The life and times of a 1969 Franklin Mini

[grandad]

Right-E-Oh!!! Time to get back to work.

But first….a pic for you.



I do believe this is referred to as “The Point Of No Return”
Ever had that sinking feeling of “What have I done?”

Must admit, the thought went through my head but I’m happy I’ve done it. There was no other way to end up with what I want.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s start with the new chassis.

I picked the steel up earlier in the week. A little over $300 worth, then started the task of setting everything out on the slab. There’s a excellent thread in another forum of a guy who built a humongous great van in his shed. Link HERE.

If anyone is considering a major construction job it’s worth a read. He goes into great detail of the How’s and Why’s of everything.

Anyhoo…step one is always to lay all the pieces out where they’re going to go. Something that is often overlooked however is that everything must also be dead level. No slab is ever dead level so one must use whatever is at hand to raise everything up. Failure to do so can easily result in you inadvertently building a twist into your new chassis because it followed the levels of your slab. A tiny bit of twist can cause you huge problems down the track.

Here’s the four main pieces of my new chassis all laid out correctly.



I’m fortunate that years ago I invested in a digital level. It’s accurate to .1 of one degree. Can be a real pain sometimes when it measure 89.9 deg and you fiddle around for that last .1 before you realize that .1 is not visible to the naked eye.

But, for this job, I was glad I had that accuracy.

Once I was happy with the layout, I strapped everything together.



Sash cramps would have been better but I don’t have any long enough. The straps did the job so can’t complain.
You’ll notice the orange bits on the end are tapered. These RHS sections are 15mm deeper than the original chassis. Plus, I wish to raise the body a bit so I don’t lose headroom (Which is already tight) when I put another layer to the ceiling.

I didn’t want the chassis to be visible from the outside so long story short, I tapered the ends so they would disappear nicely under the body.

Here’s how I did it.

Mark out the triangle you wish to cut out, allowing for the wall thickness of the RHS. 4mm in this case.



Then use an angle grinder to cut them out. I just LOVE those thin little 1mm cutting discs. I’m never going back to the old thick ones.



A couple of clamps brings them into place then just run a bead along the cut.



Ok, I admit, I’m perhaps just a little too anal about finish. It IS a chassis Jim. Nobody is going to see it unless they lay on their back and crawl under. Still……
Ah bugger it. Sometimes I curse the people who taught me.



There we go…Job Right! Looking good.

You’ll notice I’ve only got the main outside members here. That’s because I was waiting for my new water tank to arrive so I can place the inside pieces to allow for it.

Just as I was finishing the welding, this arrived.



I’m still not 100% certain where I’ll mount it, so I added one more cross member over the axle and then welded on all the shorter outriggers that hold the body. All are tapered.



At this point, I needed the springs to know where to mount the drawbar rails.

Franklin mounted their drawbar rear of the front spring shackle. You can see it here.


Standard procedure in either a quality built trailer or definitely in an off road trailer is to weld the end of the drawbar to the shackle itself.



This prevents the forward motion of the spring pushing on the weld that holds the shackle in place. Since I want The Pumpkin to be able to handle mile after mile of corrugated dirt roads this is my plan for the chassis.

But…it means I need the springs in place before I can place the new drawbar.

All of that…was to explain that at this point I need the springs off the old chassis. I’m not 100% certain whether I will end up using the old springs or not. They seem in good condition, apart from a bit of rust. But I have a question mark over whether they could be easily replaced if I break a spring back of Whoop Whoop somewhere. So, with the chassis bare I can pull the whole thing down to my local supplier. If I can’t use them, I still need for him to see what is currently there so he can duplicate them.

So, not wanting to remove the body after the suspension was removed it was time for the body to vacate the premises.

Despite the fact that I’m removing the largest part of the van, there’s no need for detailed instructions on how.
Both front and rear panels have to come off but I’ve already covered the rear. The front is identical.

I’ve also already covered the removal of the windows. All that is left is to say the body is held on with three ¼” coach screws and one coach bolt under the door. That, plus a hand full of pop rivets underneath and releasing the mudguards from the chassis and the body is ready to come off.

