Olympic caravans

[kingswood308]

1962 - 63 Ford XL Australian tail lights.

Those that are into American iron should be able to pick the difference a mile away.

[stephen&Julie]

Hello All,
This is a close up of the tail lights on our van, could any Ford buffs out there date them with out lenses?





Cheers S&J

[neilncheryl]

Hi Steve
I am thinking 1953 Ford Customline. The 1954 had a bit more chrome around the centre indicator but the 1953 looks pretty similar

[stephen&Julie]

Circa 1959 Olympic ali van













Cheers Stephen&Julie

[jonl]

Not mine (unfortunately) but, parked next to this beauty at Guilderton, W.A. early 2015. He recovered it in a severely delapidated state with the roof collapsing and rebuilt it - the exterior is complete and the interior was 75% done - I think he was figuring out how to do a shower/toilet and finish off insulating it.
He also built up his ute from components.
I think he builds Hot Rods for a living......

[andys]

That's Greg's van and truck.
I think he's built 2-3 Olympics, a few Sunliners and some other glass vans.

H lives down the road from me, so has been the world of help with my Riviera project

[boblor]

Hi to all
Greg's van is a 1970 model, chassis no. 1993. Very nice touch there 'tucky'.
Cheers boblor

[fairmont]

Hi Folks - I've been a lurker for ages. I bought an Olympic Debonair about 12 months ago, and I've been busy sorting it out ever since.
It's a '74 model - it looks like the serial is 1831. The previous owner had it since 1976 and kept in pretty much original condition.
I had all the window frames soda blasted and replaced all the rubbers around the glass.

I'm presently restoring a 69 F100 to pull the Debonair around. They should be a great looking combo when they're done.
I'll try to load few pics when I get a chance.

regards,

Rod A
Toowoomba

[boblor]

Hi Rod
I do not have your van on my register, chassis no.1831 is Sept. 1969 model. PM your details to me and I will enter you and your van on the register.
Cheers boblor (Bob Taylor)

[gregh]

OLYMPIC FIBREGLASS CARAVAN TARE WEIGHTS.

A while ago I asked what the weight of my Olympic Debonair was. I was quote around 850kg. Since asking this question, I've come across a scanned Olympic brochure image on the Classics Sister Site

Based on the image that appears in the brochure, the weights are based on pre 1969 vans.

This brochure declares the weights as CWT (or 100 weight). For the convenience of all Fabuglassers, the following metric conversions apply.

The TARE weight being the dry weight off the showroom floor.
The weights were originally listed incorrectly - a US conversion. They have been corrected to UK conversion.

Model	CWT TARE	Kilograms TARE
Debonair	14	712
Riviera	16	813
Contessa	16	813
Styleader 18	19	966
Stardust	21	1066

This is fantastic news for me as I've always thought mt 21' Stardust weighted around 1600kg. It seems I just gained 534kg carrying capacity.  

Please remember; a litre of water weighs 1kg, so your 60 litre tank adds 60kg. Then there's the gas bottle - another 20kg. And that's before you load food, clothing, toys etc.

Hope this helps.

[micknlane]

Oct 3, 2010 20:33:43 GMT 10 boblor said:

Hi All VVers
Another great Olympic find today, fibreglass Riviera chassis no. 4, the oldest on our register.
It was interesting to see where the manufacturer started from in so far as design. This being the early days does not have a full chassis and the entry door closes on the external of the wall (not into a recess) and the fibreglass is almost double the thickness of later vans.
I will keep the forum posted on this van, as we are working on having it restored and placed in a museum, and this museum may become in part a caravan museum,-- lets hope so, as we are planning to place no. 35 here.
Cheers boblor

Hi

We are new here and it seems as though we have just bought the caravan in question. riviera #4
so it would be interesting on finding out some more information on this old girl as we will be trying to restore it.

Any help will be appreciated

Thanks

Micka and Lane

[Mustang]

Wow!! what an interesting piece of history you have there, can you post some pics?

[micknlane]

Will do, just need to go and get it first.

On that note does anyone know a good caravan transporter?

Thanks

[kazzagib]

Hello, new member here!  We have had our 67 Riviera for close to a year and LOVE it!  





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[kazzagib]

And a pic all hooked up and ready to roll!  :-)



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[micknlane]

Nice Kazzagib

did you buy it like that or do some work buy yourself

[kazzagib]

Mar 21, 2017 12:36:41 GMT 10 micknlane said:

Nice Kazzagib

did you buy it like that or do some work buy yourself

We found her like that :-).  We were considering a new caravan but this is much nicer than anything new in my opinion, and very easy to tow!

[firefighter]

Another new member from Tasmania....welcome
Our other Tasmanian members will be rapt

f/f

[Greig Price]

She is still looking good! Manytimes I have regretted selling her to you :-( But its great to so her being truly appreciated. Enjoy Greig Price.

[stephen&Julie]

New addition to the family, 1963 Olympic Riviera chassis number 36






This one will be tucked away for rainy day

Cheers Stephen&Julie

[murray]

May 3, 2018 18:53:44 GMT 10 stephen&Julie said:

New addition to the family, 1963 Olympic Riviera chassis number 36


This one will be tucked away for rainy day

Cheers Stephen&Julie

I can see a raincloud !! 

