Joels Pop Top Repairs

[reddo]

Before i start.. this topic is Un Vintage Van related .. Thats why its posted here in "Bits n Pieces"..

OOOOOOOOOh the shame of it all ..
Ya think ya have brought your kids up right ..
Take em away to vintage bike rallies, let em ride one of ya old bikes...... let em drive ya old cars..
Get em involved in old caravans.. teach em how to repair and maintain the old stuff.. work on vintage vans etc..
All in the hope that one day they will be happy to take on all this old stuff and love it as much as we old farts do... right ?

Wrong, wrong, wrong.. My son Joel went out and bought a mid 80s Winser pop top van......his arguement was that its older than him .. so it must be vintage ...I have failed completely...

After a year of dragging it all over Australia with his VW Amarok... ( yep .. another failing after years of carting him around in old holdens ) .. he noticed that the rear of the van was getting a bit .. in his words.. unstable.. hmmm.. me thinks wood rot.

So... from there it was ...." Hey dad,,, can i use your carport to do the repairs out of the weather??..." yeah, yeah ... righto..Ok son...This meant kicking the Vintage bondwood Supalite out in the rain !!

After a few days he had managed to unpick the claddng remove the side moulds etc and was confonted with a whole stack of rot in the spindly frame at the rear....

from there he started dragging home lengths of 19mm x 19mm meranti .. not really sure how to attack the problem..???

ENTER DAD....


With the best interests in getting the Supalite back in its rightful spot ASAP.. and .. being a self funded un-retiree for another 12 months with little to do during the day..... i have got involved in the reconstruction
Spent a few days fiddling with all the "ribs" and have basically got the shape and strength back in the van....

All but ready to fit the inside woodgrain veneer lining then throw a few wires around and fit the outside cladding...the original lower outside sheet is riddled with holes due to years of rear light mods.. racks.. towel rails being relocated etc..... Joel priced a replacement sheet in the same colour and profile. near enough to $300.. so we are going to use flat sheet 1.2 mm thick aluminium .. at $38 sheet...

Now he informs me that he wants to modify the bed base and fit a wider bed in there..
Its only the start of Autumn and things are "snowballing " behind the shed of invention.. i better get a tarp over the old Supalite.. it looks like being a loooooonnnnggg winter ..

Reddo

[Strugglebrook]

As the boy says , it is vintage to him.
Good job Mate

PSK

[Richard]

Another great job Reddo. It actually amazes me sometimes what holds these vans together, a few sticks of meranti and some aluminium sheets.

[reddo]

Inside sheeted ...

Shot out to a mates place the other day and used his folder to set the 2 bends in the 1.2mm sheet of flat alumium.
A replacement panel in the same profile as original wqs near on $300. and a 3 months wait.
Spent an hour yesterday fitting it up... have do a bit of trimming on the top edge to get it to sit up into the groove in the original sheet above it.
Once thats done we ... or should i say .. i will get the edge moulds and sail track back on .. and ring |Joel to come and get the van..

The return of the Teardrop means there is carport space require for dry dock repairs on it after it has sat in the weather for near on 2 years in Melbourne... another story for another day

[Strugglebrook]

Looking good Mate.

PSK.

[reddo]

A replacement sheet in the same quilted aluminium patter is around $350 dollars .. or so Joel was told when he enquired at a van repair business..
So.. the decision was made to use 1.2mm ( should have got 0.8mm its lighter) flat aluminium sheet .

Took the sheet over to the mates shed a few suburbs away and got him to fold the sheet on his 3 metre wide folder.
Came home and trial fitted it... and to my surprise it actual fitted up neat...
So.. next came the messy bit.. White butyl mastric is messy crap if ya dont watch what your doing with it.
Used just enough nails and screws to hold the sheet in place and let the mastic cure off for a day or 2.

While that was happening i spent a day cleaning off all the mastic, silastic and all sorts of sealers that previuos owners had used on the right angle edge moulds trying to cure water leaks..... shed floor ended up covered in white rubberised dust balls.

Out with the mastic gun again and packed all the "Hollows" in the original back sheets and set about refitting the moulds...
End result came up pretty good....

So .. after messing withy all sorts of vans over the years .. what is the best to work on ??

My vote still stays with timber.... advantages. .. easy to work with.. no where near as messy to fit wall sheet as aluminium..
Easier to work with than fibreglass.. which can be messy work and a lot of cleaning up with chemicals during and after working with the resins etc.

I suppose all materials have some advantage over each other when look at it...

But.. i will stick with wood....

Hope to drag it out into the yard today and give the whole van a good wash with warm water and kerosene . Will leave it sit out in the open for a week and hope it rains. Can check for leaks before Joel comes and collects it...

[Strugglebrook]

I got an Aly, I got a plasticky, Igot a Woody goes without saying.

[reddo]

Something like that JD..
But.. I HAD an Aly, I HAD a Plasticky. I HAVE a woody .. or 2.