Mirrors and Music

We installed new side view mirrors. They are convex mirrors from Traction (the Heavy Truck Division of Napa). They provide much better visibility than the previous small mirrors. We also found an antenna that finally fit, also from Traction. So now we can both see and listen to the radio!

Retro Radio

Today we installed the retro styled radio. It is a good match to the rest of the dashboard with the black bezel. With most things on Myrtle it took long than expected as the holes on the bezel need to be custom drilled, everything needed to be wired and connected, and then the actual installation of the radio and speakers. We also installed an extra master on/off switch to override it drawing from the solar batteries when in storage. Now that it is in, it works well and has a remote for convenience. The ashtray you can see in the one photo will now serve as an ipod holder as the radio has a MP3 jack.

The little things

I found a cute tin plate from Fisheries and Oceans Canada at a vintage shop. It will look great somewhere in/on Myrtle! We are lucky to have lovely provincial and national parks, which remind me of this plate. Next month we plan on taking a trip to Waterton Lakes National Park, adjoining the southern Montana Glacier National Park.

Myrtle is getting more popular and has a post on the Get Campie Blog. I figure she now needs some business cards, so I ordered some via Moo Cards, with her stats and the sweet photo below. Then I'll have them to hand out to the folks who stop to check her out.

My Cool Caravan Site

Check out: http://www.mycoolcaravan.com/index.html

A website full of handy hints, photos and information on vintage caravans. They also have a book for purchase.

Maiden Voyage

We took Myrtle out for her maiden voyage; camping at a provincial park 250 kms away. She made the round trip journey easily! She was terrific to camp in and drew a lot of attention from people passing by. Her solar power and plumbing was terrific. Her fridge and stove are not yet hooked up but that's next on the list.

New glass!

We finally successfully have the new windshields installed! They look terrific. You can see the two before photos at the bottom with the terrible silicone job, from a previous owner. We also got the back window pulled out and put back in with a new gasket. We also had the cracked glass in the louvered door window replaced. Both the gasket and the windshield came from RV Glass Experts, and was installed locally. The glass installer also had to do some fibreglass shaving to ensure a good fit on the windows. Glass work on the old Travcos is not cheap. The cost of the windshield installation, rear window re-install, the rear gasket (including fedex cost from the USA), the door window, was about $1500.00 (this includes 12 hours of labour). The cost does not include the purchase of the windshields. The approximate cost of the 2 sides of the wind shield was $1700.00 USD, in 2009. was a lot of labour needed to remove the mystery grey substance a previous owner had used to attempt to seal the windows.