The only warning I need give is that I underestimated how heavy that thing was. I figured two blokes could manage it nicely. Well, we got it off ok by lifting it at each wheel well while the neighbours wife pulled the chassis out the front. But, I would definitely not recommend it.

So, tip no 5: Plan on four guys to lift the body. No need to bust a perfuffle valve when there’s no need. It’s not only easier, but safer.

Lastly, my thoughts on removing the body. If you’re a Mini owner and this whole body off thing is worrying you, then I think I can put your mind to rest. If you’re doing a faithful restore, having the bare original chassis means you can get in a do a proper job of restoring it.
Look here.
How easy is the chassis restore if you have it looking like this?



Plus, the fasteners holding the body in place will no doubt be as rusty as mine were which means effectively your body is held in place by literally a handful of pop rivets. Does that fill you with confidence? Also, it’s theoretically possible to lay new internal wall ply over the original. But, what a cow of a job it would be with the body still complete. Not to mention you’d have to increase the size of the white aluminium flashing around the internal side of the window. All in all, at this stage I’d say, pull the body off. It’s much much easier.
Cheers
Jim

[grandad]

G’day everyone.
It’s been a while since I’ve updated this thread.
Anybody miss me?
No?
Buggah!

I’ve faced a couple of hassles that needed time to solve. Some may recall I was uncertain whether to re-use the old springs. In the end, I decided I definitely want electric brakes. This means a new axle. If I go to this length, does it make sense to use the old springs? Not really.
So, I went shopping at my friends trailer factory for springs, axle, brakes, coupling, jockey wheel, shackles etc etc. He really looked after me on price but it still meant there wasn’t a whole lot of change out of $1000. So, I had to do some work to earn some money. It’s all Al-Ko stuff so I reckon the investment is worthwhile.

You know, this working for a living seriously interferes with caravan restoration!!
Gotta fix that!

I pottered around with the chassis, read these forums a lot…..which I consider a productive use of my time because I learn something every time……but generally not any real progress.

I also read another caravan forum that deals with modern vans. Lots of grey nomads offering some good advice.
One issue that keeps coming up is the use of grey water tanks. Although not a huge issue yet, the consensus seems to be that as time goes by more and more free camping spots will ban the entry of any vehicle not totally self contained. This basically means you better be set up to take out whatever you bring in. Including grey water, sewerage etc. It seems the day of the sink draining onto the ground under the van may be numbered.

Like I said earlier, it’s not that big an issue yet! But the writing is on the wall. Since my time frame is 3 years to setting off, and I intend to travel for anything up to….I hope….another 10 years after that, its something that will become an issue within the time it will affect me..
So, I’ve decided not to re-use the original galvanized tank plus a second, new one and instead use the new 65 litre tank plus I found a secondhand 95 litre one for grey water. The secondhand one needed flushing out which turned out to be a bigger job than I thought it would be. All done now though. Cost me $30 and means I have ample storage onboard.

Just as I thought I could get stuck into finishing something to show you guys, my name came up on the public health waiting list for a fairly routine bit of surgery. No big deal, but the recovery period took me totally by surprise. No driving for two weeks and no lifting anything over 5kg, stretching, bending or pushing for 6 to 8 weeks!!!!!

Yair right!
How’s THAT going to work???
Found something more frustrating than working for a living. Getting older!!!

Ah well, best I do as I’m told. I’ve still got a few more weeks to go before I’ll be able to put the chassis together. As soon as it’s done, I’ll post some pics of what I’ve done.

In the meantime, I’ve had a visit from someone I thought you guys and gals might find interesting.

I’ll tell you about it next post.

[grandad]

I had a visit from a fellow I used to do some occasional casual work for several years ago. By his education or degree, he’s actually a physicist but he invented a means of non-destructive testing of materials and works as an engineer in re-designing old bridges, piers etc that fail the tests. His name is John.

