1978 Millard Micro pop top 11ft. Now a recycled classic !

[Deleted]

Well a few years ago I joined here when I saw a little van for sale by the road, due to a couple of floods and hic ups along the way, we gave away the idea of buying a classic van until a few months ago when again I spotted a little classic parked at an overnight camp spot and the flame was re ignited. Well after searching online websites and looking in peoples yards, an ad popped up for a little Millard but it was a couple of hours drive west and after studying the photo's I bit the bullet and drove out to look at her, and after a 30min inspect a deposit was left and a few days later she came home. The first pic is the van coming home and the second one is the first job needed, it just wouldn't fit in the shed so the opening was made taller.

May 2015 - I have completed carrying out the repairs on the caravan - this story is not about a restoration but is how I recycled a little caravan that was on it's last legs. Today it is in use and little odd job's are getting finished off in between trips away whether they are quick over nighter's or 4 day weekends.

It will always be a 1978 Millard caravan but it is no longer in it's original form

Lawrence

[Deleted]

The next job will be to enrol her with Jenny Craig....she has to go on a diet. So the annex box on the rear and the 2 spare tyre holders is coming off and the gas bottle and old battery box with battery is going from the A frame as well as the pole carrier.

[atefooterz]

Looks fun lockyer, you going with smaller gas bottle & lightweight add ons? How much weight can you get out? I am curious about how heavy my original cooker is & what saving, same with the old 2 way 240-gas Electrolux fridge. It will be great to follow your progress as many threads seem to be putting weight in to modernise (at the expence thereof) I love how the original bits are strong & light like a racing boat from that era that are classics. I would think with minimal windows your shell should be lighter than comparable plus more insulated & air con friendly down the track.

[Deleted]

Well I spend 6 hours down the shed yesterday as the weather was cooler ie under 35deg,and have removed the rear tool box and spare tyre mounts, the pole carrier is off as well as the battery box including battery, and the gas bottle as well. Now seeing as I has all of this done by lunch I decided to get under her and get the water tank out as well. I now know why she had so much weight on the tow ball...the water tank was full. I also has a good look in side and found some interesting stickers plus I suddenly realized what the smell was...no not mound or something dead (that would be a blessing, if it was just that) - no it is stale cigarette smoke, it reeks of it. I put a car freshener in the van and hope it takes some of the smell away and the wife is thinking it will be through the cushions so she may make up all new cushions.  From what I've seen underneath, I'm starting to think it has been lived in while the people I bought it from where waiting for there house to come.  The springs and axle are very rusty and tonnes of spider webs everywhere.

The van has been painted but other then that everything is original, the fridge works fine on 240V and I haven't tried it on gas, there is some light water marks under the front seat but no rot or mound, the pop top is canvas and has a few holes here and there but it will be replace in time.

The only light that worked on 240V was the outside one and the two inside don't work but I may not have the switches right there seem to be a lot of switches that do nothing, so I will be posting loads of questions about what switch does what.

...

 

[Deleted]

Nov 20, 2014 23:28:42 GMT 10 atefooterz said:

Looks fun lockyer, you going with smaller gas bottle & lightweight add ons? How much weight can you get out? I am curious about how heavy my original cooker is & what saving, same with the old 2 way 240-gas Electrolux fridge. It will be great to follow your progress as many threads seem to be putting weight in to modernise (at the expence thereof) I love how the original bits are strong & light like a racing boat from that era that are classics. I would think with minimal windows your shell should be lighter than comparable plus more insulated & air con friendly down the track.

Hi atefooterz,

Isn't it amazing how we think differently over the years, years ago most people didn't care about how much fuel there car used when towing a van, and they didn't worry about tow bar weights or atm's etc. I use to tow a cub camper for the last 14 years and it came in around 400-450kgs atm and my ute didn't know it was there but the ute sure did notice the millard behind it !!! From what I have read they should be around the 680kg range empty but seem very heavy when bringing it home. One reason was the rear tool box/annex, I had removed the spares and the annex from the van and put it in the back of the ute before bringing it home, but I was un aware that the water tank was full and the gas bottle was 2/3rds full and there was a battery sitting in the box on the A frame so no wonder the tow ball weight seemed heavy !

I will be replacing the 9kg bottle back onto the A frame and I have removed everything from the A frame so as to start cleaning it up for sealing and painting, the pole carrier is gone along with the canvas annex, and I will be looking to fit a 4wd bag awning instead(a lot lighter. The old battery box and it 1980?? cabling are gone as well and an AGM battery along with 12V charger etc will be fitted inside the van as I have a solar setup already from owning the cub camper. I will be looking at the water tank re it's size and if there is a smaller one available I will fit that instead. There is only my wife and I and we have learnt to be able to camp while using min water.

I won't be fitting an A/C as we don't travel much in the summer time, we love the cold nights of winter. I hope to keep most of the original fittings including the stove and fridge but everything starting from the chassis up will get cleaned and painted if needed and/or repaired or replace. And all this will happened while we use the van for our weekends away in between.

Some more interesting photo's

[Deleted]

The fun has began....

