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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 16, 2013 19:05:52 GMT 10
G'day Ray, and welcome to the forum! ;D Your best bet is to pop over to our sister forum for Classic Caravans built in the 1970s. Your chassis number will be from around the 1974-75 time period. Click here and join up : ditzygypsy.proboards.com/cheers, Al (Moderator on the Classic forum; ordinary peasant on the Vintage forum ;D .)
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 15, 2013 22:48:04 GMT 10
I've discovered a "new" 10 Amp to 15 Amp adapter being listed on ebay... Same idea as the Amp-fibian, where you plug the adapter into your 10 Amp household outlet, and then plug your 15 Amp caravan lead into the adapter. The adapter includes a combined RCD (a Residual Current Device for detecting faults) and Circuit Breaker (for overloads). There are currently two ebay seller listing them: $79 including postage here$89.90 + $14.50 postage hereI stress that neither of the two sellers makes any mention of the actual Approval Number that the Electrical Authorities have to give to these devices, so it would be worth checking that out before parting with your money. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 15, 2013 18:33:41 GMT 10
Now you're cookin', jamesandbel! The top one is a 1968 Viscount Ambassador, and the bottom one is a Millard from around 1964 or 65. I know you are probably snapping these vans as you drive past, but if you're ever in the position to get up close to a van, can you take note of any chassis number you can see on the drawbar, please? It will help with compiling a more accurate history of these old vans. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 13, 2013 20:26:08 GMT 10
I noticed in some of the Google images that there was a version with a "ring pull" fitted at the joint... It seems that someone has tried to overcome the need to fit a handle like you guys have done. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 13, 2013 18:13:55 GMT 10
G'day EnidB, This is another classic case of trying to work out what the heck a bit of hardware is called... After searching for various combinations of words, I've stumbled across them, and they are apparently referred to as a "drop leaf support" or a "spring loaded table leaf support". If you do a Google search for both those references, but add the word 'images' at the end of the reference, you'll see plenty of photos of them. Click on any of the images and it will take you to the website for the image. Most seem to be located in the US, but postage from the US can be a big killer. You could make enquiries to see if anybody in Australia stocks the item. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 12, 2013 22:20:56 GMT 10
G'day dave01, Obviously you meant to type 90-8 , which makes it a very early 1968 Caravelle. This one still has the fibreglass wheel spats, so that's a bonus. Quite often they are missing. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 10, 2013 19:59:43 GMT 10
G'day hilldweller, I'll add to dodgy1's suggestion and mention "carastow wheels" as an option to explore. These are made from solid rubber bonded to a steel wheel, but they are not cheap, and the cost may immediately disqualify them as an option anyway. There are various versions of the carastow wheels, such as a six-stud one here ; a five-stud one here ; and there's probably a four-stud version as well. You do have to do some measurements and calculations to see what advantage they would give you. Measure the radius from the centre of your present wheel to the ground. The carastow wheels are 400mm diameter, or 200mm radius. Subtract 200mm from your present wheel radius, and that's how much lower the van would be with carastow wheels fitted. You should gain up to 75mm by raising the end stop brackets higher so the very bottom of the roller door curtain lines up with the top of the door opening when the door is fully raised. Obviously you undo and refit these brackets one at a time, otherwise if you do them both at once the curtain will flip over the back and come around and smack you in the back of the head, giving you permanent brain damage and rendering you completely useless for further caravan restorations. Removing the hatch cover should give you another reduction in height by a few more millimetres. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 8, 2013 9:57:21 GMT 10
Possibly. The original moulded black Clipsal inlet on my 1960 project is 10 amps.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 8, 2013 7:52:17 GMT 10
When the Amp-fibian device was first launched on the market (back in 2008, from memory), there were two models: the RV-01 and the RV-02. The difference between the two was that the RV-02 had an RCD safety unit fitted in the device. Around about a year ago, the RV-01 model was discontinued, and only the RV-02 model continues, although there is a "special edition" with stainless steel fittings available (called RV-02S). The RV-02 unit retails for $249, but can be bought cheaper on eBay. ------------------------------------------------------------ Newby caravanners on the lookout for 15 Amp extension leads need to be mindful of the two types available on the market. It all relates to what type of inlet plug you have on your caravan. The photo posted by rattles above shows the 15 amp socket that suits all old-style inlets fitted to caravans. A new-style inlet became available in 2006, and takes a 15 amp socket with a shroud moulded around the socket... The socket with the shroud will NOT fit into the old-style power inlets in old caravans, so don't buy this sort by mistake. Buy the type that rattles has pictured. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 7, 2013 19:44:14 GMT 10
The SLOTS, Ray...the SLOTS!! Mr. iPad will want to see the SLOTS all in the same direction!
