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Post by Brian M on Jan 29, 2009 13:57:41 GMT
From: fiona_dyes (Original Message) Sent: 17/06/2007 15:11
I have nearly finished recovering the seats and making new curtains in our 1968 13/4 and now the walls are looking a little tired, but I'm not sure whether it would better to replace the wallpaper or to slap a coat of paint over what is already there. and hope for the best.
Round the door area is very faded, although the wallpaper is in good condition. By the rear bunk there are several tears in the wallpaper and again it looks a bit faded. The paper in the rest of the caravan isn't too bad, just faded and a bit grubby.
Any suggestions?
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From: pictishpunkgirl Sent: 28/06/2007 14:58
Can I second that request for advice? We have just got a Safari and the vinyl wallpaper stuff covering the interior is very grubby so would like to know what is the best paint to use so that it doesn't peel off in the damp etc?
many thanks
Morag
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From: fiona_dyes Sent: 16/07/2007 10:56
I have decided to take the bull the horns and have made a start on painting the interior with kitchen & bathroom paint, having washed down the wallpaper. It looks like it's going to take a 2-3 coats to cover the pattern on the wallpaper.
So we'll see how we go with that. I had to use contact glue to stick back the crickley bits and the tears and already it starts to look better.
Mike has nearly finished the outside painting.
I have posted some more pictures in the picture gallery so you can all have a look at what we've been up to.
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From: fiona_dyes Sent: 19/08/2007 14:51
Spent this morning helping to fit a new carpet in our caravan, as the old one had seen better days and didn't go with the new colour scheme. Looks good!
Still a few little jobs to be done. I can't believe we've had it a year now!!!!
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From: 2Diesels Sent: 08/09/2007 15:17
Hi Fiona
You've probably finished your interior restoration by now but I refurbished my washroom a couple of months ago & replaced the tatty looking original marble pattern paper with a much lighter off white with & small green pattern & what a difference, I'll try & get some pictures on here, I also fitted a new towel rail etc. from homebase & it looks smart as a dart.
Regards Col
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Post by Brian M on Jan 30, 2009 23:00:11 GMT
From: Fleur (Original Message) Sent: 05/08/2004 13:14
We intend to re-curtain our 12/2. Has anyone used any of the specialist curtain makers for vans, or suggestions who we could use?. We want lined curtains but don't want to spend a fortune.
Caroline, Steve and Fleur the dog.
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From: Scaniadriver72 Sent: 05/08/2004 14:49
Hi Caroline
I made the new curtains for Primrose my self, If you have a sewing machine or a friend who sew I could explain it to you. Making curtains is very easy and very over priced for that they are. Have a look at the photos of primrose with the new curtains.
Regards
Mairi....(Scandia...)
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Recommend Message 3 of 5 in Discussion
From: Met_Deb Sent: 05/08/2004 16:56
Hi Caroline,Steve & Fleur!! Can only echo what Mairi has said , Deb has made curtains for our home and Seat covers for our van.Material can be purchase for very little but another option may be to try caravan breakers as you may find a set someone has re-newed in thier van or some from an accident damaged one.If they measure up the same then you can use the curtain track also if it differs from your own.Then there is Good Old Ebay.......where you can entertain yourself getting bid sniped with 5 seconds to go ,or winning the bid only to be sent a broken garden gnome instead of the curtains you wanted etc (sorry do I sound bitter?,realy a nice chap ask Gloria!!) so there are things to try and hope I have been of some help (apart from the ebay thing) & maybe catch you in chat sunday evening....Paul & Deb
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From: Brian Sent: 05/08/2004 18:35
Caroline
I would steer clear of the caravan specialists. I looked into recovering the cushions on my last caravan and the "specialist" quoted over £200. A dress maker my wife uses reckoned I could buy the material for £15-20 and she would sew them up with a new zip for £20-30. In the end I got a secondhand set from a car breakers that gets the occasional caravan, for £8.
I would think the same thing applies to curtains - they are no different in construction from house curtains, but, as has been said, you need to check the curtain rails and get the top tape the right size and position.
If you find a good source they could even become the official curtain suppliers to the group!!
Cheers
Brian Miller
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From: Fleur Sent: 05/08/2004 19:47
Your advice is much appreciated. Thank you all. However, I have many good qualities; but the depths of my incompetence re sewing, however simple, knows no bounds. I will pursue the idea of finding someone cheap and cheereful to do this and report back. Thanks, Caroline
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Post by Brian M on Feb 1, 2009 10:45:47 GMT
From: OliverShaw1 (Original Message) Sent: 21/11/2006 16:56
What looks to be a quite superb 12-2 there, although 1981 surely (from the serial number).
More than a little personalised, too, and all done with the correct timber and mouldings for the period.
You are surely right in suggesting that the fridge has been moved; not only moved, but it is a modern replacement, and I think you will find that it is larger than the original - so there would have been little option but to move it. A very nicely finished job has then been done in creating a new kitchen cupboard where the original fridge was located.
