Surf Tragic's Don 120

[Surf Tragic]

Ah Don Ricardo!

You are amazing with the photos you've posted, I don't have any of those so you have answered most questions for me already, couldn't remember the galley light at all. I may have to try & get something similar, can't imagine there would be anything to match, but will have a go at making something to match the wall lights, would like a couple of dimensions. The marks on the wall can be seen thru the paint for the round base so know the dia of that, just need the dia of the light stem, how far out from the wall, and height of stem to where the globe sits, doesn't have to be to the last MM. ;D

Maybe the height & width of the cover too, that'll do

Thanks a million

ST

[Surf Tragic]

Back to it again, the wheel arches are painted with underbody black, all the bearers underneath painted,
then slipped the chassis back in place & all bolted together again.

The ALKO drum looks good & wheels still have plenty of clearance even with the extra 30mm width.



The chassis viewed from front & back. Didnt paint the underside of the floor, thought it looked
more in keeping with the vans age & looked as though it hadnt been painted originally.








The step folded in place









Finger grips, note the slotted head screws to suit, I have many boxes of them if anyone needs a few,
Have only used phillips heads where they arent seen like in the wall cavity.


The new step tread has grooves to match the original




More later. ST

[JBJ]

Hi Surf Tragic,

As Daffy Duck would say " You're Despicable" to have such a clean shed.

Dont your chooks scratch dirt everywhere, & the roof leak in the storms, & the whipper snipper throw grass everywhere, & the tools you put down ( gently) get in the way?


I Wish.

JBJ

[skyhook]

hey there S T
have just been inspired and also daunted looking at the work you have done ,i find your enthusiasm contagious i shall have to extract a digit and get started on my van.keep up the great work i shall view your progress with great interest
cheers
Skyhook

[Surf Tragic]

The stabilizer leg mechanism pieces needed straightening & loosening up





Had to make 2 new foot pads, they had rust holes you could look through . I am using as

much of the original as possible, so cut the old lugs off & rewelded them to the new feet.




I do have set ideas about restoring , so decided against ripping all the outside sheeting off just

because of 50mm of rot on the lower edge on some sheets, so cut off about 200 mm. I think

a lot of damage can be done dismantling too much, it never goes back together as good as original.

I'm quite sure this isn't the easiest method or the quickest, but for me it's the right thing to do.



So heres what I do building bondwood boats with the magic mmmmff Epoxy glues & resins, yeah, ok, fibreglass

resins, there I've said it now ;D ;D, anyway, fit a backing block/board behind the join about 160mm wide,

plaster epoxy all over it.............fit the new piece in,



And hold it in place with temporary screws, not too tight, it needs a layer of glue left in the joint

& between the layers to work with epoxy.





Take all the screws out after couple days, plug the holes with more epoxy, sand, a coat of resin

or 2, sand some more, you have one mighty strong joint & ready to paint.



Many hours of paint stripping, this is the roof of the van, looks like they poured it on straight out of the tin .



Stripping paint, had to rig a blind along the side to keep the cold wind off the snow from spoiling my day, it snowed just up the road,

man it was cold . My thermostat is still set for Gympie weather. ;D ;D



I put these in for you JBJ so you can see the floor does get dirty ;D ;D, & the roof does leak .

I'm gunna weigh the next 20L bucket of paint peelings & see what it adds up to, will have filled 4 buckets so far.

the poor old girl will be giving a sigh of relief to be shedding all that junk.

Yeah, & I'm still enjoying it

ST

[kazandadam]

Nice work ST, I can't believe how far you've progressed in the past four weeks!!! Nice work, keep it up & don't get any frost bite!

Adam

[Surf Tragic]

(Adam wrote about the lights he bought off eb-y ST, I didn't even unwrap the vents, John told me they were water filters & I didn't give it any more thought until I saw your post!

I kept them with the water filler neck, theres about seven or eight of them but you can have them for free as I'm almost certain I won't need them.

They have stamped on the back of them ;Eyelets Pty Ltd Melbourne )


Adam,That sounds great ;D

Would you mind posting a photo of the item so I can see if it really is what I need for the kitchen cupboards that have to be built from scratch?

