Which forum?????

[ruby6689]

Hi everyone, I joined this forum a few weeks back but saw your rules so I went over to the Classic Caravan forum which has been very helpful.
On posting a few pics of 'Mildred' a member recognised her as a 'Culbert 10'. The plans were printed in the late '60's but the van I believe was finished early '70's so could you please advise which forums suits best?

This is Mildred the day we picked her up, she is looking far better now and receiving the attention she deserves.

[firefighter]

D'day Ruby6689

Welcome to the forum

Hi everyone, I joined this forum a few weeks back but saw you have rules ......... Ruby we don't have rules ...we are not a club ..........BUT we have guidelines

Welcome to www.vintagecaravans.com NEW Forum, from the site dedicated to the subject of pre 1970 (to 31/12/69) caravans in Australia. The purpose of this forum is to communicate with other early caravan enthusiasts, view the restoration projects of others, identify the features of the various makes of caravans, and to gather information on the whereabouts of pre 1970 caravans to assist interested people in locating them for a prospective purchase. Note: vintagecaravans.com does not support the modification of vintage caravans for commercial purposes, or purposes other than what were originally intended by the manufacturer ......

Our sister forum classic vans was set up by Mark T the sponsor of this forum for any vans made after 31/12 1969

Can I ask what make you think you van was made in the 70s
it looks 60s
Cheers
f/f ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Jennison]

60s' plan, 60s' van.... 60s' it is I reckon..welcome aboard Ruby;D
Culbert 10 is a newy for the books as well
regards
jennison

[ruby6689]

Oops, seems like I'm off to a bad start Sorry at the use of the word 'rules' and not 'guidelines'.

What 'makes me think that the van was made in the '70's' is the fact that the previous owner, my neighbour, told me her brother made it for her parents and when I asked what year she could remember it being around the same time as her sister's birth.....early '70's.

I have no knowledge of vintage/retro caravans and I have come looking for some help and sharing of knowledge and was hoping to meet others that share this passion.

I am a moderator on the Kombi Club Forum and my husband and I have been searching for a van to tow behind our '77 ute (and if it can handle the weight our '67 panel van). A few of our members have vans and there is one featured on this forum that was owned by my daughter's boyfriend at that time.

Someone on the Classic Caravan Forum suggested that I should maybe be on this site, I am happy to be on either just asking for some advice please.

Lorraine

[ruby6689]

May 14, 2011 20:28:25 GMT 10 Jennison said:

60s' plan, 60s' van.... 60s' it is I reckon..welcome aboard Ruby;D
Culbert 10 is a newy for the books as well
regards
jennison

Thank you jennison, I was typing my post when yours was posted.

This is some of the the information I was given from a member on the other forum, he very kindly sent me a copy of some of the book

Its from a book of plans called "Culberts build a caravan " book of which I have a copy.Its called a "Cruiser 10".
All Culberts vans were built from plywood so they could be updated with paint as they aged.
They were also extremly light as they were built with a single skin method(!layer of ply with exposed framework inside)

I know absolutely nothing about these wooden vans but my husband and I have fallen in love with our Mildred and spend all our spare time working on her. She was in amazing good order with just a few small bits needing attention but covered in mould and mildew. We are almost finished remaking her pop top and tomorrow we attack a small replacement timber piece below her water filler. Fingers crossed she wil hit the road soon.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Ruby6689,

It's great to hear about Mildred. I checked out some of the additional photos on the Classic Caravans forum as well. That's a great van you have, and you've made a difference to her already by the looks of it.

Hughdeani is a member of the Vintage Caravan forum also, so you can see there is a fair bit of interaction between the two forums.

I was most interested to hear about the Culbert book. Maybe you or Hughdeani would like to tell us a bit more about it, in addition to showing us progress pics of Mildred as you work on her - and enjoy using her?

