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Post by brett930 on Sept 22, 2021 12:09:24 GMT 10
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Post by brett930 on Sept 27, 2021 9:25:00 GMT 10
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 21:26:42 GMT 10
Whoops, It's been a year since my last post, and for completeness I thought I'd better do an update since the van is complete (well, as complete as any of these things ever are!). I'm going to do this as a series of a few shorter posts - I tried to do one long one the other night, accidentally closed the browser tab, and lost the lot... lesson learnt! So... from the previous post, we'd cleaned up the chassis and test fitted the floor. The next job was more underfloor stuff. The brakes were too far gone to repair - someone had cut all the hydraulic lines, removed the brake shoes and the hydraulic reservoir was stuffed. The easiest option was to replace the lot. We explored the options and opted for a pre-assembled axle/brake/hub/bearing setup, going with cable operated brakes as the best compromise between simplicity, maintainability and fit for purpose. While the floor was out, we removed, disassembled, cleaned and repainted the springs, replaced the spring bushes and reassembled the lot with the new axle. The orginal water tank was missing, so we fitted a new plastic water tank under the floor, just forward of the axle, and overhauled the stabiliser legs, one of which was bent and had a broken weld.  PXL_20211002_050649046 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20211008_062321119 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20211010_040226413 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20211017_061017430 by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 21:45:45 GMT 10
With the underfloor work finished, we also cleaned up the draw bar (and fitted the new cable brake hitch), reinstalled the new floor and focussed on getting everything fully weathertight. We discovered early on that a bunch of rivets on the roof had given away and the roof was partly held together with gaffer tape, so spent a bunch of time fixing up all of this, re-sealing everything with sikkaflex and overhauling all of the windows. Several of the glass panes were broken and the corner acrylic windows were crazed and cracked, so we decided to replace the lot with new acrylic. Fortunately, one of our sons is a signwriter and had access to a proper acrylic bending machine, so the corner windows were easy to secure. All of the other windows were removed, polished and reassembled with new acrylic and rubbers all round before re-fitting. The window surrounds were also removed and cleaned up (some were thoroughly coated in silicone!) - much of it done on New Year's Eve.. yeah, we need to get a life!  PXL_20211017_030207550 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20211003_014426819 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20210920_120010235 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20210920_221434439 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20210921_103243499 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20210929_112709279 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20210929_120927850 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20211231_102423798 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20211116_040559460 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220101_095015384 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220102_104728424 by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 22:02:30 GMT 10
With the interior wall linings removed, we re-wired the entire van, opting for a combination of 240 and 12v electrics. Almost everything in the van now runs on 12 volts. The original interior lights were fitted with 12v LED bulbs, and we added a couple of extra LED downlights on the underside of the overhead cabinets. A new ranghood was installed, along with USB charger sockets and cigarette lighter style outlets and a small water pump. We also installed a 90-odd litre upright 12v fridge/freeze. This was all routed through a central fuse box and powered by a 150ah lithium battery. To keep an eye on battery levels, we installed a Victron smart battery monitor with external display and bluetooth integration for monitoring battery state from our phone. This was set up to be charged by either a 240v AC charger or a 12v DC/DC charger, with an andersen plug to connect to the car and another andersen plug for a portable solar panel. The system should let us run for at least a three day weekend without charging, and if we get a reasonable level of sunlight, almost indefinite run-time with solar recharging... and of course we can top it up by connecting to the car and running things for half an hour or so. The 240v power was designed to provide the option for mains power on powered sites, with three double power points - two above benches and one underneath the kitchen cupboard, which provides power for the AC battery charger and the oven (we opted for a Swift 500 fan-forced oven, with three gas and one electric hotplate. We use the electric one to save gas when we're on a powered site). All of the electrics were installed underneath the kitchen bench.  PXL_20220503_221825553 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220503_221821358 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220503_221836719 by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 22:11:27 GMT 10
