1974 Coronet van

Prospecting Australia

Help Support Prospecting Australia:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
mudgee hunter said:
There was one other good product I used to seal skin joints. That was a stuff called "tac flash". (Dont get the type bunnings sell) it comes in a roll form. 40mm up to about 150mm I think.
I has aluminum thick foil on one side, bituminous layer on the other, 3mm thick?
The external alloy trim moldings play a part in the sealing. I penciled in cover line and removed mine, clean up the joint. And roll width to suit. When cold and you remove the backing tape it is only slightly tacky. Some slicing needed around bends. Once your happy with it. Grab a hot air gun or good blow dry on hi, and heat it about a meter at a time, just till you see the tar ooze out the side of foil, with a rag wipe along foil with gentle pressure to help with bonding.. excess can clean up with mineral based stuff. Once done. Give it 10mins, and put you trim back on. Presto. Any Over hang just trim with blade and your turp rag. If you have skin joints on the roof that might leak. Use it there as well.

Great tip there mate, BTW I have used the bunnings type on aluminium flat house roofs with great success, is the other option far superior? Never thought of using it on a van.
 
Occasional_panner said:
Why do you want to ditch the gas?
Surely the 7yo has been around gas appliances at home, just make her aware not to touch the stove.

Does it have a 3 way fridge?
If so there are some important things to know regarding baffling the back of the fridge.
Mine was apparently not working well at all when I got it, had a look and fixed the problems now it ices up the freezer in 1 hr, (that's bloody good for a 3 way)

Depends if you want to take the van and off grid camp or go to van parks.
I set mine up for totally off grid, just a personal preference.

The biggest problem in old vans is internal frame rot. I had to completely rebuild the front and rear frames and re line the interior, F big pain in the ass. Side frames are all aluminium in mine.

I used polyurethane on the windows, don't whatever you do use silicone, just don't, there are 3 billion reasons why silicone is crap.

You'll find all the windows if still factory fitted will have to be pulled out and resealed, I know it will appear like a MONSTER job, but it really isn't too hard at all.

Don't forget to install a safety switch as it probably won't have one, I fitted an RVD rather than an RCD as mine has onboard 240v inverter/batteries/solar system.
https://www.rvdsafe.com.au/vehicle-rv/

Mate. Trust me this child has been dragged up rough as. She is a wild child but we are slowly taming her. She may be only 7 but she has been bought up by druggy adults and I say Adults very lightly. Gas and her no way.
When we first got her she set a packet of matches alight on one of our carpets.
There is no way I am having gas in the van.

The fridge is 2 way gas 240 volt. Haven't even tried it yet to be honest. If it does not work I have a small bar fridge and a car fridge to take it's place.

Cheers and thanks for commenting. I take it all on board.

We won't be going of the black road with our van much if at all.

I will be however doing a treck with my mate prospecting very soon but not in the van it will be a while before it goes anywhere.
 
Oh, if you keeping gas fridge, you will need to keep the fluted vents. I was going to put two pieces of sail track down either side, and get a small tarp made up and slide it in when not needed. Pinch the track at the bottom with pliers, so the insert cant slide all the way through. Slip out when needed.

The alloy flashing that goes under roof tiles/damp coarse, is different stuff, if you are referring to the stuff like lead flashing.
The bunnings stuff for this would be fine.
The "tac flashing" is basically black tar on aluminum foil, with a removable backing tape.
Maybe the bigger bunnings stock it, here the had a different breed of it.
I did use some of it over the joints. Ideal on the inside joint at a internal reclad.

The real stuff is handy if you have a bit of rusted gutter, just clean it on the inside, stick it down, bit of heat, presto.
Make sure you get a newish looking roll. If all the edges are thumped over, it can make it hell getting the thin plastic backing papper off.... trust me!
It can work out cheaper to buy the wider roll 150mm? And slice down to width with a good blade.
 