If any of the following dialogue is of no interest to you, and you’re a Franklin owner looking for info on restoring your own Franklin, skip to the end because there’s a vital piece of information you should be aware of.

John belongs to some society of engineers which allows him to perform computations etc on a professional basis that would normally be done by an engineer. Just for background I’ll explain that I once asked him, “Why would an engineers society allow a physicist to join?’
His answer….”Because they’re desperate for people that actually know what they’re talking about”

Apparently, there is no love lost between physicists and engineers. I assume going both ways. I compared him to Sheldon from Big Bang Theory once who is always running down the Jewish guy who is “just” an engineer.
John’s answer?
“Sheldon is just a theoretical physicist. That’s why he works for a university because he has nothing of any practical use to offer the real world”

Ok, does this give you some idea of the mentality of the fellow I’m speaking of?

As a friend, he asked what I was up to and I showed him what I was working on. In particular, the chassis and the differences in what I was building compared to the original.

This was a 3 to 4 hour conversation so I’ll do my best to pick out the relevant points only.

I showed him the bottom of the walls where they attached to the chassis and how the timber there had totally rotted away to the point where no attachment of any kind was possible. Here’s a pic of where I mean.



I can’t really photograph the board after I removed it because it crumbled away to small pieces in my hand. Disintegrated basically. I suggested this was poor design.

“No” he said. “Not poor design at all.

He told me that in any well designed item that comprises multiple components such as a caravan; no less than three separate items have to fail simultaneously for the overall item to fail.
He offered as examples, the Westgate bridge collapse, the twin towers of 9/11, Apollo 13 and any number of airline crashes we can see on various aircrash investigation TV shows.
Unless the one failure is the result of a force that was unknown to exist, it takes more than one thing to go wrong for disaster to occur.

So, in the case of the body attachment of my Franklin to the chassis, these bottom bolts were one failure only. The body was still firmly attached to the cabinets which in turn were firmly attached to the floor. The floor was firmly attached to the chassis.
Even if one of these also failed, the body was also firmly attached to the steel wheel wells which in turn were attached to the chassis totally independent of the floor.

I could see his point. I also began to realize that a simple choice like attaching the wheel wells to the floor instead of the chassis might have consequences I hadn’t considered.

Regarding the design of the chassis he stated that both the original one and the one I was building were based on the identical principle. He suggested that it was unlikely an engineer was involved in either design. He threw yet another derogatory crack in about engineers which I will skip over.
The principle he referred to was called “Accepted Practice” In other words, the design was based on what previous manufacturers had used that had proven to be successful.

The accepted practice in caravan chassis design was based on what was available in the 1960’s, the expectations of the end user, the cost of materials and what manufacturing processes were available.
He offered as one example that he recalls there was a speed limit of something like 75 kmh to any caravan. I’ve never heard of that one. Can anyone confirm if this is correct?

People’s expectations and intended use was widely different to today. The concept of grey nomading was virtually unheard of and most caravans were used for maybe a week’s holiday at a time and no great distances involved. Cars were less powerful.
Steel was expensive so “C” channel as opposed to RHS was a logical choice.

The design of my new chassis took into account higher speeds of up to 110 kmh, more weight of what we want to carry, more powerful cars. The use of MIG and TIG welding enabling thicker steel to be used etc etc.

I found the whole thing most interesting.

People who skipped to the end, read from here on.

At one point however, he pointed out a failure on the original chassis that I hadn’t noticed.

Here’s a pic of it.



On both sides, there are sizable cracks where the front spring hanger was welded to the chassis. Very little was actually holding the front of the spring in place. One good pothole and either side would fail.

What had caused the failure?
Several things.

1. We scraped the rust away at that point and used a micrometer to measure the thickness of the steel. It was less than 1mm. In other parts of the same member the thickness was a little over 2mm. Not quite but close to 2.5mm. Probably the difference between imperial and metric measure.

2. In manufacture, Franklin welded 360 deg all around the shackle. This welding across the member hardened the steel at that point and made it more brittle. I pointed out that today; this practice has changed and showed him how my new shackles had only been welded along the longitudinal sides running parallel with the member.