With the electrics all sorted out, it was time to add some insulation (that the van never had) in the form of a pile of 15mm foilboard. To avoid the polystyrene of the foilboard reacting with the wiring insulation, all electrical wiring was run through conduit. Following insulation, all new wall lining boards were cut (using the panels we removed as templates), painted and installed. We used 3mm luan ply, painted in white semi-gloss, along with the existing cabinetry and roof. The original wardrobe doors were badly damaged and had been painted in chalkboard paint, so we opted to replace these with 7mm VJ grooved ply. We found a perfect remnant of vinyl sheet at a flooring clearance centre, so laid this on the floor, using a paper template to make sure it was a perfect fit.  PXL_20210919_060635279 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  IMG_2547 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20211106_042028943 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220103_085532798 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220111_051707376 by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 22:37:45 GMT 10
As the van came without any furniture, apart from the wardrobe and overhead cabinets, we needed to build everything from scratch. We relied heavily on the guide at www.caravansplus.com.au/guides/self-build-guide-6-cupboards-table-benchs-beds-shower-cubicle-a-123.html for inspiration when building new furniture, so constructed the kitchen, bed base, bedhead, dinette seating and "bedside cupboard" out of 42x18mm meranti frames, clad in 3mm luan ply. All the joints were glued and screwed with pocket screws. The "shaker" style doors were made from 7mm ply. We cut the centres out, then glued a sheet of 3mm luan ply to the back - this gave a total thickness of 10mm, perfect for the original hinges, very light, and giving the three dimensional effect we were after. As mentioned in an earlier post, we installed a Swift 500 cooker, with hotplates, oven and grill, and fitted a round under-mount sink in the laminated timber benchtop. The original van was a 2SD configuration - two single beds and a dinette, but given we were starting from scratch, we opted for a double bed across the van. For simplicity, we used an ikea slatted base, which was quite lightweight, with the two halves joined together with an aluminium tubular frame. The front two overhead cupboards on the right hand side of the van had been modified - the doors had been removed and the panel between the two had been cut out. To avoid this looking odd, we did the same thing on the other side - this also gave us two spare sets of hinges and cupboard handles. Fortunately, whoever had stripped the van had kept all the hinges and handles, so with these, and another couple of sets that I secured from another Baravan owner who had salvaged them from a wreck, had enough to fit all the cupboards we needed. We found a set of wicker baskets to add storage back into these opened up cabinets. The kitchen splash-back was a sheet of aluminium pressed metal. A new table for the dinette was built from a laminated timber panel, reinforced underneath, fitted to the original table support at the rear of the van. This folds down to form another bed at the rear of the van.  PXL_20220120_092728779 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220123_070151014 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220129_110038156.MP by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220214_212354730 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220503_221903554 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220227_102037141.MP by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220114_033754686 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220209_012115366 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220425_042424122.MP by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220429_074916268 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220506_072903724 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220516_032454490 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220618_022836318 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220503_115757216 by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 22:45:48 GMT 10
When the van arrived with us, it was missing the original roof hatch, with only the inner skin and stays remaining - apparently the outer skin blew off in transit to the previous owner, who had covered the hole with a tarpaulin. It took us a while to figure out what it was supposed to look like, eventually getting advice from another Baravan owner, and we folded up a new one from 3mm aluminium composite panel, which was then fitted to a new internal structure made from meranti, sheeted inside with marine ply, and then the interior face covered with a "leaf" print from Grafico, which matched the same print applied to the side of the wardrobe. As you may have noticed, we decided early on that, with the van having already been gutted, we'd restore it in a "resto-mod" style - not trying to go 100% original, but certainly not too modern.. somewhere in between, so things like the 12v system, the colour scheme, the modern stove and the decorative prints are some of the more modern touches we added to the van.  PXL_20220312_032424555.MP by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220313_081845002 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220516_032344700 by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 22:53:30 GMT 10
