Restoring Viscount 1978? dual axle

[bogwot]

Hi all. My first post so I might as well show you a few pics. But first, we got the caravan from a farmer who had it outside for sometime. It looked fine so we now own it...Rats and all. (How do you get rid of the rat smell?) We are planning on taking it up north for about 4 weeks at the end of next school term. Cairns should be beautiful at that time of the year.
But we have to get it livable first. We had a few problems with door latches and couldn't get the original so we bought the long type. We can't get the wind out fitting for the windows so the small windows are now rivited shut and the larger windows need a little persuasion to shut tightly. I painted the top after stripping the old paint and silicon with Weather Shield. Read good reports on it. Had to get a new hatch made and am waiting to see if a glassier is able to bend me new perspex corner windows. 
Anyway hears a few pics:

Well I tried to upload a couple of pics but the error msg came up and said that the forum had exceeded their quota. So will try next time.

Sitting. Waiting for her new home:


Her new home:


Inside:



The roof after removing all the silicon:



Starting to remove windows:



A new hatch and a new paint job with WeatherShield paint:

[Mustang]

Hi Steve,
Firstly, how about getting ride of that bug that is your avatar! I just about ruined my monitor trying to get it off the screen!!!!
If you have rats in the walls sounds like a more major reno than you had planned, good to waterproof the top, especially if you are working on the van outside.
Read the "Hall of Fame " & you will understand that a quality resto does not happen quickly.
Of course you can travel while working on the van, just makes it a bit more difficult, plenty of experience here, post often & dont be afraid to ask for help.

[bogwot]

Apr 17, 2015 18:53:19 GMT 10 Mustang said:

Hi Steve,
Firstly, how about getting ride of that bug that is your avatar! I just about ruined my monitor trying to get it off the screen!!!!
If you have rats in the walls sounds like a more major reno than you had planned, good to waterproof the top, especially if you are working on the van outside.
Read the "Hall of Fame " & you will understand that a quality resto does not happen quickly.
Of course you can travel while working on the van, just makes it a bit more difficult, plenty of experience here, post often & dont be afraid to ask for help.

Thanks Mustang. The "bug" is my friend. lol
Is there a way to upload a few pics other than one of the many free sites that lets you post and save photos? I don't want to sign up to another site.
I don't think the rats were in the walls as we found a few nests in cupboards. It's just the lingering smell we can't get rid of.

[Mustang]

I use photo bucket a minimum of info needed.
Easy to use.
With all the rain here in Qld we have had field mice in the house, one just died in the back of the fridge?
Horrible smell, I don't know how you overcome it, try Google?
Good luck with the Reno , they are fun if you have the space to work.

[atefooterz]

Apr 18, 2015 14:14:13 GMT 10 bogwot said:

Apr 17, 2015 18:53:19 GMT 10 Mustang said:

Hi Steve,
Firstly, how about getting ride of that bug that is your avatar! I just about ruined my monitor trying to get it off the screen!!!!
If you have rats in the walls sounds like a more major reno than you had planned, good to waterproof the top, especially if you are working on the van outside.
Read the "Hall of Fame " & you will understand that a quality resto does not happen quickly.
Of course you can travel while working on the van, just makes it a bit more difficult, plenty of experience here, post often & dont be afraid to ask for help.

Thanks Mustang. The "bug" is my friend. lol
Is there a way to upload a few pics other than one of the many free sites that lets you post and save photos? I don't want to sign up to another site.
I don't think the rats were in the walls as we found a few nests in cupboards. It's just the lingering smell we can't get rid of.

G`Day Steve, you can upload to upix.me/ from the get go with no sign up, just click on select files, choose pics ( if a few put them in 1 folder then you can grab all in one easy hit> select family safe for content  > then upload. You will get a gallery link for BB = [ img ] pic links [ /img ] just copy & paste into your reply.

[bogwot]

Apr 18, 2015 18:27:30 GMT 10 atefooterz said:

Apr 18, 2015 14:14:13 GMT 10 bogwot said:

Thanks Mustang. The "bug" is my friend. lol
Is there a way to upload a few pics other than one of the many free sites that lets you post and save photos? I don't want to sign up to another site.
I don't think the rats were in the walls as we found a few nests in cupboards. It's just the lingering smell we can't get rid of.

