Think we have a Globe perhaps?

[beryl21]

Hello

We have just purchased an old van which we believe is a Globe. It is a 12foot, 3 berth. sold as a ?Globetrotter.

We have looked through this forum (great resource thank you)... and done a tick for many of the items described as being 'Globe'. We have: an angle iron chassis frame, with a 'support bar' ( not sure this is the correct term) underneath; little rain ledge over the door; non-opening solid front window and window over the sink - with patterned thick glass over the sink, (will get to the back window soon); sliding doors above the table and elsewhere; five stud wheels and solid 'chrome coloured' hubcaps; black 'push button' cupboard knobs; laminate similar to that seen in other vans posted here, and same green upholstery as the van listed in wanbenomad's globe, ableit with different top pattern. Our van has this green upholstery around the twin beds, and an upholstery label for Elite Bedding 'A South Australian Product' on the chair cushions.  We have the number 3073 on the chassis, but no other identifying Globe plate found as yet. The van is in quite good condition and we believe we are the 3rd(?) owners since manufacture. The back window has been removed and an 'extension' added by a previous owner ?? - definitely home made, (perhaps for a television??) which gives the back appearance of a laying box for chickens - we are planning to remove this and will be looking for a new backwindow.

Do you think we have a Globe? and if so, any thoughts on year please?

Thank you in advance, 

Beryl21

[beryl21]

And a few more photographs. 

Thank you in advance. 

Beryl21

[hughdeany]

Hi and welcome Beryl,
Yes it’s a definite Globetrotter,I think it was originally bondwood that has been re covered in silver Ali at some stage.You can see the front and roof has flat Ali whilst the sides have the later ribbed version,was common in the 60s to do this with bondwood vans .It looks about an early to mid sixties model,look in the down history lane section on here under Globetrotter and you will see what it looked like originally.
Hope this helps
Cheers
hughdeany

[beryl21]

Hello Hughdeany, and thank you for your quick reply, and yes, this definitely helps. We did some cleaning today and found a tiny sticker for Alifab on the front window protector, which might just confirm this. I have done a quick check and Alifab are still operating and have a Brisbane branch, so might be able to get them to make a new back window??

Really appreciate your advice thank you.

Regards,
Beryl21

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Beryl21,

Hmmm...

I've spent quite a lot of time examining the photos of your van and am a bit hesitant about saying that your van is a Globe. I am hedging my bets a bit because Hughdeany believes that it is, and I have found that he is usually correct because he has a very deep knowledge of caravans from the 1960's on, having worked in the caravan industry for many decades. All the same, very occasionally I have been found to be on the right track, and maybe this time is one of the times...?

I was pleased to read through the items you had ticked off in comparing your van to Globe vans. Often people just form a judgement based on the overall shape or a single feature, but you have obviously thought through the whole question of identity quite thoroughly. All the same some of the features that you have listed were common features on vans built by a number of manufacturers around that era. Globe was one of a number of South Australian based manufacturers, and the South Australians often built vans with features and fittings that were similar to each other. The braced A-frame, the rain ledge over the door, window over the sink, the sliding cupboard doors, the wheels and hubcaps,the cupboard door knobs and the type of upholstery were fairly common features on vans from several manufacturers.

Having said that, Globe vans did tend to be distinctive in a number of ways. The features of your van that could be distinctively Globe are the fixed front trapezoid window and the shape of the external wheel arch. The fixed trapezoid window was used by a few manufacturers for their rear windows (eg Roma), but Globe is the only one that I can think of that used it for their front window. In addition the 'South Australian product' label on the cushions almost certainly indicates that your van was built in South Australia.

What makes me think that your van might not be Globe though is that it is a different shape and style to other Globes of that era. If you've looked at the thread that Hughdeany pointed you to, you'll see that Globes from the early to mid-60's (and I'll come back to the build date later) had a distinctive shape. In particular they had what I call "buttressed" front and rear windows, where the front and rear walls and windows above the waist line were perpendicular but the side walls angled out from the waist line. You can see a typical example here:





Looking from the side, this styling makes it look as if the rear wall is angled a bit like an early 1960's Ford Anglia's rear window (if you are familiar with that?), even thought it's not.

Your van definitely doesn't have that styling at the front, nor at the rear as best as I can tell from the photos.

The other thing to say about styling and shape, and that is that I cannot find any Globes from any era with a similar shape to your van. The only vans from the early to mid-60's which didn't have the "buttressed" styling had wrap around front windows like this one:



However, your van doesn't have the wrap around front windows, and the bulkhead above the front windows of the van shown above is a different shape to yours, as is the whole front profile.

I have to acknowledge that Globe did produce a number of models with a number of different shapes, some of them as best as we can tell with a very limited production run. All the same I think that the fact that we haven't seen - or perhaps I should say, after an extensive search, I can't find - any examples of Globes that have the same shape and styling as yours is very likely an indicator that your van isn't a Globe.

Ignoring the above for a minute, let's assume for the moment that your van is a Globe and think about build date. You have indicated that your van has the serial number '3073'. We know for a fact that the Globe with the serial number '2617' was ordered on 15 April 1964 and was apparently delivered on 16 May 1964 (see here), suggesting that it was built in April/May of that year. Your van has a serial number 456 higher than number 2617, so my guess is that if your van is a Globe it would have been built later in 1964, or possibly early 1965 (we don't know what Globe's production rate was at that point).

