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

Custard Campers

Fifty Shades Of Dub....#2

It's that time of the week again when we make contact with the Dub community out there and invite one of them to tell us about theirs.

Last week it was Merlot's turn, but this week it's all about.....

Cuthbert, a RHD 1971 earlybay dormobile

Owned by

The Dearsley family, Craig, Veronica & their lovely children Oli & Tabitha

So Craig, when did the Dub Love start?

Back when I was around 15 my friend’s uncle had a camper and he worked for Volkswagen so the thing was awesome, I was smitten! I had a couple of normal cars after I passed my test but I always had the idea of a camper in my head, then one day at the age of 24 I thought it’s now or never and just went for it. I always liked the early bay and I had big plans for a restoration, so I found myself a 1971 dormobile. It was in a bit of a state but I was smiling all the way home, until the roof blew open on the M25! But that’s another story.

Why the name Cuthbert?

He never had a name when I collected him so on the journey home my friend Gary and I went with Cuthbert and it kinda stuck

How long have you owned Cuthbert and what have you done to him so far?

I got Cuthbert just over six years ago.  I drove it around for a couple of months, took it to a festival, and then decided to get it in for that all important restoration I was planning.  The restoration wasn’t what I was expecting, the camper turned out great but it was a long and painful road. I will talk about this more in the future....

In the mean time I met my wife Veronica and we had two wonderful children Oli and Tabitha. I finally got Cuthbert road worthy and an MOT two days before our wedding! Talk about cutting it fine.

What's happened with Cuthbert since your wedding?

Since then he has been on and off the road but finally this year we have had a good run and we are using him as much as we can. We took him to Devon in May, it was such a buzz when I see the “Welcome to Devon” sign on the M5, I just had to pull over and take a picture. And when we arrived in Croyde there just so happened to be a small VW show on, so we found ourselves in a VW convoy, people were waving and taking pictures of us driving through the town centre, which was an amazing experience!

Do you have anything else planned for Cuthbert?

To finally get my twin carbs bolted on this winter after them sitting in the loft for the last 3 years and getting the interior more camping friendly (cupboards/fridge etc).

The Custard's are loving Cuthbert, we're a bit keen on early bay's and Dormies are a personal favourite's  of mine, maybe that's why we've invited Craig to come back and guest blog about the restoration of Cuthbert in the future.  But in the meantime what we want to know is, where can we see more of him?

I might try to get him to Brighton Breeze if I'm not helping my wife at the most Curious Wedding Fair (think they are on the same day) and hopefully down to air-cooled night at the ace cafe next month.

And finally when your not busy playing with your dub,  what do you do?

I'm an amateur photographer and I've set up a facebook page Craig Dearsley Photo to start showing some of my images.  I'm getting more into photographing vw's so look out for some I took at the Ace Cafe meet last night.

Thanks very much Cuthbert for letting us feature you this week, if you'd like to appear with your dub just shout  Custard Campers, vw campervan hire Essex.  We'd love to hear from you.

Kerry x

Bug Jam 26

After another manic & wet week, the weekend dawned bright and sunny.  Perfect for a wedding.....

Delia & myself  were booked for the lovely Leanne's wedding, in Hornchurch.  The venue was the very popular Langtons House..

After collecting Leanne, her chief bridesmaid and her two gorgeous daughters, we made our way from her home to Langtons.  We arrived a little early, so we decided to drive around a little, however with the high street right next door everywhere was very busy, so after nearly getting blocked in on one of narrow side roads we decided to head back round and wait by the venue.  Delia pulled up alongside a vintage Rolls Royce and Daimler but I'm happy to say she still got admiring glances and some lovely comments.

Sunday was a day off and as we were child free, the custard creams being at their Grandad's for a holiday we thought we'd make the most of the sunshine and head off for a day trip to Bug Jam.  

We parked up in the day visitors car park and caught the mini bus up to the entrance.  The road up to the drag strip goes right through the middle of the camping fields, which by the Sunday were completely water logged and also an unbelievable amount of rubbish....nice.

We had quick mooch round the auto jumble area but this was quite small, then on to the vehicles for sale.       Although we're definitely not in the market for another camper, it's always good to see whats available and more importantly how much it would cost you.

We then took in a bit of the drag racing, starting with the incredible jet rocket car, very fast and very loud.  I never seen any drag racing before but really enjoyed it.  It was then time for a look around the trade stands, but again nothing too amazing but we did manage to buy some bolts & a new front badge for the splitty and a klaxon horn for Delia.  Although we'd left it a little late in the day we had a wander round the club displays and saw some cool things

There was some lovely campers in the show and shine but again it was smaller than expected and right next to the main stage.  At the time we got there, it was very hot and the band weren't really my thing so we didn't take too long looking.  How old did that last sentence make me sound?

Dan's feeling the crew cab love at the moment and this one was pretty cool but this shiny red splitscreen was our favourite.  Not usually that keen on red campers but this one was lovely.

Time for some more drag racing, and soaking up the sun before starting the long hike back to the car park.   We saw quite a few people with their heads stuck in their engine bays on the camping fields...oh dear.  Dan felt it would be quicker to walk then wait for the mini bus but I'd like to point out both buses passed us 3 times on our long long walk.  

At least there were plenty of dubs to look at as most people were heading off from the weekend.   We saw one poor camper that didn't  even make it out the grounds before they had to make the call of shame and get the AA out.  Not great when hundreds of other dubbers are driving right past you....we felt your pain!  Here's just a few of the campers that we saw, I'm going to add a few more pictures to our facebook page so make sure you go and check it out custardcampers

Kerry x