Another New Project…
I said that I wasn’t buying any more projects after the 1963 Cheltenham Springbok and 1980 Autosport Alpha found their way to me back in late 2023. That resolve lasted well! Some of you may recall my efforts to save a rather rotten 1969 Sprite Major back in 2021. You can see my blog post about it here to catch up with the story. I threw myself into this project head first, but it is a massive undertaking due to the extensive water damage that it suffered from. Long story short, I’ve not moved the project forward much in the last 18-24 months, and I can’t see my professional commitments slowing down enough to give me the time to finish it. I still have a hankering for a Sprite Major again…
This is the kind of history that you so rarely get with a caravan from the 1970s.
Somewhat out of the blue, I received an interesting email from a lovely chap called Paul with an offer of a 1971 Sprite Major. I receive a few emails of this nature per week now, and usually the caravan is either not what someone claims it to be, or it is far too beyond salvage. Luckily for me, my fortunes were turning!
This 1971 Sprite Major had been protected by two layers of tarpaulins every winter!
This 1971 Sprite Major was the real deal: One owner from pretty much new, very original inside and out, reportedly with no water ingress, stored with its wheels off and chassis protected with a covering of oil, stored under two layers of tarpaulins to keep it dry and complete with an enviable stack of original paperwork. It turns out, Paul’s father had gone into a care home and he was clearing out his farther’s estate. The Major was reportedly his pride and joy, meticulously cared for over the years and preserved as well as it could be.
A deal was done, and I set off on a mammoth 600-mile round trip to pick up the Sprite from its original home in a small sleepy village in Somerset.
The incredibly well preserved interior, just missing its original iconic orange seat cushions and garishly 1970s-inspired curtains.
I spent the journey fantasising about what the Major would be like. In a former life, my 1970 Sprite Major was my favourite caravan. ‘Major Tom’ I called it. I rescued ‘Major Tom’ from the scrap man, and turned it into a really smart caravan again. Together, we enjoyed about six years of holidays all over the UK and abroad. Something was so intrinsically appealing about a Sprite Major from this era; people would flock to see it on campsites and at gatherings with the Retro Camping Club, ‘Major Tom’ would always become something of a natural central hub to whatever was going on. Maybe it was its size, maybe it was its funky exterior, maybe it was its warm 1970s interior… who knows. All I know is that I loved that caravan so much, and it broke my heart to leave it behind when escaping an abusive relationship. For months, my toxic ex taunted me with claims that it had been “burnt down” or “levelled with a tractor”, sending cryptic photos and deliberately leaving it exposed to potential thieves. For my own mental health, I had to forget about ‘Major Tom’, being grateful for the time I’d had with it, but also knowing that someday, I might get another.
A rare original promotional photo of a 1971 Sprite Major in its heyday. Its design was unlike any other caravan on the market.
Back to the present day, I nervously pulled into the driveway of the address that I’d been given, bumping into Paul and his wife who were tending to the garden. They guided me to the 1971 Sprite Major, which was hiding right at the back of the property in a penned off area in the corner of the large sprawling garden.
Any doubts that I’d had over the condition of the Major were immediately elevated. I couldn’t find a spot of damp or signs of repairs anywhere! The original pre-painted enamelled hardboard panels even still had a shine to them! The paintwork outside had been re-done at some point, which would need addressing, but on the plus side, I found an original Salou canvas awning for it hiding inside. I took that as a bonus as finding a period awning for a huge 16ft Sprite Major is a near impossibility nowadays!
Almost ready to move once more…
It took a couple of hours to get the Major ready to move. The wheel bearings and brakes were inspected, the hitch parts re-lubricated, corner steadies carefully greased before winding them up and the interior thoroughly checked before towing. I’d brought with me some re-painted wheels with new tyres, which turned out to be a blessing as the Major was located miles from a tyre company and finding tyres for the original rims on the day would have been very time consuming. The back of my car was filled with tools for every eventuality; from a socket set to hydraulic jack, from cable ties to duct tape, from bearing grease to penetrating oil… it all came in handy one way or another, and it’s always better to be prepared when collecting a caravan of this vintage. After a bit of a struggle with my car on the wet grass, the Major was eventually out and ready to roll!
