Fisher's Resto

[Roehm3108]

I really like how you are approaching this resto so systematically - a lesson for all potential restorers.

You're doing a great job there and thanks for the pics as you progress. A special "YAY" to your dad - he deserves it. Who said parents don't know how to do things

Keep up the good work

Ray

[gregw]

You are doing a great job kfischer and friends, keep the photos coming, it is fantastic to show your ideas and to encourage others to have a go
gregw

[takeiteasy]

Great job... great pics. My Dad was very handy, being a retired car and wagon builder. He died a few years back but, still, when I get stumped on the van I have a "ring Dad" message go up in my mind. Anyhow, keep the pics coming!

[humpty2]

Don't forget to wash that calico before you put it on.......twice at least.
You will find there's a lot of dirt in it.
Keep up the good work.
Humpty.

[King Fisher]

My dad has been a fantastic help. And I really appreciate what he has done so far. It is great to be able to call on his vast experience he has gained over the years with renovating houses and also he has built his own holiday house.


Way to go dad

[King Fisher]

The weekend is quickly approaching so it is time to have a good think about what jobs need doing over the next two days. Unfortunately the weather report is varying, every time I look it changes, so I don't want to risk doing the canvas till the forecast looks more bright. So the plan is some inside and some outside jobs to maximize the work between possible showers. I am planning to get the lower outside side ply back on, the front roof screwed down, table wall mount fitted, finish sanding inside and the back bunks re-attached. If we get a good break in the weather might get some undercoat on the sides. Tonight will be doing a run to the big shed near by to get some more supplies like screws, filler and a few bits of timber.

[King Fisher]

Well two weekends have passed now, on the first the weather had a little break so I decided to start putting the material on the roof. My advice to anyone considering redoing theirs is to pick a day that's not too hot so that you have time to manipulate the material before the paint sets and to just dive in head first and get stuck into it. The process was not as daunting as it sounds and it only took just under three hours. I found that if you slopped a generous coating of undercoat on first then stretched the material out while smoothing and rubbing it into the undercoat, while it is still wet. Because of the larger amount of undercoat it did take longer to dry than expected. Once the calico was held in place and while still wet, a good coating of undercoat over the top.

Ok enough bla bla bla – onto the pickies.

We laid the calico out over the whole roof first, some people roll it and work from the back to the front. We decided to be different and worked from the hatch out. This caused a problem when we got to the third side as I had not expected the calico to stretch so much. Next time back to front...


Slop undercoat on


Stretch out material and Pat down


Paint over the top


Then repeat. I found if you do a patch about 1m square at a time worked well. Expect to get paint all over yourself though



Stretching the material as you go a bit helps it to flatten easier so you can rub it into the paint.





Keep repeating paint, cover, stretch, smooth and paint over...















Till you get to the end, then we tacked the excess in place with a few holding nails.










The last few brush strokes and it's done 2h 47min, WOO HOO!


Finished


Just like the roofing tin advert, standing in a daze admiring the roof...


Expect to get covered in paint


The following weekend I trimmed off the excess material off the sides to allow about a 1cm overhang


Then when I put a second layer of undercoat on the roof I painted the overhanging pieces into the top of the walls to create a seal.


More to come soon.

[King Fisher]

On the second weekend the weather was a bit better and we got the chance to put a layer of undercoat on the sides of the van. But we first had to punch in all the nail holes and cover them with a filler.

Punch in nails


Filled holes




Sanding


Painting started


And continued...






The chain gang


Are we there yet???


Nearly done




First coat of undercoat on the outside done, 2 coats on the roof done

[King Fisher]

I know I'm backtracking a little a little. The wood below were we cut was replaced with new wood.

We had to replace the lower 30cm of ply so all the old ply at the bottom was cut off.


The new ply was cut out with a jig saw to the required shape


Sickaflex and nailed into place in the same way that the old ply was re-nailed before.




