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Post by Franklin1 on Feb 3, 2014 8:33:41 GMT 10
sgtl,
You can still readily buy the globes for these lamps. Don't ask me for the exact part number, but they are still made (and available in the Big Green Shed, from memory).
cheers,
Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Feb 3, 2014 8:30:58 GMT 10
Nah, cobber, I wasn't trying to get you to think your van was related to the one in the article. It was more that the article was fairly comprehensive in the detail about the van. That's something we don't see a lot of when it comes to vans from the 1930s.
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Post by Franklin1 on Feb 2, 2014 20:54:28 GMT 10
Here's another interesting photo from 1937 showing a van with windows that are not square: Dec 1937 (you might have to scroll down one page) |
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Post by Franklin1 on Feb 2, 2014 17:51:21 GMT 10
Yeah, Trove have got a trial running at the moment where you can search within all the Women's Weekly magazines for whatever you want. Search for the word 'caravan' and you get 1,509 results. Unfortunately, the trial doesn't allow you to sort the results into date order, so you kind of have to look through them for the vintage time period. An interesting article for you cobber, from 1937: Comfort in a caravan (you might have to scroll down one page) I think the magazines are a great resource for research. This is the Home page for the trial: Australian Women's Weekly - Trove trialcheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Feb 1, 2014 19:07:40 GMT 10
Here's a starter...this was posted on Gumtree about 4 days ago...
vintage caravan outing
expression of interest. looking for people to join together for weekends away with vintage caravans. please call darrell smith 0412xxxxxx
Lake Macquarie Area
Edgeworth
27/01/2014
Maybe he's never heard of this forum??
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 29, 2014 20:24:42 GMT 10
Fair dinkum...are you serious??!! Boy, it never ceases to amaze me what turns up. Have a read of what I posted in this thread only yesterday!  Back to the drawing board...  cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 29, 2014 18:47:36 GMT 10
G'day Andrew, I was in our main local Salvos store recently, and I came across a number of those 'books' of upholstery fabric swatches that the shops would bring out to show customers what was available. Obviously the books in the Salvos were all redundant samples, but it got me thinking about whether furnishing shops would have any leftovers of these old fabrics still lying around at the back of their warehouses. Who knows, maybe the oldest fabric store in Tassie still has some fabric from when Captain Cook sailed over.  The other piece of research to keep in mind is that Trove have digitised all the Australian Women's Weekly magazines from 1933 up to 1982, and you can look through each magazine if you wish. I use them to get a feel for patterns and styles of furnishings from the various time periods. (and I also use them to pinch a copy of the 1960 calendar off the back of one magazine to hang up in my van  ) See here: The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982)cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 29, 2014 13:24:02 GMT 10
In the Trove archives, there is a classified advertisement in the Canberra Times for a second-hand Viceroy caravan for sale:  Canberra Times Sat 19 Aug 1972, P31. That's the only information showing up in the Trove archives relating to Viceroy caravans. cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 28, 2014 17:22:51 GMT 10
G'day S&J,
Is the fridge only a gas fridge, or is it a 240V option as well?
Eventually all these fridges become great boat anchors, so that might now be the case with yours. If you've upended it (commonly known as "burping" the fridge), and that hasn't fixed the problem, then you are most likely up for a new cooling unit, or at least a refurbishment of what you've got if that's still possible. Probably big dollars to get that done.
