Surf Tragic's Don 120

[Surf Tragic]

Hi coasterwanderer,

very interesting to hear a bit more about the Don Caravan Company & your uncle posessing the last shell & fitting it out himself, I would love to know more. I wounder if there would be photos hidden away amongst your rellies? It would be a great topic for the DHL section on the forum.

Thanks for your interest.

Surf Tragic

[coasterwanderer]

It was not "the" last but one of the last to be produced.

After the factory closed and they went into the Sundowner c/p he would run it for them when they went on holidays (In a Don of course)

I will email my Cousins in Melbourne and Queensland to see if they have any old photo's as they are the last remaining two members of his immediate family.
Al.

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Coasterwanderer,

Great to hear about your uncle and his involvement at the Don factory. You may like to look at the Don Caravans thread in the Down History Lane section click here

If you look at Reply #1 there is a bit of information about the Don factory including a picture of all the workers somewhere around the end of the 40's. Maybe your uncle is in the photo? We would be interested to hear if he is.

What was his role at the factory?

Don Ricardo

[Surf Tragic]

Well, I better get going again, it's been start/stop/start again, lots happening, but have been checking the forum out again lately. The 120 looks great to me & I must get it finished before the 2012 Nationals



All leadlight panels being puttied & polished



Puttying the wooden window frames ready to set the leadlight in



Putty squashing out using the original beads, it would have been easier using silicone, but this is how it was done.



ready to paint





Made up a block & wedge to hold the sash while painting, we used similar on house doors when fitting hinges in the building days,

simple & effective.



Fitting the windows, stays, handles, barrel bolts.

[cobber]

G'day Ron,

Good to see you're settled and back into what's important.... using your skills to restore "Don" caravans..... and your daughters skills too, it is she who does the lead-lighting isn't it ?

It looks as though this Don could be finished soon.... what then ?

Cobber.

[Surf Tragic]

G'day Cobber
great to hear from you. It is my lovely daughter who obliged with the leadlighting, there are a lot of houses in this district with her work in them, now she has gone on to sales & office work where I left off in my past life, so I am fortunate she did this for me.

After the next posting I will tell you exactly what is next on the agenda, there's a lot been happening, & it's good.

ST

[Deleted]

Whilst visiting S/T recently, I was fortunate enough to see his work on the Don 120 first hand .....and what a master tradesman S/T is ......his work is an art

and those leadlight windows are just supurb .....a credit to his daughter

I also saw the boat he is building .....they just don't make 'em like that anymore .........


Looking forward to more progress shots, and the revealation of what's been happening

Mark

[Surf Tragic]

Bunnings had a while bulb seal with the sticky back so giving them a try, they look neat enough & appear to be doing the job.



Next is the repair of the door jamb where numerous holes had been cut to accommodate all sorts of bodgie locks/barrelbolts, so routered all that out & keyed a new piece in, epoxied & screwed in place gives the jamb it's strength back, fitted a new striker plate for the lock.



The whole door was made from scratch, the only thing I could use was the original hatch, bumper stop, small catch/keeper,& hinges.

Surprised to find all the flywire was brass, every piece was slit with a knife, so renewed all flywire with stainless steel.



The lock mechanism was sourced from UK, it's the nearest to original, I googled the letters stamped on Mark T's 100 door lock, & found a site with the same stuff for both inside & outer lever lock.





Well thats pretty well the outside done from top to bottom, painted the rims cream to match, can't get the chrome hub caps from the US, 'Chevs of the 40's', they keep telling me they are on back order, I originally ordered 6, so sprayed these with silver epoxy, got them from firefighter, thanks Geoff.

There's been big delays on this project, the next posting will show why.

ST

[DC3Td]

Howdy S/tragic. Certainly coming along very nicely. Half the fun in these restos is sourcing the parts. Although some of the prices are jaw dropping,you can get lucky. cheers gordon

[firefighter]

G,Day Ron

Good to see you back on the forum

The outside of the Don looks good .....best part of the van is the CHEVY hubcaps.... ha ha ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

After the next posting I will tell you exactly what is next on the agenda, there's a lot been happening, & it's good.
ST
Come on Ron .....let the cat out of the bag

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

[Surf Tragic]

G'day
Had to do a few things, there's maybe another month needed to finish a project that's taken 2 years & 6 months, a considerable downsize, which seems sensible at my age. (the work wasn't sensible at my age) .The best day was when the last load of all our stuff from storage rolled in & there was somewhere to put everything I have kept


It was a bit of a kick to tow them all in 38k's from storage, the old family 140 towed perfectly.





There is room for 5 vans, the wreck from Cobbers is next to the

120 ready for the kitchen transplant, However I'm not sure

whether I will use this kitchen as it's 70mm too wide, it would

probably be better sense to make a new galley to suit, then the

doors will be same size, otherwise it's too much a hack

job. These good kitchen cupboards can be used in another 140

resto/rebuild later





All 4 vans chassis were supported on bricks, all level, weight taken off tyres as well, so am pleased to see there are no distortions or cracks anywhere in the 1/2 restored 120, & the paint shone after a good wash down.

