LRCC

Hi All,
Here is Bessie, my 1963 Series 2a Carawagon. It is the first hardtop I have seen on the forums.

From all reports the car was a one owner vehicle, although that is still to be confirmed as I have no paperwork with the vehicle.

It is very straight, with no rust, aside from some surface rust on the firewall. There is some slight damage on the rear cross member due to a slight impact.

The interior is mostly complete, although it is missing the sink, the legs for the table and the canvas and ridge pole for the back tent, as well as the full length roof rack. The original Engel fridge and stove are still there, however both require refurbishment.

All rubber seals are perished, the engine is a Holden/GM 186 6 cylinder unit, however it originally had a 2lt petrol. The Holden engine conversion was very popular here in Oz during the 1960s and 70s.

I am having the engine checked out and brought back to life so that the old girl can be moved whilst the bodywork and interior can be refurbished back to original condition. This will be after I have finished the RHD conversion on my 110.

Nice one

Mine was a hardtop when I got it - I was lucky enough to pick up a Carawagon lifting roof on ebay around the same time as I bought the Carawagon so I can "stand up to put my trousers on"

Interesting that your cupboards and mine were standard height - must be a bit of a squeeze preparing food etc. on the worktop.

It looks like your cupboards are the same (or very similar) to mine - hinged rather than sliding.
If that's the case, the middle cupboard door comes out and slots in horizontally to make a table, no legs required unless some have been added so it can be used outside.

The 'sink' should be a washing up bowl which should slot into the top of the cupboard under the tap, and there would have been 2 or 3 water containers in that cupboard as well with a pipe from the tap just pushed into one of them.


I'll try to get pictures later of the sink and table arrangements so you can see if it's similar to yours.


Here's mine when I collected it on the trailer - as you can see it's a hardtop:



and the roof I collected on top of our car:



and restored a few weeks later




Cheers,
Robin.

Wow Robin,

Yours looks so cool!

I agree that the workbench height is a little high, although probably all of the preparation may have been done on the table.

The table in mine has been poorly repaired in the past with slide bolts put on the table surface when the original ones broke. Will fix that in due course.

Would love to have a full pop top roof, but the expense to bring one down under would be prohibitive. Plus keeping it original would make it more collectable over time.

Cheers!

Wow what a cracker ,don,t put a raised roof on it ,it was meant to be like that in hot countries ,we only have raising roof,s cos it,s wet n cold over here ,meant to be slept in with out creepy craw lies getting you then get dressed out side or you're in awning ,don't try to make it what it what it wasn't meant to be , it,s a cracker ,well done looking forward to seeing it progress cheers trev

Very nice project, is the cooker on the rear door a standard fitment on the Carawagon?
I will be making e new interior in my ”Dormobile”, since I only got hold of the roof, and I will probably fit the cooker on the rear door, so save some internal space.


Regard Jan

Klusenhusen wrote:Very nice project, is the cooker on the rear door a standard fitment on the Carawagon?
I will be making e new interior in my ”Dormobile”, since I only got hold of the roof, and I will probably fit the cooker on the rear door, so save some internal space.


Regard Jan

Cooker position was customised according to what the customer wanted.

My current on-the-road Carawagon has it inside, above the fridge.
One of my project Carawagons has it inside, the other has it on the door, all original fitment.
Patrick's is also fitted on the door on his Carawagon so between us we have two inside and two on the door

One problem with having it on the door is that unless you always put up an awning, any wind can blow them out especially if trying to cook on a low heat.
It is possible to cook inside with a cooker on the door but it is very close to the floor and you cannot open the back door without folding the cooker.

Cheers,
Robin.

Ah!, I had thought about protection from the rain, but of course wind will also be an issue.
I will have to think it through again.

Thanks Robin

This is Patrick's, with a piece of aluminium as a wind shield - there's one on the other side as well, not shown in this picture.



Even with the wind shields in place it still blows out in anything other than a light breeze unless the burner is on high

One big advantage though, is that if you are camping in a group you don't have to disappear into the vehicle to cook like I have to do in mine.
It's a much more 'group friendly' position, in my opinion.

I suppose what would be ideal is a cooker you could put on the back door on a drop down shelf, or on the worktop inside to suit the conditions, though it would probably be easier with a self contained cooker (petrol or portable gas) rather than one with a gas pipe.

Cheers,
Robin.