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 7, 2013 18:56:09 GMT 10
Ummm...this is actually illegal. People are known to do it, but it's against the Australian Standards for electrical appliances (of which an electrical lead is one). I doubt whether any electrician would jeopardise his/her licence by doing that modification for another person. Since it's illegal to do it, and to actually use a lead so modified, there is a risk that any insurance claims may be refused if a claim arose. There is only one approved device for connecting a 15 Amp caravan inlet to a domestic 10 Amp outlet, and that is the Amp-fibian device. cheers, Al. (ps. the subject of modifying leads has been discussed on many forums on many occasions. One such lengthy thread can be read here, which started in 2008: www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=732.0;nowap )
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 7, 2013 18:45:46 GMT 10
G'day Ray, If I wasn't so busy in the shed, I'd come on this forum and tell you what a might fine job you're doing on the Rowvan. I'd also tell you how good an idea it is to put shelving in the cupboard, so that you can cram more useful stuff into the van. And lastly, I'd tell you to do something about dressing the slots in the screws on that bracket you fitted. From what I hear, an exploding iPad is not a pretty sight, so you'd better fix 'em up before You-know-who gets to see 'em. ;D ;D Unfortunately, I can't tell you any of the above because I'm just too darn busy...in the shed. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 4, 2013 21:40:15 GMT 10
G'day Ray, I AM working in the shed! (and yes, I'm shouting too) ;D There's a lot of waiting time with this Bote-Cote stuff. Waiting for the first soak coat to dry off so I can glue bits together, and then waiting for the glue to harden so I can trim any excess off. It's all waiting, waiting, waiting... So, I do other stuff while I'm waiting...like put nonsense on the internet. And on a totally different subject...this idea that capital letters means you are shouting...I've read comic strips ever since I was knee-high to a grasshopper (about 55 years ago now), and I notice that as I get older I'm becoming more and more deaf as a door post. Then I learnt in recent years that capitals mean shouting and I realised that the captions in comics are in capital letters. Now I understand why I'm going deaf...for 55 years those bloody comic strips have been SHOUTING at me!! cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 4, 2013 12:16:54 GMT 10
I thought I'd put up some info on how I've drilled rivets out... Firstly, a diagram showing rivets in cross-section, and the parts named, so you know what I'm talking about when I use the techo terms... Occasionally, I will come across a rivet where the broken mandrel is sticking up above the head of the rivet. I usually have a look at the hole in the rivet head to see if I can see the mandrel showing. If so, I get a narrow-diameter nail punch, and punch the mandrel back below the surface of the rivet head. To remove a rivet, I use a 1/4" drill bit, and drill into the head of the rivet. Eventually, enough of the head is drilled out and the outer ring of the rivet head starts spinning on the end of the drill bit, like so... After I've drilled out the rivet heads, I can lever the part away from whatever it was rivetted to... Then I can remove the remaining rivet shank that's left behind, by either punching that through the back, or continuing to drill it out using a smaller 1/8" diameter drill bit... When fitting new rivets, I sometimes come across situations where the nose of the rivet gun won't sit down neatly on the head of the rivet before I squeeze the handle to set the rivet. For example, if I want to put a rivet in the bottom of a narrow U-shaped fitting, I can't get the nose of the rivet gun down there. In those cases, I have to put a spacer between the nose of the rivet gun and the head of the rivet, such as in this diagram... There have been times where I've had to get very creative about what I use as a spacer, for example I've used a small nut slipped over the mandrel to set a recessed rivet in a winder box... Hopefully the info is of some help. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 3, 2013 21:19:23 GMT 10
On the Classic forum, we've also been told of a wreckers at Caloundra that may be worth making contact with.
