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Post by Franklin1 on Feb 26, 2021 9:25:23 GMT 10
G'day Di, and a big "hello" from me for your reappearance as well! Searching for handles is like looking for the holy grail. I'm still looking for plastic push-button handles, six years after finishing my van. The most difficult thing I've found is knowing what 'key words' will yield some worthwhile results, because the people that list their items can sometimes use really obscure words. For example, these handles on etsy are listed as "antique modern kitchen cupboard handle latch NOS, national lock co N61-308", and your chances of discovering these handles are limited if you use the word 'vintage' in your search. You can sometimes get some leads from searches like this oneFor your list of ebay sellers that you follow, there is a seller in California USA who often has one or more cabinet handles/pulls listed. The downside is that there is rarely the number you are looking for, but it is a useful source to see what some of the vintage handle designs looked like. The other downside is that postage costs from the US are now horrendous. The ebay seller is okatiedid, who also lists other bits and pieces for the vintage American trailers, some of those parts being used here in Australia. Good luck with your search. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 11, 2021 23:05:35 GMT 10
I've made two canvas awnings for my vans, plus converted a heavy duty tarpaulin to make a wet-weather awning when required. In all cases, the awnings look like this when they are cut to size... I buy the piece of canvas big enough to do the job without any joins. Usually I get canvas that is 2.2 metres wide, and by the time I've put hems around the edges, it comes down to about 2.1 metres from caravan roof out to the awning poles.
This is how I measure the van to mark out the canvas... Red line A-B is where I want the height of the outer edge (the poles edge) of the awning to line up with the van. Measure the halfway point of line AB and mark as C. Draw a line perpendicular from C to top of van roof and mark as D. Curve of roof will be covered by marking AD and DB on canvas, either side of halfway point... Does that make sense?? cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 10, 2021 19:15:16 GMT 10
G'day mustang, Your fittings are known as "quadrant stays". I increased the tension applied by the wingnuts, by fitting leather washers to either side of the bolt in the slides. This means less force required to get suitable tightness.
My hatch is super heavy and will always flop either way front or back, when I lift all quadrant stays up to their full height. I've ended up raising only one end to take advantage of, or to protect from, the prevailing wind.
The advantage I've found with these type of stays is that I can partly lift any one of the four sides of the hatch. This has been useful in strong wind/rain.
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 8, 2021 19:49:39 GMT 10
G'day morgzord, Scroll down the page to the Specifications and see if the measurements match the flat section of your threaded spindle ends. The flat end in your photo doesn't look too bad, but sometimes these can get "oval shaped" from wear and tear during the up-and-down winding over the years. If the CaravansPlus winder suits your needs, I'd buy two of them. Keep one as a manual winder, and cut the end of the second one to have the socket and a few inches of rod attached. That way you can insert the socket/rod into a cordless drill and do similar to what Mustang does with his set-up. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Dec 2, 2020 20:29:07 GMT 10
G'day Ray, I was browsing in Gumtree and came across this version of your creation: cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Nov 18, 2020 20:38:00 GMT 10
G'day geomac,
A similar product is sold on ebay in the UK, and various sellers there will ship to Canada. The item you found in CaravansPlus is bent on one side only, whereas the items in the UK are double-sided bends. Perhaps you could cut the bend off one side to make it suit your requirements?
Search for: STATIC CARAVAN WHITE PLASTIC WINDOW CAPPING/TRIM - 25MM X 10M + FREE PINS
There appears to be two different widths available: 25mm and 37mm
Hope this helps,
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Oct 14, 2020 20:26:40 GMT 10
G'day Belinda,
The sharpest (tightest) radius you have to bend the ply around is the roof curve above the front window. If that radius is 500mm or greater, then 4mm ply will bend around that ok. If the radius is less than 500mm, you'll have to go to 3mm thickness.
The wall sheets could be fitted as follows, to minimise the amount of joints:
1) first sheet from front of van to right side of doorway. Only a small joint between sheets at top right of door. 2) second sheet from right side of doorway to right side of window. 3) third sheet from right side of window to rear of van (this would be a relatively narrow strip of ply sheet).
I wouldn't bother about scarfing the sheets. It's too complicated for the thicknesses you'll be using. These days the polyurethane adhesives will give a good weatherproof joint if you join the sheets over a timber frame stud. Use small hot-dipped galvanised nails/panel pins to fix the sheets while the adhesive sets.