John suggested this was a change in “accepted practice” in the past 40 years and we were looking at the reason for it.

3. The last item he pointed out was that the springs were badly rusted. This meant the leaves no longer slid easily against each other so they were more or less a solid structure now and had severely reduced springing action. This meant more outward force was applied to the front shackle instead of all the force being expended at the rear slipper portion where it was meant to go.

He looked at me over the top of his glasses and quietly pointed out that three separate things had occurred to cause the failure. He really can be a smart arse sometimes!

I suggested this failure must be common. He felt more like inevitable to any van of similar age or construction that had been out in the weather like this one had.
I explained that I was the exception to the rule and that most VV’ers would want to keep things are original as possible. What would be the best way to fix it?

So here’s tip no 6: Drill approx 1” diameter holes about every 3 inches in the side of this member facing the wheels.

Insert a piece of appropriate size RHS or angle at a pinch of no less than 3mm wall thickness.and approx 18” to 24” long with the shackle as close a practical to the centre.

Weld a 1” bead approx every 3” along the bottom edge on the inside of the chassis.

Weld 4 small beads in each of the 1” holes drilled in the outer wall to securely attach the new steel to the old.

And…rebuild the springs so they move easily.

It is interesting to note, that in all likelihood, if any one of the 3 things he pointed out had not occurred, the failure wouldn’t have happened.

I hope somebody finds my conversation with John as interesting as I did.

In the meantime, I’m currently rebuilding the fold down step. A new one is only 60 bucks but money is a bit tight after paying for the suspension and not being able to work while I recuperate.

Besides…welding on a brand new step is boring and no challenge. Rebuilding the original is more fun.

Here’s what I had to start with.



See ya!

Jim

[bobandjacqui]

G'day Grandad,

Enjoyed your discussion with your mate ;D Don't remember anything about speed restrictions when towing but it sounds feasible, I'm sure there is someone out there that will know/remember if that was the case.
We wish you well with your recovery from surgery so you can get back into your project.

Cheers Bob and Jacqui

[Roehm3108]

Hi grandad
Good to see your verbose self back again. Make suree you do what the docs tell you to do - it pays in the long run.

What are you actually building here? The Tardus?? Can't wait to see where you're gunna place the bathtub, lounge suite, and laundry ;D ;D ;D

Seriously though, make sure that you've got an axle that's rated to cope with the extra weight you're adding. That greywater tank alone will weigh in at over 100kg when almost full. To say nothing about where you're gunna put it, so that the centre of gravity isn't changed too much. After all, that van is only 10ft long

This will be an interesting resto to watch

Cheers

Ray

[cobber]

G'day Jim.. ( I have a problem calling you grandad, you're to young)

Your friends remark regarding speed limits is kind of interesting (I think)...we have a thread about "caravan regulations" in days gone by (that could do with a bit of expansion but)...... there is reference to an old time 25 mph (40kph) max speed limit in Queensland that apparently had not been repealed in 1958 and replaced with anything else, Bob and Jacqui would know if that's still the case

A 1953 NSW Motor Traffic Handbook I have makes no mention about speed restrictions for caravan type trailers.... remember the general speed limits at that time were 30mph where street lighting existed and.. not over 50 mph (80kph) anywhere unless you were prepared to accept the onus of proving the speed you were doing was not dangerous, so in effect if you were doing over 75kph you would be getting close to pushing your luck with or without a caravan in tow.

These days you can tow your vintage caravan at the posted speed anywhere except WA which has a max speed of 100 kph if towing a van over 750kg.

What is interesting....I think is that in the UK it was not until 1958/9 that caravans were able to do a max of 40 mph (64kph) on motorways, and not until 1963 were they able to do 40 mph on other roads.
Even now they are restricted to a max of 96kph, even on motorways.

Cobber.

[grandad]

Thank you Bob & Jacqui. I'm behaving myself during the recuperation. My doc put the fear of God into me regarding the consequences of NOT behaving myself.