The nails then had to be punched in with a punch so that the filler can fill the holes smooth. As you can see we were all well over punching nails by the time it was finished.








Ok I can hear some people starting to yell soon, sorry but my philosophy is 90% restoration (as original) and 10% renovation (slight design changes for practicality). There are three issues here that has made me decide to place a horizontal quad strip along the join.

1. The new ply is slightly thinner than the original ply so there is a noticeable height difference which is hidden by the quad trim.
2. My ability to fill the gap is pretty poor, and I was also worried about the filler causing a horizontal crack in the paint.
3. It will be far easier to replace the lower wood again when it rots out next time.

The quad was nailed on with sickaflex underneath




Then a bead of sickaflex was run along the top and bottom of the quad and smoothed in to seal the join from any water.


The finished unpainted result:

[King Fisher]

Last weekend I got stuck into fixing up the hatch. Most of the wood of the old hatch was pretty good except the side trims and the paint had suffered with the weather.


The first trick was to rip off the old side wood strips using a chisel






Then I removed the old nails with a claw hammer and gave the edges a slight plane to smoothen them up.


Sand both sides




Finished sanding


Replaced side trim wood all round and nailed into place


In order to better protect and waterproof the hatch I decided to cover it in calico, in the same fashion as the roof.

Using the same process as with the roof:
1.Slop on the undercoat




2.Stretch over material


2b.Pat down




3.Paint over




4.Repeat till finished

[King Fisher]

Had a few minutes left at the end of the day so while I was packing up I saw this piece of scrap ply and decided to look at a backing board for the number plate and lights.

The original lights that came on the van had round lenses, and looked like a fairly generic light which possibly had been replaced at some stage.


Because of this I have decided to use a similar style of light, except instead of having a round lens it uses a square lens which is easily available, and can be replaced easily.
However I felt that they needed to sit on a backing board instead of being flush mounted to the van.

I got this scrap piece of ply and shaped and slightly rounded the edges.

Final product

[King Fisher]

Now that the hatch was covered with material there was the dilemma of how to finish off the material underneath so I decided to fold the corners and seal them under a metal edge cap.

Corners folded over and trimmed off


Edge caps cut out of corner metal and holes were drilled for nails


Sickaflex was applied under the corner fold to help give a better seal


The material I folded over the edge and stapled into place much like an upholstered chair


Then trimmed off the excess


Applying some more Sickaflex behind the corner pieces they were then nailed into place




Then the whole thing was undercaoted
(blue because it's sitting under blue plastic...)

[King Fisher]

Around the roof box was much the same deal to finish it off. Staple then trim the materail.

Staple


Cut off excess material


Paint over the whole lot


It's not perfect but I believe it's good enough

[humpyboy]

Top job guys, it is going to come up a treat when you are done.

[King Fisher]

Now Bessie has her underwear on (material on the roof and undercoat) it's time to dress her on the outside with some colour.



The plan is to use two colours: cream and green. The colours were chosen by my good friend who used to be a spray painter and has a much better sense of colour than me ;D . Her idea was to use cream on the roof and green on the sides with cream skirts. But being fairly defiant I painted the roof green as I felt it should have been the same colour as the side. Nearly broke the friendship. However it did make it easier to do the sides as the over painting did not show on the roof as it was the same color.




The rest of the van was painted as planned


So a test patch was done to try to change my mind


It worked and we changed the roof to cream






Started to undercoat the front window and a second coat on the seats for inside.


Undercoated the letters for the front of the van

[King Fisher]

Mounted the power inlet socket, and screwed it down. Some fittings I am using modern parts for safety and ease of replacement as I intend to use Bessie a lot over the years to come.


Mounted the clearance lights on the side of the van in the original position.


Applied 12v to the tail light wires and nothing happened... I was devastated that the two lights didn't light up. So I had a little ponder for a bit and remembered that the clearance lights were wired in single core wire and the wires at the back lights were multi strand wires. So the puzzle was where did they go??? I went to the battery box and guessed that the wires went through the switch near the door. So I hooked up the battery and switched the wires together and presto the clearance lights came on.