G`Day Steve, you can upload to upix.me/ from the get go with no sign up, just click on select files, choose pics ( if a few put them in 1 folder then you can grab all in one easy hit> select family safe for content  > then upload. You will get a gallery link for BB = [ img ] pic links [ /img ] just copy & paste into your reply.

Thanks atefooterz. That site works well.

[bogwot]

Can anyone tell me what year my Viscound is? The rego sticker says '82 and the gas cert on the front says '78.
The number on the A frame is     S82618
Your help is appreciated.

[Mustang]

Apr 21, 2015 13:15:14 GMT 10 bogwot said:

Can anyone tell me what year my Viscound is? The rego sticker says '82 and the gas cert on the front says '78.
The number on the A frame is     S82618
Your help is appreciated.

Seems your rego is correct, the S stands for Supreme & the first two digits are the year (for this late a model)
I can't explain the gas?
Your external & some of the interior is the same layout as our Supreme 17' single axle.

[bogwot]

Apr 22, 2015 19:22:03 GMT 10 Mustang said:

Apr 21, 2015 13:15:14 GMT 10 bogwot said:

Can anyone tell me what year my Viscound is? The rego sticker says '82 and the gas cert on the front says '78.
The number on the A frame is     S82618
Your help is appreciated.

Seems your rego is correct, the S stands for Supreme & the first two digits are the year (for this late a model)
I can't explain the gas?
Your external & some of the interior is the same layout as our Supreme 17' single axle.

Well that is odd Mustang. I wonder how a label older than the van was used?
The vans are very similar indeed. Same problems with the windows. Do check the roof for excess use of silicon. Mine had heaps. I found a round wire brush in a cordless drill removed it really easily.
I hope to be getting 2 curved windows for the corners made. Will know in a couple of weeks. In regard to the windows I bought 25 mts of rubber seal and 20 mts of the rubber dust seal an wasted the lot as the seals didn't fit and the dust seal couldn't slide into the grooves so I used the Sikaflex silicon. Worked like a charm. Makes the windows very firm and strong.
Anyway have fun with the reno.

[pisces51]

G'day bogwot,

from mustang: the S stands for Supreme & the first two digits are the year (for this late a model)

Close, but not quite right. The first digit only is the year number, so an 8 is a 1978 model. The rest of the numbers are the consecutive chassis numbers built prior to yours, so the 2618 bit is the 2,618th chassis built in '78, which would have been in the first half of the year sometime. This Viscount numbering system works from 1973 to 1979 inclusive, but sometime in 1979 they changed the numbering system again, to drop the letters and just have a number starting with 75 or 77, for some reason.

cheers,
Al.

[supreme78]

Yes your van is a 1978 same year as mine S81091 very simular in many ways. Good luck with the restoration/ renovation.

[Mustang]

Apr 23, 2015 18:22:06 GMT 10 pisces51 said:

G'day bogwot,

from mustang: the S stands for Supreme & the first two digits are the year (for this late a model)

Close, but not quite right. The first digit only is the year number, so an 8 is a 1978 model. The rest of the numbers are the consecutive chassis numbers built prior to yours, so the 2618 bit is the 2,618th chassis built in '78, which would have been in the first half of the year sometime. This Viscount numbering system works from 1973 to 1979 inclusive, but sometime in 1979 they changed the numbering system again, to drop the letters and just have a number starting with 75 or 77, for some reason.

cheers,
Al.

Darn , too many reds? 

[bogwot]

Well here is an update. We have finished the outside and have started on the inside. We are keeping the double bed although I am going to cut the matteress in half length ways so my length is accomindated. I am 6'3". When going to bed I will pull my side of the matteress down and place a block of foam at the head of the bed, giving me the room.
We have removed the seating and are putting a bench at the window. We will put 2 dinning chairs at the bench to eat. 
Where the double bunks were we are putting a couch. Just using 2 single foam matteress' and building up the back rest.
I have wired for 12volt throughout. All the lights and 12v. We have a standard 240v fridge so I have installed a 12v deep cycle battery with a 1500/3000 watt inverter. There is an Anderson plug also to attatch to the car when driving for recharge.
All the lights outside are LED. 
I stupidly installed the bench yesterday and when the wife came home she said the bench is way to high... About 4" too high. I should say that my wife is 4'10" and I used to be in the furniture industry. I should have known the height!!!! I unfortunately glued with very strong glue.
Anyway, here are a couple of pics:


The pics will have to wait as this upix.me is a right pain to opperate. 3 times I have uploaded files and every time they weren't there.


