RV FEATURE
And then there ’ s the bedroom . Now , the steel bed base is what you ’ d expected from the 1970s , but Andrew had a difficult time sourcing a replacement one . Eventually , he found a man removing his bed base from a similar Franklin , and as it turned out he was willing to sell it to Andrew ! You ’ ve got to get lucky sometimes .
Question : when was the last time you saw a caravan with actual carpet ? If a modern caravan was fitted with carpet , we ’ d all say the manufacturer was mad . But in the 70s , they did things differently . This Franklin Princeton had honest-to-goodness carpet in both the rear bedroom and the front dinette . Were it my van , I ’ m sure I would ’ ve pulled it out , but Andrew replaced it with a slightly lighter coloured carpet . As I said , he doesn ’ t do things by halves .
There were , of course , lots of other repairs to this van . However , when you restore caravans as a hobby , it helps to have worked in the trade for as long as Andrew has . You see , he had plenty of ‘ new old ’ stock laying around which , as it turned out , was a perfect match . For example , the existing Four Seasons hatch had to go – but Andrew just happened to have the exact old hatch – in new condition – in his workshop . Again , you ’ ve got to get lucky sometimes .
The sides had only been under-coated when we stopped by .
Andrew has finished the paint job since our visit ! It looks fantastic !
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