fibreglass van

[Deleted]

Hi Mark,

Brian asked me to send these photos to you. He is curious what the light blue fibreglass van is. I was too young to remember as it belonged to my father. My brother told me that my dad was very proud of himself because it was the first fibreglass caravan in the area so he parked it were everyone could see it at the caravan park ( photo of van on chevy ). You can see all the bondwoods in the background. Feel free to use these photos as you wish as they belong to my family.

Regards Bev

[boblor]

Hi All
The van in the 4th photo appears to have a Jones Dolly wheel on it.
Cheers boblor

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Mark,

What an interesting set of photos. But how frustrating - a logo on the front and another on the back as big as all outdoors and I still can't read it!!

Can you pick anything out with your mega-screen?

Whoever built it obviously didn't want anybody to be ignorant of its maker - except us.

Don Ricardo

[Deleted]

G'day Don R,
the pics Bev emailed to me are huge, but I am unable to read the signage ......the pics are copied off slides.
I can email them to you if you like ........

Its an early fibreglass van (and a beautiful looking one ), I thought Boblor maybe able to identify it .......

Have a close look at the 3rd pic, see the caravan with a similar shape to Earlie's .......and what appears to be a "pop up" caravan with spoked wheels

Some interesting photos indeed !!!

Mark

[Don Ricardo]

The fibreglass van looks pretty conventional in most respects, unlike Sunliners or Olympics. So the question is who tried building a conventional caravan using fibreglass?

I know that Wayfarer experimented with building vans with external bondwood panels covered in fibreglass, so they could be a candidate. But it doesn't look like any of the Wayfarers shown on the forum (not that we've seen a lot of them).

The Chev appears to have Victorian plates (GNS ...?) so that may suggest that the van was Victorian built?

There are indeed some interesting vans in the camping ground pic. The one you referred to looks a bit like a Springbok, but isn't rounded enough at the front I think. All the same it is quite a long van.

The van to the left of the fibreglass van appears to be a Roadmaster in the same colour scheme as one in a pic of a Roadmaster posted by Franklin1 on the DHL thread - green, pink and white.

And I agree - the squarish van to the right of the fibreglass van looks as if it could be a folding or a pop top van, and with wire wheels.

Don Ricardo

[huddylove]

Hi Everyone, yes, it is Victoria. Don't say that out loud cos the sand groppers aren't keen on us for some reason. I think it's to do with Victorian Football teams being better than WA. I was about 4 or 5 so that makes the year around 1960 - 61. It was a typical lay out with seats and folding table at the front and couch across the back which made a double bed. The vinyl was a mottly blue with a rough texture. My dad was originally from Hawthorn, Melbourne. I think it was about 16 feet. The Chevy looks a lot like Brians '52 which he is selling by the way.
cheers Huddylove

[huddylove]

Hi again, I forgot to add that my dad made the teardrop and I have a copy of a book that has the designs in it from 1957.

[atouchofglass]

Hi Guys

Part of the evolution of fibreglass in the caravan industry?
Interesting to see someone dipping their toe into fibreglass vans
New material at the time using conventional knowledge to construct
It was a brave move considering Bondwood was the go at the time
Perhaps another reason they followed a similar shape and construction method to those being used at the time


The petrol bowsers in the servo would be worth a fortune today

Cheers
Atog

[Franklin1]

Why do I get the feeling there's a hint of a connection between this van and Franklin??

"Because that's all you think about!!" I hear you say.

"Not True! Not True!!", I shout in my defence. This forum is full of examples of where I've talked about plenty of other makes of vans, such as the Viscountfranklin, the Furnessfranklin - and let's not forget when I talked at length about the original Ecclesfranklin from England in the 1920s.
_{(Sheesh...only think about Franklins... )}

But I digress...

There's just something niggling at me about the style of the front windows. Not unlike the windows of the early Franklin bondwoods, and the Franklin fibreglass vans of the early 1960s. Who else were making the centre window with the two side wrap-arounds? Viscount?

These 1960 Franklin photos (bottom set) show what I'm thinking about...



What say you, Detective DonR??

cheers,
Al.

[noblesgarage]

Hi All ;D On further investigating it turns out this van was built in SA Drissol Caravans Seems its a totally fiberglass So this leaves the door open for another van for down memory lane

[Deleted]

I've advised that the fibreglass caravan pictured at the beginning of this thread is a "Drisoll" ......built in South Australia.

Has anyone heard of this brand of caravan?

Mark

[noblesgarage]

>:(BUGGER Left out the C ;D ;D Its a Drisscol Caravan May be thats better Glass's help a lot