Cobber...I've Googled the speed limits and found nothing. John is an expatriate Pom. I wonder if he's confusing the UK with Oz? Wouldn't be the first time.

Ray...Ah. The question of weight. A subject that has not been too far out of my thoughts since the very start.

I'm kicking myself I didn't take the pumpkin down to a weighbridge before I started the dismantling. Theoretically the original tare was 600kg. But how accurate was that? Highly unlikely it just happened to weigh in at precisely 600 kg and not 612 kg or 586 kg. Obviously they rounded it. But did they round up? or down? By how much?

But, lets use the 600 kg figure. I estimate I've added roughly 100 kg to the chassis. Maybe a bit more. I worked this out by my usual formula. Wind velocity divided by the time of day and then square the result. In other words. I'm guessing.
I still have the original chassis and I really should take both it and the new one across a weighbridge to see exactly what I've added. I’ll do that once I work out the logistics of “How”.

When I went shopping for the suspension of course the first question asked was How much weight?
I estimated 600 kg original + 100 kg for the chassis + 300 kg for personal belongings, water, batteries etc giving me 1 tonne total. Battery weight will be highly dependant on whether I can afford lithium at the time or forced to use regular deep cell.

I was shown a set of springs that were rated at 1300 kg max weight. These ones however were progressive in their design which meant if I was only pulling 1 tonne or less, they won’t bounce around like normal springs will. A bit more money but I went with them. They’re apparently the ones Jayco use.

As to weight of water, I’m carrying 65 liters. So 65 kg. An increase of 35 kg over Franklin original design. A grey water tank doesn’t add any more weight other than 3 or 4 kg for the tank itself. I’m merely transferring the weight from just in front of the axle to just behind.

I’m adding a minimal extra weight everywhere else in the van. The body is unchanged. The interior fittings are much the same. Maybe another 10 to 15 kg for the small oven rather than the old Tudor two burner. All the cupboards will be the same basic construction as original.

So 90% of the extra weight I add other than the chassis itself are things like an extra LPG bottle, batteries etc and water.

I’ll position the batteries only once I know the total weight and what % is on the drawbar.

Worse case scenario. I camp somewhere off road for several days. I’ve carried in a full tank of water plus 2 x 20 liter drums in the back of the ute. By the end of my stay I’ve transferred 65 kg from in front of the axle to behind plus another 40 kg from the ute to behind the axle again. A total of 95 kg. Driving out I’ll take it real slow to see how much I’ve increased the tendency to wag the van’s tail. I’ll have electric brakes to pull out of a fish tail and I’ll have an anti sway device I saw on the drawbar to reduce the severity. If I’m not comfortable with how things are handling, I’ll start searching for an out of the way place to dump the grey water.

I can’t honestly see anything harmful in dumping grey water by the side of the road. Its probably frowned upon but really, what’s the harm? I have to work some kind of trap to catch food scraps from the sink. Plus, use a biodegradable detergent.

I can’t see a problem but I look forward to any thoughts from others on my thinking.

Cheers
Jim

[grandad]

I found this while searching for info on the speed limit.
It's dated 1974.

I've highlighted the relevant paragraph.

[grandad]

I finally have something to show that is actually finished. Well, almost finished I guess. Still have wheels to fit, water tanks, floor, wheel wells etc. to fit.

This is my new (almost complete) complete chassis.



Not quite mobile yet so I wasn’t able to move it into the sun for a decent pic.

Hit a unexpected snag with the wheels. During the whole process I’ve been referring to them as HT rims. Apparently, the HT wheel is still used to this day as a standard trailer wheel. The brake drums I ordered are therefore off the shelf items and are compatible with HT rims.
But….it turns out my wheels are actually EH or EJ. Possibly even Torana. And the two wheels I have are marginally different from each other. One is 5mm smaller inside the rim which means it won’t fit over the drum.
It wasn’t until I went down to purchase another rim that I realized HT are all 14”. These wheels are 13”
Kindof a dumb oversight on my part.

