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Post by Husky on Oct 10, 2017 14:48:31 GMT 10
Hi All, Well those that have read my Scenic build (Sorry its still not finished) will know i am no stranger to ground up rebuilds. This van should have been left out in the bush where a mate found it to rot away to nothing but business is business as i will explain. No one was hurt in the making of this van....... yet
I put a call out for another 22 ft Caravan for a customer also in the dog world. As i was busy with dad one of my mates found a van for 1,200. i put it to the customer who parted with his hard earned and the caravan was delivered by my mate to the property. It looked ok to begin with. Minor frame rot, J section needed re bedding and the customer wanted 12 dog boxes in the front of it opening outside. New floor good clean up and paint inside and out.
So The customer decides he wants nothing thats in the van and he wants it lined and insulated, rewired etc. So my partner using her powers of destruction gets stuck in and it's about here i start wondering about our $1200 "bargin".
AND THEN........
..... Ahh Crap here we go again......
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Post by twocutekelpies on Oct 11, 2017 7:14:36 GMT 10
Holy crap on a cracker!!!
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Post by Mustang on Oct 11, 2017 7:30:36 GMT 10
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Post by youngdazza on Oct 11, 2017 11:34:46 GMT 10
Ouch!!
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Post by Husky on Oct 11, 2017 13:30:25 GMT 10
Nope it will be rebuilt just like the Scenic was that also took a ground dive. Great opportunity for the customer though as we sat down and worked out a few preliminary designs on the computer. One of the benefits of being a mechanical engineer, welder / fabricator and designer. New framing will be RHS. I will reuse most of the windows, door and skin. Looking at it today as i began to clear away the body i will need to repair the chassis where the old timber frame mounted to the frame just like in the Scenic. Custom Kitchen (proper dowel join cabinetry this time promise  ) wiring internal and external, LED lighting, insulate line the list goes on and on. Will make another interesting build thread  
Not much progress today as it started raining but the slow tedious job of the skin removal has begun,
171 Days and 9 hours till trace season starts 
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Post by atefooterz on Oct 12, 2017 0:44:46 GMT 10
Is that silllicone holding up the front double windows?
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Post by Mustang on Oct 12, 2017 8:00:18 GMT 10
We have only one dog that takes up the whole van?  ? |
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Post by Husky on Oct 12, 2017 8:40:39 GMT 10
yeah atefooterz it is or something similar. The front window and down the right hand J section had this brown stuff that even after so long in the whether was still stuck like s*%*t to a blanket. would love to know what it is cause i'll use it to seal the whole van as i rebuild it. i was reading another thread that mentioned the stuff i should use but didnt jot it down so i'll have to go looking for it again. We have dogs like that too Mustang. there will be 12 possibly 14 going in this van and they are Malamute size berths. this customer also has Huskies and plans to double them up in each berth if all the Mals aren't going. In our Viscount there will be twelve berths and i also have to build a 12 berth dog float to move my guys around. we are planning to go to S.A for a few races next year in the July School holidays and taking all of our dogs is a must as i barely trust anyone to look after our furkids if we go away. fun times ahead  |
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Post by Husky on Oct 14, 2017 10:27:51 GMT 10
So managed to get another four hours work in yesterday. More de-skinning more stuffed timber work and rot. Just have to keep chipping away at it until i have a bare chassis. All four Z shaped pieces of steel on the chassis where the walls bolt will need to be replaced and i read in another post somewhere about replicas being folded up out of two millimeter sheet metal. Is that strong enough or should i fab some up out of angle iron?
I managed to shear the aluminum above the front window to remove it. As this area is being completely remodeled loosing an inch of roof material shouldn't be that much of a drama. Once that was done i was able to pull the roof back central which straightened the wall i haven't de-skinned yet. i kept waiting for the big crash of the roof coming back to earth but it held and was all done safely. Then de - skinning continued,
Next step is to get the roof down safely and separate all the joins. i had a little play with figuring out how the sheets were joined and they have used a monkey grip fold drowned in the old sealer which is crumbling away so shouldn't be to much of a drama to separate and re use all the roofing saving the customer money. i have managed to remove all the skin intact so it can be reused as well. just wish i was putting it on and not pulling it off.  |
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Post by atefooterz on Oct 14, 2017 18:22:13 GMT 10
I am curious, as the cost of new cladding is not too expensive and far less than the imagined labour cost of pull down & clean up time, using the old material?
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Post by Mustang on Oct 15, 2017 16:23:31 GMT 10
I am curious, as the cost of new cladding is not too expensive and far less than the imagined labour cost of pull down & clean up time, using the old material? We repaired a hail damaged van, never would I try this again. Barnes Sydney will fold up cladding to suit. No cleaning, no repairing, no painting, no damage. |
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Post by Husky on Oct 15, 2017 18:05:34 GMT 10
Where are they based and what sort of cost we looking at Mustang?
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Post by Mustang on Oct 16, 2017 15:56:11 GMT 10
Where are they based and what sort of cost we looking at Mustang? A guy in Qld bought a full 15' van in "log cabin" & had it freighted for around $1200.00. Your cladding looks a little different, if you are recladding completely it makes little difference about the shape for what you are doing, so I would cost modern cladding off the shelf. Cheers |
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Post by bogwot on Oct 16, 2017 18:54:15 GMT 10
Where are they based and what sort of cost we looking at Mustang? A guy in Qld bought a full 15' van in "log cabin" & had it freighted for around $1200.00. Your cladding looks a little different, if you are recladding completely it makes little difference about the shape for what you are doing, so I would cost modern cladding off the shelf. Cheers I recladded with a aluminium composite 3mm thick. Very strong but a little more weight than the original log-cabin cladding. www.ullrich.com.au/ is where I bought mine. |
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Post by Mustang on Oct 16, 2017 19:12:13 GMT 10
A composite of 3mm seems to cover some insulating factors as well, so if you take away the inside ply & insulation the weight may not be that much different?
