Belinda & Robert's Pride and Joy

[ditzygypsy]

Some before and after picis of Belinda Kier's little van from Sydney. She pulls this little beauty with a 1972 Austin 1800. Good on ya Belinda

[trev carrots]

belinda nice lil' van
what is it...about 9ft'er
cheers trev

[Deleted]

Here's a pic of Belinda's little van and the immaculate 1972 Austin 1800 seen recently at the All British Day in Sydney, it's the caravan's first outing following restoration ........

[cobber]

Very nice "after" photo Belinda, well done.

I mention in my photo album that I had a van given to me that was very primitive inside. It was about the size of yours.

What is yours like inside?

Cobber, (from Sydney also, out near Camden)

[interior of van]

Dear Cobber

I will take some photos of the inside and post them.
Most of the original cushions were in good condition and just needed re-buttoning. They are turquoise with yellow piping and buttons. We had two re-made and managed to get a good match. Apparently these were mostly made at a factory in Marrickville.

The interior is "simple" rather than "primitive" - ice box, water tank over the sink etc. The 12v and 240v light systems both work well. The stove is a metho "Ravia" stove, currently not functioning but I've found someone in Melbourne who can work on it.

The van is actually "Belinda and Robert's pride and joy". I did lots of emailing and phonecalls and he did lots of scraping and anglegrinding - very much a team effort.

Belinda

[ditzygypsy]

Here are some more pics of Belinda and Robert's van.
A really original little "beauty" .

This is the table and benches that convert to single beds.


This is the double bed that doubles as a lounge



and check out the original light and fire extiguisher. They are tops.




and last but not in anyway least the icebox and sink.



what a little "rippa"

[cobber]

The lay out of your van, Belinda, looks very
similar to my wreck, particularly so far as the
bed arrangement. My ice box is different,
and the front windows on mine have been
sealed shut, to stop leaks I expect.
Cobber

[Deleted]

From Belinda:

Well, it wasn't a national rally (but it was a start). Our family headed to the beach this weekend and Cobber and his missus dropped in for a cuppa.

The van towed beautifully, the six-year-old didn't get carsick and the newly-fixed stove made numerous cups of coffee. We even picked up a pink brolly to match the van at a local garage sale. It was great to meet Cobber after so many chats via email.

We were the envy of all the other campers and did several guided tours of the van (as you can imagine, these did not take long).






Cheers from Belinda

[WILL]

Hi Belinda
sweet little van cute as
;D I bet you get a lot of attention at the beach
you should call it soooo! sweeeet or pinky
great things you are doing to get the NSW group moving keep up the great work

Will and Lyn

[trev and carrots]

well done belinda. ;D
isnt it amazing...we park these low $$$ outfits amongst the $50,000 rigs & they cop all the attention..........
dont it feel good ;D ;D
sounds like youve got the ball rolling now
cheers & happy camping
trev

[Roehm3108]

Is that a Holden hubcap I see???

Lovely restoration Ray

[cobber]

Yes it was great to meet with Belinda,
Robert and the boys. We thought it
would be a good idea to have some
sort of personal contact prior to the big
“NRMA Motorfest” event in January.
We haven’t heard from the NRMA
regarding arrangements yet so I
imagine there would still be time for
any other old caravan people in Sydney
(who up until now have been using this
site like you would use the public library)
to contact the NRMA and express a wish
to join the display, you sure would be
welcome. Just tell them you would like to
placed with the other two caravan nuts.
You don’t have to be a member of NRMA
but your car does have to be thirty years
old at least..

Cobber

[belinda]

Yes Ray, they are Holden hubcaps. It takes half the work to find a matching set when you are fitting them to a van instead of a car!

Initially we were looking for plain dome-shaped hubcaps (need to be domed to go over the bearing). We didn't know what sort of vehicle the wheels came off and from the size guessed at a VW.

We guessed wrong - the VW hubcaps needed special little clips to attach them. On Mark's advice we got Holden ones which went on perfectly.

The other thing we had done was to get the wheels sandblasted and powder-coated grey. They look good, and it's a very durable finish.

[Roehm3108]

I had the same trouble with an old Franklin I did up a few years ago. Had to put a new axle and hubs under her, and added 12 inch wheels instead of the previous 10inch. The only hubcaps I could find were Holden, and even they were not an exact match. But then who noticed if you had to run around the van to tell the difference? Yours is still a very pretty van, congrats on the effort. Ray

[johnfenn]

I note the cushions on your van.

I have just restored a 1964 Baravan and it had identical cushions in it, with the yellow buttons and piping. Unfortunately they were water damaged and smelled pretty bad so I tossed them. The new cushions cost $1000 and are not as nice as the old ones. Another problem with the old ones were they were incredibly heavy.

I sispect these cushions were made by the same people, and then sold on to the caravan manufacturers.

John Fenn

[carapark]

Hi Belinda & Robert, I love your legs the swing down ones on the back of the van of course!

They look to be the same as ours, in fact your van looks very similar to our van.

I have been looking for a good pair of legs (steadies) for ages as ours are rusted out.

So if anyone out there knows of any like yours, lets know.

Cheers, Gary
PS The van looks great! see you at Coledale

[belinda]

Dear Gary

Cobber may still have some legs under his "free to a good home" van, which is identical to ours and Maurie's.

cheers

Belinda

[carapark]

Hey Cobber, what about it, have you got good legs?
the swing down type on 2 springs, been lookin for ages as mine are rusted out.

Cheers, Gary

PS good to see the forum back up again!

[Gary]

Gary,
Sorry mate, as soon as you mentioned you wanted legs I got all excited and ran down to look under “free to a good home”---nothing, it’s got nothing :(
Under my van “Driftwood” the legs look very much like the scissors style car jacks . You would be able to pick them up at the wreckers by the truck load I would think.

Cobber.

[cobber]

Belinda & Roberts pride and joy at the NRMA Motorfest 2006.

[mytriumphcar]

Just lovely
Cheers
Kathryn

[adam]

Hi Belinda,

I'm looking for a cute caravan in Sydney, for a photo shoot. It'd be needed for a day or two, for starters, but if all goes well we may need it a bit more. Would you be interested?

Cheers, Adam

[adam]

Re: renting your van- I forgot my email ([e-mail]), so you can contact me if you can help!

Thanks again, Adam