Many old caravans when there lights have given out, have a lighting board put in their place. (Lighting boards, can be brought or home made. Running a cable from the tow bar to the caravan, showing the registration number of the tow vehicle and the matching the lights. Brakes and indicators.) Daisy's main brake and indicators must have given up at some point. Instead of fixing them, they where removed and a lighting board screwed in their place. Even this lighting board gave up too, luckily the seller managed to find another one so we could safely tow her home.
On the left is how we got her home and right is her now. Some great advice was to keep the warning triangles from the old broken lighting board! (Keep as much as you can, you may not think you need it at the time but it could save you time and money later!)
Thanks to the brilliant folks at Retro Carovan Club, they managed to find some photos of what her lights would have looked like. Also how they would have been placed!
We are hoping to do as much of the wiring our selfs and just get it checked over by an electrician. So while ordering some new (as close to what she had) lights, I also ordered a little kit to do the wiring.
The broken lighting board bolts had rusted so much that we couldn't get them undone. In the end an old saw did the tick and we cut them off.
There are lots of holes so while we wait on the sealant to arrive, she's taped up!
With that horrible huge old lighting board off, we can at last see the beautiful 60's lines! Even though she's dirty and has a load of black tape on her, she looks so much better.
From our research it looked like the lights should have been vertical, a really vintage look, which I loved. Having studied her many holes, (from the original lights, terrible old lighting board and goodness knows what else,) we worked out they where actually placed horizontally. So she will look quite different to the image have in my head.
The new cable, lights and registration light have at last arrived! The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day here by the sea! (Make hay while the sunshines and all that.) So we have inlisted Grandpa, to help my husband with this big job! The lights!
This really is a two person job as someone has to hold things inside the van while the other person screws in from outside! (Three person job, am watching our children and making lots of cups of coffee!)
Am very excited about this job, it's holding me back from building the bunk and finishing the back end of her. As all the wiring needs to be in place before I can replace the boards or extend the bunk. It's very exciting to get her 'under her own' power as it where, and not having to use a lighting board!
They placed some plyboard behind where the lights where being fired, to be able to screw them into something.
Pulling through the wiring for her new lights.
Now these wires are in place, I can finish the wood supports around them.
Placing on the new lights!! Above the reused/nicked off the broken lighting boards warning triangles.
Her new lights and preloved warning triangles at last in place!
It turned into a much bigger job than we had hoped just to get these in place. So she's not wired up or tested yet! Next job will be the registration light and registration plate. The we will have the fun (the diagram looks blinking scary) job of wiring it all up!
She looks so different to when we brought her home and at last getting a good idea of what she will look like!
The next stage was to wire up the lights.....I've been working on this for most of the day today and well, I have a 'bad earth' problem. So before I lose my marbles, I've called it a day, to start a fresh tomorrow....
Got my new cable, wire cutting thing...and diagram.
About this point I was really wishing I had the budget for an electrician. My word, my hands hurt from cutting back the wirers!
She looks so much better with her own lights, as you can see I have put on a reg plate light. (Was scary drilling a hole in her!)
Am sure I will be dreaming about earthing Daisy but if I can get this job done in the next few days, then I can reboard her back! Yay!
Most of the bank holiday has been spent getting these lights all wired in. We are almost there, it's very satisfying! We have tested them all and got her original marker lights working! So excited to see those light up! Now we are cleaning up and putting all the wirers away safely. It's quite a long job, thank goodness for Grandpas help or I would have lost my marbles! This is turning into a big job but so important.
This mass of wires is all the old cables, the black from the lightboard which was drilled and fixed on. The coloured wires are her original 1960's wires!
While am working on the back of Daisy I took off the horrible big, black plastic grab handles. I've been searching for something like what she would have had. It's been a long look and I've not found anything. Then I came across some 1970's ones which I really like!
They needed a big clean! Lots of hard work, wire wool and a wire brush....and....ta da!!
Am so happy with how they have turned out, I was thinking about repainting them but I love this used look!
Was a bit of a job, reusing some holes and drilling new ones. It was a two person job as Grandpa held the wood the other side while I screwed in the handles. Love the look and feel of these *new* (1970's so pretty close to her age) handles.
Grab handles on and her new (very shiny) registration plate holder on! It's so shiny it's showing her up a little, as she's needs a good clean! (Guess I better clean her and filler all those old holes!
My Grandpa left on the little tabs I had quickly made, when I got fed up of looking at the diagram. I love that maybe one day me or someone will find them again! I hope the lights last another 30+years.
She's looking a lot different to when we brought her home!! Lots still to do!
If you want to read more about doing up Daisy, click here. Want to see what she looks like now, and where she has been on adventures? Click here!
If you want to read more about doing up Daisy, click here. Want to see what she looks like now, and where she has been on adventures? Click here!
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