Wayfarer caravans

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Wayfarerdescendants,

Welcome to the forum. It's great to hear from you. It's fantastic when the descendants of some of the caravan industry pioneers and identities from the vintage era are able to tell us a bit about their family members and their involvement in building caravans..

As you may have worked out, I am responsible for looking after the Down History Lane section of the forum, and have a great interest in the history of Australian caravanning, so would love to have the opportunity to chat with you and your mother. If you'd like to let me have your contact details perhaps we can arrange a meeting. You can contact me at the following email address: [e-mail]

Don Ricardo

[wayfarerdescendants]

Thanks for the reply Don, the family would love to meet with you to share what we know.
I’ll contact you at the email address you’ve provided to discuss further.
Cheers,
Lee.

[elli]

Hi, my husband and I have just purchased a lovely old Wayfarer caravan. We'd love to have some idea of it's age and model.



I've found a couple of photos of other van's pretty much identical but they're on Pinterest and don't tell me anything.



Is anyone able to help?
(please bear with me... this is my first attempt at Flickr photos!)



aaa20181212_080146 by Elli H, on Flickr

aa20181212_080128 by Elli H, on Flickr


a20181212_080158 by Elli H, on Flickr


b20181211_184037 by Elli H, on Flickr

i769 by Elli H, on Flickr

i770 by Elli H, on Flickr

i771 by Elli H, on Flickr

[hughdeany]

Hi Ellie and welcome,
Your van is about a 1970 /71 Wayfarer that is made with thermo panel,which is a sandwich of foam,ply and aluminium which gives good insulation and has been used by Franklin and Viscount since your model.Love that layout in 8 ft wide too,so roomy.
It looks to be in very good nick from the photos,what are you going to do with it?
Cheers
hughdeany

[elli]

Hughdeany, thanks for the information. We're pretty thrilled with our buy.

For now it will live in our shed for visitors to stay and will be a bit of a project. It is in pretty good condition except the wall panels around the dinette which have water damage. The seller said the roof itself didn't leak but there's a bit of a lip under the front window so that might be the culprit. It's been backed into by a car at some stage and there's an attempt at repair on the front right corner but it's not bad. In fact we thought they'd just tried to fix leaking in that area.

Will keep taking photos!

[wallythewayfarer]

Hi All,

Elli H we have a VERY similar Wayfarer! We got him a couple of years ago totally gutted so we are really trying to get him renovated & up and running for the Bridgewater Vintage Caravan Weekend (get 15-17, 2019). Where are you located? Also, what is the number on your drawbar? Your Wayfarer is the only one we have seen that is basically the same as ours.
Looking forward to finding out more info!

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Elli,

Great to see your post and also to see that you mastered the trick of posting photos.

Just a bit of trivia to add to what Hughdeany has already told you. Your model van was also built by Wayfarer for Reg Hunt, who was a Holden dealer in Melbourne back in the day. The Reg Hunt Wayfarers had a little back plate or sticker behind the Wayfarer badge which said 'Reg Hunt'. Hughdeany can probably tell us more.

Don Ricardo

[68wayfarer]

Hello all - I'm a newbie and the proud owner of a 15 ft 68 or 69 Wayfarer van (sincere thanks to Don Ricardo for dating it for me). Just wondering if anyone has photos of the original livery/paint job so I can compare - Don Ricardo thought mine may have been painted over...anyone?

Thanks in advance. It would also be great to hear more from Gristy re his father-in-law's inside story as a Wayfarer worker in the late 60s, just the right time!

Kingy's photos might be close, but they're of an earlier van I think.

Can anyone help? I can't find much online...

Thank you!

[Don Ricardo]

Hi 68wayfarer,

Great to see you posting on the forum, and thanks for sending me the photo of your Wayfarer:



Your model Wayfarer was produced by Wayfarer itself between 1968 and 1969, with most if not all of that model being sold through an exclusive sales arrangement with Reg Hunt Motors in 1969 and 1970. Reg Hunt may also have had unsold stock and continued to sell the vans through into 1971, but Wayfarer ceased actual production at the end of 1969.

As you've mentioned your van has been painted at some point.

Following are some photos of your model Wayfarer with the original livery, beginning with Wallythewayfarer's van (see post higher up this thread):



This van is clad in unpainted aluminium, but with the original flashes (the stripes on the side). 1968 was the year in which many caravan manufacturers changed from using unpainted aluminium cladding to aluminium with a baked acrylic finish, which Wayfarer also adopted. For that reason, I think Wallythewayfarer's van may be an early 1968 example of this model because of the unpainted cladding.

