NZ 1948 Homebuilt

[Koala]

On a recent holiday to New Zealand I found this homebuilt van in the Settlers Museum at Dunedin. Excellent workmanship, lots of wood and chrome, even a wood stove. The rear has a hatch that opens in teardrop style. The underside is streamlined with sheeting underneath............when you look under it is smooth and you can't even see the axle. Obviously the builder was a good tradesman.











Koala

[firefighter]

Hi Koala

What a ripper of a van....... love the inside wood work.....wood stove...... have to make sure no logs rolled out

I suppose you could have a bucket of water out side the van like cobber has in case you need it
f/f ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Franklin1]

G'day koala, wonderful old van there! All polished timber and chrome...bewdiful!! ;D

I guess there's only so many different ways of shaping a caravan, but the shape of this van is not unlike the Flynn Cabincar we had here in the early 1950s...



...and this other home-made van that's in our history section...



The builder of the van in NZ has certainly put some effort into the framework! Wonder how much the finished van weighs?

Great pictures!

cheers,
Al.

[Koala]

No idea what the van weighs but I suspect that it woud be quite heavy.
You need to see the van to appreciate the small details and workmanship. Can't imagine the purpose pf the large opening rear hatch over the bed, maybe for ventilation but would just let the bugs in during the night.??
It even has a chromed cover that goes over the tow hitch to make it look pretty. The original number plate and lights are fully recessed wirh a glass lens so that the rear is just smooth.............although someone has screwed on a couple of extra modern lights at some stage.
Because it is so low to the ground there is a bit of damage under the rear where it has scraped

Koala

[kazandadam]

Oh I'm just glad that one is not for sale in Oz otherwise I'd be devorced! There certainly are some weird & wonderful VV's around the traps.......makes it very difficult to cease collecting.

PS: In 1988 I used to own a black 1960 Pontiac with a tri-power 389 B/B!

[mezmo]

Koala,

'Thanx' for sharing these pics with everyone. I just love seeing photos of these old beauties.

What a great example of design, craftsmanship and workmanship.
Truly a fine example of a vehicle as art. I'm glad the museum is able to preserve it for the world.

Cheers,

Norm

[griffin]

We saw the Buick and van at the Settlers Museum in Dunedin while holidaying in 06, its a great thing ;D ;Dand every v/vanner should make the effort to go and have a look if you are over there.

While scratching around on the www the other night I found this site showing a van at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, check the link if you are interested in 30s NZ homebuilt vans. Only one photo unfortunately

collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ObjectDetails.aspx?oid=626335

if you also look into the Results from DigitalNZ links at the bottom right of the page there are pages of all sorts of caravan photos including a brick caravan Only in NZ