The first few miles is always a little tense when towing an old caravan that’s not moved for so long. My advice is to just take it steady, and roll down the windows to listen for any untoward noises. I heard a small scraping noise, which turned out to be a sagging bungee chord that I’d missed underneath, that had been used to help fasten one of the tarpaulins in place. I also pulled over every five miles or so for the first 20 miles to check the temperature of the wheel hubs and the brakes.
100 miles into the journey home, I stop for a break at Gloucester Services and was pleased with how well the Major was towing.
I needn’t have worried, because the Major lived up to its reputation of being a beautiful caravan to tow. It sat behind the car with no dramas and we comfortably cruised at 55-60mph. Back when the Major was first launched in 1966, Sprite claimed the 24hour endurance record for towing a caravan, averaging just over 70mph behind a Ford Zephyr Mk4 V6 on the Monza Test Track in Italy. The Major was a beast of a caravan in its heyday, with its 16ft length usually being classed as a “road legal static”, but the Major was the first caravan to start to change public opinion that it was acceptable to tour with a larger caravan. Of course, today, the Major is comparatively small by modern caravan standards! The endurance record that Sprite set was essential to the success of the model, proving once and for all that large caravans could be just as easy to tow as the average 10-14ft models of the time.
Looking marginally better for a good wash down outside!
Eventually, just before 8pm, I made it back safely with the 1971 Sprite Major. It had been a mammoth trip, but absolutely worthwhile. Running on adrenaline from the day’s task, I spent the next two hours clearing the caravan out and getting it ready for the big clean-down the next day. I finally crashed and fell asleep at about 10pm.
The next day, I set about washing the exterior of the Major. I used Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo as I find it to be the best product for lifting dirt. I also used some Fenwicks Black Streak Remover on the rubber trims along the side panels, but they did little to shift the streaks caused by 50+ year old rubber! Armed with only a long-handled caravan cleaning brush and a small scrubbing brush for more stubborn marks, the dirt soon washed away and revealed the true state of the paintwork and bodywork. There’s plenty of knocks and scrapes in various panels, but overall, the Major is good for its age. You’d expect the original paintwork to have been touched up or entirely re-painted at some point, as it soon weathered away on the roof area within the first ten years of use.
The interior is truly in stunning time-capsule condition - it even has that original “Sprite smell”!
The interior would prove to be much more time consuming to clean up, for no other reason than it would involve preserving as much of the original patina as possible. One of the issues with Sprites from the early 1970s is that they used a high frequency gluing process to bond the furniture together, which is usually ready to fall apart after 50 years! So I decided to carefully remove as much of the affected furniture as possible, firstly to make it easier to clean thoroughly, and secondly to allow me to glue it all back together. From the front panels on the seat bases to the curtain pelmets, everything came out easily and was really simple to glue back together and return to the solid feeling that it would have had when it was new.
I was still astounded at how well this caravan had survived. There’s no repair work needed to rectify water ingress or any interior panels that need replacing. I shall be thoroughly re-sealing the exterior rails and roof light holes to keep it watertight going forward. This kind of originality cannot be replicated or restored once it has become damaged, so much of this restoration is about preservation as opposed to gutting everything and starting again - which most of my projects seem to involve!
Removing the furniture is easy in an old Sprite, and makes the cleaning process much quicker. The Sprite was already really clean for its age, but everything was covered in a film of dust from long term storage.
Overall, I’m absolutely over the moon to have found this 1971 Sprite Major. As I mentioned earlier, I mourned the loss of my 1970 Major, which was pretty much identical to this one, albeit not quite as well preserved. It feels affirming that one should find its way to me that’s even better and its something of a true once in a lifetime find.
I cannot wait to finish this caravan and start enjoying using it. The Sprite Major remains one of the most stylish and practical caravans ever built, and I think there’s a lot of design details in it that modern day manufacturers could learn from. It’s funny how its simplicity is also its charm. This is a caravan that we will hopefully be able to enjoy for another lifetime, having already given decades of service until its reported last use around 2007-2010.
I still think that the Sprite Major is one of the best-looking caravans ever produced!
Keep an eye on my website for future blog updates about this caravan. Also be sure to follow NotAnotherWhiteBox on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more photos.