Tuesday 17 June 2014

Holivan Vintage Caravan

I have neglected my blog but now I have my head back in the game as they say but for today I am parking up the campers and sharing another project with you.

I have spent the last couple of years dreaming of owning my own vintage caravan.  At the last house we had no room for a caravan so there was little point.  When we bought this house, it came with a 'secret garden' however there is no access but my husband liked the house and suggested we could crane a caravan in to the garden.

The Secret Garden

I think he thought I would go off the idea but I didn't and as some of you will know I finally purchased my very own space on wheels.  If it works out safe enough to tow then that is what I'll do but if I can't manage a good enough restoration than it will live in the Secret Garden.

Unamed Fisher Holivan

She is a Fisher Holivan believed to be from 1969 but I can’t be certain on this.  She is in a bad state with a LOT of damp, even more than I had originally thought.  However this does mean I don’t need to be too precious with her and worry about ruining her as she couldn't get any worse.

These are the pictures from just after I bought her.

You can't see the damp but the whole corner is rotten


The Workshop

The first issue was where to work on her, so the first few weeks were spent securing my very own workshop, helpfully this came about at the same place I store my campers so it has doubled as a work space for the vans. 

Give a week or two & bunting will start appearing in the workshop!

Once I had it sorted and cleaned I began work, stripping out the rotten parts of the Holivan.  There is lots but the worst is down the rear corners, the wood here has crumbled to nothing.




I have been very busy trying to get the campers all working correctly so I haven’t progressed much but this week I am determined to spend some time on the caravan.

Floyd setting off on another adventure

After checking Floyd back in yesterday and sending him back out on a new adventure, I got stuck into removing the other seating carcass in the Holi and stripping the ply off the back wall.



Today is time for shopping…..top of the list is a jigsaw as I managed to break my last one on some stupid DIY job that it probably wasn’t meant for! Thanks to the lovely Sally from the Vintage Caravan For Beginners facebook group I have a list of what else I need to purchase.  So a cup of tea and then I’m off to B&Q.

I will update again in a day or two and I might actually share some campervan news as well.

Kerry x

1 comment:

  1. Nice looking caravan... same year as my bus and the same colour!!! Have fun restoring it.

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