Millard 65

[gc1964]

Hi there. I have just joined, very new and unfamiliar territory 😁. I hope the photos are attached.
I have just purchased a Millard 1965, and tried to find some history of this year/model. It looks like the white on front and back may have been windows? Any information is appreciated. Thanks

Attachments:

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Gc64,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your purchase. I hope you will enjoy being part of the Vintage Caravan community and will get a lot of pleasure from your van.

Looking at the photos of your van, I think you are certainly correct in thinking that the white corner panels have been used to replace wrap around windows on each corner. These days people have found it relatively easy to make (or get made) new corner windows using clear acrylic or perspex, but earlier on some people just replaced the windows which were broken or clouded with aluminum paneling.

The actual identity of your van, though, is a bit of a puzzle. Looking at the second photo, your van doesn’t look like a 1965 Millard. Your van has flat aluminum cladding, but by 1964/65, Millard was using multi-strand profile aluminum cladding. In addition, the rear of your van is very different in design to the rear of 1965 Millards. If you look at these examples of mid-60’s Millards, you’ll see what I mean - click here and here.

In some respects, based on the cladding and some design elements, your van looks more like a 1961/62 Millard like this one. Ignore the Jones dolly wheel (the third wheel) at the front of the van, which was an addition to the van. But note the plain cladding, the colored panel between the windows on the sides, and the shaping of the rear below the back windows, which are similar to your van. However, what is different about your van are the wrap around windows at the rear and the rounded bulkhead over the back windows. I’m not aware of any Millard of that era (1961/62 or 1965/66) that had wrap around windows at the rear or the rounded bulkhead. Maybe they were available on special up market model Millards, but as I say I can’t recall seeing any like that.  Maybe you are about to rewrite Millard caravan history?

What may tell us a bit more about your van is if you can find the serial number on the drawbar of your van. It will either be a series of welded numbers or a plate with numbers embossed on it. If you can tell us the number, that may be the key to confirming the origins of your van and to giving you a build date.

It certainly looks like a great van, and is really intriguing because it looks a bit different to other Millards, so we’ll look forward to hearing more about it.

Don Ricardo

[gc1964]

Well thank you so much Don Ricardo! You are the person I see with a lot of knowledge about all this stuff 😁 The ‘yet to be christened’ van is still in Brisbane, which we pick up on the 16th Sept. Unfortunately, the draw bar has been totally replaced, so there won’t be any serial numbers to find. Perhaps, when I pick her up, I can look in other places for clues?! From what I can remember, the inside seems to have mostly original cupboards etc. The fridge I believe might be original. It’s the old brown Sanyo style, which still works!
Anyhow, I look forward to learning as I go. Renos won’t begin until end of year, once we get her to her new home.
Have a lovely day. Thanks again

[gc1964]

Well apparently the draw bar wasn’t replaced, just painted over. Will let you know when I have the more info on it. 🤗

[hughdeany]

Hi all,
Don I have seen double ended Millard’s before,so I don’t think it’s a one off,I just don’t have access to brochures at present,
gc1964,the fridge is an all electric non standard unit,and for some reason half the kitchen has been removed and a melamine unit put in place to house the non standard stove.
As Don Ricardo says,it’s not a hard job to replace the wrap around windows.
Good luck with your Reno,
Cheers
hughdeany

[Don Ricardo]

Hi GC64 and Hughdeany,

GC64 - that's great news to hear that the original drawbar seems to still be on the van. Even if it has been painted, you should be able to find and read the serial number pretty easily. Some manufacturers engraved their serial numbers on the drawbar and the engraving very easily disappeared under paint, but Millard used quite prominent numbers created out of weld on the drawbar, or on a plate welded onto the drawbar. I would expect yours will be the numbers created out of weld.

Hughdeany - I was pleased to read your comment about having seen "double ended" Millards. My initial inclination was to think that GC64's van mightn't be a Millard because of the wrap around windows at the rear. But overnight, when I should have been sleeping (that's what vintage caravans do to you GC64, so beware!), I began to become convinced that the van was very likely an upmarket/deluxe Millard from the early 60's. The main reason for this conclusion was the shape of the rear below the windows with the little 'kickout' two-thirds the way down. That's a pretty distinctive Millard feature.

My initial thought about some other origin resulted from the fact that yesterday I couldn't find any photos of Millards with wrap around rear windows either on the forum or Facebook. I think that means that there probably weren't many of GC64's style of van produced, and that they will be pretty rare at this point!

I'm quite excited and am looking forward to what GC64 can tell us about a serial number! You may indeed be going to add to the info we have compiled on the forum about Millard's history, GC64.

Don Ricardo

[gc1964]

Thanks for your replies and interest in my quest.
I have attached 2 photos. Is one if them a serial number? If so, Main Roads department here in QLD have deciphered it & used it for registration. I do see number 65, whuch may not be relevant to any year?
Hopefully this leads somewhere.

Attachments:

[gc1964]

This is what I see
QINVAAA65M299. The last 3 digits are difficult. Could be 209, or 208?

[Don Ricardo]

Hi GC64,

The number you've found is a VIN number which has been allocated to it by the (Queensland?) registration authority at some point when the van has been re-registered after 1988 (when VIN numbers were introduced). The other plate is a compliance plate that has been added at some later point too, possibly when the van was re-registered.

The Millard serial numbers you are looking for will either look like this...



...or this...



...or possibly this...



...but I would anticipate one of the first two.

Don Ricardo

[gc1964]

Thanks again Don Ricardo, that does stand out and should be easy to find. I will have to wait until after the 16th Sept, when we pick up the van, as I don’t want to bother the seller to go searching for it. I am really hoping it is there, somewhere, unless of course the whole draw bar was replaced over the years.!
I will keep you updated 👍

[gc1964]

Hi there. We will be picking up ‘the van’ on Thursday and taking up to our property. Thankfully she will be undercover until we make the full move up in late December, and can gradually start some renovations.
I was looking at these photos, and was wondering if the original signs were underneath, because to me these look like new stick on decals. They are on front and back.
What would the original look like?

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Gc64,

Millard used a number of logos and brand/model name styles over the years. I don't think we've got a good fix on the sequence, but some seemed to not last very long. If you look at the Millard thread in the Down History Lane section you'll get an idea of the variety.

Nevertheless, on the basis that your van is early 60's, I think there's a good chance your Millard stickers are original, or if not original, then replicas of the original. For example here is a Millard which I am guessing is from the era of yours showing its Millard sticker:



You'll note that in this case the logo was "cut out" and not embedded in a rectangle, which I am judging was an earlier style. But here are a couple of vans which I again judge arefrom the around the general era of your van where the Millard logo is contained within a rectangle similar to yours:





Hope that helps?

Don Ricardo

[gc1964]

So it has been 12 months onwards since I have been here. I do hope this isn’t a long winded rant to all interested parties 😉
Turned out we had more ‘house’ projects to attend to before old ‘Maude’ got a second glance. We have decided to just do a tidy up, which will include fresh interior paint, flooring, new seating, bed & new colour over the exterior green & white. We will do this ourselves. We thought it best to get someone in to do main stuff which includes new fridge, electrical, kitchen bench, solar panels, batteries, new hatch, water tank/pump, window latches, small aircon & a few other repairs.This will allow van to be used off grid. As we live rural now, there aren’t too many skilled people willing to work on old caravans. We have found someone, who quoted us approximately $7,000.
We are not 100% certain if it is worth while doing all this or should we sell to someone that wants to do the reno themselves.?
I would like to know from people with more experience, if there is much interest for this type of old van. We still don’t know for sure what year she is?
Thanks for your time.