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

The Olympic Condor was produced and sold by Olympic in 1982/3 and as such doesn't qualify as a caravan from either the Vintage or Classic eras. However, it was designed by Tony Pusterla who created some innovative and even quirky caravan designs in the Vintage era (just), and the Condor certainly features both qualities, ie innovative and quirky. Boblor refers to the Condor in his history of Olympic caravans here and there is some further information provided by him at the bottom of this post.

---

On 8 January 2012, Olycondor posted about their Condor here:

Our search started just after Christmas while holidaying at our friend’s beach house at Mudjimba. We were heading for the beach and spied an Olympic in a driveway, it was not for sale but the owners did give us a lead on a Debonair at Kilkivan, so the next day we made the trip and brought the tired old girl home and have already started on the cleanup. While we were driving back to base and discussing with my wife all the things were going to do to the Debonair I vaguely remembered an old glass van I had seen some 4 years ago on a property being used as a guests bedroom, so after unloading we headed off to the farm and approached the owners about selling their visitors accommodation, it was for sale, we had a look over the van, we had never seen anything like this before, it looked interesting, a price was struck and we towed her home, and she towed very well. I have since been talking to Bob Taylor about the van, Bob tells me that it is called an Olympic Condor and he only knows of 2 other vans, I’m not sure yet if that’s a good thing or not! We will be letting Big Bird sit in the shed for a while until we have restored the Debonair ready to travel in October for the Bathurst V8’s. So we would be very grateful for any information or suggestions for either van. We will post photos of the Debonair soon and keep you posted on Big Bird. Cheers Pete & Val

---

Boblor responded on 10 January 2012 with the following information about Olycondor's caravan:

Hi All
We welcome Pete and Val into the Olympic family and to Vintage caravanning. Olympics just keep turning up, this one is special as it may well be the only one manufactured, first Olympic price list it appeared on is dated 1/4/'87, but Glass's Caravan Guide spring/summer edition 1985-'86, mentions it for 1983 POA.
This particular vans chassis no. 82 8 337W PK (August 1982 chas.no 337 white for caravan park) . This chassis no. just fits in amongst other Olympic models, eg 334 21' Stardust,335 Contessa, 338 Debonair, 339 Debonair and 343 is scheduled to call to Olympic HQ tomorrow morning a Riviera.
So there is a little bit of Olympic history for you. Also I should mention that Condor is further development of Tony Pusterla's Series 2000 van featured in Caravan World Magazine in the months of Nov. and Dec. 1978. Olympic obviously obtained the molds and proceeded to modify the van in many ways, as there is currently another version sitting at the factory with a raised roof section with window type vents in this raised section and the entry door just back from the front on the side like a Riviera.
The series 2000 had sliding glass door at the rear parting in the middle and a fibreglass door/awning covering the whole rear section (lid).
As some of you would know Tony Pusterla developed the Murrumba Star 'MiniStar', 'LindaStar' and the Linda Walkabout, the first two featured in Australian Motor Manual June 1968.
There that's enough for now.
Cheers boblor

---

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

When vintage vanners hear the words 'Olympic caravan' most of us think of Olympic's iconic fibreglass caravans which they produced from 1965 to the early 1990's. Before that, in the early 60's, Olympic produced a series of aluminium clad vans with knife-edge styling along the lines of the Carapark Zestline and Astronaut caravans and the Sapphire vans. Some examples of Olympic's knife-edged styled vans are shown higher up this thread. However, as Boblor set out in his history of Olympic caravans here in the period after World War II up until 1960, Olympic also built more conventional bondwood and aluminium clad caravans.

One of these more conventional aluminium clad vans from the second half of the 50's is shown below. The photos are of Margra's caravan sighted at the 2016 Vintage Caravan Nationals held at South West Rocks:

It is unclear at this point exactly when Olympic commenced producing caravans (apart from some time after World War II) and whether the earliest vans were sold under the 'Olympic' brand name.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

A few years ago Boblor provided me with some photos of an Olympic Riviera that he rescued and had restored. For various reasons the photos weren't posted at the time.

The van in question has several claims to fame:

1. It was one of the relatively early Olympic fibreglass caravans with serial number 35.
2. It was one of the few Olympic fibreglasses to be produced by the factory in a colour other than 'Olympic white'.
3. It is reputed to have been used by Senator Don Chipp as a mobile campaign office in his time as founder and leader of the Australian Democrats.

-

-

There was a bit of discussion about No 35 here after I happened to come across it in 2008 at the back of a factory in Corowa, NSW, before Boblor picked it up.

Don Ricardo

[kenny]

Just checking the aerial photos for the area where Olympics were made:

* This is 3397 Pacific Highway Slacks Creek on the southern side of the highway, (Springwood is on the northern side of the highway)

* The photo taken in 1974 shows what looks like two sizes of caravans, on each side of the highway!

* The southern side shows some writing on the roof of the office structure.