Well I tried PhotoBucket. Lets see how they go:

[atefooterz]

Heya Steve, progress sounds great, i am glad i am short as it does make compact caravan life much easier. There a many free pic hosts, a sometimes better sometimes worse one is www.imagebam.com again upload & chose family safe etc and grab BB code. Quite often it is the net connection processing a large file size that is the issue, using a free version, as full size 4MB pics when uploading a few is equal to a short vid in bandwidth. I use a batch converter to reduce file size, not image size. So a 4MB pic from my camera becomes about 280KB and takes seconds to upload, plus to the average viewer looks the same, after all these pics ar show & tell not to make glossy hard copy prints from.
Faststone & IRfan view are good. If anyone needs instructions or help PM me no worries or if enough folks need advice maybe a tech thread about it ?

[Mustang]

Photo bucket works fine for me?
link

[bogwot]

Here are a couple more:


This is the rear of the van with no lights yet:



A good side view of the tinted windows. They look great but I stuffed them up big time. I figured there was too much dust flying around and I didn't use enough soap when applying the film. Next time I will give them to the proffessionals:




This is the inside pre paintig. There was a stain on all the walls that had to be removed as the paint would not have adhered:




An inside shot of the rear:

[bogwot]

A few more of the latest:

The corner windows inplace. The person who made these did a great job. Not a perfect curve but nearly:



The rear with spare wheel bar and lights:




The front with both windows:




Inside looking at the rear:




Looking at the front:




This is where the seating was. We are now putting a bench in its place so we can put a couple of dining chairs. Good place for computer stuff and eating:




This is one of the reasons we put a bench up. No bench space near the stove:







We are painting the wall with this red. Sort of a feature wall:




The front with the new lights. All the lights are now 12v only:




With all the aluminium stripping and side lights:

[viscount6116]

Gday Steve

Reno is coming along nicely

Cheers Andy

[matt]

Looking good!

As for the rat poo smell have you tried locking the van up in the sun for a few days with a big bowl of whole coffee beans inside? You have to make sure that the cause of the smell (poo/dead rats) is gone, but it used to work well for me in trade ins when I was a (wait for the boo's!) used car salesman. It would even get rid of damp dog smell!

Cheers - Matt

[bogwot]

WEll we are finally finished and ready to head off up north. All went fairly smoothly other than a few hiccups. Anyway here are a few pics of the finished van:

[Deleted]

Steve

Your van looks fabulous   Did you get a tare weight before you loaded it ?? plus do you know what your ATM/GTM is ??

It is amazing to go back over your pictures and look at before and after shots, great job.

Any chance of you coming along to the Meet & Greet on the Sunshine Coast, would love to see your van in the flesh.

Cheers

[atefooterz]

Top job Steve. A sparkling new life for a grand van!

[Mustang]

A one page reno, you have left a few of us in your wake!!

[awbeattie381]

haha well said mustang!!

What paint did you use for the outside of your van? Amazing job in such a small amount of time. I am struggling to stay afloat here in that wake of yours!

[bogwot]

Jun 15, 2015 13:49:53 GMT 10 awbeattie381 said:

haha well said mustang!!

What paint did you use for the outside of your van? Amazing job in such a small amount of time. I am struggling to stay afloat here in that wake of yours!

Well every waking hour that we weren't working or sleeping was spent on the van. (We knew we had to have it finished because if we didn't we would have to take the little Millard poptop. Great van but we wanted to use the Viscount. We will be selling the Millard after we came back from touring). But it was worth it. We are now travelling in it and all is great. It travelles like a dream. We have the length but it only weighs around 1.4t empty. I haven't weighed it loaded yet but it should't be much more.
Anyway, the paint we used I bought from SuperCheap, their Acrylic paint. Trouble is they only have 3 colours: Red, Black and white. So for the grey I used the Etch Primer with clear over it. You need the clear as the primer is very porous. And the roof I sprayed with WeatherShield.