1970 Culberts Cruiser 10

[Deleted]

I am very new to classic caravaning, in fact we collect our van tomorrow.

We are avid kombi collectors and restorers and for some time my husband and I have been looking for a small light oldstyle caravan to tow behind our '76 ute 'Monty'.

Can you imagine our joy and surprise when our neighbour approaches us to see if we know of anyone who would like to buy an old wooden caravan. We live rurally and cannot see into her yard, but right there under our nose is the cutest, even if very very mouldy, homemade wooden caravan. It has been in her family since new and greatly loved but in need of a good home.

My mind has been working overtime and I am itching to make some new curtains etc.

We may be ambitious but we hope to have it up and regoed in time for Easter as we head off for our annual Kombi Club reunion.

I can't wait to hitch it up tomorrow and start cleaning her. Is there any advice as to what is best to use to remove mould?

I hope to find lots of great information on this site. ;D

[millard1399]

G'day ruby6689, and welcome to this forum! ;D

If you are getting an old timber caravan, you will find the folks over at our sister forum for Vintage caravans quite helpful. The Vintage forum is for vans built before 1970, and it sounds like your van fits in that category.

Click on this link: www.vintagecaravans.com

Hope you enjoy your time with your 'new' van! ;D ;D

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Thanks Al for the warm welcome.

I joined the Vintage Caravan forum as I thought it would be correct forum but saw that it only dealt with caravans manufactured before 1970. (I found the link to this site there and thought I should join this one instead/as well.)

Our cars fit their criteria but I have been told that the van was made in the '70's and the stove is identical to the one in our '76 Kombi camper ;D

I will pick our neighbours brains to find out the correct provinence. Can I still be a member here? If so I will post a few pics in the next couple of days to see if your members can shine any light on what we actually have.

I don't think I have felt this excited since the day I bought our first kombi....happy days are here again.

[atouchofglass]

Hey Ruby
Welcome to CC
Of course you can be a member of both forums.
At least I hope so seeing both Al and I have been for many years as well as quite a few of our other members.

Feel free to post some photos of the Kombi as well

Cheers
Atog

[Deleted]

Hi Ruby

Gosh it's exciting isn't it? I know I went a bit mental for the first few months, and honestly I know I still drive my husband batty every day with hardware for the van, or building materials for the van, or pretty girly period things for the van....

I'm very happy for you - and happy to hear an old caravan found a happy home.

Cheers
Seeshell

[Deleted]

Hey Ruby, welcome aboard
Yes we'd love to see some pics of your tow vehicle(I'm a Kombi freak too!)
or your caravan we dont care. Call us vouyers, perverts, whatever, we dont care ;D ;D ;D
We just need our fix. ( I reckon it's because none of us can read to good.;D ;D ;D)

Well, we are waiting........

[millard1399]

You could always get yourself one of these...

[Deleted]

Cute! I love it.

Can I have one please?

Cheers
Seeshell

[Deleted]

I have seen something like that Not pretty.

We have just visited the van to work out tatics on how to extract it from it's resting place of 14 years. The tow hitch is frozen and the jockey wheel needs a bit of work, the tyres look ok at least she was up on blocks and should hold air.

Andy is heading back down to work on the tow hitch in readiness for the extraction later this arvo.

EXCITED.

[Deleted]

Meet 'Mildred' as you can see she needs a little bit of work on the section near the water filler, Andy has started already.

[Deleted]

Sorry I didn't realise how big the pic were

While Andy attacked the outside I was 'in the kitchen'

From this





To this, after 3 hours I have managed to get this far. I am very happy with the results, I'm hoping to get another few hours mould removing done tomorrow. ;D

[Deleted]

Hi Ruby

She's a real beauty - and hasn't she come up a treat! Well done to all your hard work, clearly it's been worth it.

Cheers
Seeshell

[millard1399]

Heck ruby, you won't find too many bondwood vans in as good a condition as that!! Mould or no mould, that's a beauty!

Somebody was obviously pretty clever with their hands to build a great little van like this one. You are very lucky to be the new owners. Hope you enjoy your time in it! ;D ;D


You might have seen these sorts of combinations around, if you are a Kombi fan...







(ignore my artwork on this photo )


cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Hi there,what a great little van you have!
Its from a book of plans called "Culberts build a caravan " book of which I have a copy.Its called a "Cruiser 10".
All Culberts vans were built from plywood so they could be updated with paint as they aged.
They were also extremly light as they were built with a single skin method(!layer of ply with exposed framework inside)
Book is dated about 1969 or 70.
Hope this is of some help to you,I have plans and pictures I can send if you want to send me a pm.
Cheers
hughdeani

[Deleted]

Wow! Is that the same van? I know, I bet you "sprayed" some mould in there first and then just wiped it off ;D ;D ;D
Seriously good job there, and she looks great. Just ask the guy in the first pic!

