Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[jennybugs]

Hi everyone...new to this forum so thought I'd say hello and fill you in on our little Ebay bargain of a caravan that we 'won' last year

New to the world of caravans but already classic car lovers having both owned old beetles (of which I still have one), we thought a small caravan would be ideal to tow behind our VW camper (sadly not so much of a classic as an '82 plate).

Won on Evilbay for the princely sum of £53 we came home with a 1970-72 Bailey Maru EK.

So, here was the sole photo on the advert...

I emailed the seller for interior pics and these were returned






Anyway, we picked her up one cold March night and got her home in one piece without anything falling off - outside.










I had a quick 'shuftie' inside and was delighted to see it was only really a case of TLC, elbow grease, a lick of paint here and there and a quick dash with the sewing machine




In the morning we found out the 12V electrics all worked and I took down the chintz and removed the seat cushions ready for recovering. Various bits and bobs were purchased from Ikea and I was all set and ready to transform the old girl to something like her former glory.

Lots of the original features were still intact...even an old gas light fitting remains - I have since found an almost complete one that will be fitted soon

There's a connector for a gas fire as well.
So interior pics...plus the door that fell off on the way home



Retro chic?

Genuine formica

A bit miffed to see some idiot has silcone sealed the glass barn door shut on the window, but I found the original roller blind on the top of the cupboard and we've managed to free the barn door window up

Elbow grease required

and the Flavel Radford II hob and grill will be renovated with Astonish

the bed's long enough for old lanky legs

and I'm glad we now know what to do in case of fire


TBC

[jennybugs]

Friends of ours and their family helped us out by lettingus put the caravan on their driveway for a few weeks while we battled through snow and sun to get it sorted out.

Good progress was made...I had serious boiler face from spending most of the time working on a freezing cold caravan with no heating etc and the windows opened while it snowed outside
A woman's work is never done...

I pulled off the chintz fromthe cushions in a vain hope that the original covers might be ok.

They weren't



Shame. The original marterial was nice


The old mat came up to reveal a sodden bit of carpet unfaded

New carpet was on the way.

I thought the old handles were past it on all the drawers etc

But a bit of Astonish and voila, they were salvageable

The first attack on the hob


I was in two minds whether to persevere with cleaning this piano hinge though

We managed to unseal the 'barn' door of silcone so it opens

The sink came up like new


The original sticker is hanging on in there

but it's a shame I can't read the suppliers one

and there was another on the side that is totally illegible now.

A few war wounds on the outside

but none had punctured her


Crumples are 'in' this year, so I hear

The gas was checked out and hooked up, and a new water pump was purchased and the jockey wheel sorted too. A bit of paint and we were off!
Orange sticky back plastic to match my beetle and the camper stripes and we're running away

TBC

[jennybugs]

hub caps came up clean

definately a Maru

looks a mess, but it's all coming together nicely

cast no aspersions on my culinary skills...just had to have this

a hint of the curtains to come

windows with old trim removed (see our friends kids remains of the snowdog in the background)

new trim on

Darren making sure it stayed put

My painting was now complete

whistling kettle (you'll notice the theme of orange )

co-ordinating gloves (for Darren)

cupboard doors above the seating area now stripped of old wood effect shrunken laminate and now looking a bit better

the door panel where the fire warning was is also looking better

and of course some dog bum hooks to match Lily's (our camper)


TBC

[jennybugs]

We got running water

a fully working gas cooker

Smarties

a blind in the 'reading room'

a cupboard door that's nice now

the stripe used to be poop brown

the interior started taking shape

A mid tidy up mockup of our 'outfit' as it would be


Flying rubber duckies in situ in the reading room

£2 Ikea lighting



carpet went in when it finally stopped raining long enough for us to actually cut it out



curtains went up and look great



handles all Brasso'd

cushions in





broke the reading room window latch

but we celebrated the completion of the interior in true brit style

[jennybugs]

Fridge and Pimm's optic in situ

Test drive for D to make sure braking etc works fully (it does)

Ferried over to her hard standing storage just off the M25

She looks so out of place against the other caravans but we really wouldn't swap her for the world!




We've been on many campouts in her now and she's been aptly named the Pimm's Podlet after our favourite camping tipple
She raises smiles and interest everywhere we go and I hope you didn't mind me bombarding you all with the photo diary so suddenly

She has her own Pimm's optic (so has the camper)






Oh and while I'm at it, here's my beloved '72 1300A Beetle - Juicey - who's been on Blue Peter and has his very own Blue Peter Badge

[jennybugs]

Oh, and I am currently trying to find a Poulard awning to go with it

[Rick]

That's come up looking great - thanks for the photo diary so far

Rick
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[Tim G]

Wow that caravan was bargain and you've really bought it back to life!

Are you a regular at the VW shows? i too am a Beetle owner amongst other tatty ol Volkswagens and yanks.

[yorkshireretro]

I really enjoyed this post Thanks for sharing, nice job you've done too Joe

[jennybugs]

[RotaryBri]

To find a gas bottle locker box you can google caravan breakers and find a list of breakers all over the country.
_________________
Keep Torqueing,

RotaryBri

1976 NSU Ro80

[jennybugs]

Well it seems we have finally found the perfect awning for the Podlet.

A big thankyou to Clarina for offering us a really nice awning that would sadly have been a touch too large



It's a little'un and we'll see how well it fits next weekend when we can rope all our friends into helping us put it together
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1972 1300A VW Beetle
1971 Bailey Maru caravan
1971 Fiat 500L