A proud Owner

[Highway]

I am proud to say I am now the owner of a Coronet Vintage Van.
and I have sent a PM to Coronet Caravans in Bayswater Vic. for some imfo. on what year and any specification they may give me,and if any one of the VV members can help it would be very welcome.The Chassy No. is 0-3726 and it is 12' long.
Below are a few photo's of the VV I have called Goldie,and will from time to time put more photo's on the progress I do.






Highway Peter

[DC3Td]

Nice little ali you got there HighwayPeter. Should scrub up real nice. Fridge,stove,twin gas & appears a good braking system. Guess you`ll redo the gold flashes ( hence her name). Cuppla reflectors & a 'towel' rail up front & you`re up to gadding about with it. cheers gordon

[budgie]

Hi, Gordon,
Peter just towed the little lady from Warburton to South Gippsland, through all the hills. He recons he did not even feel he had been pulling anything. We only have a 1993 four cylinder front wheel drive, Toyota Camry, and peter said she towed like a Butterfly.

Will be a real pleasure going camping without having to pitch a tent.

Happy camping, Budgie

[firefighter]

Budgie wrote

Will be a real pleasure going camping without having to pitch a tent.

whats happened to the highway van
f/f ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Highway]

Hello Firefighter
My Highway Van was sold to wonderful fella in Queensland that drove down here and picked it up and was very pleased with it, and has intentions of being a member here.

Sorry to see it go after doing so much work on it,but he made an offer I could not refuse.

Peter

[Franklin1]

Hi Highway/budgie,
Your van is likely to be a 1970 Coronet (hughdeani will know the model...a "Prince" or "Princess", maybe...??)

I've taken on the challenge of developing the History section for our sister forum, "Classic Caravans", and have collected a fair bit of information so far for the various brands in the 1970s.

This advertisement is from May 1970, and talks of the new Coronet models...



It's early days in my working on the Classic History section, so I haven't digested everything I've collected yet, but your chassis number looks like it might be the 3726th van built in 1970 (the first 0- part of it). 3726 would mean it was towards the end of 1970. Viscount were making 5000 vans in that year and they were No1. Coronet were No.5 so less than 4000 vans would be about right.

All of this information is likely to mean that your van qualifies for membership of the Classic Caravans forum. So come on over and join the progressive New Age group in the Classics! ;D ;D ;D

cheers,
Al (...foot in both camps )

[Deleted]

Hi Peter
nice little van you have there,should give you a lot of enjoyment in the future.Yes it is a Coronet Prince,the Princess was more upmaket with wrap around windows and a slightly different profile.
Happy vanning
Hughdeani

[DC3Td]

Hey Highway, any good to you? About 8 3/4" tall drinks jug. If so, no cost but will be about two weeks as i`ll be away for a few days. Cheers gordon

[Highway]

Hello Franklin1
thank you for the update on the coronet and yes I will join the classic forum today.

Hughdeani my wife said I now can not call my van Goldie because it is a prince and not a princes and it will have to have a boys name.

DC3TD that is a yes to the drink container I will PM you my addy,thank you very much.

Peter

[tenoroc]

Hello Highway

Yes your van is definitely a Prince. The term Princess was used in the late 70s for the pop tops and the more upmarket vans where call Crown and Crown Deluxe.

Your van could be late 60s or very early seventies. I have a van clad in silver aluminium of the same shape, aprox 1968.

The advert is talking about new layouts rather than a new shape.

I will try to find out when they went from silver to white cladding.

Tenoroc

[jrod]

Hi Peter,

Nice pick up! Tenoroc is right on the money. The advertisement Franklin1 has posted is a little ambiguous, and possibly for the reasons Tenoroc mentioned. The last caravan my grandfather fitted out himself was a Coronet. He brought the shell from the then Coronet Bros and fitted out the inside. It had the same stripes (in yellow) and diamond on the door, and had white cladding. Shape was exactly the same, except it was a 15ft van. The first car he towed it with was my May built, June delivered 1969 HT, and he brought the van before taking delivery of the car new. Hope this helps, would dig up some pics for you but the family photo albums are in a different state to me!

Ps if any of you are sitting on a Coronet 15 foot van as per my description, let me know! Long shot i know ha, but would be great to get the van back for sentimental reasons!
PPs an extra 3feet for $95 sounds cheap! In todays speak at least!
Cheers, J-Rod.