Striped the "A" frame and started to remove the 8.5 coats of paint...

[Deleted]

OK I have started cleaning under the chassis and found a few things wrong, a couple I already knew about, one was a little worst then I first thought some rot in the floor near the door is a little bigger then expected. A found another cross member with broken spot welds but I also found some interesting things too. Are these stands standard on this van ? Anyone know ? There up the front attached to the side chassis. Anyway that will do for working on the van this week have an overnight fishing trip to get ready for. Cheers 

[Deleted]

Well today was a company day so no work on the van but I did get to go shopping. But yesterday I finished off removing the table and storage/chairs from the front of the van to get a better look at the rot situation - it will need some of it replaced(see pic's) I also opened up the back of the fridge to check on wiring and dust/dirt and it was plenty tidy but the wiring will need to be checked over and sorted out, all in all good fun. Have also started removing the rear bed and there is rot in the back wall but not the floor, seem like the water is getting in on the lower corners/bends of the body.

OK today I had to earn my pay and do business stuff but was able to call into Bunnings and pickup a set of wire brushes for my drill and also stopped at Supercheap and grabbed another set of car stands, decided I will lift the van and remove the wheels then dropped the springs and axle in a complete unit and sit it on some saw horse to work on it....there are too many spiders under that caravan and bug spray doesn't seem to bother them lol. 

Cheers

[atefooterz]

So no pics of any trophy fish? Just as well your resto has enough required to keep up your skills!

[Deleted]

Dec 2, 2014 17:22:57 GMT 10 atefooterz said:

So no pics of any trophy fish? Just as well your resto has enough required to keep up your skills!

Just for you Ate !!  Caught and released to fight another day.

[atefooterz]

Great work and caring plus sharing with catch & release! Looks like you could almost fish out of the caravan, if carefully parked & the bank edges are firm enough.

[Deleted]

Well today I decided it was time to put those new car stands to good use and carefully raised the van so that I would be able to remove the axle. But before that I went and read what was on the tyres....!!! We should never assume !! I have been saying the van had 13" wheels on it because when I brought it home one of the spares was beside the second spare to my (now sold) camper trailer and was the same size. It has 12" rim's on it..not 13" so they are going, very soon..maybe early next year. The people I purchased the van from stated the bearing had been serviced recently....yer right..

It took a good couple of hours, as some of the bolts hadn't been remove in a long time, and it pay's to remove your suspension as you will be amazed what you will find ie bolts and bushes that haven't been replaced in 30+ years.

Yes they are the slipper bolts and brushes but that wasn't the worst of it.....

[Deleted]

This is the scary bit - I'm sure the van's axle didn't come as a 2 piece ??

And why is that brake drum not sitting right up against the brake holder ??

Well it looks like I will be replacing the axle + brakes + hubs + rims & tyres, so now the questions will start...

[Deleted]

..

..

Well work has started with earnest on the chassis and cross members, all the cross members will be bracketed. The "C" section is only spot welded on the cross members and they don't go right into the main chassis so one or 2 have broken or cracked. Once I have done all of them(another week) I will be drilling and bolting the water tank support as well, that should keep me busy up till Xmas.

[Deleted]

It has been a very productive day, so have pulled stumps and come inside out of the heat. The chassis reinforcing is completed and so to the water tank locaters. So after giving the work area a quick clean I decided to get the mudguard from the door side out as it is damaged and has 1248 tubes of silicon in and around it. Lucky for me they never clean the area around the guard before getting the concrete pumper in to pour the silicon on, so all I had to do was dig up spots with a screwdriver and long chucks just peeled off. I am only guessing but I'm sure these are NOT the original Millard mud guards.

I will remove any left over silicone and then panel beat the guard back to shape and will seal and pop rivet it back together, will clean up the hole and will check a couple of things before installing it back less all that silicone.

 

[atefooterz]

Love that win with the silicone! Nothing worse than when the original layer was sort of ok then the 20kgs of remedial stuff gets plonked on top, but takes forever to remove, apart from that one 2mm wide area that was still leaking haha!

[Deleted]

Made my first mistake but will be able to fix it up, but a lesson for anyone else with the same van. I thought you had to remove the door frame to be able to get to the pop rivets that hold the internal wall sheets on ! But you don't in the pic's below you will see there is a rigid plastic strip that is pushed into the inside edge of the door frame. When I looked at it I believed it was all one piece ie door frame and edge cover, it is only after I broke my door frame and remove part of it did I see that in fact they are 2 piece's.

Also a heads up the frame is one total piece I thought again just 4 pieces screwed in but there is some angle punched on each corner and I have now broken 2 of those angles so will have to remove the rest of the door frame to repair correctly but once you remove the rigid plastic from inside first then the frame will come out easily.

.. 

In the above photo is the rigid strip as I removed it after I broke my door frame

Here is what it looks like from the inside, if you place a screw driver in between the wall panel and the strip and twist it will slowly release out of the channel.

