MPC 276D
This is my Carawagon. Built in 1966 and converted from new to Searle's Continental
Ultimate specification with a double berth converted from the seats and a
single sling bunk. I know little of the history before I purchased it in
1999. It had spent the previous four years in "dry" storage standing over
a pit which at some time had flooded, the consequences of this were not obvious
when I agreed to buy it! The previous owner had bought it to act as
tender for his son's trials bike and had decided it was too slow for the
long runs they went between events. Prior to this, I guess in the early nineties,
it had been in the Aberdeen area where the then owner had undertaken some
interior restoration. Judging by the cement I discovered under the carpet
I guess it had lost most of its original interior and spent part of its previous
life as a builders wagon!
My first task was to get the vehicle mobile, this involved replacing all
brake wheel cylinders, master cylinder and clutch master cylinder. That done
the vehicle was trailered to Donald Hynde's where the raveges of the flooded
pit became more evidident and the rear cross member was replaced and a bit
of welding done to outriggers. The battery was replaced the radiator re-cored
and header tank soldered up so within a month of purchase an MOT was obtained
and the vehicle took to the road.
After a few minor glitches including replacing a faulty brake master cylnder
and more soldering to the header tank I took the Carawagon on the first of
many short trips to the West Highlands.
Over the following winter The Carawagon resided in the only lock up I could
find in Edinburgh big enough to fit. On the odd weekend I spent time cleaning
up and de-rusting the chassis, tidying up the interior. During its first
outing in the new milenium at Easter the driver's door refused to stay shut.
Investigation revealed that the station wagon sideframe had corroded to such
an extent that it had parted company with the bulkhead outrigger and door
post, at the other end the D post was held to the bottom rail be about
3mm of rust! This gave me 10 weeks to repair this for the MOT. Frantic
phone calls looking for professional help bore no fruit, this was "too big
a job"
Faced with"no choice" I did what research I could and took it all to bits.
Of course with most surgery complications set in. First problem was that
the A post was in equally bad shape. The foot well had previously beeen repaired
by jamming a repair section in over the rusted original. Second was that
the bulkhead outrigger's top face was largely absent! The first idea was
to cut and shut a new footwell repair section replace the outrigger and the
A post. I bought all the relevant repair sections however it was obvious
this would not be a simple bolt back together job as none of the sections
exactly fitted. As the bulkhead outrigger was the most solid point of reference
I resolved to patch this and rebuild all the other sections around
it. The footwell wnet in as a complete section. This required the drilling
out of more than 30 spot welds in the sandwich construction and the new section
was inserted between the remaining panels and rivited and welded in place.
The replacement sideframe is in fact the current version fitted to the 110
station wagon, it fitted exactly with all the holes in the right places,
what I thought would be the most difficult bit of the job turned out to be
the easiest. The A post was an altogether different matter. No matter how
I put the leg abd bracket together they would not fit. The principl of measure
twice cut once became measure check measure check go away scratch head and
in the end I went for it and managed to get it all to fit. So off to the
MOT via Donald and it passed with another bit of welding to the rear spring
outrigger.
I then thought about reducing the four colours of Limestone to one starting
with the passenger side where there was ally showing through the paint on
the back wing. I was given the name of a car paint supplier and duely went
to get coach paint. The supplier matched the most original colour and I managed
to get the passenger side painted before running out as I had only intended
to cover the thinest areas. when I went back for more the trouble started.
It seems that the original colour I had been given was mixed wrong so no
matter what they did they could not match it, well at least I was down to
two colours of Limestone!
Last winter saw a serious start on the interior. The previous restoration had included a rough upholstry job in a vile blue nylon curtain material.This had become ratty and dirty. I found some reasonable flame retardant fabric and set about learing to use a sewing machine! The results are really quite pleasing! I also tackled the door linings where the hardboard had gone soft and was no longer held to the doors. ere I used plywood for the lower sections and re covered the upper sections in leatherette similar to that used for the slings around the upper section of the vehicle.
This year I took it to the All Rover Shows at East Fortune and Beamish. Much to my surprise it was awarded second best in show for series 2s at the Beamish show.
Kevan Shaw 13-10-01