[tenoroc]

Hi Peter

Trying to work out your vans age but need some more info. This shape was made until approx 1972. Does the aluminum have a slight crease in the center of the raised flat or is it just flat. Coronet moved to a new factory in 72 and at the same time purchased their own rolling machine for the cladding and the new cladding had the crease.

As to the chassis number, it is not the build number for that year. It is coded and changed from time to time. I will try to find out what yours means but I think that the build week is part of it. Coronet peaked at about 3000 vans a year.

You wont get much info from the current Coronet people as they have only revived the name and had nothing to do with the original company.

Regards

Tenoroc

[Highway]

Hi Tenoroc
yes it dose have a crease in the center flat,so that would mean it is a 1972?

I would like to thank you all for all the info you have given it has been very helpful.



Peter

[Highway]

Re: 1970 Coronet 12'6" Van
« Reply #11 Today at 2:53pm »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello every one.
I thought I would bring you up to date,on my Coronet,I have just had her registered and put in a new water tank,gave her a Polish put two spare Tye's on the back with covers,new brakes and brake cylinders, painted the decal Gold but I am not happy with that I am going to change it to black at a later time.
Below are a few photo's of what she looks like,and I intend to paint on the spare toyer covers her name and she will be called Budgie's Nest.









I did not have to do any thing inside maybe later change the curtains and put Venetian blinds at each end.

Peter

[cobber]

G'day Peter,

Well done, she looks nice and tidy...all set to go travelling aye ?

What's happened to the June calendar animation mate.... or did I miss it ?

Cobber.

[Highway]

Hi Cobber
I did not put a June Calender for I thought no one was interested them any more so did not bother.

Peter

[cobber]

Aw mate, if somebody abuses ya you know there's a problem.... but when most people say nothing.... just carry on regardless..... 'cause most people say nothing

Look at the "Lady Madonna's travels" thread..... how much effort goes into sharing that with us?
If everybody who enjoys that thread said so on each episode, it would spoil it.

Can you make Greg's 'van tow the VW ?

Cobber.

[Highway]

OK look for it in the next day or so.

Peter

[yellowuki]

;DJust for my 2 bobs worth: I saw Highway's van on the road the other day and it looks A+. Every time I've tried to polish any of my alluminium vans they've always gone "blotchy" but Highways looks very clean and fresh; well done ;D ;D
Cheers, Yellowuki ;D

[Highway]

Thank you all for your comments,I have since put the Coronet and Budgies Nest sign on the Van.



Peter

[Highway]

Just thought I would bring you up to date on Budgie's Nest,I have not done to much expert change the gold flash to black and in the process in putting a red pin stripe around the the black flash, by the end of the week I intend purchasing two gas bottles and filling the for next week end at Druin.
Below is a photo of the new look and below that a very bad video from my mobile of the inside of Budgie's Nest.

Looking forward in meeting all at Druin on the 14 & 15th. of August.

Regards Peter (Highway)

[j1mull]

Hello. I have just been informed that the last three numbers in a coronet chassis number are the month and year. The front numbers are the build number. But not sure how that works with your number. Mine ends in 69 which seems spot on with date. Yours wo uk ld work if the final number maybe mean model or month as your previous digits are 72.... as for the post re cladding crease. I have search alot of pics re coronet cladding and many pre 19u2 have this crease including mine. But later models seem to have a different pattern totally. Not sure if i have been of any help. But nice to see another coronet being loved. Not too many out there...

[vickivanning]

May 5, 2009 16:30:38 GMT 10 jrod said:

Hi Peter,

Nice pick up! Tenoroc is right on the money. The advertisement Franklin1 has posted is a little ambiguous, and possibly for the reasons Tenoroc mentioned. The last caravan my grandfather fitted out himself was a Coronet. He brought the shell from the then Coronet Bros and fitted out the inside. It had the same stripes (in yellow) and diamond on the door, and had white cladding. Shape was exactly the same, except it was a 15ft van. The first car he towed it with was my May built, June delivered 1969 HT, and he brought the van before taking delivery of the car new. Hope this helps, would dig up some pics for you but the family photo albums are in a different state to me!

Ps if any of you are sitting on a Coronet 15 foot van as per my description, let me know! Long shot i know ha, but would be great to get the van back for sentimental reasons!
PPs an extra 3feet for $95 sounds cheap! In todays speak at least!
Cheers, J-Rod.

Don’t think it’s the same can but may be same model as it’s got the paint job but in blue. But your info makes me believe my van is a ‘68 nit ‘78 like I was told!