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Made my day + Caravelle Info
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Bart
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:13 pm    Post subject: Made my day + Caravelle Info Reply with quote

OK, as most of you know I like Sundial and have been gathering info on them for some time now, even went so far as to create www.sundial-camper.com. So that said, I get a LOT of email from people asking about how to restore and how to id their camper, usally some pics attached, I save these on varios computers (need to organize sometime) . Well today, I get home and open my email and in my box in another message that has Sundial in the subject line and I can see it has an attachment, so I figure more pictures and questions right! Wrong, I open the email and to my suprise, it is from the son of the owner/designer of sundial. The attachments are scans of their very first camper conversion called...... Caravelle (there you go perfektenemy). Here is the email I recieved

Quote:
Hi,
My dad was the owner/designer for Sundial. He lives in --(removed for privacy reasons)--
Back around '60 he started Caravelle Campers in Home Gardens, Ca. near Corona and here is the brochure. He moved the business to Edgemont, Ca. (Now part of Moreno Valley) in the mid sixties and renamed it Sundial. He moved into other brands of vans and at one time had over 100 employees. The oil embargo of the early seventies killed the business so we moved to northern cal. where he started a small van conversion business called Kaleidoscope. It didn't get too far so he bought a portable toilet company and after 25 years sold it last year and is now retired. He still has a van he did but it's a chevy, I think.

see images below (I'll put this in a pdf so you can get it from my sundial site)

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doubledoor64
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

real nice e-mail bet it would make my day keep up the good work the site is great..
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DMNCLNR
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very cool!!! But ofcourse that brings up a whole bunch of new questions!
Fisrt, if they were made in cali, then why are so many of them found up here in eastern oregon? i myself have never seen one anywhwere else including cali!
second question, if they switched over to sundial, then why are they still referred to as caravelle, and since they are still made, where are they manufactured now?
I am sure that my caravelle is a 64' and that it is a caravelle! Also wondering if there are any other changes from the sundial to caravelle...
well at least i was right that they are a U.S conversion...
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mynameismud
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"or for those occassional odd shaped objects"...like that mellon? Laughing
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SHSC
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:53 pm    Post subject: Re: Made my day + Caravelle Info Reply with quote

Sundial Camper wrote:

Quote:
It didn't get too far so he bought a portable toilet company and after 25 years sold it last year and is now retired.



His name Chuck?
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Bart
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

perfektenemy wrote:
Very cool!!! But ofcourse that brings up a whole bunch of new questions!
Fisrt, if they were made in cali, then why are so many of them found up here in eastern oregon? i myself have never seen one anywhwere else including cali!
second question, if they switched over to sundial, then why are they still referred to as caravelle, and since they are still made, where are they manufactured now?
I am sure that my caravelle is a 64' and that it is a caravelle! Also wondering if there are any other changes from the sundial to caravelle...
well at least i was right that they are a U.S conversion...


The term Carravelle is actually a small boat, but in researching the camper, I've noticed that the Brits call every camper a caravelle. The new caravelles being produced are based on the T-5 Eurovan and are produced by VWaG. This Caravelle brand is an American camper conversion and if this story is true you won't find one newer than 1964 as that is when Sundials started being made, but then again he may have sold off the company name and rumor has it that the owner of ez camper was related to this guy. I'm requesting a meeting and the guys name matches up to the patent info. I'll post anything new as I get it.
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Bart
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 9:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I knew I saw pics of this on the net somewhere.....

taken from ezcamper.com

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This makes a lot of sense as to why these are so similar to sundials. The bus in the pic is in FL, so not PNW theory no longer valid.
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VWBobby
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 10:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is really great news! It must feel awesome to have someone contact you about your website like that...
I wish my camper wasn't such a mismatch of parts. I see features from just about every american camper in mine.
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Erik G
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 11:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yeah, when I was looking at richie rich's caravelle I noticed it was VERY similar to my sundial. SWEET INFO!
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Bart
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 9:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got a reply from his wife and posted it here
www.sundial-camper.com/hx.htm

Pretty great info and how she mentions the other conversion company spin offs Like EZ-Camper, American Camper and Carousel Camper. She also talks about how the american camper market came about and why it went away....
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wilgartw
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I've noticed that the Brits call every camper a caravelle.


who does? Very Happy i have never heard anyone in the uk calling an early camper a caravelle.
I think caravelle was a model of camper converted from the late square vans (you call them a vanagon???)
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