So, now I’m faced with having to source 2 new rims plus tyres to suit. That doesn’t concern me that greatly but the original plan was to use the two original ones as temporary while I was building the van then using them as spares when I’m traveling.

I can’t remember if I mentioned that these tyres are brand new light truck tyres, but……they have been sitting under the pumpkin for over 5 years. I have been advised that with this sitting around with weight on them that the chances of them blowing out once I start traveling has increased immensely. That’s why I thought I’d just keep them as spares and to use while I’m building.

Now, if I buy new rims and tyres by the time I finish building in maybe 2 years, they will have the same issue as the old ones. Really suitable for spares only. I have to try and find one more rim exactly like the one I have that fits which may prove interesting as I don’t know for sure what car they originally fitted.

Anyway…enough of my whinging. Here’s a few more pics of the chassis.

I added the trusses under the drawbar to match what was there originally. Not for any other reason than to make it look more like the original.



I turned the amperage way down when I welded them on to make sure no heat stress occurred. They’re basically decorative only.

I found a pretty good example of what heat does to a welded component. I wasn’t 100% happy with my own welding. (As a welder I make a pretty good chippy) So, I took the chassis down to a local engineering shop and asked them to go over my welds with a decent MIG. They did, and it’s as strong as I could ever wish it.

But….the heat distorted things marginally.
Here’s an example.



No big deal. The floor panels are dead square and once they’re on I’ll take all my reference points from them. So, it should be good.

I also re-welded the original Franklin serial number back where it would be if Franklin had done it.



Doesn’t show up in a pic on the painted chassis so I’ve used this pic with no paint instead.

That’s about it for now. Progress at last.

Cheers
Jim

[Roehm3108]

Hi Jim

I'm rather surprised that you wheel arch would take a tyre on a 13 inch rim, let alone a 14 inch.

My Mini had 10 inch rims when I bought, and I thought they looked a bit cacky, so went to a trailer place in Hervey Bay and they advised me to go no larger than 12 inch rims, so that I had adequate clearance.

Having had an experience of picking up a rock in a car rim and wrecking the rim by it jamming between rim and car body, I took their advice. Have you checked your clearance?

Ray

[grandad]

Hi Ray, sure have mate. The 13's that are on it, I think were original. They fit fine and the tyres on them are 100% aspect ratio. The finished outside diameter is actually the same size as the 14" low ratio tyres on my car. I forget the exact %. the 14's are. 75% from memory, without going out in the cold to look.
I don't know when Franklin stopped the 10" wheels. I spotted one the other day on the side of the road with 10 inchers. (It was a basket case) The wheel arches are totally different to mine.
I was actually more concerned with the width, that it would fit between the body and the drum when removing and installing but I tried my car spare and fits no dramas.
Cheers
Jim

[humpyboy]

Hey Jim, top job on the new chassis looks like it will out last you, well done.

[Roehm3108]

Hi Jim

Thought you might be interested in some pics of my Mini, before and after taken way back in 2000!

[grandad]

Jul 30, 2013 18:17:34 GMT 10 humpyboy said:

Hey Jim, top job on the new chassis looks like it will out last you, well done.

Thank you Humpyboy. I appreciate the comment. Although.....out lasting me at my age is really not that hard to do. ;D

[grandad]

Jul 30, 2013 19:38:27 GMT 10 Roehm3108 said:

Hi Jim

Thought you might be interested in some pics of my Mini, before and after taken way back in 2000!

Ray, not only am I interested but I think it's a great idea for anyone who wants to, to post any pics you have of other minis. Particularly to point out differences from mine as yours does.

Do you recall what year your mini was?

Jim

[ripper]

Hi Jim

I just wanted to say, "thanks heaps for sharing your story here".

Our Franklin is a 1969 14'6" Regent, but the construction is virtually the same as your Mini. It originally had bunks both sides in the back, but now has a double bed crossways. Our van has 14" wheels, but I have no idea if they're original or not. I do know they're hard to get out between the body and the hubs because of the stepped axle.