So far these round chrome vents are the only thing I cannot source . Also the diameter measurement please.

Thanks, Ron.

[kazandadam]

Here is a couple of pics ST, not real good as I took them inside tonight & need to be done outside in the light. They look stainless, not chrome with a saw like bent edge to prevent them from reversing out of position, they measure 40mm OD & 27mm ID.................Adam

PS: They look a bit rusty in the pics but they are not, they are very nice & only need a polish!

[Don Ricardo]

Hi ST,

The vents Adam has look good to me. Do you have the measurements for the original vents? If you don't I can measure them.

Don Ricardo

[Surf Tragic]

Hi Adam,

I just cant believe my eyes that sure looks like the real deal that is unbelievable. Those thing are priceless I reckon

It is almost unthinkable how close I came to not even knowing you had the vents, but had seen them on ebay, asked the seller questions about what they were, then saw your post on 'Lil Hampton' showing us the lights WOW, some people are lucky hey ;D ;D ;D

Thanks a lot Adam ;D ;D.

Ron.

[Surf Tragic]

Howdy Don Ricardo.

I would sure like to compare these with the original so if you could measure the vents on your van, I would appreciate that as there's absolutely nothing left in this 120 to compare with .

Adam mentioned the brand 'Eyelets Pty Ltd, Melbourne' stamped on them, so I wonder if that is visible on yours, may be impossible to see ;D.

On this site, it has a bit to say about this company who operated between 1940-1955. I find this stuff very interesting

www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=364673&search=piano&site_id=3

Any chance of getting some photos/measurements and construction details of your van cupboards this weekend or monday/ tues? am coming down to the boat show.

Thanks.

Ron.

[Surf Tragic]

All the sashes are out, the lead in leadlight has corroded away completely in places, glass

cracked & some missing.





All deglazed, Paint & putty stripped. What I didn't know before, was that the putty softens with the

heat gun too, so a pleasant surprise for me, ;D ;Dso easy to scrape out.




A couple of the tenons were loose, 1st time I've ever used an 'ease-out' in timber.




The wedge came out clean & was able to pour heaps of glue in, refit the wedges.





& clamp it for a day. See the side of the boat with the side sheets joined same as I joined

the side sheets on the van.




No rocket science here, but put this in as sometimes it can help others, just a simple jig to hold

small beads while you burn the paint off, just nail a couple strips on a bench to form a groove to

clamp the little beggars, then take a seat and scrape!





The 3 cornered scraper works best for me, leaves no marks on the wood, used it in all the awkward spots too,

keeping it sharp made the job effortless.



Ready for primer.......Some of the beads & small quads are a bit rugged, but want to reuse every piece, keep the rustic look,

it would have been too easy to replace it all with new stuff.

The van looks like a bomb hit it again but will soon put this all back together again, the paint on the roof took a week to remove, pain, pain & more pain I've decided that everything that unscrews is coming off,

I want to know what to soak all the hinges, catches in to remove the paint without damaging them, any advice out there you who have done it before

Later.... Ron

[cobber]

G'day Ron,

I love the work you're doing there... slot headed screws are the way to go for certain sure.... and repairing old bits and re-using them if possible sure beats using new bits that look almost the same.

Don R. goes to work so he's a bit slow responding to questions.... sometimes ...... I don't go to work anymore so I can be quick (if my computer's working).
Those vents look like the ant's pants.... on the Don 140 I'm baby sitting there are four of them.... 1 9/16 OD and they fit in a hole 1 1/8th dia. I can't see any brand name on them.

Between earlee and later Ron there's some great restoration work going on here........ keep at it fellas

Cobber.

[Surf Tragic]

Howdy Cobber, thanks for that,

Those measurements are identical to the ones Adam gave me, so looks like they are the right ones. I couldn't find any reproduction vents like them, only plastic.

I did find identical hinges for the cupboard doors, in chrome, also the push knob catches on another site, so am pretty happy about that.

