Joels Pop Top Repairs
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2019 4:46 am
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
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