From your photos, you do things they way I'd like to (wishful thinking). Love the tapering of the ends on your chassis and the outriggers.

I'm currently working on getting our Regent ready for rego, and planning a 1500 odd Km trip asap with it behind our GQ Patrol. We have an 18' Viscount Grand Tourer, but those extra 3' of length, plus an extra 1' of width mean I'm not keen to take it down and up the mountain pass we'll be using (having previously done this trip heaps of times without a van).

[oupa]

Hallo there Jim.
I am looking at a acquiring a similar caravan and I am thus finding this thread very enlightening - thank you.
I suspect that you are going to end up with a replica of the original - with just about all the components replaced with superior new parts!
And recent developments in your build?

Dirk.

[grandad]

Hi Dirk,
Thank you for your comments. I got myself involved in helping out on a couple of renos. First my neighbor bought an investment property and asked for some help then my daughter did the same to finish off her own renos. There went several months.

So, not a lot of time for van work. I've finished making a new step that I mentioned in my last post and have welded up straps for the fresh and grey water tanks and that's about it. New Alko drop down steadys arrived yesyerday so progress is happening.

Hard to say what I'm building exactly. A faithful restore? Definitely not. Calling it a replica suggests I'm trying to keep it looking original which I'm not doing either. I keep seeing more good ideas I'm thinking about incorporating so who knows what it will be when I'm done.

I hope you can find a Mini of your own and my thread helps in some small way.

Thanks for dropping in.
Cheers
Jim

[grandad]

Howdy Folks,
Yeah I know. It's been a while.
I've actually accomplished a fair bit. Just haven't been posting.

Hopefully, this will bring me up to date.

Well, as indicated earlier, one of the next tasks was to restore the original folding step.
Just to refresh your memory, here's what I started with.



Rebuilding it was just a case of firstly disassembling it to it's basic components



cleaning up the rust on the step itself,



And then cutting new pieces of steel to duplicate the original.



And then rewelding back onto the chassis. With some nice new Merbou on the step.



Not a huge or complicated job, but very satisfying.

[grandad]

My new stabilisers arrived and brackets were welded onto each corner.

These are the stabilisers I went with. Looks like the whole van will end up with Al-Ko equipment everywhere.



Then I bent and welded up some brackets to hold the two water tanks in place.



And mounted the tanks.



The pieces of timber are Merbou again and they take up the space between the top of the brackets and the floor. I

wanted the 20mm space to allow for the top vent on the front tank and to position the rear tank where the outlet

was too close to the spring.

I've built a small access door into the floor so I can get to that vent junction from inside the van in case I need

to.

[grandad]

Now onto the floor.

It's 19mm exterior grade (not marine) plywood with a tongue and groove on two edges.

I got my local joinery shop to cut them down to size for me, leaving the T&G intact to join them. By using their

large panel saw I was assured that it was 100% square. This meant I could use the floor as a datum point for

mounting the body etc and be confident that everything is square.

I used bitumen rubber to coat the underside.



I've used this product in the past to repair old box gutters so knew it was both durable and waterproof.

Best way to apply it is to pour a line out and then use a long nap roller to spread it around.
This pic also shows the little access door to reach that vent connection.
I put two coats down.



This was the point where I did a fair bit of head scratching before having a light bulb moment.
I was getting ready to mount the floor to the chassis. Had a couple of tubes of Sika ready to go and numerous metal
screws.

The problem was that I have no shed for this build. With my time frame if I mounted the floor now, I'd have to
protect it from the elements in some way. Contrary to popular belief, it does in fact occasionally rain in Bendigo.

Not very often I grant you, but enough to bother me.

I wanted to keep my options open because one thought I had was to just sand and polish this plywood and that's my
finished floor. Still not certain if I'll do that but I want to keep my options open.

So, how to cover the floor?
Plus, once I remount the walls, that's going to be a pig to tarp up. No roof, just two walls in place with braces.

Rain we don't get very often. But wind? We get that pretty regularly. I was going through all kinds of possible
solutions when suddenly the brain kicked into gear. (It does happen occasionally and startles me every time until I
remember that's what my brain used to do every day.)