The Melb boat show usually has a section on wooden boats, so hope to be there this weekend as I'm into that too, need some fibreglass supplies to do the hull. I have thought of sheathing the top of the Don with a layer, it would solve the maintence there, & cover the edges nicely with the 'D' mold.

www.sailboatstuff.com/cb_dr_hdwr.html for the pushbutton catches

www.watsonbrass.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37&products_id=442&zenid=1dcd2aaa45fd48053597e05e2afb86fa for the hinges

Later Ron.

[firefighter]

Hi Ron

thanks for puting the 2 boating sites on the forum some interesting items there ........ like slot headed screws etc

love the wood work you are doing on your don.......... I suppose
being a builder you must have a rough idea of what you are doing ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

f/f ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[dosse]

G'day Ron
Love your work on the Don.

Regards dosse the owner of the over-rated Don ;D ;D ;D.

[Surf Tragic]

Thanks for the interest from you all in the project, it sure spurs me on & makes it doubly interesting for myself

I love working with wood. Ive renovated houses but never had the pleasure of doing something like this. Jts easier having all the machinery too.
Theres no doubt I will end up feeling attached to this van

Surf Tragic

[Surf Tragic]

That was a great weekend in Melbourne & finally caught up with the Don Ricardo's, we were treated to a great few hours

of very good company, thank you both for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

Of course we finally got around to the Don 140, ;D ;D so with camera, measuring tape, some CAD drawings, we walked around the back

& there it was , and I was able to get the kitchen details/layout more accurately. In the 140 galley there is about 60mm difference in length to the 120,

It was good to get something definite to work to. Also nice to reminisce on past years & lots of holidays in the exact model van.

And might I say what an amazingly well kept Don 140 , oh yes, & I have to get the colours right too, Don Ricardo said he has that info.



Meanwhile, back on the ranch.................. ;D...........

when I took the windows out I carefully marked them, like left, 'L' (because there was only one there),

right front RF, Right Back, RB etc, and when I sanded where the paint had been, I found these pencil

marked like so, when I find This sort of thing intrigues me a lot





This one has NS, it was on the left side



This-a-one has OSF, it goes on the right side front



This'e has OSR, it was on the right side rear.

I'm not positive on what these letters mean, but liked finding them, I

would like it if someone was sure of the meaning.

Intrigued, Ron.

[humpty2]

Near Side Off Side Front Off Side Rear.



Too easy!

[sutcac]

Hi there ST............enjoying your Don resto pics very much.......well done


.........I'm sure your original Don builder was a horseman or equestrian of some sort.....

...to me ....NS= near side
OSF=off side front
OSR= off side rear

......."near " being the side one mounts a horse...or in your case the side you enter your caravan............'off ' being the opposite of 'near'

Then again, I could be completely wrong........ .

Cheers Sutcac

[firefighter]

in the fire brigade world near side .....gutter ........off side right hand side of truck
f/f ;D ;D ;D

[humpyboy]

I'm going with Near side and Off side also. ;D

[atouchofglass]

Hi Surf tragic

Isn't it great when you come across evidence of someone else's work..... especially when they have taken some time to do a good job

The frames look almost new now you have stripped them back
Love the leadlight glass and it will look a real treat when refitted..... can't wait

Keep at it and keep posting those progress photos

Cheers
Atog

[Surf Tragic]

Thanks to those who replied

That's good to get feedback on the naming on the sashes, I have heard arguments on that subject, but everyone says the same here and it makes a lot of sense.

I realise the intrigue with this, is with what Atog says.

"Isn't it great when you come across evidence of someone else's work..... especially when they have taken some time to do a good job"

Thats what it is, thats it, ;D thinking of those people so many years ago machining & fitting it all together. ;D

ST

[Surf Tragic]

Look at this will ya

The door vents arrived that Adam (kaznadam) gave me, what a generous gesture, seems inadiqu unadd scarcely enough to only say "thanks very much". ;D lots of people helping each other, it is great.

These vents are rare, unless anyone can tell me otherwise, but havent been able to source them anywhere. This means I can

put an authentic touch to the kitchen that seemed impossible before .

;DI find this the most pleasing, singular item to obtain so far ;D ;D. They are stainless steel and came up very nicely after applying

paint stripper & polishing them.

Thanks Adam, these little beauties are BIG for me

Ron.