The switch near the door that turn on the side clearance lights


So the question is now do I have to change it so they come on with the tail lights to be legal (Vic)? Or can they be just left wired as original where the switch manually operates the clearance lights??? Seems a little strange.

But now they work - woo hoo.

[Geoff & Jude]

hi kfisher

i wasn't unusual for older vans to have a separate switch to supply battery power to turn on the clearance/running lights.

this was for safety reasons to 'light up' the van when parked overnight in a layback or on the side of the road.

it's a bit unusual (i think) to only have the clearance lights wired up to the switch and i reckon if the van has clearance lights, vic roads will require them to be connected in parallel with the tail lights.

the switch will then turn on the tail and clearance lights.

geoff 'n jude

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Kfisher,

A bit more on the switch arrangement for your clearance lights...

Back in the day, it was normal for cars to have a separate switch for turning on their tail lights. As far as I know this was normally located at the rear of the car adjacent to one of the tail lights itself - yep, an external switch (just imagine how much fun small children and vandals with mischief on their minds could have with that these days!).

This was the case on vehicles in Victoria up until at least the late 40's, so when dusk began to fall you needed to stop your car, jump out, race to the back of the car, turn on the tail lights and then resume your journey. It was a big deal as a kid when you got old enough to be trusted to get out and turn on the tail light, and I remember doing that. I think I've read somewhere that the separate external switch was a legal requirement for registration, not just because car manufacturers couldn't think of a better way of doing it. The reason may have been the one identified by Geoff'njude.

You may already know the above, but the reason I'm mentioning it is that the idea of a separate switch was also applied to caravans. Caravans built in the 40's (not sure how universally) had a separate switch somewhere inside the van to turn on the tail lights and clearance lights. Our 1949 Don is still set up this way, and I saw a number of older caravans at the V V Nationals in Cowra that have the same set up. So...at dusk, not only did you have to race around to the rear of the car to turn on the car tail lights, but you then had to jump into the van to turn on its tail lights as well.

My guess is that the switch in your vans for the clearance light is a relic of this requirement, and that originally the tail lights may have been connected to the same switch but at some stage was wired more directly.

I'm enjoying seeing the pics of your restoration. Looks like you're doing a great job.

Don Ricardo

[King Fisher]

Thanks heaps for the replies, that would make sense to be able to keep the clearance lights on in a dark location. So I might try to keep the switch then as it's another part of Bessie's personality, however I could put in a relay in parallel to activate them when the tail lights are on... hmm another decision... We are so glad that your enjoying the pickies.

[King Fisher]

This weekend really didn't do too much but I finished off the other two side windows, now the three of them are ready for undercoat and painting, and not to forget the glass...

[King Fisher]

Back to sanding, sanding and more sanding. Not too much to go and I will be able to undercoat the inside.





While I'm at it here are the three windows I made up last weekend (no glass yet)

[hilldweller]

Those windows look fab

[King Fisher]

Yea, I'm pretty happy with the results. Not bad for an IT geek if I say so myself... Sorry to be so proud... But... My words for anyone with wooden windows that need replacing, "it's not as hard as it looks."

[donald80]

roof paint
i used an insolution paint from australian paint it's not cheap but i think it will turn out cheap
in the end it did a great job

[cobber]

Hang in there kfisher... you should finish this van off over this long weekend....like I said earlier you're doing a great job .

Roof paint ? did you mention roof paint ?

At some point in the dim dark distant past somebody used and recommended “Thermoshield MegaBond” paint for the roof of caravans... and that is what we have recommended in the Restoration Parts Suppliers thread.

Now that Donald80 has used and recommends this Insolution paint I'll add it to the list.

As a point of interest.... what paint have you used on the van ?

Cobber.