1977 Millard M51919

[Deleted]

Hi All,

Just joined the forum! So great to see so people with many renovating the old vans! Have been reading Millard1399 with great excitement. So many solutions to my problems! Our Millard is mid 70s (guessing) with the serial M51919. It has double bunks at the front mid kitchen and lounge/table and double bed at the rear.



I have been slowly fixing bits and pieces over the past 5 years like axle, breaks, lights, few interior fixes to old cupboards. Took her out to Jibberding (Google it! ;D) and tested out new solar panel and deep cycle bat with led lights and engle. We live in Perth and are planning a trip to Sydney in Dec this year, so heaps of things to do and fix!

Thanks so much for a great forum!
James

[millard1399]

G'day James, and welcome to the forum! ;D

By coincidence, we've just been talking elsewhere on the forum about a 26 foot Millard with the chassis number of M50309, about 1600 vans before yours. You should have a read of this thread in the Techo section.

Based on the fact that yours and this other van must both have a galvanised chassis, I've changed the heading of this thread to say your van is a 1977 model (although it could be a 1978 model).

Your photo shows your van to be in quite good condition, so you're very lucky to have found such a good example. What length is the van?

Hope to see and hear more from you as you fix up the bits and pieces.

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the info Al, I will have a read of that thred in the Techo section.
The van is 18' 6" from tail lights to tow hitch, and about 15' 2" from tail lights to the front wall and the spare wheel carrier is about a foot at the back. I will post more pics when I get a chance.

Again thanks for the quick Welcome
James

[Deleted]

Here are some later pics of the van...













Cheers
James

[Deleted]

Hi Again,

Wish list of things to do on the van;

Re-seal roof and sides, and then paint whole van.
Replace tail lights, add front marker lights.
Recondition all louver windows.
Recondition 4 Seasons hatch
Replace existing dometic fridge with 3-way.
Remove gas oven.
Build replacement fridge cupboard.
Replace front window guard stays and spring locks.
Add second water tank for showering, with pump and tap in sink.
Add another deep cycle battery and another solar panel, to cope with engle in the car (at night) and van fridge.
Possibly add electric brakes.

This is all with our planned trip to Sydney in Dec in mind...
Of course there's always more I can think of after reading this forum

Cheers
James

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

Hey James, Nice van Googled Jibberding, its a fair hall from anywhere LOL,

Nice clean van u have,

What type of fridge would you like ?

Im getting to fit out stage with our viscount and was interested in your thoughts. Our last trip was up the tanami to broome up to cape leveque and across the Gibb, ( we have a Goldstream Link also which i must say is one Very tough camper and never missed a beat) and just used the engel in the car mainly because the heat exchange fridge in the camper basically stops working properly at about 30c

regards Cameron

[Deleted]

Hi Cameron,

We are still working out what we need fridge wise. It really depends what your situation is and what you need. We have had 2 scares with gas fires with our fridge that has basically made running a fridge on gas overnight not an option for us. People have tried to talk sense to us about gas but I dont think we are gonna change our minds....so we have decided to run a 12v fridge for overnight free camps. With a little research it seems to me that the 3-way fridges that I was going to replace my 2-way with just draw too many amps on 12volts. So we are thinking that we need a compressor fridge like an engle, but it may take some time to find one in good nic second hand. With my 120wat solar handling the engle in the car and the van lights overnight, Im going to add another panel and battery just for the van fridge.
Hope that helps...

Cheers
James

[Deleted]

Been doing some renovating....

[millard1399]

G'day James,

Wow, what a difference some new floor tiles make!

Depending on the quality of the peel-and-stick tiles you're using, the adhesive doesn't seem to be very "sticky" after a while, especially in the doorway area where the sun can get on them and soften them up a bit. If the whole floor is always protected from the sun then it shouldn't be an issue, but if you notice some of them lifting after a while then you might have to spread some vinyl tile adhesive and re-lay those ones.