Following are a couple of examples of the Wayfarer vans clad with the baked acrylic finish. You'll note that they retained the same style of flashes:





As far as I am aware all the Wayfarer vans sold by Reg Hunt had the acrylic finish, and reference to this finish was referred to in Reg Hunt's advertisements. The van shown in the last photo above is definitely a Reg Hunt van and has the following badge on it:



You can also see some photos of your model Wayfarer with the original livery in Elli's post higher up this thread.

Hope this is helpful.

Don Ricardo

[68wayfarer]

Awesome!! Thank you so much once again Don Ricardo )))

So the flashes (I'm learning the lingo) & matching door were either yellow or blue? Were these the options as far as people know?

She's pretty good inside, no mouldy smell, has obviously been stored undercover, although there's a little previous water damage especially where the fridge was. Floor has been replaced at some time. After buying it from someone I thought was a friend, who assured me it was in great nick structurally, I had to replace both bottom rails but a retired builder did it for me, so she's strong now. The windows are not watertight tho, so am replacing the window rubbers, which I have found thru Alfab in Melbourne (thanks forum posters).

I'm looking forward to going away with her. I have a 1966 HR Holden on club rego that I'd like to tow her with when she's ready.

It really is a love affair, this caravan business, isn't it

[68wayfarer]

Just noticed something Don R - my door hasn't been painted...unless someone removed the paint? Hmmm...will have a good check for paint remnants when I get back home...

[68wayfarer]

Also - no porthole window in mine, whereas all these have one...wondering whether this was optional?

[hughdeany]

Hi 68 Wayfarer,
The porthole is actually an exterior annexe light,standard for a time and the door is generic to all Wayfarers for a few years.
Cheers
hughdeany

[68wayfarer]

Thanks Hughdeany - I'm a bit green eh? I appreciate the info, not sure why mine doesn't have this annex light, but interesting...

[Don Ricardo]

Hi 68wayfarer,

It’s good to be able to begin to see where your van fits in in the Wayfarer story, isn’t it?

Regarding your door and the fact that it isn’t painted, you’ll note that the door on Wallythewayfarer’s van with the unpainted cladding also has an unpainted door, apart from the part of the flash that crosses the door. However, on the vans with the baked acrylic finish, the central part of the door is painted the same color as the flash on the van. That make me think that the cladding on your van may have been unpainted, and that the van may originally have had unpainted cladding. But note that I said ‘may’ - that’s just my thinking at the moment.

To make it all the more interesting, I have observed that there’s also two small styling differences between your van and any of the other vans of the same model shown in the photos I have on file. The first difference is that if you look at the little ledges under the front and rear windows of your van they are curved, but if you look at the photos of the other vans, the ledges have a sharp edge and are finished off with a 90 degree angle rather than a curve.

The second difference relates to the roll above the rear window. On your van the roll curves down to meet a flat, horizontal edge running in towards the window. But on the other vans, the roll is curved all the way and does not have the flat edge.

Those differences indicate that your van was probably built before or after the other vans we’ve been looking at. I’m guessing before, but that’s just a guess.

As it happens, I have the serial number of Wallythewayfarer’s van, which is 3380. The serial number is welded on the A-frame (drawbar) of the van. Can you check whether you can find the serial number of your van on your A-frame? If you can, it will tell us whether your van is earlier or later than Wallythewayfarer’s. I will be interested to hear what you find.

Don Ricardo

[68wayfarer]

I love your eagle eye, DR! My mechanic friend and I have had a really good look for a serial number, and the builder looked too, but we have not found anything, perhaps it is under many layers of paint at the moment.

If Wally or you or anyone could tell me the exact location on the drawbar I could expect to find it, we might try some stripper there.

The rego papers say that the serial number is 0109208, but not sure Vic Roads records are reliable?

With much appreciation for your kindness and knowledge,

68 Wayfarer

[68wayfarer]

It was sold as a 1973 van, but as you said, Wayfarer had finished up by then...the plot thickens...

[hughdeany]

Hi Don and 68 Wayfarer,
As I said on another post,the door was generic to Wayfarer vans,they started out as silver aluminium,then when white Ali came into fashion they used the same extrusions and used an acrylic infil panel.
The lower front and rear shape was probably just a “ facelift” to a newer model.
Cheers
hughdeany

[Don Ricardo]

Hi 68wayfarer (and Hughdeany),

Wallythewayarer's van is now in the process of being refurbished and internal furniture built inside it (it was virtually gutted when the current owners' acquired it). They have retained the flashes as they were, but brightened them up a bit.  This is how it looked when I saw it in the metal at the vintage caravan event at Bridgewater in February:



The serial number is welded on the drawbar as shown here:



The number is on the inside of the door side beam of the drawbar, just behind the clamp for the jockey wheel.