Although I am not familiar with the late 12-2s I suspect that that roof locker in the washroom is also an addition, and again it seems nicely done.
I think that the backrests for the seating area are also more generous than on the standard 12-2; the penalty for that being the need to remove them when you make the bed/s down. However to the best of my knowledge using the table for the infill base to the double bed was always the standard way of doing it; I think I have only ever met one Safari that did it differently, and I am sure that that was an owner's modification.
One detail that does surprise me though is the plain white panel below the infill cushion at the front. Some Safaris had that panel finished in the same way as all the other wood panels, with matching grain and mouldings, and sometimes removeable for access to the storage space behind it. Others had it fixed, and all three vertical faces there (this panel and two side panels either side of the footwell) were covered in carpet to match the floor covering; the 1980 17-2 (the year immediately before your 12-2) adopted the latter arrangement.
How effective do you find your solar panel? My late parents had one fitted in the early eighties to their 1892 14-2, but I can't now be certain whether it did or did not give enough output to enable them to be independent of electric hookups for an extended period. I had at one time wondered about installing one on my 17-2, but it is a serious expense, and if it was not going to give one medium-term independence from hookups the expenditure would be largely wasted. For short breaks of up to a week or so a second battery (and change half way through) is more than sufficient, and a great deal cheaper.
Nowadays however there is much less point in being independent of hookups, at least in the UK, since most sites normally provide a hookup anyway as standard and you effectively have no option but to pay for it whether you need it or not, and they are now coming in on a lot of CLs on the same basis. This dates from the apparently nonsensical ruling of the electricity regulator a few years back that seemed to effectively prevent site operators charging a fee for a hookup, but it has had the reverse effect of its intention, as several of us predicted at the time. Most sites no longer now offer the choice; hookups are now standard, and site fees have sharply increased in order to cover this so-called "free" facility, and those who are independent of the need for it still often have to pay a fee that includes the facility anyway.
On many sites one has a similar problem with expensive luxury ablution blocks. It amazes me that so many people are prepared to traipse across a site to share communal facilities when they have equally good facilities immediately to hand and in the privacy of their own caravans, and the rest of us pay for them whether we use them or not, but there you are! Thankfully there are still a few Caravan Club "low facility" sites, and at least one of these is amongst the Crown Jewels in the portfolio - Grummore, at Altnaharra, the most northerly site in the network.
Regards,
Oliver
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From: Sylvesteruk1 Sent: 21/11/2006 21:23
Looking at the interior it has the front layout of a 13/4 with the shorter side cushions and no front chest of draws or fixed table top. The relocated fridge area is nearly the length of the 13/4 mid ships cooker, sink unit and fridge. Notice there are two vents on the side where as a 13/4 with the fridge in the same position has only one vent.
The wardrobe has a filler piece of some 9" not quite the double wardrobe of a 13/4.
If there is no evidence of the fridge vent at the rear of the van then could it be that this van may have been a prototype model of a new layout for the next years production?
Both my 13/4 and 12/2 have a plywood foldaway decks for making up a double bed and I have seen it on other SAFARI vans. Having wondered why the formica table was not used for the bed we tried it only to find it was covered in condensation in the morning. This did not happen with the plywood base as supplied new with the van.
Both my wife and I as many others are more then happy to traipse to the heated toilet block and have a power shower. It is suprising how many twin axle all the bells and whistles do the same. One of the reasons I packed up camping and caravaning years ago was being on a so called site with cow pats all over the field and a bucket of leaves for wc in the toilet block.
So for me its a caravan club site with electrical hook ups, heated toilet block and laundry etc and at £13 a night for two people works out a lot cheaper then B & B or a hotel. As both my caravans capital outlay had payed for themselves in 12 months each then I am a happy chappy. Of course if you have forked out £15,000 for a new van then it would take some days away to pay for itself which would not even keep up with depreciation.
Regards
Mike
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From: Sylvesteruk1 Sent: 21/11/2006 21:47
Further observations, I notice it has a full opening front window and I am not 100% sure but the panel width were the front marker lights are seems wider it looks that way from the inside shot. Notice to that the alloy mouldings down the side of the van and particularly at the door are a good way below the top opening section of the door. I suspect the door top is shorter, it has the later lock, also the door retainer is above the lock and its register is higher on the side panel (ever noticed when you leave the keys in the lock of the earlier vans then you cannot fasten the door back!)
The white panel at the front between the cushions is the same on my 13/4 and is covered in the matching vynal wallpaper but we do not have the infill cushion.
Everything to me points to a very nice prototype 12/2 I just cannot see someone going to all that trouble.
Please report back or send a picture of the rear, has it got the old fridge vent?