By the way, don't worry about referring to rules instead of guidelines. I think what Firefighter was trying to say was that the V V forum guidelines are meant to be interepreted with some flexibility, not be treated as rigid rules. While the focus of this forum is pre-1970 vans, it is impossible to draw a hard line between those before and those after 31 December 1969. In the history section, we often talk about the post-1969 history of different brands of caravans, and it is often impossible to distinguish between vans built before and after if a model range started in the 60's and went through to the 70's.

The other thing to say is that if we have learned one thing on this forum, it is that people's memories are often suspect when they are trying to remember when a caravan was built or bought by themselves, and even more so when it became part of their family when they were a child. The number of clearly 70's vans which were "bought in the 50's", or clearly 50's vans which were "bought new in the 80's" are legend!

So, as Jennison wrote, 60's plans, 60's build van (maybe) - sounds like a 60's van to me! Feel welcome to contribute to both forums as you feel the inclination.

Don Ricardo

[smiles]

Hi Lorraine
Welcome to the forum! When you get your cute Mildred back on the road, you'll have to come along on some outings with the SEQ mob. A great time was a weekend at Wadeville in Feb 2010.
In fact we live just over the hill from you & there are other VVers in the Tweed Valley.

smiles

[ruby6689]

May 15, 2011 23:43:48 GMT 10 smiles said:

Hi Lorraine
Welcome to the forum! When you get your cute Mildred back on the road, you'll have to come along on some outings with the SEQ mob. A great time was a weekend at Wadeville in Feb 2010.
In fact we live just over the hill from you & there are other VVers in the Tweed Valley.

smiles

;D Hi smiles, thanks for the welcome. Nice to see there are a few members in this area.
Shame we didn't know about the Wadeville get together it would have been nice to come and meet you there, was it at the 'Woolies' site?

I have been keeping an eye on the events calender and hopefully will be able to get to Crow's Nest, we stayed there recently in one of our kombis, great park. Our daughter is due to give us our one and only Grandchild around that time but hopefully we will be able to attend. ;D I would love to check out other vans and maybe get a bit more info about our Mildred.

[Franklin1]

G'day DonR,

The Culbert's "Build A Caravan" book was published sometime in the early 1970s. I bought my copy in 1975 from a Newsagent, but there's no publication date in it.

The book was the "instructions part" on how to build five different vans you could buy the plans for. Plans were full-sized, so you laid them over the ply and traced around the paper. I bought the book, but never got around to buying any plans. You would have to think there's some plans in a brown envelope in some ol' codger's shed waiting for an ebay opportunity.

The five vans that could be built were:

Cruiser 10 (10ft)
Cruiser 12
Family 13
Family 15
Family 20


ruby6689's Cruiser 10 is the first I can ever recall seeing from the Culbert's stable. No doubt there must have been others built in a backyard or two, but what's happened to them, who knows.

This photo appears in the book, and is of a completed "Cruiser 10"...




cheeers,
Al.

[Franklin1]

Here's a newspaper archives advertisement from February 1972, so the book was available as early as that year...




By the time I bought my book in 1975, the address for the plans had changed a couple of times. My book cost me $1.70, so the price had jumped up a bit as well (...although it's worth $1,700,000 now... )

[ruby6689]

Thank you for the information, if I had $1,700,000 I would buy the book off you ;D

I might see if my neighbour can ask her family if they kept the book and plans. She hasn't been game to tell them that she has parted with the van as yet as she didn't want to upset her elderly parents. I may have to wait a while. Fingers crossed they still have them.

Our Mildred hasn't got the portholes, must have been too hard to do, but she does have some extra drawers.

[ruby6689]

It's been a while and Mildred is getting closer to hitting the road. It's taken more time than I had hoped but I am very happy with what we have achieved.

The Crows Nest get together was inspiring for us and I thank the members who allowed us to check their vans out and shared our company.

We came away keen to get stuck into Mildred and have spent all our limited spare time attacking her with gusto. Tomorrow I hope to have her interior paint finished, for a tiny caravan boy are there a lot of nooks and crannies that need painting.

