Caravan Rebuild - Part 1

Caravan purchased, my Dad very kindly offered to tow it home for us whilst visiting for the weekend.  It was a nervous drive home, not for Dad but for me.  I had visions of getting home only to find the caravan had disintegrated on the way there.  Fortunately it hadn't and there was no smell of burning rubber either, so the chassis suspension appeared okay.  Dad and Dan Forman my brother, positioned it expertly on the drive and then promptly began to gasp at the amount of work to be done internally and externally.


Unfortunately I didn't take any photo's before I started ripping out the caravan guys handy work at the front of the caravan, unfortunately when we had got it home and in the light we found a large wet patch above the front window behind the curtain - so if I was going to do this job properly I needed to unveil and take a look at the damage.  It was easy removing the window seals as he had put them back in after his attempt at repair without any mastic or silicone sealant, was this the reason the windows had leaked and there was a visible wet mark on the replacement ply!  Ripping out the ply was easy, he had tacked it in place without adhesive.  The wooden struts I found were new in parts with older ones in others and caravan guy had used expanding foam as insulation which was very difficult to remove and my hands suffered as a consequence.  The following photos are a sequence of the strip down....



A combination of new, old and rotten struts!

 In the last photograph you can see all of the struts removed and a couple of old wood struts that are used to keep the windows in place and shut.

At the same time we started to unveil the damp in the shower room/toilet in the back quarter of the van...

 In fairness this looks quite tame compared to the window section at the front.  Also just below the front window section on the right hand side there is some work to do.

So with the unveiling complete after the strip down we were certainly in need of a stiff drink....luckily the drinks cabinet was fully stocked.

Rebuild Part Two to follow shortly