Regards
Mike
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From: Safariconvert Sent: 21/11/2006 22:45
Oliver,
Just on one point. Our 1980 12-2 has what looks like a standard dining table but it is too narrow for the double bed infill. That is done with a folding base that lives under one of the front seats - it is 3 pieces of wood that are joined in 2 places so it can unfold as the bed infill. Also interesting to hear about your parents 1892 14-2 - truly classic!
Regards,
Cliff
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From: Sylvesteruk1 Sent: 22/11/2006 11:23
Cliff,
Your folding bed plywood infill is exactly what I have on the 12/2 and 13/4 as have another 13/4 and both the14/2 and 13/4 I scrapped.
On my 13/4 the previous owner had fitted additional runners to accomodate the narrower table width so that the table could be used as an infill.
Perhaps it was intentional that the table would not fit as an infill hence the plywood fold away bed infill.
Mike
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From: OliverShaw1 Sent: 22/11/2006 13:44
With so much evidence I stand corrected on the matter of the bed infill. I confess that although I had always assumed that the table was the intended infill, as on all our caravans before we moved to Safaris, being single I had never had occasion to put it to the test myself. And by the time my late parents bought their 12-2 in 1974, which was the first Safari that we had in the family, they were very near retirement, and because of my mother's spinal problems they had already started using twin beds rather than a double. So I had made assumptions, I now accept incorrectly, without checking.
Opening front window; that came in in 1981, so it was standard at the time of this caravan. And I think you are right about the side panels where the sidelamps are situated; I think I had noticed previously on our ones that the 1981/2 ones were slightly wider than on the earlier models.
The suggestion that this one might have been a prototype for the following year is interesting. But when my parents bought their first 14-2, in 1984, I was told that it was a 1982 one, although I never had occasion to check against the serial number, and at a quick check through Father's remaining caravanning records I find nothing that old, so I can't check it now. To the best of my recollection, without going through all their old photograph albums for definitive proof, that one had the fridge that we all know and the interior layout that we all know, i.e. the same as the 1981 14-2 that they bought many years later, when in despair at the succession of problems in their brand-new Abbey they cut their losses and went back to Safaris.
It could be a prototype which was evaluated but never in fact put into production, or a one-off special layout. In both cases this assumes that either the present fridge was available in 1981 (which is something where I would not like to be certain but I which I do question) or the other changes were made at the time of building - including possibly moving the fridge to its present position - but that the present fridge is a later replacement.
Alternatively it looks like a retrospective conversion but done at a time when original Safari panels and mouldings were still readily available, which probably means still during the eighties, and as Mike points out that would have taken a great deal of work and is perhaps less likely than it having been built like this.
Whatever the history it has been beautifully done, and appears to be unique.
Oliver
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From: Marswilliams1 Sent: 23/11/2006 21:26
Hi folks thanks for your interest.. I would like to say I had made the changes but I just had t buy Carole when I first set eyes on her. I have had 8 years plus of camping, own kit lugged everywhere, with a very tolerant good lady and two lively boys...
I can confirm there is a blanking panel on the rear (Carole is now under cover for the winter) so she is probably a heavily modified but VERY comfortable modification....
We really do not know how effective the solar panel is.. yep we are normally on electric, but it makes you feel good to know its there...
Also the back rests are on a hinge so they just flap back when the bed goes down..
Looking forward to next season and hopefully turning up at one of your event.. have to get the polish out..
I am very nurvous of damaging and/or keeping her in good shape. .she gets a fair bit of use and natural ware and tear can have an impact... so do field mice that got in once.. teach me to leave the lantern lights open ...
One thing not sure if you noticed the flag carrying shield on the front of the roof.. Have been trying to find flags to fit... Any ideas?
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From: Marswilliams1 Sent: 23/11/2006 21:27
Hi folks thanks for your interest.. I would like to say I had made the changes but I just had t buy Carole when I first set eyes on her. I have had 8 years plus of camping, own kit lugged everywhere, with a very tolerant good lady and two lively boys...
I can confirm there is a blanking panel on the rear (Carole is now under cover for the winter) so she is probably a heavily modified but VERY comfortable modification....
We really do not know how effective the solar panel is.. yep we are normally on electric, but it makes you feel good to know its there...
Also the back rests are on a hinge so they just flap back when the bed goes down..
Looking forward to next season and hopefully turning up at one of your event.. have to get the polish out..
I am very nurvous of damaging and/or keeping her in good shape. .she gets a fair bit of use and natural ware and tear can have an impact... so do field mice that got in once.. teach me to leave the lantern lights open ...
One thing not sure if you noticed the flag carrying shield on the front of the roof.. Have been trying to find flags to fit... Any ideas?
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From: Sylvesteruk1 Sent: 27/11/2006 15:51
The latest picture of "Caroles rear end" answers everything as there is a blanking plate where the fridge use to be. So my conclusion is that someone has done a brilliant job of a one off interior conversion.
Regards
Mike
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