The draw bar has been stripped of its 6 layers of paint. I couldn't help but wonder what stories she could tell us that went with each layer or different coloured paint.

While I have concentrated on the interior poor Andy has been lying on his back stripping, cleaning, rust converting and repainting the underside. She is in very good condition for her age.

After searching the internet for vintage curtain fabric I ended up with 3 lots, two from overseas but the best came from a vintage shop here in Lismore! I am chaffing at the bit wanting to make them up but I need to finish the paint first.

I'm having so much fun collecting all her accessories, Tupperware, shag carpet, chenille bedspeads and flying ducks are all waiting to be displayed. I thought I had seen the last of them 30 years ago.

[vernon]

good on you both, will be good to see your pics,
Cheers,
Des and Kel

[ruby6689]

A couple of pics
Cushions before covered in mould and mildew.

Cushions after a good old scrub, not perfect but better. 'New' genuine 60's brass buttons have been sourced and replaced.


The draw bar before

After hours of stripping

The draw bar has now been painted but no pic.

[Dave&Tammy]

Hi ruby6689,

Welcome & what a great looking van.

Dave & Tammy

[ruby6689]

At last...REGO

Chose the colours to match our other babies.






It was a lot of fun collecting all the old things to go inside.





Now to sort out a tow vehicle

[Deleted]

Hiya Ruby

Congrats guys ..
Your little van looks brilliant.... inside AND out.
Job well done.

Damn shame the two stablemates wont be getting used as towcars.


Regards
Reddo

[halps]

Ruby...
The van looks great and as for those VW's...well they are sensational too. It is great to see another Vdubber on here enjoying the hobby.
Well done!
HALPS

[ruby6689]

Dec 19, 2011 19:50:29 GMT 10 @reddo said:

Damn shame the two stablemates wont be getting used as towcars.


Regards
Reddo

We are hoping that we can get a special tow bar made for Monty, the ute. He is lowered and has a dual exhaust that a standard tow bar will not fit. The gentleman that did the welding on Monty's gates will be looking at it in the New Year.

We have a VERY steep dirt driveway so that doesn't help either.

You know what, maybe we are just darn idiots to have a dream, to spend all our spare time and money restoring our old bombs and then dare to attempt to restore an old van that may never be towed behind our kombis as originaly hoped.

halps - you seem to have a bit more faith, thank you

[halps]

Ruby, you will have hundreds of people on this forum that believe there is nothing wrong with trying, spending money, trying again...there are worse ways to blow $$$$ in life.

Many on this forum know that I am a novice and VW lover and even though I have asked (what could be) naive, silly questions to others, they have always been answered respectfully. I have yet to meet an ego on here.

I would also point out that the diversity of tow vehicles are treated in the spirit of that they add to the "richness" of the forum.

Reddo has given me a lot of advice...some that sticks in my mind is to use your van for what it was designed to do, modify/decorate to your taste and just have fun. ;D

HALPS
PS: the lighter I travel, the better the Kombi and Capricorn goes...one time would you believe I had it up to 78km/h ;D ;D ;D

[ruby6689]

Dec 19, 2011 19:50:29 GMT 10 @reddo said:

Damn shame the two stablemates wont be getting used as towcars.


Regards
Reddo

At one stage we thought this may be the case but at last our dream has been realised.

The first trip out together was to the VW Spectacular at Valla a couple of weekends ago. I was over the moon to be presented with one of the top 10 trophies in a field of 504 entries.

Monty had no trouble at all towing ;D

[shesgotthelook]

I love your van & she definitely looks the part of vintage no matter when she was built.
Franklin1, I nearly fainted when I saw your Renault pic. I used to drive a Renault 16TS & my father had a Citroen DS Goddess. Would love to own both cars today. Makes me want to rush out, sell the EJ & find me a french car