Project Ocelot

[CrzyEng]

I've been wanting to post this for a while now and finally have a bit of down time. Hopefully over the next few posts I cans hare how we took an old Sprite Swift and renovated it while making a bit more suited for camping off grid.

Initially I wasn't very keen on getting a caravan to be honest. We had been camping the last few years with a series of dome tents and could pack everything in the back of the hilux load bin. Problem came however with sleeping arrangements where we were getting tired of leaky air mattresses, narrow stretchers and thin foam mattresses.

SWAMBO had been watching the campervan restorations on youtube and showed me how people were changing their old vans and caravans.

So we started looking for a caravan around July 2021.

Some of the main requirements for us were:
1. As lightweight as possible. At that stage our hilux was limited to a tow capacity of 1200kg and we needed something to fit in that range.
2. Small enough for the two of us but big enough we could sit in during an extended stay if the weather was bad.
3. An older solid axle model with leaf springs or coil springs. I was looking at uprating the van for some light offroad use and found that some of the older model vans would have really solid chassis/axle combinations.
4. Should not have the bed pop out beds like the oryx or imaginevan as the dark canvas was a bit depressing.
5. Caravan should still be registered and roadworthy. On advice from a friend who deals everyday with vehicle registrations, getting an unregistered/expired vehicle licence through the traffic department in JHb was an absolute heartache with at least a year waiting period.

Finally we found this old swift through facebook. The owner had bought it as a restoration project but urgently needed cash to get his car fixed.

Here is what we brought home to start working on, which once we got into the bodywork was really just a chassis and licence disk.

[spicydave]

All this funny project names will activate the OCD in @iandvl ....

[spicydave]

I've been wanting to post this for a while now and finally have a bit of down time. Hopefully over the next few posts I cans hare how we took an old Sprite Swift and renovated it while making a bit more suited for camping off grid.

Initially I wasn't very keen on getting a caravan to be honest. We had been camping the last few years with a series of dome tents and could pack everything in the back of the hilux load bin. Problem came however with sleeping arrangements where we were getting tired of leaky air mattresses, narrow stretchers and thin foam mattresses.

SWAMBO had been watching the campervan restorations on youtube and showed me how people were changing their old vans and caravans.

So we started looking for a caravan around July 2021.

Some of the main requirements for us were:
1. As lightweight as possible. At that stage our hilux was limited to a tow capacity of 1200kg and we needed something to fit in that range.
2. Small enough for the two of us but big enough we could sit in during an extended stay if the weather was bad.
3. An older solid axle model with leaf springs or coil springs. I was looking at uprating the van for some light offroad use and found that some of the older model vans would have really solid chassis/axle combinations.
4. Should not have the bed pop out beds like the oryx or imaginevan as the dark canvas was a bit depressing.
5. Caravan should still be registered and roadworthy. On advice from a friend who deals everyday with vehicle registrations, getting an unregistered/expired vehicle licence through the traffic department in JHb was an absolute heartache with at least a year waiting period.

Finally we found this old swift through facebook. The owner had bought it as a restoration project but urgently needed cash to get his car fixed.

Here is what we brought home to start working on, which once we got into the bodywork was really just a chassis and licence disk.

I really hope this wagon was a freebie ....

Looking at all the silicone you have a chassis ....

[Sakkie7]

I've been wanting to post this for a while now and finally have a bit of down time. Hopefully over the next few posts I cans hare how we took an old Sprite Swift and renovated it while making a bit more suited for camping off grid.

Initially I wasn't very keen on getting a caravan to be honest. We had been camping the last few years with a series of dome tents and could pack everything in the back of the hilux load bin. Problem came however with sleeping arrangements where we were getting tired of leaky air mattresses, narrow stretchers and thin foam mattresses.

SWAMBO had been watching the campervan restorations on youtube and showed me how people were changing their old vans and caravans.

So we started looking for a caravan around July 2021.

Some of the main requirements for us were:
1. As lightweight as possible. At that stage our hilux was limited to a tow capacity of 1200kg and we needed something to fit in that range.
2. Small enough for the two of us but big enough we could sit in during an extended stay if the weather was bad.
3. An older solid axle model with leaf springs or coil springs. I was looking at uprating the van for some light offroad use and found that some of the older model vans would have really solid chassis/axle combinations.
4. Should not have the bed pop out beds like the oryx or imaginevan as the dark canvas was a bit depressing.
5. Caravan should still be registered and roadworthy. On advice from a friend who deals everyday with vehicle registrations, getting an unregistered/expired vehicle licence through the traffic department in JHb was an absolute heartache with at least a year waiting period.

Finally we found this old swift through facebook. The owner had bought it as a restoration project but urgently needed cash to get his car fixed.

Here is what we brought home to start working on, which once we got into the bodywork was really just a chassis and licence disk.

Dont let the naysayers get to you . It can be done . It is a lot of work ....But damn it is rewarding at the end of the day

Waiting on the progress report and pics

[CrzyEng]

We now have the caravan base to work from. From the restorations we saw, the teardown was usually the quickest part of the job.
To start, the floor was rotted, I almost put my foot through it while inspecting the first time. The front panel had been opened to check the condition of the frame, of which there was nothing. The rear corners of the body had rotted away.

On our way back with the van my little engineering voice told me to strap the caravan up before leaving. I didn't listen and three km down the road we were flagged down by a passing car and politely asked to go collect our pop up roof that had blown off. Unfortunately they had ridden over it and I would have to build a new pop up. Needless to say I now listen to the little engineering voice.