Looks good so far, though! ;D

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the tip Al, will grab some adhesive next visit to bunnings

[Deleted]

Hi Again,

Revised Wish list of things to do on the van;

Re-seal roof and sides, and then paint whole van.
Replace tail lights, add front & rear marker lights.
Recondition all louver windows(what a crap job!!! only done one so far..).
Recondition 4 Seasons hatch - Still to do....
Replace existing dometic fridge with 3-way - Nope, keeping the old girl.
Remove gas oven - Check ! ;D
Build replacement fridge cupboard.- Doing it soon
Replace front window guard stays and spring locks. - Nope, replaced knurled nuts only...
Add second water tank for showering, with pump and tap in sink. - Still to do..
Add another deep cycle battery and another solar panel, to cope-with engle in the car (at night) and van fridge. - Bought extra panel still to fit and buy Battery etc...
Possibly add electric brakes. - Nope, no time or money

With only 2 Months till we head east I'm beginning to panic

Cheers
James

[Deleted]

Finsihed laying the Lino tiles, took Al's advice and used glue on all the edge tiles.



Now onto the kitchen!



Using meranti and ply like the original construction....



Only problem is the wall ply, the old pattern is not available, so I am just going to use a nice wood ply from ALLWOOD and try to stain it up and lacquer it to match the old pattern....going to use the old doors from the kitchen at request from the boss.

Cheers

[mausie]

Hi James
Have a look at the Gunnersen website for caravan ply. They may have a similar colour.

www.gunnersens.com.au/products/building-products/plywood/paper-and-polyester-overlay-plywood.html


You can order through Bunnings and save about 30% of the cost you would pay through a caravan shop.

Cheers
Mausie & Joe

[Deleted]

Thanks for the info Mausie, cant do it though, overspent the budget for this can already....DOH!

I would love to get a slightly bigger twin axle van and start from scatch....

Maybe next year

Thanks
James

[Deleted]

Progress Update:

Floor:
Well took some of Al's advice but not enough it would seem.
After taking note of Al's post re the lino tiles lifting when in the sun, I did glue all the edge tiles down. Thats all fine, however a couple of days ago we had a pretty warm day here in Perth, and I found to my horror almost all the tiles were lifting!! So now I need to go and glue every tile down....DOH!

The cupboards are progressing slowly:



As you can see.


The windows are going even more slowly, almost 2 done so far...
The outside of the Van will be last...if I get to it..


I found some 12v LED bedside lights at Autone on special at $10 each..will post a pic when I get around to taking one

Cheers
James

[millard1399]

G'day James,

Shame about the tiles lifting, but when you relay them with tile adhesive, you should be right for the life of the tiles.

And yep, those louvre windows will haunt you for the rest of your life!

The work on the cupboards looks like a pretty neat job.

Keep at it,

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Starting to get there with the kitchen...

Before Stain

After Stain

I'm pretty happy with how it's going, just need to choose a clear varnish to finish it off. Then just have to make up some tops with a nice laminate as well as a new table top, then I can move onto more pressing things like fitting the carefree awning and painting and fitting an extra battery and the 200wat Solar panel.

Thanks
James

[Deleted]

Well it's now less than 6 weeks till we head off across the nullarbor...

Still left undone:

Kitchen:
Varnish, cut tops & laminate, fit sink and pump etc & splashbacks refit fridge with inverter and wire etc

Floor:
Re-lay tiles with glue

Bed:
(removed bed-end cupboard so Bed can be bigger)
Now have to make bed....

Batteries and Solar:
Fit 200w Solar and wire in new controller + anderson plug wires from Tug to van....


Hmmmm I'm going way too slow ;D

Cheers
James

[Deleted]

Question of Paint.

My van has been painted with something like old house paint and has quite a rough surface...does anyone have any ideas about sanding it or stripping it in preparation for new paint? I have tried wet & dry on a small section but it's pretty hard to get the surface smooth, and will take a huge effort to do even one side allowing for the profile of the sheets...

I will post some pics of what I'm talking about when I get home tonight...

Thanks in advance

James

[millard1399]

G'day James,

Firstly, fantastic job you're doing on the cupboards!

Secondly, get off the forum or you won't be anywhere near finished by the time you have to leave for the Nullabor.

Thirdly, try rubbing a wet soapy steel wool pad on a small section of the surface of the paint, and see if that makes the surface smoother (and more importantly if it does it faster than using wet and dry).

Lastly, set up floodlights...get cracking...24 hours a day, no breaks...You CAN do it!! ;D ;D ;D

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Thanks AL!!! ;D

I needed that! ;D ;D ;D

I promise I wont post again till I get something done ;D

Cheers
James