Here's a recent post from the forum:
This post is probably too late but the caravan wrecker in Caloundra would be "Caravan Repair Centre" and they are located at 72 Meridan Way Meridan Plains (07) 5491 2560
I hope this may be of help to any one cheers, veeman
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 3, 2013 21:12:04 GMT 10
G'day allaboutbetty, I'd be interested in seeing some photos of the writing you discovered. The shape of your van is not a shape I would have associated with Millard, so it's intriguing how the Millard name appears on it. I did a search for the street names in Wyong, thinking the ----ival Street might have shown up, but no luck. Nothing showing up according to this website . I also searched for Paton Wyong but nothing there either. Is there any chassis number showing on the front drawbar anywhere? Millards from about 1962 onwards got an 'M' series number welded on the drawbar just beside the jockey wheel somewhere. cheers, Al.
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newbie
Mar 3, 2013 20:51:09 GMT 10
Post by Franklin1 on Mar 3, 2013 20:51:09 GMT 10
Hey lulu, Are you the same lulu that was hanging around here back in 2008?? The same one that had this car back in 2008?? : Our New Old Tow Car..finally!Should we be saying, "Welcome back!"? Where's ya been?? cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 2, 2013 20:39:17 GMT 10
G'day DonR,
Re the cladding question on the previous page...
I suspect you are asking a trick question, so I'll say it's fibreglass moulded to look like aluminium cladding. Quest seem to have made some quite interesting fibreglass vans over the years, and perhaps this is another one?
cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 2, 2013 7:22:42 GMT 10
I used a white nylon scourer and a bottle of cheap 'creme cleaner' (cream cleanser?) from the supermarket to get 35 years of stains and grime off the white acrylic paint on a caravan. Worked a treat and it didn't take four hours**... **Took more like forty hours or four hundred hours or something like that... But it did the job well.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 1, 2013 15:34:31 GMT 10
There's an ebay seller in Tassie who lists a lot of vinyl in their store. Not saying it's vintage patterns/colour, just that it's vinyl. Not cheap either. I bought mine from Spotlight. Two grades: Interior (approx $25 per metre @ 1450mm width) and Exterior (approx $30 per metre same width). Limited colours. Wait for it to go on special (ie. a storewide sale) if you decide to buy from them. cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 1, 2013 13:36:09 GMT 10
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 1, 2013 9:16:37 GMT 10
These gas stoves are fairly simple in construction and operation, and are not unlike your standard bbq in how they work. However, if you don't feel comfortable with checking the stove out yourself, then your nearest retail gas shop should have a repair workshop out the back, where they can give it the "once over" for you. I was in my local gas shop a couple of months ago, and there was a woman at the counter with a Primus gas camping stove from the '60s or '70s. Still in its box, and still in pretty good-looking nick. She'd been given the job of cleaning out her deceased mother's home/shed, and had come across it stored away. Now she wanted it checked out to see if it was still safe to use. The shop was happy to do that for her. cheers, Al. ps. Funnily enough, the two parts of Franklin vans that don't have the Franklin name on them are stoves and fridges. They managed to get 'Franklin' stamped on the sinks though.
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Post by Franklin1 on Mar 1, 2013 8:12:52 GMT 10
Another crappy weather day here, so what else can you do but muck around on the internet?? Seems a Google search for vintage pram tyres will show up some useful information... Possible source of tyres in the UK: www.pramtyres.co.uk/...But it may be cheaper to source them from Europe: www.vintagepramfan.com/tyres-and-other-accessories-for-your-coachbuilt-pram Scroll down through the list of helpful websites and get to the comments below the list. Read through all the comments, particularly the last few. Good luck! cheers, Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Feb 28, 2013 20:37:08 GMT 10
this one has the same problem as yours...
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Rambler
Feb 28, 2013 20:31:27 GMT 10
Post by Franklin1 on Feb 28, 2013 20:31:27 GMT 10
(Pssst, jenniewren, it's Mizzzzzzz Hilldweller ) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Worked out how to fix the damaged cladding for ya.... Can't see it now, can ya?!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
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