Cheers

[Deleted]

Thanks everyone for your positive feedback ;D

The two kombis with thier caravans both belong to friends of mine, in fact our daughter was dating Ash, the guy who owned 'Olive' the first one.
The other is Kel and Donnas, they now live in Bali and run a caf'e there called 'Mugshoots'. They sold everything before moving with the exception of the kombi and the van!
We have been on the lookout for a van for our kombis ever since we first saw these two.

I was thrilled for the information about 'Mildred' I can see that this is going to be a fantastic forum to gain info and help. Thank you.

We gave 'Mildred' a tub this arvo and she has come up a treat, still a bit of mould that will need some elbow grease to remove.

I have never had so much fun cleaning.

[Deleted]

Andy has had a wonderful time 'playing' with Mildred. He is a stickler for safety so the wheels are off, new tyres on and he has checked out all the brearings, undercarriage etc. All is in amazingly good condition.
He has stripped the house paint off the drawbar, wheels etc and primed it all ready for 'proper' paint.

I have been having fun searching for curtaining, without a great deal of luck, seems easy to get small bits of retro frabric but never enough for a full set of curtains, I may just have to have net centres till I can find enough of the right one.

Is there a trick to getting mildew off vinyl? I have tried cleaning it but have small dots left.

We are off on our annual Kombi Club get together over Easter then the following week we have 47 kombis staying here for MardiGrass so I don't think we will have time to do too much more till after that....then it's full steam ahead. Can't wait for our first trip away with her.

[Deleted]

A huge THANK YOU to Dean for sending me a copy of the 'Culbert's Build A Caravan'.

I have read most of it already and it is a great read, just love the full page of instructions on how to make the curtains and bed covers, right up my alley. I love the bit "get hubby to put in more screw eyes to fit a curtain frill"....... Priceless you wouldn't see that printed these days. ;D

Mildred certainly is a Clubert Cruiser10, how clever of you to recognise that.

I had a spare hour this morning to attack yet another sectiuon of mould and tailor a mattress cover.

I had to smile when Andy even said 'I'm really liking Mildred now'. He loves to tinker and it's been a while since our last project.

[bobt]

hi ya ruby6689

Am impressed with what you have done.. Amazed at the change.

do keep us updated with the photos.

bobt

[Deleted]

Hi and welcome Ruby 6689 love to read stories from people with as much enthusiasm as you Love your van and your doing a great job bringing her back to life.
When we first got our van I never had enjoyed cleaning so much before myself

I purchased my curtain material from an American company on ebay, for a very reasonable price including postage maybe you could have a look on there if your having trouble in Oz, they seem to have a larger variety and different styles then you find over here.
Keep us upto date with your journey
Helen.

[Deleted]

Gday and welcome ...you have a great score there and she has cleaned up a treat.
We look forward to the photos of your Restore and the Kombi( an old 70's child with some fond memory's of trips in mate VAN.
cheers Bazz

[Deleted]

Gday ruby
forgot to mention White Vinegar great for mold, will take a couple of washes to kill all the spores , don't mix with water.
At $1 2lt. aprox a cheap and safe
(for you OK ....for paint mmmm) cleaner that works
Cheers Bazz

[atouchofglass]

Hey Bazz

An alternative to kill mould or bacteria is beer steriliser as sold at the brew shops
The one I use is Sodium hydrogen Sulphate.
Wife uses a cap full in the wash when doing my sweaty shirts.
Removes all the smell.
I use it on and in the Olympic.
Takes the mould off and even cleans aluminium as well. ;D ;D

Cheers
Atog

[Deleted]

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and helpful hints. I have just returned from my Kombi Club convention and after MardiGrass this weekend it will be full steam ahead.

I was excited to find the exact oyster light shade to replace her missing one on Ebay. It was in Melbourne and a 'pick up only' item. Luckily a Kombi Club member from Victoria was able to pick it up and pass it on at our get together. Forums are a wonderful way to meet just the best people and I'm hoping to be able to catch up with some of you all in the future (I have been looking at your planned weekends).

[Deleted]

We have been slowly getting jobs done on Mildred. Divorce has been mentioned more than once!

Still a far way to go but today it felt as though we were getting somewhere. We are not carpenters but we stumbled through and managed to cut away and replace a couple of small sections of the outside timber that had rot in it. The new ply is not the same size so that proved an interesting challenge I am pleased with the results.

While the interior washed up to a respectable level I have decided to repaint. I do a bit when I can so it is going to take a while to finish, but looking good.

Andy has stripped the rust from the fridge and repainted it, today that went back in, what a difference

I found some old 60's fabric in America, gaudy red/orange flowers, and waited 4 weeks to receive it. I am itching to get the curtains made but want to finish the paint first.

All local op shops have been scoured for items to fill the cupboards including a dinner set, Tupperware (I usually hate Tupperware ;D), table cloth, canisters, salt and pepper and even a little china dog ornament that looked at me and said 'take me home'.

I am having a ball. ;D