I used nickel-plated brass screws to fix the j-mould into position. I bought mine from Classic Fasteners in South Australia. Another option is to source some escutcheon pins/nails made out of stainless steel. I think shesgotthelook sourced some from the UK for one of her Viscount restorations.
Is the condition of your van really so bad that it requires ALL the ply sheets to be replaced? That's some pretty serious deterioration over the last 10 years or so.
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Sept 23, 2020 21:29:05 GMT 10
G'day Belinda,
When I rebuilt my "Walsh" van, I used 4mm ply for the front-top-rear curved sections; 6mm for the side walls; and 12mm for the floor. The 4mm ply bent around the sharpest radius on my van, which was the curve above the front window (similar to what you have on the Atlantic).
I used "exterior grade" ply with B-B faces for all the thicknesses I bought. Exterior grade has the same glue bond as marine ply, so will withstand weathering. Marine ply is a select grade of ply that doesn't have any small gaps in the layers when you cut the edge. Exterior grade will have some of these small gaps (called 'voids') but you can seal these gaps with polyurethane adhesive and make your own version of marine ply much more cheaply.
The "B-B" faces are suitable for painting, and will reduce your costs for the ply compared with the premium "A-A" grade which is used for staining.
I used a chemical paint stripper to remove the paint from all the metal parts I wanted to salvage and re-use. I found this method didn't damage the surface of the metal, and cleaned up nicely with soapy steel wool after the paint was stripped off.
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Sept 4, 2020 21:43:27 GMT 10
G'day All, A couple of days ago, ABC News ran a story about the trophy for this year's Melbourne Cup. The trophy will tour around Victoria prior to the big race in November, with the tour including a stop at the Fosterville Gold Mine where the gold for the trophy is mined. You can read the complete story here if you wish...
Accompanying the story is a photo of this year's trophy on a tree stump, with some sheep in the background. But what's important to this forum is what is showing even further in the background...
Now, here's the dilemma...which would you rather have? - the trophy, or those two vans at the back??
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Aug 9, 2020 17:45:29 GMT 10
G'day nelliem, when your poptop is lowered and locked down for travelling, there should be a small gap between the poptop roof and the lower caravan roof. The poptop roof rests on the scissor lift springs when they are collapsed, and shouldn't touch the lower roof. The black line showing around the perimeter is the accumulation of dirt from the air/wind getting into the gap during travelling. Raise the poptop roof and clean that black muck off with soap and water. No rubber cushioning is required if the poptop roof is sitting correctly when lowered down.
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on May 17, 2020 18:02:11 GMT 10
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Post by Franklin1 on May 16, 2020 20:29:20 GMT 10
G'day grandad, On 21 Feb 2020, Proboards announced they were transitioning to HTTPS from the previous HTTP system. As a result of that change, some photo links may no longer work. If that is the case, it means the site hosting your images does not support HTTPS. Do I understand what I'm talking about?? No, not really...I'm just repeating info I found on the Proboards Support pages. Maybe it'll help you, maybe it won't.🤔😁
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Dec 17, 2019 10:19:14 GMT 10
G'day Leigh,
When I bought my van it came with a Vulcan stovette (cooktop/griller). I had the same problem as you, but at least mine went for 30 mins before it tripped the safety switch in the garage when I was testing it. I never could find out what was going wrong with the electricals, but I guessed there must have been something that was cutting the circuit when it heated up and expanded. That could have been the element, the wiring, or the switches. Using a multimeter for a continuity check would have been pointless, because I had to know in advance which part was causing the problem when the switch tripped after 30mins (a Catch-22 situation). I ended up dumping the stovette into the scrap metal bin.
Perhaps the modern safety switches are too precise and don't allow for any electrical current variations in these old appliances?? I remember the old story on this forum about one of our members tripping the main safety switch in a caravan park when she turned on the vintage toaster in her van.
cheers, Al.
ps. the story about the Vulcan stovette I had, is at the start of this post in my Walsh caravan thread.
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Post by Franklin1 on Dec 11, 2019 20:12:47 GMT 10
G'day sgtl, Went into my local Kmart today to have a look at their stock, but only the smaller vans were left, so got one of the "gingerbread vans" at $7 each. Noticed at the entry to the store they had a display with "cookie jar caravans" that might interest the Kennedy/Franklin Futura/Sunliner fraternity... Forgot to measure actual size, but they are sort of around 9 inches long x 9 inches high x 6 inches wide. One of the vans on the shelf had spider-web cracking on the ceramic sidewall from handling/accident damage, so the ceramics might be a bit thin for withstanding everyday (ab)use. Looks like your Xmas present is sorted... cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Dec 9, 2019 21:33:15 GMT 10
G'day cobber,
Thanks for the tip about the 'Wooden caravan' at Bunnings. Unfortunately, there's no stock in any store within 70kms radius of me (about a dozen stores checked). Nearest store showing "in stock" is up near Geoff and Jude's territory, at Kirrawee, about 75kms away. Nothing left at any store out your way either. Must be a "collector's item".