cheers,
Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 27, 2014 20:47:20 GMT 10
G'day cabin, There are no specific items worth checking on a home-built van that you wouldn't also check on any factory van. The fact that the 'home-built' van is still around after 50 or 60 years means it must have been reasonably well built to begin with. There are certain things and places on a van that you would go over with a magnifying glass and a fine-toothed comb, but usually people only discover what these things are AFTER they've bought their first van and start doing some work to it. It doesn't really matter what sort of van you start off with, because I can guarantee you will be a lot wiser when you buy your second van. Have a read of this blogger's thoughts: Five tips for buying a vintage caravanThere is also no greater education you can get than reading some of the threads in the Members Photo Album section of this forum. cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 27, 2014 20:31:44 GMT 10
G'day Hilldweller, Great work on the frame repairs so far!  As far as the window location goes, I would temporarily ignore the shelf under the back window for a moment, and stand at the corner of the van so you can see down one side, and across the front (or back) at the same time. From an appearance point of view, would the van look more appealing with the front and back windows at the same height as the side windows??...  If your answer is "Yes", I would go that way, and work out what to do with that rear shelf to relocate it down lower as well. Unless there are compelling reasons for having the front and rear windows up higher, I personally think the van would look "more balanced" if the windows were at the same height all round. I gather you've cut the bottom sill of the front window to match the sills on the side windows, yes? I can also see in your early photos of the van that the side windows have a timber lip fixed to the bottom of the window to act as a water deflector. Assuming you are intending to make timber windows for the front and rear, it's important to have that "drip strip" along the bottom of the window to stop water wanting to get in behind the window sill rebate...  Good caravan design means that anything above should overlap anything below, otherwise you are asking for future woodrot problems. cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 27, 2014 18:56:29 GMT 10
Yep, another great trip report DonR. And great to see that you were able to cash in some of your frequent traveller points and get an upgrade to the foreshore! We had a week away in our van at Sunshine Bay, about 5kms south of Batemans Bay, last November. Quite a nice part of the world down there, and very easy to spend a week or more checking it all out. Re the Viscount...I would expect the chassis number to be A54?5 because the painted design on the sides is the 1968 design, and they were up to around the 5000 mark in numbers by that stage. cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 26, 2014 12:08:48 GMT 10
I towed a van for 10,000kms with a 2004 Mazda Tribute 3L, and more recently another van for 2,000kms with a 2004 Toyota Prado GXL. In both cases when I tried to use overdrive, I realised the auto gearbox wanted to keep hunting in and out of overdrive, to the point where it became really annoying. It was ok to use on long down-hill stretches, but as soon as I came across any undulating or curving roads, in and out of overdrive it would go.
Now I don't bother with overdrive at all. The cost of additional petrol is offset by the smoother ride of having better control of the auto transmission in 4th gear, not 5th.
cheers,
Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 25, 2014 19:55:33 GMT 10
G'day Michael, and welcome to the forum! According to the specifications on www.drive.com.au, all the Subaru Forester manual models in 2004 (ie. both the MY04 series and the MY05 series) have a towing capacity of 1400kgs. My own personal opinion is that a car shouldn't tow more than about 75% of its maximum capacity, which would mean in your case an ATM of 1050kgs. There is a typical allowance for the load in a van of 300kgs (water, gas, food, clothing, bedding, etc), and so deducting that from 1050kgs means the tare weight of the van can be 750kgs max. Once you go to any poptop or full-size van, you are at the mercy of the prevailing weather, and if you strike any headwinds then your speed will drop. I don't have a Sunliner, but the shape of them suggests to me that they would slip through the air a lot better than other square-edged vans. Just my thoughts... cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 25, 2014 17:36:11 GMT 10
G'day rhondapage,
Unfortunately it isn't always simple to determine the age of just a chassis number. Some of them we can readily recognise, but others may be in the "too hard" basket. If you can provide some more information about the brand of caravan you're talking about, or better still some photos, it would help us to try and narrow down the year for you.
The Moderators will probably shift your post and mine over to the General section.
cheers,
Al.
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 25, 2014 17:26:24 GMT 10
G'day F/f, Back on Page 12 of this thread, there was a bit of information provided by the caravan park: Does that mean that nobody can book into the Nats after 31st Jan?? Or does that only apply to people who have already indicated they want to attend, but haven't actually booked yet? Reason for asking is because of information that's been given to a member of the Classic forum yesterday. See the last couple of posts in this thread . cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 25, 2014 11:21:35 GMT 10
humpyboy, he might be in hospital getting treated for shock because somebody actually had one!