As I couldn't find any workshop manuals I decided to strip the inside cladding off first and stabilise what was left of the frame. Once we opened it up I decided to pretty much rebuild the entire body and use the existing frame as a template. It was important to then keep the frame as intact as possible to ensure we made the correct measurements. While tearing down I also used masking tape to change the layout with SWAMBO to suit our needs. It helped doing this as we could see what would fit where and how much space we would have.

Lastly I removed the aluminium cladding, making sure not to damage it as I had been told these sheets were no longer being made, the joys of an older vehicle.

[dbc]

Dont let the naysayers get to you . It can be done . It is a lot of work ....But damn it is rewarding at the end of the day

Waiting on the progress report and pics

Absolutely! I undertook a similar project some years ago with a CI Bakkiemate slide-on camper. It was a lot of work, took me about three and a half years, but in the end I really enjoyed the process, and the end result was what we both wanted.

Unfortunately will be up for sale shortly, but that's another story.

Sterkte - is it too late to say good luck? how far along is the project?

[Emmie L]

So ventilation was the only problem you didn't have?

Looking forward to seeing how the end product shines. And I'm very impressed that someone has the knowledge to do this.

[CrzyEng]

Thanks for the kind words guys. This project took us about a year to completion and we still have several small items to work out. Here is what we were left with after the teardown. As I said earlier all we were left with at the end of the day was the chassis. I preferred the sprite over the equivalent gypsey at the time because the sprite was an a-frame whereas the gypsy was a single beam tow frame. I just felt the a-frame would be more rigid on the rough roads.

The chassis was in good condition and just needed a clean and re-paint. After stripping the base board off I wanted to raise the suspension to make the caravan better suited to offroad towing. Stripping the chassis helped me see the suspension set up. This generation of Sprites had trailing arms with a coilover spring on the end of each arm, which suited my needs very well. In the end I was able to swap the axles around and then invert them. It lifted the chassis about 300mm from the original height and the caravan now rides at about 500mm off the ground. The only issue I had with inverting the axles was the change in brake location. I had to rotate the drum mounts through 180 degrees as well as swapping the brake mechanisms back to the correct side. Since the brakes were lower I also had to make a longer link for the tension rods to reach the brake actuators.

With the increased height the scissor stabilisers were far too short. I settled on installing offroad stabilizers on the corners.

Inverting the axle allowed me to have a solid floor across the entire caravan length and freed up space on the floor.

A big shout out to Mikem suspension for helping me out with the rebuild of the shocks. At the time the manufacturer of the Sprite shocks did not have any in stock and was not making for a while. Mikem took my old shocks and springs, refurbished the springs and then built a new coilover for me.

I also managed to get the brake drums skimmed and the shoes relined.

I'll post tomorrow how we built the body up.

[CrzyEng]

Now we get to the fun and very long part of building Ocelot up from scratch.

I replaced the base of the caravan with a marine ply board, which was then primed with an oil based primer and coated on the underside with bakkie liner. I left the top with just the primer as it made a great worktable to build on.

CI originally used 20x20mm pine for the construction of the caravan and basically stapled and glued the pieces together. the aluminium was the stapled and glued to the wooden frame. I found meranti at our local Chaimberlains cheaper than pine so went with that. The ply sheeting we got from a bulk supplier as their prices were cheaper and they were willing to deliver.

Instead of staples and glue I went with self tapping screws, glue and Sikaflex where needed. To make the caravan stronger sideways I included two 12mm ply board sheets as formers for my furniture. This gave the van rigidity while using the same material to make the cupboards from.

We started with the roof section as that was the straightest item on the original template and was the easiest to measure. I then built the pop up roof and two sidewalls. These took a bit longer as I had to measure out where the wood had rotted away and often had to guess the measurements from the aluminium cladding or work it out geometrically. To prevent the frames buckling or breaking while we handled them, I stapled and Sika'd the inner plywood sheets to the frames. We then primed all the surfaces with an oil based primer and sika'd polystyrene panels into all the spaces for thermal insulation. The original sprites have an air gap whereas we felt the polystyrene would make a much more comfortable van in summer/winter.

Finally I built the front and back panels.

We then stuck the vinyl flooring down and assembled the frames together to form the full body.

[SamM]

This is real labour of love!! Looking forward to the next episode.

[Emmie L]

How often did you work on it? Was it a weekend project or did it consume week nights too?

[F250]

Wow. What a build! This makes being on CF worth again.

[Toxxyc]

I've always considered doing this but figured it's just too much to do. Looking at you breaking it down though, it seems much more doable. Perhaps in my new place, where there's a large storeroom, I'll be able to tackle something like this.

[Heinz Modricky]

I have to ask about the name Ocelot, you got me googling. What is your thinking around this name? (I found a game character, wild cat and a mythical figure in Mayan culture.)

[CrzyEng]

Morning All

When I get back from site I'll post some more pics.

The project took us a year to complete. We worked mostly on the weekends. I was able to take time over the December break and push for the bulk of the work. It also hapenned to be the wettest December we had in a while so every weekend I would keep an eye out for the weather while working. Luckily I listened to Swambo and sealed everything with primer so no damage was done when we got a little rain on the panels.

We were very fortunate with our neighbours and they were most kind regards the noise over weekends as it was not always pleasant.

The name Ocelot came halfway through the build. SWAMBO had gone with a South American feel inside with the colours and fabrics. We then chose Ocelot as the long legged cat found in South America. If it was African it would have been a Serval (Langbeen Tierkat) but the market was already flooded with various models under that name.

I was really a labour of love. Joke is SWAMBO is looking for the next project and is considering gutting our kitchen next year April for a refit.

[iandvl]

All this funny project names will activate the OCD in @iandvl ....

*Appears in puff of smoke*

You called ?

To the OP: Nice build.