1948 Aircraft Aluminium Van

[mgandwartz]

Love the van. the back reminds me of the old clipper busses sort of.

[vernon]

Dave your a champion for posting the pix for us once again, many thanks.

Thank you all for your kind words we're chuffed as well, shame we can't start her for a while, other projects have to come first.

For exterior we're now thinking a polish and patch the holes and leave the age and battle scars. As this all tells a story that she is an old van, we tackled Vernon with the same kind of respect. Some of the rounded interior was left to show that he too is an old man who just needed A LOT of loving. Even our families have said this one wont be as big of a job as Vernon was. We'll see.

Our main priority for the inside is to accommodate sleeping for 4 as next year is planned to be a big one. We love doing the fit out side of things (Kel-fiddly =Des likes that, Des does structural), the era that we're looking at is Art Deco'ish so we're going with that. At this point we're thinking stained timber (highly polished), parquet flooring (pending cost, weight), glossy black lacquer, lots and lots of chrome, mirrors and glass possibly sandblasted and engraved.

Yes mgandwartz the back windows we thought exactly the same as you as we have gone and had a look at some clippers and classic buses in Bris of late. The front and sides we are thinking aircraft.

Cheers Des and Kel

[grumpyronf]

Hope I've got this right.
Has anybody seen/heard any more of the Martin Mariner PBM-3R 4 engined flying boat (the RAAF had 12 of them in 1943) that was turned into a caravan and was last seen in 1987 at the Eureka Aviation Museum, Ballarat?
Grumpy RonF

[vernon]

Hi all,

As things do our plans chop and change. We've just picked up the motor parts for the R Series only today. We sourced through a friend of ours a guy that could grind a cam that would make towing a little easier so we will be keen to see how good it is.

Whilst waiting for the motor to arrive we couldn't help but start on Valmay. We've gutted nearly half of the interior (walls-as there was minimal cabinetry etc). Structurally she is quite sound. The walls were a mess as window rubbers have perished and let the weather in. Also due to the shape of the van the panels are like a jag-zaw puzzle and the stripping that was used had rusted (not aluminium), some of which we will not be able to reuse unfortunately. I'm a bit of a purist so not being able to reuse the minimal original bits and pieces we have kind of saddens me.

Today on our way to pick up our motor bits and pieces we dropped into Kingaroy Airport and caught up with Tony. (As time has gone by rivets have been replaced with metal screws which look rusted and take away a little from the van.) He was great, we were able to find a rivet to match perfectly, and now just have to source them. Tony also having aircraft of his own and equipment has offered to give us a bit of a hand. How wonderfully lucky we are.

That"s all folks
Cheers Des and Kel