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 23, 2014 19:33:03 GMT 10
G'day Andrew, I had to laugh when I read this. Time and time again we are seeing that the only consistent thing in the registration process is the inconsistency. Considering the Australian Design Rules only talk about "trailers", and caravans are included in that group, how on earth does a blue-slip person reach the conclusion that a caravan needs cooking facilities before it can be registered?! Fair dinkum, you have to wonder what sort of training (if any) these people undergo before they are "qualified" to give the ok. Why don't you just put a little pile of kindling in the van with a box of matches? You can argue that you have always been a 'basic' camper - a true-blue boil-the-billy-on-the-fire type of camper. None of that fancy shmancy cooking gear for you! cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 23, 2014 17:20:34 GMT 10
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 23, 2014 14:49:56 GMT 10
Just thinking about this a bit more, Don Ricardo (while I'm waiting for some glue to dry )... If you think the back part of a public toilet door lock would work, I know they have some of the old chrome-plated locks over in the second hand Shed near me (or at least they did about a week ago). The locks aren't spring-loaded, but if all else fails it might be a viable (and cheap) option...  Send me a PM if you want me to try and get hold of one so you can at least see if it's worth a try. cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 23, 2014 13:30:40 GMT 10
G'day Don Ricardo, This lock is getting close to what you want, but unfortunately it isn't spring loaded, nor is the tongue tapered. This one is an option, but again isn't spring loaded. The smaller one of these two would go close to being a good substitute for your original one. Spring loaded. See the dimensions table down the bottom of the page. Width is 33mm vs your 32mm, but length of the barrel is 60mm. As you can see, all these locks are located in the US, which means hefty postage costs. But at least you know what to try and track down closer to where you live. And just by-the-by, if your second photo is of a second lock on your van, I'd be taking the trouble to unscrew the lock and pump a smidge of oil into the barrel to keep it working nice and free. Otherwise you might end up with another broken example. cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 21, 2014 13:19:59 GMT 10
G'day Andrew, There's a fella on ebay who sells short lengths of canvas, but I've never seen the same colour/pattern as yours listed. I think you'd be very lucky to find anything like that around these days. At the moment, he doesn't have a great deal of stock listed, but the types of colours and patterns closest to yours would be like this one . Obviously if you buy anything from this seller, you then have to make the finished product yourself, or get a canvasmaker to do it for you. cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 21, 2014 12:32:09 GMT 10
G'day troutchaser, One of the problems with coming on the forum and making a post "Wanted fibreglass sunliner caravan" is that people will ignore you. The way these internet forums work is that you join and you give as much information as you possibly can, so that people can decide whether they are in a position to help you or not. You don't say anything about where you are located, nor how far you are prepared to travel for a van, nor what your limit for spending is, etc etc etc. For all of the main methods of selling caravans on the internet, there are some basic searches you can do to weed out any vans that might have some potential. The basic searches that work well for me are: vintage caravans old caravans retro caravans bondwood caravans If you do a Gumtree search Australia-wide for 'vintage caravan', you'll see somebody in Gatton, Qld has listed a Sunliner project that they've become fed up with. Asking price is $6000 ( link ) Good luck with your search, cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 20, 2014 19:48:20 GMT 10
G'day hilldweller, Nice repair job!  I don't think you'll have any problems working your way around the van fixing things up. You seem to be able to weave some pretty good magic with your hands. The way I see the bits of timber you've bolted into position, is that they are just dress trims rather than structural pieces. Maybe I'm misreading your photos, but the floor timbers seem to be supported by a piece of timber (the orange coloured part in your photo) that's sitting on the steel angle of the chassis (the black part you bolted the timber to). I doubt whether you would need any additional support for the flooring, providing the existing support is in good condition (which it appears to be). cheers, Al. |
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Post by Franklin1 on Jan 20, 2014 19:28:02 GMT 10
G'day Todd, That SL coupling has shown up on a couple of other vans on the forum; one a Skyline (ex Franklin), and the other a Coronet. See the coupling in the old tow couplings thread, about 3/4 of the way down the page ( posted Dec 15, 2011 at 12:40pm by webrake4bricabrac ). Two swallows do not a summer make (or something like that ), but both Franklin and Coronet were Ballarat-based, so it might just be possible your van originated from the Ballarat region. Have a read through the Down History Lane index ( link ) and look for the other brands that were based in Ballarat (like Hunstman, Telstar, Vacation, others?). You might see something that could resemble the style of your van. I still think the way the corner windows of your van have been made, is an intriguing feature. It might be that your van is a "home-built" jobby, where it was the easiest way for the builder to do it. However, curved corner windows were readily available in the industry around the time your van would have been built, so the use of flat panels is a bit mysterious. Apologies if this insults your intelligence, but take note of the 2 1/ 4" towball requirement for your coupling. These are not designed to be used with a typical 50mm towball. cheers, Al. |
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