RoadCruiser Caravans. (fibreglass.)

[Richard]

RoadCruiser Caravans.
Guilford. New South Wales.

There hasnt been alot known about these vans untill today.
I contacted the seller today to enquire about the origins of this van.
Any way I was given the contact number of the original owners and this is what I found out from them.

A friend of her husband was building these caravans in Guilford in the early 1950's. After making 4 of the vans he stopped making them ( for an unknown reason). Then in 1963 this van was built using the original moulds by her husband, which makes this van build number 5. After this van was moulded the moulds were supposedly destroyed or taken to the tip.

This RoadCruiser has been well used and has travelled around Australia twice with many other trips over the years and only slowing down in use after 2006 when the original owner became ill.

[Richard]

Had a very exciting phone conversation today with Jack, the 92 year old gentleman that designed and built these vans.


Not sure if thats enough smilies to show how happy Iam.

I hope to visit Jack and his wife, so stay tuned for more photos and info.

[Richard]

While Iam still working on the history of these vans I have had an email from Brett who turns out to own one of these RoadCruiser Caravans, after reading my restoration article in the latest Vintage Caravan Magazine.

Email 1 from Brett.

A couple of years ago my farther and I acquired a little van through one my fathers customers on the gold coast. After trying to buy it for about eight years he was contacted and told we had 2 or 3 days to get it as the business had been sold.

We were told the van was the prototype and no more were produced so you can imagine my surprise when having a quick flick through the latest edition of VCM and saw what I first thought was my van until the condition and stripe colour was noticed.

My van was last registered 1980, body no. 604 on label. From receipts found in the van its last trip was to north QLD, and then left in the factory yard some time after this at Southport where it fell into a very poor condition with the hatch collapsing in, the door coming off and left laying on its back for may years to go out of shape and the timber backing in the fibreglass windows rotting which rotted the floor furniture and chassis (you could push your finger through it any where) .

My farther, myself with the help of my brother, sister and a few other people have been slowly restoring it over the last 18 months saving only the body, wardrobe, overhead kitchen cupboard and the hand beaten aluminium inner guards. The rest has been or will be replaced. I have kept the original kitchen and chassis for the time being for patterns.

This van has been full of surprises and my Farther, himself a retired vehicle builder has been very impressed with the skill of the original builder .
When buying parts or trying to get information I have struggled as commercial businesses are only interested in what they stock now and think I'm wasting my time . The intention is to keep it looking period but use it as a family van again with an aim to have it ready for Cotton tree this xmas.
I'm happy to share photos and any info I have and hope you can fill in any gaps in the history as I would like to tell the story as accurately as possible.

Regards Brett


Email 1 from Brett.

The fellow we got the van from on the gold coast was Chris who told my farther it was the only one (oral family history is quite often proved wrong). Our van had a very light chassis made of c section and when I work out how to separate the photos from family photos I'll send some progress photos so you can do more comparisons to the construction of your van .

I intend using this van for our family holidays as much as possible I have always wanted to learn and record as much as possible of its history .

The van contained a few items during first clean out, old tooth brushes, combs etc but I did find a bottle of Jacks prescription medicine and a list of family phone numbers as well as the receipt for a nights stay in I think Meriba Caravan Park in 1980. The rego label was 24th December 1980, rego number CE-9171, make listed as trlr, and body 604, tare 610.

The inner guards are each made of aluminium, hand beaten and oxy welded. They were covered in so many layers of paint we thought they were fibre glass. It wasn't until removing them the paint cracked we realized they were not. I have stripped them back to bare metal and they appeared to have been made from a sign or some thing left over from another job as they had blue green and yellow paint on them in a pattern but not relating to the guaurds, again I took photos and it is my intention to keep them in a raw state on the inside.

We have replaced the ply floor with a composite glass panel my brother is now making. At present the van is back together and the inside has been repainted and I have started remaking the furniture using the old furniture for patterns with some changes to the kitchen cupboards. The wardrobe and overhead cupboard look very similar to yours all though they are made of timber and blended into the inner skin. We think they would have moulded them in glass if production continued.

Regards Brett


The following 5 photos are of Bretts RoadCruiser taken in 2012 when he picked the van up.

[Richard]

Continuing on with my investigations into the RoadCruiser caravan history I contacted Derk from Victoria who has kindly emailed me photos of his RoadCruiser to add to the information that I already have, Derks van was the only extended version built.

[Richard]

I recieved an email from Brian today with photos attached of his RoadCruiser caravan that he restored from 2005 to 2008.
So to date this is RoadCruiser number 4 that I have found, with number 5 out there somewhere.

From Brian.

The first photo was the day that I went to see the van, it was just a bare shell, half the floor was missing
and the seat just inside the door was just about rotten out. Other photos are as I progressed.
I purchased the van on 20th February 2005.
First rego on 25th Nov. 2008.

Regards Brian

[humpyboy]

Finding number 5 would be the icing on the cake Richard, it would be nice to know that they have all survived but then 4 would be better than none hey? it's interesting to note the subtle differences between the ones found thus far, door hinges on the last one, the fact that Brett's and the last one have side windows that don't open at the front where as yours and mine do, the last van I think may also have opening windows front and rear (on the ends) and I notice the latest one even has a rear bumper fitted.

[Richard]

Hi Humpyboy.
All of the vans do have slight differences, an extra cupboard here different hinges there. Brians, the last van shown does have opening front and back windows and is the only one with them, his van also has an access door at the rear of the van to get to the under bed storage area.
You even mentioned all of the side windows on your van open, where as on our RoadCruiser only the right hand side windows open and the rest are fixed.
Cheers.

[Richard]

Brian has emailed me more photos of the restoration of his RoadCruiser, which is the van in the last set of photos.

[Richard]

A few photos of the RoadCruiser we restored after it had the outside resprayed in 2 pack and the inside scrubbed, cleaned and polished to within an inch of its life.

[Richard]

I had a phone call from a gentleman a week or so ago and he mentioned that he would be in the area in a couple of weeks and wanted to know if he could come and see me.
Well it turned out to be Brian and Loraine who own a RoadCruiser which is the 4th van discovered in this post.
It was great to catch up and was very pleased to see his lovely car and van in the flesh.