We probably went-back to front with the van, building the inside before we attended to the exterior, but we spent a lot of time debating whether we were actually going to paint the exterior. This approach, however, did allow us to get the van put together, weighed and registered sooner.. in fact timing was such that we were able to get van to the point of registering it on the 10th May 2021. This date wasn't co-incidental - early on in the project we reached out to Bruce Barrett, who kindly advised us that our van was built on 10th May 1966, so re-registering the van on it's "birthday" was, I felt, a nice touch to add to its history. Here I am, proudly affixing our new number plate at Vicroads!  IMG_3004 by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 23:06:59 GMT 10
As part of the project, we ordered a brand new period style awning from The Awning Store (https://www.theawningstore.com.au/) and installed a length of sail-track to suit. With the van finished inside, registered and ready to use, we made our maiden voyage in the middle of winter to Tolmie Recreation Reserve for the Mansfield Lantern Festival, to celebrate the winter solstice. Maybe it was crazy to do a trip in the middle of the winter, on an unpowered site, with no heater... but with a 12v electric blanket on the bed and some warm pyjamas, we were quite comfortable. The only issue we found on the trip were minor, with the biggest problem being that the new pillows we bought for the van being very uncomfortable! Now we just take our pillows from home with us!  PXL_20220618_224847108 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220618_062918945 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220618_062547621 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20220618_103631315.NIGHT by Baravan#930, on Flickr |
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Post by brett930 on Sept 26, 2023 23:28:06 GMT 10
Shortly after this first trip, the project was put on hold with some family challenges, followed by the purchase of a new home, sale of our old home, and the associated move of all our stuff. One benefit of the move was the luxury of more space to work on the van. To this point, everything we'd done was with the van parked in the driveway of our home, and any construction being done in the garage (our cars spent a few months out in the weather!) The new house has a dedicated high-bay shed, large enough to park the van inside and work at our leisure. Over the 2022 Christmas break, we moved onto finishing the outside of the van. Close to fourty hours was spent hand polishing the diamond pattern aluminium, using California Customs deoxidiser and purple polish... a product I can't recommend more highly. Building the van interior first complicated the painting, and the decsion was made to not spray paint with the extra effort required to properly mask the window and interior from overspray, and the cost for the automotive paint. The original paint was still pretty solid, just worn and faded, so we scoured it all back thorougly, degreased it and then primed and painted in a gloss enamel with brush and roller. The finish is more than acceptable, and we're very happy with the result. We fiddled around with varying shades of blue, and ended up using the same colour as we'd used for the cabinets inside, and which was quite close to the colour the original paint had faded to. This colour also led to the naming of the van, which we've called "Levi", the paint is called "Vintage Denim", and although we were initially thinking of calling the van "Jean", our son suggested Levi, and the name has stuck. (The following is a short video - click to watch it on Flickr)  Full Polish by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20230311_071937091 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20230311_095913467 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20230312_080308349 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20230320_064315272 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20230326_055431299 by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20230414_020958362.MP by Baravan#930, on Flickr  PXL_20230915_081004765 by Baravan#930, on Flickr Levi has now been on a few trips with us - the Glorious Gippsland Gathering in March 2023, a 2500km road trip from Melbourne to the NSW Central Coast, then back home via Sydney, Canberra and Rutherglen in April 2023 and a weekend trip to Castlemaine, and it has towed beautifully every time and been very comfortable to stay in. Our next excursion is the Maryborough Vintage Caravan weekend in October 2023, probably a couple of trips over the next few months, and then Bridgewater and the next Gippsland Gathering in 2024... so if you see us and Levi at one of these weekends, please say "Hi" and we'd love to show you the finished project! Brett & Margot. |
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Post by Mustang on Sept 27, 2023 8:15:28 GMT 10
Very nice job, & be proud of your detail, one lucky van.
Cheers
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CanAm
Junior Member
Posts: 80
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Post by CanAm on Sept 27, 2023 23:52:24 GMT 10
Awesome!
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baravan (1) by Baravan#930, on Flickr
PXL_20210915_085134153 by Baravan#930, on Flickr
PXL_20210916_072804476 by Baravan#930, on Flickr
PXL_20210919_223132876 by Baravan#930, on Flickr
