1950’s Bondwood Plans

[harper17]

Hi,

I am new to this forum but after a lot of research, I believe I am at the right place. I have searched far and wide for old plans for the 1950’s style bondwood, 13ft L x 8w x 8H. I found the company Woodys Caravan which would have been perfect but it seems I’m a little late as they are now out of business. The caravan they produced is exactly the style I was looking for. If anyone has old plans for the build, or could point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you I’m advance for your time and knowledge.

[Roehm3108]

I see you've started a new post three times for the same subject. Best to keep on one post per subject. It gets too confusing otherwise.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Harper17,

Great to hear about your proposed project.

Back in the day there was a journalist called Keith Winser who edited and published annual caravan periodicals from 1948 to the early 70's. (He was also the editor of the Australian Motor Manual.)

One of Winser's regular publications was called 'Plans for Australian Caravans' or a similar title. The 'Plans' books usually contained reasonably detailed plans for caravans of different sizes and styles. There were various editions over the years. If you check out some of the threads in this section of the forum you will get some idea of some of the plans contained in the magazines.

Various forum members have copies of some of the 'Plans' magazines, and I have two of them. If we can narrow down what you might be interested in we can probably get you a copy of the plans for the caravans in question.

In addition, quite a number of forum members have had to rebuild their caravans from the chassis up and have extensive experience regarding materials and techniques (but not including me!). I'm sure a number of them will be willing to provide advice along the way as you undertake your project. In fact as you've probably noticed, Roehm3108 is in the process of building a 'vintage inspired' caravan from the literal ground up for the second time.

Just one comment about what you're planning to build though - you mentioned you want to build a van 13 ft x 8ft x 8ft. Most caravans in the 50's and 60's were only 6ft or 7 ft wide, and I suspect most of Winser's plans will be for 6ft wide vans. It doesn't mean you can't create an 8ft wide van, but you will probably need to adapt the plans for that.

Anyway, have a look at the threads I pointed you to and let's see if one of the Winser plans might get you started.

Don Ricardo