Oh, and price is $8 if you can find one.
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Dec 9, 2019 21:22:54 GMT 10
G'day sgtl,
Congratulations from me as well!
Over the years, the projects and stories coming out of the "Rochester Restorations shed" have been a valuable and interesting contribution to the forum!
I'm sure your next 2500 posts will be just as helpful. Thanks for being such an active member on the forum!
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Nov 13, 2019 6:12:04 GMT 10
G'day Team Kinson, and welcome to the forum!😁
Yes, you are correct in believing your van is from 1971...the number 1 after the hyphen is confirmation.
You can get more information/support on our sister "Classic Caravans" forum if you wish to.
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Oct 30, 2019 15:24:23 GMT 10
G'day ozchic, You score bonus points for posting the chassis number, so well done for that!😎
Forum member 'twocutekelpies' (Shelley) keeps databases of York, Millard, and Viscount vans chassis numbers, so she will tell you what the date of manufacture was.
I doubt whether it has an aluminium frame. I understand the York brand started in 1969 as a budget version of the Millard brand, and timber frames were used to keep costs down.
I think the chassis number you've posted is correct, so maybe a 1970 model. I know York got up to around Y12000 in 1978 before the brand stopped being made in '79. Shelley will have more details for you, so stand by.😉
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Oct 28, 2019 20:09:03 GMT 10
G'day foxy, What is the actual thickness of the stainless sheet? I have cut 1mm stainless using an angle grinder with the thin 1mm blades. Didn't take long for the small cuts I made. Cut edges were fairly smooth, but needed a final cleanup with a fine file. A nibbler as used on corrugated roofing sheets is an alternative, depending on the thickness of your stainless sheet.
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Oct 12, 2019 6:58:38 GMT 10
There is also some interesting info on the Popular Science website for "How to remove odors, instead of just hiding them behind nicer smells". It seems that your option of painting is certainly one worth considering. www.popsci.com/remove-any-odor/Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Oct 11, 2019 20:44:35 GMT 10
G'day fiesta65,
Perhaps you could explore "casein glue" which was commonly used in the furniture industry in the old days. Casein glue is waterproof (which would make it good for vans), but is attacked by mould if allowed to get wet, resulting in an unpleasant smell. Casein glue is also known by the slang term "cheese glue", with the unpleasant smell being categorised as stale milk, or stinky cheese.
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Oct 5, 2019 8:35:50 GMT 10
G'day Chris, an excellent professional job on the van so far.😎
Can we please have some more information on what timber you used to replace the rear curves and how did you bend them to shape?
Cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Sept 16, 2019 22:16:32 GMT 10
G'day hereward,
In the descriptive text below the photo, it says this wedge is "Also used on very early Millard and Viscount vans."
I'm sure other early Viscount owners can tell you what worked best for them.
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Sept 16, 2019 22:08:43 GMT 10
G'day deb,
Are you asking how to clean the underside of the J-rail so you can reseal it back on the van when that time comes?
Or, are you asking how to clean the top side that will be on show when the van is finished?? I presume when you say "but dont want too bright & shiny" that you mean the top side. If so, clean lightly with a pad of soapy steel wool dipped in warm water. The more you rub with the steel wool, the shinier the aluminium will get, so stop when you are happy with the appearance.
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Sept 13, 2019 15:07:02 GMT 10
G'day stooy, These photos show how the seatbox framework in my van locks the floor, the front, and the side of the van together... Missing from the photo is the laminated curved strip that was positioned against the front skin in the front left side of the photo. The curved lamination looked something like this... When the plywood skins were glued and nailed to the seatbox framework, plus with additional bits of timber glued at floor level across the front, it makes for quite a robust structure that is able to withstand shocks from hitting potholes, etc, in the road...
The more you can lock the floor, front, and sides together, the more the van will stand up to the rigours of travelling along bumpy highways. And the beauty is that you don't need great hulking timber sizes...you just need to interlock in as many places as possible within the design.
Cheers, Al.
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