Have you had the van in cold/hot to test?
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Post by bogwot on Oct 17, 2017 3:51:55 GMT 10
A composite of 3mm seems to cover some insulating factors as well, so if you take away the inside ply & insulation the weight may not be that much different? Have you had the van in cold/hot to test? Not yet, as I haven't completed the renovation. |
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Post by Husky on Oct 19, 2017 19:57:50 GMT 10
Just a quick update as the weather and lack of time has not been kind.
Well all the walls are de - skinned and what little frame work was left relocated to the bon-fire pile. discovered a very easy way to separate the roof joins but just don't have a large enough flat area to work so i kind of just flicked it over to the side for now. Once the chassis is completely stripped i'll flip it back onto the chassis and finish pulling it apart.
I'll reserve judgement until I've pressure washed the skin pieces but it looks like I'll get away with reusing it. i also got a few quotes on new cladding and yeah just a big bit out of my budget.
Once the wreckage of a body was gone we got stuck into stripping the chassis. The floor was a complete write off and came up in a million pieces. Frustration building due to time wasting, it then started to rain.  (i would sell my soul for a big enough shed right now.) Determined not to lose the best part of another whole day due to weather i rigged up a tarp and kept working.
I cut the side pieces off the chassis so i could copy the profile and make new ones out of 2.5mm flat. It might be something only an engineer would get excited over but the top of the chassis was covered in black scale from when the steel was brand new. not even surface rust. Welds look pretty good too though each one will be cleaned up and crack tested before painting.
Looking at the Roller Rocker Suspension, axles and hubs i'll be stripping them all down too, de rust, re grease, paint and if need be make new bushes for the suspension as i have been told, due to the age of the van, tracking down a bush kit would be near impossible due to no standards existing at the time of construction so we'll just ad that to the to do list as well.
UPDATE: Decided to outsource new chassis side rails. $120.00 for all four, custom made to order
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Post by Mustang on Oct 20, 2017 8:02:23 GMT 10
Now this is bringing caravan restoring into a new league !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by Husky on Oct 21, 2017 18:31:08 GMT 10
Thanks Mustang. i was raised from a very young age being told if it's worth doing, do it properly so no half arsed jobs here. i also have major CDO which is like OCD but in alphabetical order the way its supposed to be. Another fun afternoon digging away in the rust which means it's WHEELS, HUBS, AXLES & SUSPENSION time... fun fun
Ive done a bit of reading up on the Doug Thorley and apparently he was this guy who bought vans from here there and everywhere, different makes models and sizes, then did a few modifications to them and stuck his brand sticker on it and sold it. Looking at the rego stickers of this van it's a Viscount so when i started pulling apart the wheels axles and suspension i was surprised to find electric brake hubs on the leading axle. I'm still not 100% sure of the year of this van as i'm yet to find a stamped chassis number. Rego sticker says Serial No 481327. Maybe some of the history buffs here can shed some more light on it for me. it's mainly just for curiosity.
Front Hubs. Assuming the E stands for Electric?
Lazy Axle hubs. The hub had five to 10 mm left to right movement so obviously hadnt been adjusted or serviced in a looooong time. If you buy a second hand van please please please get someone who knows what they are looking at to go over it to make sure it's safe OR get someone to rebuild it that has CDO and will check everything right down to the last nut and bolt. If you think the lack of maintenance was bad then this will really knock you for a six
There was a dent on the dust cover. So what, they get knocked around a bit, experienced people will know whats wrong in the above pic to help those less fortunate there is no split pin and part of the castellated nut has been majorly ground away. When i removed it the last thread or two was also damaged which could mean the axle has taken a knock as well. Now that will get sent off to my trailer mate to tested for straightness.
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Post by atefooterz on Oct 21, 2017 23:25:35 GMT 10
This van is lucky to have hooked up with you! Maybe look for grind marks where chassis serial numbers may have been welded on, if the suppliers did not give Doug Thorley unmarked ones?
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Post by Husky on Oct 22, 2017 12:59:46 GMT 10
Hard to tell atefooters. When I start preping the chassis for paint hopefully I'll find something. I entered the serial number in the online security and vehicle history checker. It found something but I wasn't gonna pay $28 just to satisfy my curiosity. If need be ill stamp the number on the drawer before I register it
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Post by tasmillard on Nov 3, 2017 7:02:20 GMT 10
What the f.... damn Husky, you dont shy away from a bit of work (understatement!)
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Post by shesgotthelook on Nov 3, 2017 21:04:59 GMT 10
Hi Husky, I have sent you a message  |
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Post by shesgotthelook on Nov 5, 2017 10:12:14 GMT 10
& another one
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Post by Husky on Nov 5, 2017 17:28:13 GMT 10
What the f.... damn Husky, you dont shy away from a bit of work (understatement!) Hey Tas, been a while, where you been hiding? It's true I'm a glutton for punishment now building two vans at the same time and one being another ground up rebuild. Good thing I enjoy it. Finished the Scenic thread too or as much as I'm doing for now. Haven't decided if I'm going to keep it or now now I have the viscount. Chat soon |
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) wiring internal and external, LED lighting, insulate line the list goes on and on. 
(i would sell my soul for a big enough shed right now.) Determined not to lose the best part of another whole day due to weather i rigged up a tarp and kept working.
