'Val' mid-late 70's Viscount Valiant restoration

[maddie]

Hi all, 

I'm about 2 weeks into my van restoration project, which I partly embarked upon as a way to learn a whole new bunch of stuff, and because I had recently acquired a bloody big shed! Anyway, with the help of my (mostly) willing carpenter Dad, we have started the process of transforming Val- my mid(ish?) 70's van from a bucket of bolts to the cosiest of caravans. I thought it might be fun to document it all in a little blog (another first for me) so if you were at all interested, you could pop over here: adventurewithval.wordpress.com and have a look!

Jobs I've currently got underway or finished include:

Removing the old two single bed setup at the rear to make way for a double.
Removing 5 ply wall panels which were spongy and need replacing.
Figuring out the wiring system and re-jigging around until it was right.
Panel beating several sections of the cladding which looked like someone had accidentally parked under the whomping willow (harry potter reference there…)

Next on the list:

Beef up the framing, particularly around the door and rear of van.
Adding in an extra powerpoint and an exterior light- which I thought was a strange omission?
Fitting new ply walls.
Removing old floor tiles and replacing with a thin floorboard.
Building bed.
Preparing and painting exterior.
The list goes on and on really…lucky I've got plenty of time!

Once I figure out photos I hope to put some up. 

Happy vanning, 

Maddie

[atefooterz]

Welcome Maddie, mad skillz with the wp blog:) If you post here the chassis number, usually blob welded on the A frame near the jockey wheel the brains trust may be able to pin down a build year for Val, along with the original colour scheme plus windows! Viscunts seem hard to nail. Registration papers can be very inaccurate, my van sold as a 1976, has a 1975 chassis number is registered as a 1977 as an example LoLz. I hope you enjoy the ride and bonding sessions with your Dad as you create your beastie beastess.
At the moment pics are most easily posted via a host like photobucket, imagebam, upix etc. I would suggest setting up an account with one of those so you can upload once and use the BB code in a post here and the html code for your blog.
EG BB code = [ img ] ww ish pic thumb pic link numbers [ /img ] html = < img > ww ish pic addres number etc < /im >

[pisces51]

G'day maddie,

This thread follows on from your original thread: Viscount valiant (197?) replacement cladding

It's possible the series of chassis numbers starting with the letter 'V' followed by one, two, or three numbers (eg. your number of V242) were used prior to Valiant using the same standard Viscount numbering system used in 1974 (eg. V4xxxx ). Your van has push-out windows, which were used up until sometime during 1973 or early 1974. Plus you have the wide painted band along the sides, which started to be used in 1974.

If the dings in the cladding showing in your blog photo are typical of what's around the van, I wouldn't bother doing anything about them unless you are a perfectionist. It's a lot of work to pull a van apart and put it back together again, and if you are only doing that so you can panelbeat the dings out, you should really think twice. There's nothing wrong with having a van with a "warts and all" appearance. As long as there are no splits or cracks in the dings that will let water in, you could simply call them "age wrinkles".

cheers,
Al.

[Mustang]

Welcome Maddie,
Post often & ask away for any help,
ebay has a fair share of re-newed Viscounts, not many are restored the way they were, which I think is important for re-sale. I think pices51 has a good point to keep some "age wrinkles".
Certainly our Vincent will have some of those, good luck with your project & new post code.

brent

[maddie]

Thanks for the advice guys, its such a friendly place here, I really appreciate it! In regards to panel beating, we're really only doing what we can to the ones that are now easily accessible because of removing some rotten ply panels inside, the rest will be kept as you wonderfully put it as 'age wrinkles'! Having said that, it was amazing the difference we made in an afternoon of work on the worst affected spots.

What a puzzle this age dating is, I've jumped all over the place with guesses after seeing similar features in other vans. I suppose I'm not too fussed about the exact year at the end of the day, but I find it interesting how certain features act as little time capsule clues to the story of that van. All just adds to the intrigue doesn't it!

My ideal is to have an attractive and functional van at the end, not so much strictly restoring it to its former original features, but I would hope to keep the essence of the era intact…I'll admit that even in the early stages of the project, I'm already getting distracted by curtain choices, colour schemes, and handmade door knobs!

I'll be back here soon with more queries I'm sure.
Cheers.

[Mustang]

Don't worry about the extras, it's the last week that all these items come into vogue. Get them while you can & while you think of them.
We have just imported $300 worth of curtain material, although we are months away from putting it place.
This makes the big jobs less dreary.
Also if you want to stray for a day or two on another job, do it?
Cheers