My 1967 Carawagon (no name yet!)

[RMS]

Hi guys,

Here's my project Carawagon, bought recently (being towed by my S3 LWB, Rex)

A previous owner rescued it from Wales, and started to restore it by putting it on a better chassis (the old one was broken in the middle!) and bulkhead - neither were new, but were better than the originals.
It then stood for a couple of years when the previous owner ran out of time (& money!), so we bought it.

The chassis now needs a bit of welding, just a couple of plates (or possibly new rear crossmember), and all of the brake cylinders and shoes need replacing.

Currently there aren't any seat frames, and there's only one original front seat (white vinyl), so we've to sort those.

It's still got the original 2.25D engine, but that's shortly coming out and a 200TDi is going in, along with 3.54 diffs.

It was made without the traditional Carawagon roof, probably to save money, but I happened to find a roof on ebay, so it will end up as a 'proper' Carawagon

Here's the roof, on the car we used to collect it.

[RMS]

Had a good day today - managed to get all the bolts out holding the roof on, (anyone who has had to do that on a Carawagon will know about the aluminium trim riveted on after the roof is bolted on ) and swapped the non-lifting roof for the 'proper' roof I bought on ebay

It's now a proper Carawagon





Still a load more to do before it's ready for the road - a bit of chassis welding, new brake cylinders and shoes all round are amongst the biggest jobs before MOT time.
Then there are all the other jobs to make it useful! - fit front seats , engine swap to 200TDi, diffs to 3.54, etc.

The first deadline is the Skipton autojumble weekend camp in 3 weeks time - is that possible?

Cheers,
Robin.

[overlander]

That's given you some motivation Robin - I'll come over from time to time next week if it will help. Need to complete my Mini camper in time for Littondale/Skipton too.

cheers

John H

[Jabbawocky]

Use the force young Robin, you can do it.

[RMS]

Hi guys,

Another good day today

While Patrick was getting his Carawagon ready for his month long trip to Cornwall, I was busy repairing the rear crossmember on my Carawagon.

Here's a picture of what it was like before:


Luckily, all the rot was confined to the very bottom section, and mainly on the front of the section, so I decided to cut out the rot and replace it with a bespoke section.

Cutting out:


My 'bending machine'

Not easy as the steel stock I was using was 2.5mm thick!

Welded on and painted with zinc rich primer:




I haven't replicated the lip on the front-bottom section, as that's the bit which traps muck and rots through!
When I refit the Dixon Bates slider, I'll put a couple of bars forward to the chassis from the bottom of the slider (as per Defender/Disco), so the bottom of the crossmember won't need the extra lip for strength.

Roll on next weekend - plating behind the front spring hanger! Hopefully that's all the chassis work done then, apart from a good brush down and a spray with Waxoyl and engine oil, inside and out, then brakes to replace (all cylinders, shoes & springs!) and it's ready for MOT

Cheers,
Robin.

[AlexB]

great to see such progress. You don't hang about do you?

[Peaceand]

He's got to get his Carawagon ready for pre Skipton camping in mid March, and I'm taking my Carawagon down to Cornwall for a month Things are progressing quickly, it gained a pop up roof that weekend too.

Patrick

[Calum]

Looking good Robin, though I must ask that surely it is a 1967 model with it being on an E reg? Looks a good basis for a project though! I assume you'll be swapping the front end back to the proper setup in time?

[RMS]

Doh.... of course it is

I got confused as I bought two within a couple of weeks, and forgot which was what year

I'll amend the subject title (the power of an admin ), though it was advertised as a 1966 - perhaps a late '66 which wasn't registered until '67

I'll check when the V5 arrives!

Cheers,
Robin.

[RMS]

Well, today I had a couple of hours spare, so decided to start replacing the brakes on my Carawagon.

When I got it, the brakes were sticking on, and when I checked, I found the reservoir dry and the cylinders I checked were jammed solid with corrosion

So I decided it needed all new cylinders, springs and shoes.

As the easiest way to tackle this is to remove the backplates, I decided to swap the front diff for a 3.54 I had waiting, ready for the 200TDi to go in.
As the front backplates were coming off, that meant the front stub axles were loose, and it was easy to pull the halfshafts to swap the diff.

If I hadn't done it today, that would have been a big job to do later.

Anyway, as expected, I ran out of time, it got dark and I got tired, but I've managed to swap the diff and complete the brakes on one side and get one side back together and the wheel back on

Roll on tomorrow - hopefully I'll finish the front and start on the rears

Wish I remembered to take pictures

Cheers,
Robin.

PS. I'd forgotten just how heavy a diff is when you're trying to do it on your own - I'll feel that tomorrow