling to a plain non overide type.


Now if you will excuse me i have a date with a dermitoligist. She is consider doing a full body skin graft to rid me of "fibreglassosis". I have done a deal with the people at the Lucas hieghts Nuclear reactor facility in sydney. The sunliner is now parked in a lead sealed container in an exclusion zone.

Also looks like it might be heading to byron bay with its potential new owner "Sam" before xmas .

Keep us posted with your progress mate. Will be interesting to find out what "breed" the 15 footer is.

Reddo

[firefighter]

HI TINNIE
looks like you got your self a nice van, with a bit of hard work getting it out of the area it was stuck in
if you cannot find out who made it why not contact the estate agent who sold the house & ask for the previous owners phone no
did the previous owner of the house own the van ?

i think the e/bay listing was put on by the new owner of the house ?
geoff

[wildmanaus]

I was just looking at the pics on ebay and it has all the same as mine only vours is older and has timber sides, even the clearance lights are the same as what i took off and the water pump is the same have you any more oics of the inside

[tinnie]

Greetings,

Thanks for the suggestion about the brakes Reddo, I will climb under and have a better look (hopefully your thoughts on the hitch having been changed are right, it will then save me some time and $$ as I expect I will need to fit brakes to register it).

Initially I was excited as I thought the van was a Glenlee which were manufactured locally (Traralgon Vic). The van has a Glenlee 'sign' on the rear (which I assume should also be on the front 'bump') and a metal plaque beneath the front window that says "Supplied by Glenlee Caravans Traralgon".
My father looked at the van and said it was not built by Glenlee as they only built full ally vans. He believes back then that Glenlee bought vans off a couple of manufacturers (perhaps Viscount, Franklin or Roma) and rebranded them as Glenlee. He also thought the vans they bought were manufactured in Victoria (perhaps Ballarat). This all makes sense given the plaque on the van says Supplied by and not 'Built by.'
Interestingly there is no chassis number on the van, my dad thought this indicated pre 1960s. Does anyone know when manufacturers started putting chassis numbers on? The draw bar appears original.
The guy I bought the van from had recently bought the property it was 'marooned' in and was shocked that on ebay 55 people had watched it and it sold for what it did. I thought it was a bargain at $590.
I like your idea of going back to the estate agent Geoff (and I do owe you a prize - when I come up with one- it may be a coldie at Coledale next year?). Before I try the agent I am going to try to contact and elderly gent that I believe is the original owner of Glenlee Caravans and hope he owned it back then and remembers who built their vans.
In the interim i welcome any guesses r/e the manufacturer!

I reckon the van had been in that garage for at least a decade, other than the rot in the rear lower side it is all as solid as a rock with no signs of ever having leaked and appears 100% original inside (just needs a thorough clean).
Wildmanaus, I have some more photos of the interior below (I need to shoot some more). The van also has a separate flyscreen door that swings inward.

Wildmanaus, I have some more pics of the interior below (I need to shoot more and will post them in the Photo Album).

Cheers,

Tinnie


Someone drank a lot of flavoured milk. The rot in the rear is not much worse than it appears in this shot.


Kitchen (needs new trim on edge of bench top). The carpet was laid around 1984 (the date on the 'Heralds' laid under it) and appears to have preserved the original lino tiles nicely - although they need reglueing.


Stove a 'Falks'?

[groovy]

It has the look of a very late fifties Franklin about it, but the laminate cupboards and drawers along with the light weight foam ulpholstery look like mid to latish sixties. The icechest standing proud of the cupboard is also unusual as they were generally flush. By the way, you will have to do something with the icebox door as it is warped and wont keep the heat out, the cold in or the ice for very long.
Greg

I went back and had another look at the icebox in the earlier photo and believe the cupboard unit was built to take a fridge as an option as the icebox looks to be held in by 4 screws. Thinking about this I think it is a latish sixties "poverty pack" built by Franklin for the dealer to put his own brand on it.

[kingy]

It's VERY similar to the wayfarar i stripped for parts a month or so back Tinnie (check my previous posts) mine had an electrolux fridge, same stove,windows,and many other similar features.
If you find that it is, i have all the wayfarer badging if needed.
Kingy

[firefighter]

hi tinnie
the sides of your van are so much like my franklin aluminium strips on top of the wheel spats, door catch & hook same & same spot
aluminium strip on bottom of door opening same, paint stripe same place (only mines same size all the way around )
coach head bolts along the bottom of bondwood same spots
you have a step a i dont (would like one if anybody has a spare one ) clearance light different & yours more forward
front of your van is a lot different, my van also did not have a chassis no (vic roads will give you one to stamp on ) my franklin has a job no on every cupboard door on the inside i still cannot find out what year mine is
a lot of things in side are the same , all van builders would have bought fittings from the same distributor i suppose
mine all so has a wooden flywire door that swings inward
as groovy said is it a cheaper franklin model made for dealer to sell as his own ?
geoff ;D ;D ;D

[tinnie]

I thought the shape was all wrong for a Franklin of the 60s. But if they were a special build for dealers to rebrand then that would make sense that it appear different to the regular Franklin branded van.
Is it really possible to be a late 60s van when it has bondy sides??
Being a "povpack" may also shed some light on why there are no brakes on such a large van (I followed Reddo's advise and checked underneath, no sign of backing plates). Additionally the gas pipe under the van is hanging down, almost as though it wasn't well installed at the factory, so I wonder if the van was also supplied to Glenlee with no stove.

Still hoping it was built by Franklin, for some reason I keep buying Franklins......(up until now theyve all been from the seventies).


I really think it's time someone wrote a fair dinkum comprehensive history on caravans in the land of oz!
Any volunteers?

Cheers,

Tinnie

[tinnie]

Kingy,
I just had a look at the shots of the Wayfarer you wrecked, there are some similarities (which could be just tell-tale of the era).
Similarities I noticed thus far being:
Table leg - looks exactly the same, rear window the same, cupboard doors above table are cut in exactly the same, same ally trims used around splash back in kitchen, front 'bump' looks the same. Could all be a coincidence, but I do believe that Wayfarers were built in Melbourne (Springvale??) in the 60s.

This is proving a bigger challenge than getting the van out of the shed!! ;D

Tinnie

[wildmanaus]

Hello Tinnie I will try to get the pic of my inside as it looks the same mine had the sliding stove top but it was no good but the style looks the same
Wildmanaus

[wildmanaus]

Tinnie
I have them there now have a look at the inside looks the same

[firefighter]

hey tinnie
whats happening with the franklin look a like
you are keeping us in the dark , have you found out the make
& year , have you caught up with the old fellow that sold vans in gippsland ( everbodys waiting to hear about your van )
geoff ;D ;D ;D

[tinnie]

Hi Geoff,

I'm still in the dark myself. I haven't yet had a chance to try to catch up with the elderly gent who I hope may answer my mystery. All the info I have been given thus far leans toward Franklin - but the shape of the front is all wrong from all 60's Franklins I have seen.
The interior of the van has had a thorough scrub and came up great. I have also started to polish the aluminium - it will come up trumps I think. My goal is to (identify it and) have it ready to use by the end of Jan (I will then do a better resto during next winter).
Incidentally, does anyone from Victoria know if there is a Blairgowrie/Rye weekend planned for early '07? I am keen!

Cheers,

Tinnie