Thanks MH all good info there.
Pulled the gas stove sink and fridge out tonight.
Fridge sort of works, it's running in my shed atm.
I am going to to put a bar fridge that I have back in its place, the measurment are fairly close.
Last picture is the fridge that's going in.

1518430279_2018-02-12_20.27.20.jpg
1518430308_2018-02-12_20.28.16.jpg
1518430352_2018-02-12_20.25.54.jpg
1518430382_2018-02-12_20.25.01.jpg
1518430404_2018-02-12_20.36.28.jpg
 
Hey Wishful, if the fridge sort of works out in the open then it should work fine fitted properly.
They need to have the back fairly well boxed it and baffled properly like you do with an airplane engine, it needs air passing through the fins, not around or just still air sitting in a shed. With the back boxed in properly and the vents in the correct positions it creates a natural updraft with the rising hot air. I added fans to mine and it's amazing how well it works. You can test yours a bit better by sitting a fan at the back pointing at the cooling fins at the top.
Anyway stick it on gumtree if you don't plan to use it, but if you can advertise it as working it will go for more.
BTW they need to be pretty level, not super critical, just not on an obvious slant.

That's mighty sad story about the child, great to see you giving her a better life. :Y: :Y:
 
1518503684_2018-02-13_15.05.16.jpg


New fridge almost in. Put some floating floor tiles on for splash back and side of sink.
Then this happened.

1518503854_2018-02-13_17.01.26.jpg


Almost finished cutting the last piece of timber for caravan fridge surround, using circular saw. 3 stitches I think. Bloody local anesthetic hurt more than the injury.
I was getting tired, should have stopped 1/2 hr before I was using my left hand and went to support the bit being cut with my right hand and felt a burning sensation . I was very lucky.
 
Mate, I really feel for you. I cut the top of my finger off (just sliced the bone), and had it stitched back on. The anesthetic was definitely the worst agony.
I had to be held down and I'm generally good with pain. I reckon the anesthetic pain teaches you more than the event - NEVER AGAIN!!!!!
Wishing you a speedy recovery and learning from mistakes. Love what you're doing with the van :Y:
I reckon that you both and the young-un will have a blast - if you keep your fingers. :eek:
 
Ooouch :N: not nice hope it heals quickly for you. I was plaining a piece of wood once did everything I wanted and managed to rest the plan on my thigh as I went to put it down. Only took off a few layers of skin, that frightened the daylight out of me. Also ground my finger nail almost to the bone cutting a key one day oh man the pain the next few days was off the scale it had to heal itself which fortunately it did.
 
You aren't wrong there. The male sister said " look this is going to hurt just squeeze my hand ". Crickey if I had I would have broken his hand for sure but I didn't. I was arched up like the Sydney Harbour bridge no joke !

Not looking forward to the next 10 days or so,
I bet I will hit the end of my finger a hundred times.
 
Hey Wishful, lucky you didn't cut the bloody thing off. I sliced the tip off Pointer with a new carving knife, good thing it was sharp as it was a nice clean cut but it tells me about my mistake every Winter.
Good luck mate.
Mackka
 
Wishfull said:
madtuna said:
damn! It's amazing how well fingers heal.
Lost the end of mine but the damn thing grew back! Took 12 months but it fits up my nose now as good as the old one.

https://i.imgur.com/bgDksBo.jpg

Geez. What ? 3 d printing ? How the heck did that grow back ?

Amazing how they recover.
They were going to fly me to Perth and lop it off at the first joint but I said no. Nurses treated it every day for a couple of months and a weekly skype session with a surgeon and it slowly healed over.

No finger prints and ruined my dream of being a hand model but it was better than being called stumpy for the rest of my life.
 
I nipped the top of mt right finger- my pointer- in the kitchen whilst making coleslaw with the slicing machine. I couldn't find it so i continued knowing that someone will be having an extra dose of protein and maybe a piece of fingernail. It didn't hurt for about 5 minutes as the bloody thing was so sharp!! :eek:
 
Top