RV FEATURE
What about the bedroom? It sits at the back of the van and even has it’ s own door to the outside world. But the steel bed base needed to be replaced and, fortunately, Andrew came across a bloke who was removing the bed base from his similar Franklin of similar vintage, and Andrew snapped it up. He even sourced a period-correct, Mission brown bedspread of the type that was used by Franklin as a prop in the black-and-white advertising for the van at the time – Franklin would also supply a bedspread with each van.
Now, we need to talk about carpet in caravans. A bad idea, right? Perhaps, but in the 1970s, it was considered quite luxurious and this 1975 Franklin had some in both the front lounge area, the bunk room, and the rear bedroom. Unsurprisingly, the old carpet was done for … but rather than replace it with lino, Andrew replaced it with new carpet because, well, he doesn’ t do things by halves.
Almost every aspect of the van has a story, from the coupling to the cladding. Speaking of the cladding, the front and rear aluminium had to be removed and replaced as it was too far gone( this sheeting, however, was still available) while the dents and other damage to the side cladding could be repaired. The complete side sheeting was repainted, which included matching the paint colour to the original green and brown colour flash. As Andrew said, it would have been easier to replace the sheeting, but the Franklin F1 sheeting is no longer produced.
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