1st job, the Chassis of the wreck has to be stripped & taken out of the shed to make way for another Don coming in the new year. ;D

Surf Tragic

[cobber]

G'day Don Surf tragic,

Real good to see this thread fired up again . many newer members to the forum may not have seen it before, so looking back over your previous efforts and watching what is to come will be an inspiration to some of those who wonder "what is possible".
Keep the photos coming

Cobber,

[humpyboy]

Dec 4, 2012 6:17:54 GMT 10 cobber said:

G'day Don Surf tragic,

I think you were right in the first place Cobber, he is a bit of a "DON" tradgic isn't he? where does he find them all? and now another in the new year, wonder were he found that one just between the two of us I think he is trying to corner the market, HEY!!! Don Ricardo make sure your gates are locked ;D ;D ;D

[Surf Tragic]

 

Well here it is almost 4 years to the day since I did the last posting on this little van, I see it was May 30th 2010, what a lot has happened since then, but I feel well settled in the new shed, & the last 3 weeks there's been a bit of movement with the project. The feeling is amazing to be doing this again. Finally made the decision to restore the old kitchen from Cobber, for those who don't know, this van was minus a whole kitchen, the previous owners had ripped it out so they could install another bunk along the wall, the van was used for accommodation at Eildon at a ski club park.

This replacement cupboard is 70mm too wide, so it has to be cut & shut to fit. When that was done, it fitted into slots that were originally cut in the wall of the van to take the original factory set. See those pipes hanging out of the sink & the ice-chest ? They are LEAD !! I have never seen a lead pipe before, these are quite safe as they are only used for drainage, not for water supply




It seems there is a need to get a truck load of gear to do the simplest job.



Extensive rot, so there's many pieces to replace



Cut down drawer. Had to cut down each side to keep the catch hole in the centre
 


Cut down door, stiles taken out & 35mm off each side,



stove recess flap, cut 70mm off one end, it had Masonite on one side, ply on the other, all these small components make me think I'm making a dolls' house!



Stripped the thick blue paint off, that took it back to the original yellowish enamel.

Final sand off, decided to go right back as the old paint was a bit flakey, & fine cracks.

  So that's a start

  Surf Tragic

[Surf Tragic]

getting installed after the cut.



This is something I would like to know about, what does it mean? It is stamped on all doors & drawers, It wouldn't have been noticed except for sanding down to bare timber.



Same on the fold-down flap at the sink end.



Again in the Ice-Chest door. all stamped with " 53 " Beautiful timber by the way, it appears to be a type of pine, sure wish I knew more about identifying all types.



All fastened & puttied, so slapped a coat on, used oil based 3 in 1, and intend to paint all bare timber surfaces in the van, the reason is to kill the smell of the bondwood that is so strong in these models.



See Cobber, the sink has had a wipe & came up very good, so you can see your effort of retrieving this van for me was not in vain, it is all coming up a treat.

It's extremely slow going, but am enjoying it immensly.

Surf Tragic

[cruisindoug]

Looking good ST that kitchen looks spot on, just like a bought one! For my guess I reckon the 53 would be a model or a jig code so workers in the factory knew which jig to set up all the pre-cut lengths up on (based on nothing just makes sense to me) ... assuming it doesn't match a serial number.

Cheers

Doug

[Surf Tragic]

here we go again, some very respected members of the Forum asked me to finish this off, so hopefully you won't get too bored.



All electrics done





All doors & drawers stripped & Painted





All Hardware stripped & polished.


.

[Surf Tragic]

This has been added to the robe door, the basin was found in a Castlemain junk shop, also found some special hinges with different width leafs.







Lucky to have an Electrician for a neighbour, he fitted all the safety gear & 2 pole power points, a 240V AC - 12V DC transformer for the lights. The internal lights also work off the accessory battery from the car.

[humpyboy]

A master at what he does.

[cobber]

You are right Derk, the man is a 'maximest'    This will be a thread worth watching.

RON ! You're not calling the 'Restorers Barn' at Castlemaine a junk shop are you   just because it's got the best collection of junk a restorer could wish for, it's a shame they don't have a decent web site.

Keep the posts coming, it might even inspire me to get cracking on my restoration projects 

Cobber.

[carolyng]

Such amazing work Surf Tragic! It looks so lovely
Carolyng

[Surf Tragic]

Jan 14, 2016 19:48:38 GMT 10 cobber said:

RON ! You're not calling the 'Restorers Barn' at Castlemaine a junk shop are you   just because it's got the best collection of junk a restorer could wish for, it's a shame they don't have a decent web site.Cobber.

The shop is the most organized of any I have been in, they have every type of slot headed screw you could wish for, even so, I didn't buy any from there, it really is a great 'Restorers Barn'

I have uploaded some more photos ready to post, but the laptop goes almost unworkable after every update with Windows 10, it's taken me an hour to get this far tonight.

ST

[shesgotthelook]

That Windows 10 is a B@57@ hey? I uninstalled it but still left me we lots of problems. So much so that I took the plunge & bought an Imac. Luckily have kids who can transfer everything for me. Much happier now

[Surf Tragic]

This took time to peel the 10mm ply off the Laminex, just did it layer by layer. The table top had a huge 'dish' in it, so had to re-glue the Laminex to a new piece of marine ply (I always use Marine grade as
it seems the most stable), also glued Laminex to the underside to even the stresses & theres less chance of it warping again.





This heavy grade Vinyl is an offcut from a local Floorcovering outlet, a fraction of the normal price. The colour suits my taste. After sanding the floor boards nice & flat, there was 4 layers of newspaper used for
underlay, now that's a bit original isn't it? The measurement for cutting is started from a line down the centre & other lines 90 deg from that, it worked well.





My wife & Daughter made the curtains & did the upholstery work, I let them choose colours, it's very bright & cheerful. Hopefully there should be just a few more photos to upload of the outside finish & Rego.

ST.

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Surf Tragic,

Great to see a bit more of your restoration of the Don 120. I can only admire the amount of work you've put into the van, and some of the finishing touches added by your wife and daughter. As always, your work (all three of you!) is magnificent and an inspiration to the rest of us!

Don Ricardo