Our Searle Safari

Please post your photos and descriptions of your Carawagon, Dormobile or Camper here.
Stuey
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:39 pm

Our Searle Safari

Post by Stuey » Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:29 pm

After creating another post, I realised that I had not put anything in members motors on this here forum. So here you go, the story of (one of) our motor(s) so far:

Back in 2010 I had a couple of weeks off from one of my trips overseas that happen every now and again, one morning I was doing a search on eBay and stumbled upon this. I can't remember the exact date, however I remember it was a Monday Morning, the motor had just been listed and I was travelling back the following Sunday. The advert finished Monday / Tuesday - can't remember when but that's not important for now. I emailed the guy, explained the situation but he was having nothing of it. Anyway I put it in watching, showed Mel, she said it was nice, told my Dad, had a few drinks, forgot about it, then remembered again on the Thursday. Remembered that there was a telephone number on the advert, gave it a ring, no answer! Left a text, didn't think anything of it. He called me back 4pm Thursday afternoon, I agreed to go down the following morning. Worst case scenario was, go and look at Land Rover, if I liked it put a bid on, get Mel and my Dad to go and pick it up. I got there, we fell in love, he opened the door and the first thing he said was "I should have told you to come down with a big bag of cash and we could have talked money" From that moment on I was 90% sure I was going to drive it home. So that's the start of the story, the rest as they say is history:

I'll kick off with some eBay photo's for now, which sparked the interest:

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The morning after the night [drive home] before:

The Front (Sans Jerrican holders)

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The back end & passenger side

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Drivers side

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Passenger side

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Clock, with bit missing. I originally thought there was a bit missing, however it looks like there is a blanking plate where the temperature gauge normally goes, as you will see that there is no writing by the side of it

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Map table and light

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The Cooker

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The Engine Bay

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More updates to follow!
Not everything has to be big!

www.88inchcarawagons.co.uk
Stuey
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:39 pm

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by Stuey » Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:40 pm

After my time away, I decided that the first thing to get changed and improved was that terrible seat!

Seat removed and skipped:

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Old seat box sourced from stock, and the seat bracketry removed:

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New Exmoor trim elephant hide seats bought and fitted with the renovated brackets from the seat box:

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and get them looking like the originals, I only had the middle seat to go off:

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Not too bad result, I think anyway:

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I tried to get some blinds made up for the doors (they were missing but you could see where they were supposed to be fitted) as I gave up thinking I would never get any. I bought some blind kits off of Ebay, but I still need to make up the blinds!:

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Amongst other things I found, when trying to reposition the Overdrive lever (it was knocking the gear stick, and seemed to be using some 6 pot holes) I found this waiting under the trim:

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I still had to cut about 2" off of the overdrive lever to get it to fit without knocking the gearstick.

This is how she's looking now (not much difference on the outside)

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Lower awning rail has been fitted on the back, using the old holes that were still in there!

Inside rear, cabinet removed (it was a home made effort anyway), it was removed when I fitted a new fuel tank with the intentions of making a better cabinet later on:

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I got Mel to make some covers for the seat, as the dog is the most settled out on the back seat that we have ever seen him in a motor.
Not everything has to be big!

www.88inchcarawagons.co.uk
Stuey
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:39 pm

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by Stuey » Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:43 pm

Another update! There's a lot to catch up!

Some photo's from before I owned her, somebody kindly posted these on the S2C forum:

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Not everything has to be big!

www.88inchcarawagons.co.uk
Stuey
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:39 pm

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by Stuey » Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:50 pm

A nice mod (Well I think so anyway) that I did was create some under bonnet can holders. I got the inspiration from the SAS Land-Rover that was at LATP a couple of years ago and I thought it would be in keeping with the whole Carawagon thing.

The inspiration:

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Having a test fit:

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Welded together:

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And then fitted, along with footwell locker and new (to me) correct radiator:

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Not everything has to be big!

www.88inchcarawagons.co.uk
Stuey
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:39 pm

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by Stuey » Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:04 pm

Last one for now (I Promise!)

I found on eBay, well over a year ago now a scrapyard with a Carawagon in it, I finally got round to emailing the guy to ask if he had some blinds, he did and he would sell them to me. It was only in Runcorn, so one Saturday we had a whizz over and retrieved some blinds and other bits and bobs, anyway the blinds were the main thing and it was worth the trip:

Fitted front door blinds:

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I ended up cutting up a side window blind for the back door:

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I had one bracket still on the back door, so I knew one had been there before and this is how it looked fitted!