Cheers

[bobt]

It is always a good learning experience

[Deleted]

Well on Sunday I went to chu....sorry Bunnings..and came home with a new hand sander. So on Monday put it to good use along with another disc sander and have started painting the floor under the van,  will do bits every other day if cool enough. We have another heat wave moving through so will be out of the shed till maybe Friday, so yesterday I went and picked up the new awning for the van, it is a 3m Oztrail 4WD bag awning, is 3m long by 2.1m wide. It will get fitted later as the old awning track will have to be removed and when that happens I will be replacing the sealant right around the sides of the van and that will be one of the last jobs done.

I have almost sorted out all the problems I knew about and will now have to sit back and wait for the next 4 weeks before moving forward with buying all the stuff I will need.

The battle plan is simple, by early February the war chest will have plenty in it so that once the rebuild starts a lack of funds will not be the reason it stops. I hope by the end of Feb to have the outside re-sealed with new checker plate on the front and old sealant removed/cleaned and replaced around the edge's, also I will have to replace the front and rear ply panels as they are sandwiched between the cladding and the frame on the front and rear and the section of floor will also be replaced up the front.

I will have the new axle/brake's ?/hubs/wheels and if I get the chance will fit them but I think Feb being a short month I'll be pushing my luck.

March is where I'm going to be pulling out any hair I have left as I have to build 2 single beds, with cupboards and storage and will look to install the AGM battery with charger and cabling, will fit the axle etc as well if not done before hand.

And that is as far as I'm game to plan ahead as there are no roads without bumps in them !

If anyone in SE Qld is interested in a 3 m Oztrail 4WD awning for there van or vehicle, there is a place you can get then from quite cheap WHILE THEY HAVE STOCK. Just drop me a PM and will pass along the details.

Cheers 

[bobt]

Lawrence, that sounds like a good plan to me.. The heat becomes a bit of a bugga almost makes you wanna become a night owl.

[Deleted]

January 2015...the year of rebuilding..

Well after checking with the minister of finance, I am told I can start purchasing timber etc as from next Monday, so I headed down to the shed and have started removing the front cladding. I have lined up a good friend and his car trailer to go and get the plywood and the alloy checker plate. I have removed the fridge to get a better look at where will be the best place to cut the floor. I could just replace the 2 corners sections but after removing the cladding I can see where water has gotten in all under the front section of the floor, so my problem is I can cut the floor in a straight cut from the front of one mudguard across to the other which will then leave me to just fit one square piece back in, except the wardrobe and the kitchen cupboard are still in the van and the cut will have to go under both of them. I have no idea how I will do that...    

The front cladding released so as to give me a better look at the rot issue.

The fridge side - look at those staples - they took some getting out - will have a think about how I will fit the new ply on the inside

Door side, this is the worst side (may not look it) as the rot go all the way back towards the mudguard

Water has come up between the cladding and the chassis where the 2 are joined, there was no sealer of any kind between them !

I saw on here where another member fitted extra cut rails so that the inside ply was not attached under the cladding- something I want like to do as well.

Cheers

[atefooterz]

Wow a lot of stuff to renew there and the Millard will be all the better for it, remember to seal all edge grains with expoxy ,or everdure (thin penetrating epoxy), or at least something so as down the track yourself or later caretakers do not get that issue. Fixing a classic is all about "staple-mania" from what i keep reading!

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2015 17:53:44 GMT 10 atefooterz said:

Wow a lot of stuff to renew there and the Millard will be all the better for it, remember to seal all edge grains with expoxy ,or everdure (thin penetrating epoxy), or at least something so as down the track yourself or later caretakers do not get that issue. Fixing a classic is all about "staple-mania" from what i keep reading!

Thanks Ate, before I do or fit anything I will be on here asking "is that ok" first. I really only want to do this once so it best be right, plus I have to make sure I get it all in the right order ie fit the wall ply and forget to sort out power and wiring. I think I have another issue the interior lights don't seem to be wired to 12V so will be checking that over the coming days/week.

Cheers 

[Deleted]

What have I done....

Have removed the original cladding from the front and while doing this found where all of the floor rot issue have stemmed from.. . There is no sealer of any type used between the cladding and the chassis where they are joined, they were screwed and pop riveted along the front. When I have replaced/repaired the floor and go to fit the new front cladding I will be getting some neoprene strips in the joint first

  

....

I have ordered the 12v wiring plus the RCD unit and case, will be going and picking up the plywood flooring and walls plus the alloy checker plate, tomorrow if the weather stays dry. There is some 30+ year old sealer that needs to be cleaned away - anyone want to come and do this for me, it's not that much just around the trim...

Cheers

[jdmac2312]

Well done Lawrence, there appears to be a lot of work going on. We are hoping to start removing the insides of our micro next week, weather permitting. We were looking at treadplate for around the bottom of our van. It is supposed to be lighter and I can get it through work at cost, which is better still.

Kevin is doing well and he didn't realize that I had joined this forum and was telling me about someone he was reading about with a micro like ours. When I looked I commented "that's Lawrence, the man I was telling you about on the forum I am on. Guess what same forum... he was reading. Coincidence.

Anyway, will keep you updated with photos etc as we go.

Jacquie and Kevin