Hi all,
Reviewing our information regarding the Highway caravans built by the Victorian Highway Caravans company recently, I became intrigued with the story of one van that has been revealed in several different threads by several different owners, and I thought it worth pulling the story together because it rather nicely illustrates the life story of some of our caravans. I've posted the story on this thread, because although the van has been much modified and updated over time, the photos show the original internal layout and furnishings, and perhaps the internal paint colour.
The Highway caravan in question was identified at some point as a 1958 model. As such it would have been fully clad in bondwood. However, at some point, the van had been fully clad in white acrylic aluminium with a blue flash, and a new aluminium door, and that is how it first appeared on the forum
here in January 2009 when it was purchased by forum member
Highway:
The inside of the van required some tidying up...
...but the colour of the paint on the cupboards and the colour of the cushions may possibly be reasonably original.
Forum member Highway
set to and cleaned up and repainted the interior:
Forum member Highway also added some further of his own touches by changing the colour of the flash...
...and thinking about adding some new 'Highway' signage...
...which never quite made it into reality.
At some point not too long after, forum member Highway sold the van to someone in Queensland, who in turn then sold it to forum member
Surfingyogini, who posted some photos of the van
here in November 2010 as she acquired it:
Surfinyogini and her family decided to carry out a major restoration/refurbishment of the van, and to attempt to bring it back closer to its original state. First to go was the aluminium cladding on the sides...
...which revealed what may have been the original livery (see below) and colours...
...but also some of the reasons why the van may have been re-clad in the first place:
The cladding was also taken off the roof, the bondwood replaced, and the roof resealed:
The restoration revealed the changes of decor which had been applied over the life of the van:
As Surfingyogini told us at the time:
'Some paint coming off the cupboard doors: three layers of white enamel, followed by tan, algae green, mission brown, bright orange, pastel green, peach and, of course, an undercoat.'The restoration also revealed that at some point some of the side windows may originally have been larger.
After six months of work, the restoration was almost complete:
It is interesting to note that, while the brown and white livery found under the aluminium cladding - and reproduced by Sufingyogini - is unusual, it matches how at least some of the Highway caravans were painted in the late 50's and early 60's, as shown in this publicity from 1961:
(Source: K Winser,
Australian Caravan and Touring Manual, 1961 edition, p 138)[/quote]
Sadly, in March 2017 the Highway van was
sold once more. As Surfingyogini posted at the time:
'Our little family has grown (as children do) and we no longer all fit in!.
What a story that van could tell! Hopefully it will turn up on the forum again at some point so we can hear the next instalment...
Don Ricardo