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I bought a Dormobile cabinet on eBay and then I realised why I don't like Dormobile stuff, it's far too 'metally' for my liking and I'm not really happy with it. I've ended up putting it in without damaging anything so worse case scenario is that I use it then flog it on after I've made something more in keeping with a Searle:

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At pretty much the same time, I titivated the back end, removed the brackets for the tailgate off of the replacement X-member then painted it black:

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I replaced the AVM FWH with these nice Auto FWH too and fitted these at the same time I swapped the 3.54 diffs for the 4.7 ones (far too overgeared with the 3.54 IMHO) very nice period accessory:

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The only thing I'm missing now is the Jerrican holders off of the front, if anybody knows of where you can get some from it would be much appreciated :cry:
Not everything has to be big!

www.88inchcarawagons.co.uk
overlander
Posts: 294
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:29 am
Info: Carawagon Junkie

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by overlander » Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:13 pm

Mick Outhwaite - Jabbawocky's your man for jerrycan holders, I'm sure he'll be along soon - remember he's a Yorkshireman :wink:

cheers

John H
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RMS
Posts: 2236
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:02 am
Location: Near Wakefield, UK, in God's own Country!

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by RMS » Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:36 pm

Nice write-up Stuey, and nice job, especially with the blinds.

Most of ours have curtains as original, but one of my projects has the blinds, though I haven't dared to unroll them yet :embarassed:

Must get rid of that tin cupboard - Searle's are all about traditional wood :wink:

Just for info Stuey, if you wanted to build 'original' Carawagon furniture, Searle cabinets were traditionally made from blockboard with wood veneer on all surfaces (inside and out) and either veneer or formica on the doors and formica on the top.
All exposed edges have a 1/4" thick trim made from a hardwood to protect the edges.

This is one of the reasons the Carawagon furniture was so expensive - no mass production there :tiphat:

Cheers,
Robin.
1967 109" Carawagon 200TDi
1972 109" SW Carawagon 2.5NA
1958 109" Carawagon 2.25P (project)
1972 109" Carawagon 200 or 300TDi (project)
1974 Dormobile 2.25D (project)
(Robin on S2C forum)
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flyingant
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Canton du Valais, Switzerland

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by flyingant » Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:40 pm

I don't like Dormobile stuff, it's far too 'metally'
Then why don't you travel in a horse-drawn Gypsy caravan? What on earth do you suppose a Land Rover is made of? Martin-Walter's furniture was produced in the 1950s, and was perfectly in tune with LR's light-weight metal bodywork.

Searle's DIY/Bodger's furniture of the 1970s was the complete opposite, being made of cheap chipboard, which was extremely susceptible to damp, 4-5 times thicker than Dormobile furniture, and above all, about 10x heavier!

I don't know where the metal cabinet in your photo came from, but it is definiteley NOT an original piece of MW furniture, Why you would wish to use metal furniture in a Carawagon, suggests that you secretly accept MW's superiority!!
smirf
Posts: 41
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:06 am
Info: carawagon

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by smirf » Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:03 pm

flyingant wrote:
I don't like Dormobile stuff, it's far too 'metally'
Then why don't you travel in a horse-drawn Gypsy caravan? What on earth do you suppose a Land Rover is made of? Martin-Walter's furniture was produced in the 1950s, and was perfectly in tune with LR's light-weight metal bodywork.

Searle's DIY/Bodger's furniture of the 1970s was the complete opposite, being made of cheap chipboard, which was extremely susceptible to damp, 4-5 times thicker than Dormobile furniture, and above all, about 10x heavier!

I don't know where the metal cabinet in your photo came from, but it is definiteley NOT an original piece of MW furniture, Why you would wish to use metal furniture in a Carawagon, suggests that you secretly accept MW's superiority!!
He has an opinion just like you. every one has there likes and dislikes.
User avatar
RMS
Posts: 2236
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:02 am
Location: Near Wakefield, UK, in God's own Country!

Re: Our Searle Safari

Post by RMS » Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:07 pm

Actually, they didn't use chipboard - they used blockboard which is made up of lengths of solid, planed timber, sandwiched between two plies, so there :neener:

I still think they look classier and more 'rich' than tinplate furniture :tiphat:
1967 109" Carawagon 200TDi
1972 109" SW Carawagon 2.5NA
1958 109" Carawagon 2.25P (project)
1972 109" Carawagon 200 or 300TDi (project)
1974 Dormobile 2.25D (project)
(Robin on S2C forum)
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