My Calivelle - A Caravelle Executive/California Ocean hybrid

[Catbus]

Hi Everyone,

Ive been a member on here for a while but only just got around to making a first post.
After hiring a California Ocean a few years back, the one thing I knew when I would eventually purchase my own camper was that I didn’t want a full kitchen conversion and I still wanted the flexibility of having a good amount of seats, with the ability still to remove everything and to turn it into a van if ever I needed to.

Having found it wasn’t possible to buy a California Beach with the spec I wanted, the next best thing was to create something bespoke to my own requirements but still wantEd to make sure it still looked like as if it was a completely factory model.
Having found a Caravelle 4motion Executive with as many options I could find, I set about turning it to my own perfect spec, hence ending up with a Calivelle - a Caravelle / California hybrid of both models.

All credit goes to Richard and his team at Kernow Transporters Ltd for being mad enough to do the work required and offer a full California electric roof conversions, making it all fit and work like it came the factory that way (no holes cut for a fibreglass pop top in the roof, this was the full roof skin un-bounded and the alloy roof for the California transplanted back on. All the California plastics were used and modified to fit the Caravelle interior, still retaining all the rear air conditioning).
It’s still a work in progress (currently now halfway fitting it out with 240v EHU) but I hope you like it so far.

cheers

Gary B.

 

[Catbus]

Big thanks to @Jodalo for selling to me his Rainbow Screen pop top cover; as having done another holiday with it getting darker a lot later in the evenings, the standard ocean canvas let’s far too much light to even think about trying to get the kids to sleep on time. the cover pretty much turns in it to pure darkness.

 

[Catbus]

The work on the electrics has started (ignore the filth, as it was straight after a week in Cornwall were the kids always seem to bring back half the beach with them, so there’s no point cleaning it I was making more mess with a Dremel)

Completed the cutting and fitting the 3 socket Berker panels on the backs of each front seats & added dual USB-C/USB3 socket to the blank space on the drivers side seat.
Probably won’t keep this configuration, but had to fit something in the Berker panels to make sure all the hole were in the right place.

 

[Catbus]

The 240 EHC entry has also been fabricated, but ran out of time on the weekend to run the artic cable through the bulkhead.
For anyone else thinking of fitting a VA e-grille, the manufacturer state they fit a T6 Transporter; However the moulding for T6 Caravelle grill was so different it didn’t fit at all.
I didn’t realise this until well after I had already started cutting out the old badge.
It required a massive amount of re-fabrication to get it to fit and look this reasonable.

 

[hirsty]

This looks great! - looking forward to finding more time to read it properly, thanks for sharing.

 

[Gary&Heather]

Wow very impressive can't wait to read more

 

[66tim99]

The 240 EHC entry has also been fabricated, but ran out of time on the weekend to run the artic cable through the bulkhead.
For anyone else thinking of fitting a VA e-grille, the manufacturer state they fit a T6 Transporter; However the moulding for T6 Caravelle grill was so different it didn’t fit at all.
I didn’t realise this until well after I had already started cutting out the old badge.
It required a massive amount of re-fabrication to get it to fit and look this reasonable.

View attachment 94459

View attachment 94460

View attachment 94461

Love this upgrade over a California
(Have you managed to make a Calivelle badge for the tailgate?)

 

[Perfectos]

Hi Gary /Catbus

great looking Calivelle

was yours one that got the Alcantra head lining ?

was the original panel over covered with the Alcantra or do they remove the factory covering and replace with Alcantra ?

can you post some photos please, including the front leading edge where the Hatch pushes back into & the sides where it wraps around the profile ?

 

[capt kirk]

Hi Gary /Catbus

great looking Calivelle

was yours one that got the Alcantra head lining ?

was the original panel over covered with the Alcantra or do they remove the factory covering and replace with Alcantra ?

can you post some photos please, including the front leading edge where the Hatch pushes back into & the sides where it wraps around the profile ?

The 240 EHC entry has also been fabricated, but ran out of time on the weekend to run the artic cable through the bulkhead.
For anyone else thinking of fitting a VA e-grille, the manufacturer state they fit a T6 Transporter; However the moulding for T6 Caravelle grill was so different it didn’t fit at all.
I didn’t realise this until well after I had already started cutting out the old badge.
It required a massive amount of re-fabrication to get it to fit and look this reasonable.

View attachment 94459

View attachment 94460

View attachment 94461

Oh man, this is exactly what ive been looking for, full width bed and pop top. Brilliant, dare i ask the cost so far…

 

[Jodalo]

Big thanks to @Jodalo for selling to me his Rainbow Screen pop top cover; as having done another holiday with it getting darker a lot later in the evenings, the standard ocean canvas let’s far too much light to even think about trying to get the kids to sleep on time. the cover pretty much turns in it to pure darkness.

View attachment 94449

You’re welcome, pleased it went to a good home. Cheers

 

[Catbus]

Love this upgrade over a California
(Have you managed to make a Calivelle badge for the tailgate?)