So there are some thoughts about your van which possibly seem a bit contradictory, but may help you in your journey of identifying your van. One important point to hang on to is that the 'South Australian product' label on the upholstery is an almost certain indication that the van was built in South Australia, so that narrows things down a lot.

I am of course open to argument on all of the above from you, Hughdeany or anyone else.

Don Ricardo

[hughdeany]

Hi all,
I’m thinking the front shape was changed a bit to suit the more “ modern” vans of the time when this was re covered in aluminium.
The shaped interior sliding cupboards and cantilevered kitchen cupboards are a giveaway,as is the lighting poking out from the overhead kitchen cupboards,a standard Globe feature for many years.
Happy to be proven wrong,but the interior screams Globe to me!😉
Cheers
hughdeany

[shesgotthelook]

Sorry Hughdeany, I tend to be on Don Ricardo's side on this one. The kitchen layout, the cupboards & handles & the overhead cupboard are nothing like any Globes I have owned or researched & the shape does not resemble a Globe Trotter either. My first Globe was Max's Winterwood, 1964 with single beds & lots of features generic to other globes. Happy to be proven wrong.
When did Globe stop producing caravans?

[Don Ricardo]

Hi SGTL,

Interesting question about when Globe stopped producing caravans. I haven’t been able to answer that question, but the design of the aluminium clad vans shown in the DHL Globe thread suggest to me that Globe vans were still being produced fairly late in to the 60’s, at lest 1967/8?

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Hughdeany,

You may be right, but if the front profile has been altered then it’s a pretty major reconstruction and the shape of the rear has been altered dramatically too. I know those big alterations are sometimes made, but I would have thought it would have been pretty rare?

Don Ricardo

[hughdeany]

Hi Don,
Not as rare as you think,it used to be a bit like house renovation,sometimes the changes became bigger and bigger!
Looking a bit closer it could originally be a Globe Gold Coaster,the window and sliding overhead cupboard shapes are alike.
I’d like to see some more photos of the rear and the interior if possible to see if it has the customary shaped wardrobe frame.
Cheers
hughdeany

[shesgotthelook]

2 photos from my 1964 'Gold Coaster' Note the sliding cupboards & bakelite handles. I don't recall if it had Globe stamped on it's window frames but this might be another give away as to it's origins. Hughdeany, I agree the curved windows are similar but that's the only thing to my eyes that is.

[hughdeany]

Hi SGTL.
I’m thinking later model than that one,it still had the old style overhead sliders with mirrors that your current 12 ft has.Later Goldcoaster had shaped openings with sliding doors.You can also see the batten fittings are in the exact same place and the way the cupboard is fitted around
D the fridge and the shaped wardrobe cabinet.
Cheers
hughdeany

[beryl21]

Thank you hughdeany, shesgotthelook, and Don Ricardo, for this wonderful forum,

We appreciate all your thoughts and comments, thank you for taking such an interest, and we may have found a couple of answers.

We did a little work on the caravan this weekend, and took off the 'back bit' extension, which we think was for a television (similar to how people now put in an air conditioner).. quite a solid (and heavy) thing, with box steel, iron, foam, board and a HEAP of silicone... the taking off of which involved some muttering.   The back now does not look like this.




It now looks like this...


and if you look closely you can see the same window shape sloping in at the bottom of the frame, similar to the front window...it still has some more timber to come out. Still work to do here, as there is lots of silicone to come off still... I am patiently peeling away... 

We think the kitchen has had a few changes... we think the cupboard hanging down from the overheads is a home made add on, we think there was a stove where the sink now is, because the sink has a 'cupboard' and is lined in metal.  You can see we have now boarded up the back opening in preparation for a window to go in.  We also found offcut laminex and metal back laminex (as though it has come off an earlier kitchen style), and some caravan stabilizers, which fit into a small round piece of pipe located near the rear angle iron A frame. 

we also think the top of the bedside table has been cut off because the vinyl is missing there, and we took off a panel and can see that something has been attached to the back of there previously. 



And....
Please also see the next post... we found....  

[beryl21]

With the back piece removed. 

and then ...

we found this.... 




also a part number on the back of this plate. C 510.

Kind regards, 
Beryl21

[Mustang]

Ooppsss that spells G.... !!!!!!!!!!!

[beryl21]

We have worked on the caravan over the past few weekends, taken off the add-on pieces at the back of the A frame ...think this might have been where the previous-previous owner carried the spare tyre or a bike?
Inside - We have removed the added on home-made cupboard.
Bought new tyres.
I am still pulling off silicone from where we removed the added on 'box' on the back... neverending.
We have kept the original jockey wheel and only replaced the 'rubber' part.
Our caravan has a little soap holder next to the smaller cupboard with the mirror. Would this have been original?
We need to put in a door lock (previous owner locked the keys inside I believe and lock was removed) and I wondered if there is a particular type of lock? Or if anyone might be wiling to sell an original?
Our Globe has a fly door, which we think might be original? Any thoughts?
Also a query about the water tank over the sink. Our Globe doesn't have one, but a (we think) retrofit tank under one of the beds and hoses changed and sink moved (we think). Did all the Globes have an over sink water tank? Would any Globe owners be able to share the dimensions and we might get one made, or does anyone have a tank to sell?
I also have another query about the windows. I notice Globe vans from around 1962 on this forum have wrap around windows on the front... ours has the sloped in towards the bottom fixed window type, both front and back, similar to the back window in the Don Ricado picture in the post earlier in this forum. Were wrap arounds at the front standard in 1964ish? 

The Globes seem to all be 'slightly' different. 

Thank you in advance for all the advice and assistance.