You mentioned that your van was sold as a 1973 van. Do you mean that that is what you were told by the person who sold it to you, or that you have found some evidence in the van of a 1973 sale date? You also mentioned in your email to me that you had found a 1900 date. I presume that is on a rego sticker?

It is possible that your van was sold new in 1973. As I understand it, there was a considerable "overhang" of unsold vans when Wayfarer stopped production in 1969. In fact Reg Hunt had over ordered, and that led directly to Wayfarer's demise. I'm not sure how long it took Reg Hunt to sell off all it's excess stock, but they were certainly still advertising the vans until 1971, and may still possibly have had a few vans around until 1973. But that sounds like a long time for a car/caravan dealer to hang onto ageing stock. I would have thought they would have got rid of them before then, even if heavily discounted. That's just a guess though.

The other possibility (and possibly more likely) is that your van was sold sometime between 1968 and 1971, and has then been re-registered at some point. In such circumstances the owner may not have known the exact date of manufacture and guessed 1973. That has been known to happen quite frequently with vintage caravans. If your rego sticker shows 1900, then that is certainly an indicator that your van has been re-registered at some point, and that the owner didn't have any documentation for the date of manufacture. In such cases VicRoads uses 1900 as the default date.

Hughdeany, thanks for clarifying about the door. That's what I was trying to say in my explanation, but you said it more clearly.

Don Ricardo

[68wayfarer]

Hi DR (& Hughdeany) - yes only 1900 on the rego papers, but it was advertised as a 1973 van. The person I bought it from didn't even know how long the van was, so it must have been something she was told by the previous seller. I do know who that was, so may be able to track him down and find more out.

Thanks for posting photos of Wally's van - and for letting me know where to look. There was definitely nothing raised like that, but we can see what we can find. It may be a few weeks, as the van is stored in my mechanic friend's yard a few hours away, but I will definitely let you know any updates.

Hoping to see some original paint remnants somewhere for some more clues, but there have been a couple of different paint jobs since the original I think.

Great to know about Wally the Wayfarer - he will no doubt have original layout plans etc. When I know more it might b worth my getting in touch, as a new bed has been built up the far end, and some of the kitchen has been half modified, and then left unfinished. I'll leave it for now, but may get to restore it in the long run.

The change in shape is fascinating - I really like the curves on mine - I'm sure we can solve the date issue with a bit more time.

Thanks for all your help,

68(?)Wayfarer

[Don Ricardo]

Hi 68wayfarer,

It will be great if you can find some remnants of the original paint underneath all the other layers. It will be fascinating to know what colours it sported when new, and whether it had unpainted cladding or the baked acrylic finish.

Regarding Wallythewayfarer, its (his?) owners have basically fitted the van out inside according to their own design - it helps when one of them is a carpenter by trade! However, I should think we can come up with some idea of the original layout. Elli's van shown higher up the thread should provide a good starting point, because it looks pretty original inside, and is probably the same length as yours.

Don Ricardo

[68wayfarer]

Thanks as always Don Ricardo.

Hey Hughdeany - when you said the annexe light was standard for a few years, do you know which years they were? Might help with dating my van by a process of elimination...


68(?)Wayfarer

[hughdeany]

Hi 68 Wayfarer,
Annexe lights were optional on some models back then,looks like yours was one of them!
Do you have any interior pics?I might be able to tell after seeing the colours and fittings.
Cheers
hughdeany

[68wayfarer]

Thanks Hughdeany  - will try to get some pics in a couple of weeks when I'm in the same location as the van 

[pitts]

Hello All.
Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on this Wayfarer Condore Caravan. I have recently purchased it, and although the couple I bought it from have had it since new, they could not remember too much of the details. It was bought new in 1995, and apparently only two were ever made before Wayfarer was closed, or bought out, or something.
Were these rebadged as Wayfarer or a Wayfarer build?
The plate shows as Australian Caravan Company.

I can't get the pictures to show here, but can be seen on these links...

drive.google.com/file/d/17tNb_7eehB479DObI7jr9lkdwmYBAoIE/view?usp=sharing

drive.google.com/file/d/1XJPyAYoElb-qDSWYhcITxVefU7zT0Azg/view?usp=sharing

drive.google.com/file/d/1P-iIPFy3TCMfCYBgOGNPCMB7v1Zlxv_Z/view?usp=sharing

Cheers

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Pitts’ photos: