THE CABANA

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So a few weeks back me and my partner found a absolutly buggered old rotten Caravan at his folks property in Jimboomba QLD. Being nosey and looking for a bit of a challenge/something to spend weekends doing... We pulled it out from beind a tree






Needless to say neither of us had ever seen the fold down pods, or a caravan this nasty looking
we towed it own to a fresh piece of lawn and opened her up for a look

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Our first weekend on the project was rip out what was left of the rotting floor, the rotten cabinets and shelfs, rip off the wall linings and the broken light fittings

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By the end of this stage we could pretty much see both the pods were pretty rooted, the hinge was hanging onto a thread, there was nothing supporting nothing, 1st building step, after the strip down.. Was grind, wire bush and sand the base frame and lay down some 12mm treated ply, we decided to paint the ply AFTER we were finished as there was too little time to get paint on and dried before weekend end?..


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We also did wiring,
we are both in our 20s and understand the concept of camping.. But if you have the resources at hand like i do in my trade... We decided to get a little bit modern with our old girl.. Adding 2 water lines, one to be for running water in the kitchen ( pullout from front pod, and one to a plug near the rear outside of the caravan where a hose can be connected ( outdoor shower head for quick mid summer shower cool offs). Also wires for 2 waterpump power switches, a stereo, speakers, 12v sockets all around and led lighting inside an a outdoor light

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Down goes the floor, 1500tubes of no more nails and a few screws.




And weekend was over with two very tired young men learning quickly what a caravans made of!

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Weekend 2 was roof time and pod time!

my boy managed to search the arse out of gumtree and find a cheap $40 roof in the area we went and collected, he cut the inner guts from the new roof and i built a frame to support it, as you will see there was nothing, not even a screw salvageable from the old roof

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Believe it or night that took allday Satrday but sunday was time to fix the end frames around the pods, on close inspection the rear one... Well wasn't worth thinking about untill we had a look and attempt at the front

the sides of the pod support simply needed the full length replaced, and the bottom a new hinge support, an some legs to support, i opened up the wall to the storage compartment on the front also.

we used tie downs to support the weight of the pod off the steal upper frame while we chipped away and replaced its bottom.

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This last weekend was get the rear pod fixed, and get the roof on...
The rear pod i swear i could have pushed clean off the rear of the van with one hand, we replaced the side supports, the lower support and added 4 uprights to support the weight of us sleeping on it and then to finish the steel strong repair, pump every spare gap with nomorenails and epoxy and add 3 right angle brackets.. (Why not, noone can see them)

Sunday resulted in another trip to bunnings to get the wood to start the seating plan, we decided on 2 benchs over the wheel arches, and a extension from the pod to also sit around the centre table area. One thing we had to keep allowing for was a rebate in the seats where the edge of the pod sits when folded in...

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So far we are doing pretty well for a couple of fellas looking for trouble in a project.  

So far we only just found out the style is a cabana? And we have found a few small blogs etc about them but no specs or history.

i have spend ours reading about them, but have found bugger all specs, if anyone can share about the years, models and maybe some weights i would greatly appreciate it. And anyone whos ever had a crack at restoring one of these old girls... Feel free to share your wins an fails with me.

Cheers
Reece