Caravanner bench seat design needed

[Jeremy9107]

I am hoping someone out there owns a caravanner or knows someone who does so I can get pics and dimensions of the L shaped front bench seats. Were these just seats or did they pull out to a bed? I have a 1970 caravanner but the seats are missing and I would like to rebuild them. I have bought a couple of gauchos from forum members but they just don't fit right, it's becoming a pricey trial and error method!

Thanks

[jenner 515]

Hi,

We have a 1970 caravanner and I'm going to try and upload some photos I took this weekend. The first couple of photos are of the front seat and the last are of the street side.

I believe this is all original and I'm planning on changing the layout soon because our kids are getting bigger and I want the front gaucho to be able to open into a more full size bed. The way they are set up now, the front gaucho pulls out only about 6 inches and then hits the side gaucho which is almost a full size when open.

Ours also have independent cushions and I don't think this set up works well. I just saw some at a rally this weekend that utilize a piano hinge and a more futon-ish type of cushion. It would probably make it easier to operate.

Let me know if you have any questions, hope these help. The caravanner is a fun layout and is somewhat rare, which I'm sure you've already found. Glad you're out there!

Jenner

[golopogos]

Like your pics! We have a 1971 Caravanner so I understand the rare find you have. We are in the middle of a major renavation and are planning on putting in a J shaped lounge. Its intresting to see how the original must have looked, when we bought ours last year the front gauchos were gone and the prior owner had put in a small hidabed.(Not very functional as it blocked the door when open). We took out the street side cabinets and turned the fridge so its against the wall and are running our new J shaped lounge/sleeper all the way under the mid window. Thanks for sharing your pictures. I am starting a blog of our redo so hopefully I will get a link to it soon.. AmyK

[jenner 515]

A link to the blog would be great. We'd like to turn our fridge, was it a difficult process or pretty easy? Our renovation is partially done, the beds have to be updated sooner rather than later for us though.

The 6 year old threw too many kidney shots this last trip.

[golopogos]

Turning the fridge was one of the first major projects we did after some exterior sprucing up. It was a weekend project, we re-used alot of the same materials we pulled out. Getting the venting right was the tough part. We have a 7 year old that needed her space. I will try to get my blog going and get some pictures up in the next few days..its been quite the journey.

Amyk

[Jeremy9107]

Jenner. Thank you for the photos. Those curtains are awesome! Is that fabric on the gauchos original? I really am trying to get mine looking like original. If you or golopogos have leftovers from your renovations I would be very interested as I am missing both gauchos and the lower street side cabinets/counters. Do you have pics of the counters and fridge?