Vintage Caravan restoration

As well as being a mum, teacher and blogger I am now the proud owner of a Vintage Caravan. See our step by step vintage caravan restoration. Follow as we transform a wreak from a farm yard into a beautiful bespoke retro camper.

Meet out vintage caravan

Betty is the name of our Vintage Caravan. She is a 1960’s Bailey Maru and although she’s looking pretty now she was in a sorry state when we bought her.

We spent a lot of time searching a few summers back for the perfect caravan. We had in mind the perfect vintage look for her and we knew it just had to have the fin on top and big picture windows.

The original intention for Betty was to turn her into a working Photo booth so that we could tow her to weddings and events and take pictures in her. However with covid we shelved that idea and she has become a treasured summer retreat in our paddocks.

We initially thought the interior might be OK to save. But on closer inspection it was all rotten including the floor. So it all had to go.

We took the advice of some local caravan restorers and they recommended we just scrap her. But we had already fallen in love with her and could part.

So it was all stripped out and re-boarded.

Then we had to source vintage furniture to go back inside. This helps keep the frame from twisting. Then a lot of priming painting was needed.

Hubby built new seating and I continued to paint. We went with a light green and antique white colour scheme to match the spray job we had, had done on the outside.

Once most of the furniture was in it was time to test out angles for photos. (As when we built it we were planning on running it as a photobooth) It would be rubbish if the furniture obscured where customers would be sitting for their pictures. I also had installed high quality LED lighting in the ceiling to help on dull days.