Indeed I do, although not applied yet.
Mainly due to when I purchased the van it had been completely debabaged by the previous owner, so my first job was to restore all the badging back.
At the moment it feels a little wrong to remove a badge I had not long applied and I’m still liking it that really confuses people when the see the cali roof and then notice the caravelle badge or when the see it’s caravelle but then notice the California roof.

i was originally thinking on getting a custom model name vinyl made for the rear sides in the same font as Ocean/Beach logo. I thought I had it nailed down with “Coast” keeping it related to the Sea, then dam VW came out with their own California Coast model and I’ve been completely stumped for a new name since. The closest I can think of is Gulf or Shore, but still not 100% convinced on either.
If anyone else can recommend a similar name to Ocean/Beach/Coast I’d love to hear them.

 

[Perfectos]

Indeed I do, although not applied yet.
Mainly due to when I purchased the van it had been completely debabaged by the previous owner, so my first job was to restore all the badging back.
At the moment it feels a little wrong to remove a badge I had not long applied and I’m still liking it that really confuses people when the see the cali roof and then notice the caravelle badge or when the see it’s caravelle but then notice the California roof.

i was originally thinking on getting a custom model name vinyl made for the rear sides in the same font as Ocean/Beach logo. I thought I had it nailed down with “Coast” keeping it related to the Sea, then dam VW came out with their own California Coast model and I’ve been completely stumped for a new name since. The closest I can think of is Gulf or Shore, but still not 100% convinced on either.
If anyone else can recommend a similar name to Ocean/Beach/Coast I’d love to hear them.

Cliff ?

 

[WelshGas]

Indeed I do, although not applied yet.
Mainly due to when I purchased the van it had been completely debabaged by the previous owner, so my first job was to restore all the badging back.
At the moment it feels a little wrong to remove a badge I had not long applied and I’m still liking it that really confuses people when the see the cali roof and then notice the caravelle badge or when the see it’s caravelle but then notice the California roof.

i was originally thinking on getting a custom model name vinyl made for the rear sides in the same font as Ocean/Beach logo. I thought I had it nailed down with “Coast” keeping it related to the Sea, then dam VW came out with their own California Coast model and I’ve been completely stumped for a new name since. The closest I can think of is Gulf or Shore, but still not 100% convinced on either.
If anyone else can recommend a similar name to Ocean/Beach/Coast I’d love to hear them.

Estuary?

 

[Catbus]

Oh man, this is exactly what ive been looking for, full width bed and pop top. Brilliant, dare i ask the cost so far…

Has my wife hijacked your account, that’s the same question I get asked by her every week

 

[Catbus]

Hi Gary /Catbus

great looking Calivelle

was yours one that got the Alcantra head lining ?

was the original panel over covered with the Alcantra or do they remove the factory covering and replace with Alcantra ?

can you post some photos please, including the front leading edge where the Hatch pushes back into & the sides where it wraps around the profile ?

Yeah sure, ‘Ill see if I have any pics already. If not I’ll take some in the weekend for you.

But as for the headling, as far as I understand from the guys at Kernow is that the front hatch headliner for a Cali is a little different it can’t be used to match up with the Caravelle plastics in the front without small gaps, so the cheapest option is to modify the original Caravelle one to fit (otherwise it’s even more plastics that need replacing), which is why it needed retrimming and it’s far easier to get a clean factory look in Alcantara. Also a custom rear end panel has to be made, again easier to make look better in Alcantara.

However bed headliner came in factory cloth as standard like the Ocean, but they offered a optional upgrade to get this completely redone in Alcantara as well so the whole roof matched, which was a no-brainier for me to take for the nominal cost increase.

 

[larrylamb]

If anyone else can recommend a similar name to Ocean/Beach/Coast I’d love to hear them.

Surf? Tide? Dune? Shore? Bay? Island? Cove?

 

[Dell]

A few more here, Wave, Sea, Water, Sand,

 

[66tim99]

Surf? Dune? Shore?

 

[capt kirk]

sandbank

 

[Ch1pbutty]

- reef
- mystery machine
- notanugget (sorry)

 

[WelshGas]

Indeed I do, although not applied yet.
Mainly due to when I purchased the van it had been completely debabaged by the previous owner, so my first job was to restore all the badging back.
At the moment it feels a little wrong to remove a badge I had not long applied and I’m still liking it that really confuses people when the see the cali roof and then notice the caravelle badge or when the see it’s caravelle but then notice the California roof.

i was originally thinking on getting a custom model name vinyl made for the rear sides in the same font as Ocean/Beach logo. I thought I had it nailed down with “Coast” keeping it related to the Sea, then dam VW came out with their own California Coast model and I’ve been completely stumped for a new name since. The closest I can think of is Gulf or Shore, but still not 100% convinced on either.
If anyone else can recommend a similar name to Ocean/Beach/Coast I’d love to hear them.

Executive Beach.

 

[Perfectos]

Beach Club

 

[Jodalo]

Lagoon?

 

[TheDoc]

Cave

 

[Amarillo]

If anyone else can recommend a similar name to Ocean/Beach/Coast I’d love to hear them.

Calivelle Horizon.