Why not just wait?

I've got space in my storage shed for the floor. The walls are safe in the carport until I'm ready. I'll just put
them all to one side until I have everything ready...like roof panels, front and back window frames etc....then ask
my neighbour for some help and in one afternoon I should be able to mount everything on the chassis and be left
with a stable structure that's all but weatherproof and easy to tarp up if I want to.

Gee it's nice when the brain decides to work for a minute.

Next step, recladding the internal wall lining.

[grandad]

The internal wall lining.
Wow, what an adventure this has been.

Let's start with a history lesson. Instead of repeating everything here how about I just link to the Classic Forum?

Franklin History

Then newcomers can see how these walls were originally made.

There's a fellow on that forum that has relined his walls by merely gluing new ply over the existing original.

Except for having to deal with the internal white alumunium window flashing I accept that it's a perfectly valid
way to attack the job.

My ply however was in dismal condition. I really wanted to go back to the polystrene foam.

Taking the old ply off was quite easy. The adhesive let go with just a gentle tug. And I was left with this.



Now, going back to that original history I linked to you'll find that Franklin originally worked with 3M to come up
with this new wall construction method. So.....3M seemed like a likely starting point.

I rang them.

After being bumped around a bit from one person to another I ended up talking to a guy who was at least aware of
the history of Franklin and 3M. He informed me there was likely nobody still at 3M that was there at that time but
at least he knew about the process.

He recommended 3M Holdfast 70 as being probably as close as we're going to get to the original. Taking advances in
technology over the past 40 odd years it was probably superior anyway.

Problem was...Holdfast 70 needs its own application equipment. It's like a small pressurised cylinder with a hose
and spray gun attached. This was an extra cost before you even thought about buying the adhesive itself. I very
quickly decided this was overkill for a one off job like mine..

So, in a moment of weakness I just reached for whatever contact adhesive I had on my shelf already and spread a
small amount on a block of polystyrene I'd scored from a neighbour. I think it was Selleys Quick Grip or similar.

Anyway, after spreading a small amount I was then entertained for the next 15 minutes watching a rather large block
of foam slowly dissolve in front of me.

Hmmmm Ok. Maybe not the best solution.

Never mind. Google is your friend.

It seems anything waterbased is goof for foam. PVA glues, several water based liquid nails type of products and a
couple of Sika products.
A trip to Bunnings and the purchase of a handfull of different adhesives later I worked out a way to test each

product to see which one is best.

This is what I bought, plus I had some artifcial grass adhesive already that I use in my business and my go-to wood glue, Gorilla Glue which I already had.



I had another large block of Polystyrene left so I cut up several small squares of the original Franklin plywood.

I glued each piece to the block and labelled each piece so I could remember what I had used where.



After leaving it overnight to well and truly set I tried to lift each piece of ply off one by one.
What I was looking for was for the joint to fail in the polystyrene itself and not the join.

here's the result.



Clockwise from top left
Water based liquid nails
Parfix Maxi Nails
Artificial grass adhesive. (Was still wet in the centre after 24 hours)
Bitumen Rubber (Same as I used on the floor as a sealer. Container says its also an adhesive)
Gorilla Glue
Sika-bond Polyurethane
And the winner is....
Sika-Bond PVA

As you can see, the glues in a tube like liquid nails had issues regarding spreading it evenly.
A good glue but only where the actual bead runs.

Even with the worst performer it was still reasonably stubborn to pull the ply off the block with my fingers.
Just goes to show, almost anything would probably do the job but the Sika-Bond PVA is the strongest, easy to spread and relatively inexpensive.

Next....preparation and repairs to the walls prior to re-sheeting.

[DC3Td]

Great see you back her Jim & that work has progressed on your van.All very neat & tidy. gordon

[grandad]

Thanks Gordon

[Observatory]

Hi Jim,

I like your glue experiment. I just used Sika-bond PVA external on my own resto and it's reassuring to know it works so well.

cheers
Pete