HI all, I am Rob (37) and based near Grimsby in Lincolnshire.
Recently my wife and i decided to invest in a caravan to help bring down the costs of family holidays for us, our two kids and two dogs.
We had limited funds and thought we would buy something that we could do some minor cosmetic work and restyle the interior to my wife's design.
We eventually found on a well known auction site a early 80's classic Mustang International.
My wife's Grandad was a founding partner in both Abbey & Autotrail brands and after a little research we found out that he was the sales manager at Mustang at the time that our van was built, with my wife being very sentimental we knew this van was the 'one'.
The advert stated the van was very solid with NO damp issues, i decide to call the seller and ask him numerous questions about the van, based on his answers and the wording in the ad we decided to not go and view the van and made him an offer there and then over the phone.
As we currently do not have a towbar on our car the seller offered to deliver the van for a small reasonable cost, when it turned up we had a quick look around and could see nothing to concern us......
How wrong we where.
The next day we had some rain and i decide to have a mooch around in the van to get an idea of what was needed. at this point i noticed drops of water on the roof lining near the skylight, the lining felt solid enough but was very wet. I set about removing the skylight and found the mastic had dried out and in some places was almost non-existent, but more alarmingly the wood around the skylight was sodden and rotten. We had a bit of a crisis/management meeting and decided to remove the roof lining and set about a repair. I made a new frame section for the roof and resealed the skylight, also replaced the roof lining section with some new 3.6mm ply as we are planning to paper. All the old wood that was not needing to be replaced was treated with wood preserver along with the new wood.
Unfortunately this was just the start of our damp ordeal.
After finding the issue with the roof i decided to have a good poke around in seat bases & cupboards to make sure there was no more problems........oh my was there.
In the rear corner in the seat base wall the wall look uneven, i gave it a tap with a screwdriver end and the driver disappeared, all that was holding the wall up was the vinyl covering, the play had completely disintegrated. I removed what was left of the wall covering and revealed a big can of worms.
This has been repaired with new curved frame sections being made and support batons also.
I would like to say that the van is now solid but unfortunately during my poke around i noticed a panel in the front corner that had been repaired, now being very suspicious of this van i set about removing this panel and there it was again...more rot & damp.
As things currently stand i have the full lower aluminium outer skin off on the side so i can gain proper access to the rotten timbers and renew/repair where necessary, i am too far in now to give up and the feeling of hopefully satisfaction & pride we will have when we go for our first trip away in the van is keeping us going.
Quote: Originally posted by drcrump on 01/1/2014
Does anyone know how to get my pictures to show, as it just gives me a blue box with a question mark in.
See here, or you could put the pictures in your Profile Gallery, which might be easier.
Welcome to UKCS, and best of luck with your project!
There are some really rotten people out there, it makes me so mad.
Well done on being so upbeat about it all. Good luck with the repairs, and I hope you and your family have many years of happy holidays in your caravan.
Thanks ever so much for the excellent advice, i was using Flickr but have changed to Photobucket and it is soooo much easier.
I have managed to upload a few images of the first bit of rot we found in the rear corner.
More images to come in future posts.
Thanks again
Rob
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Here are the latest images and also a shot of the new ceiling panel, unfortunately i didnt get any images of the rotten skylight frame, mainly because at the time i didnt realise the enormity of the task ahead of me.
looks like you have done a great job we bought a motorhome last year and are contemplating doing it up but I think it will need gutting not a job we are looking forward to doing
I must admit, the idea of taking this on was really daunting but once i reached the point of no return it has turned out to be very enjoyable and also quite therapeutic.
I have a long back ground in mechanical maintenance on cars & plant machinery which has helped. The other plus side is that i have been able to add to my power tool collection which is always a bonus.
My advice would be go for it.
Well its been a long long time since I last posted but the old van is alive and kicking again and was used for the first time at the weekend at Tattershall Lakes.
A few minor tweaks to sort out now I'm back but she towed fab and I slept like a baby.
The outside has been fully repainted using Jotum Epoxy 2 pack primer & the top coat colours are both Jotum 2 pack Polyurethane paints. basically its Yacht paint, not particularly cheap but gives an excellent finish even when applied using a roller.
another positive is that all the new electrics I installed work as well as the gas oven & hob, I even had lovely cold cider in the fridge thanks to my 240-12v inverter powering the fridge.
Some more even better news is that due to the extent of the damage we found we decided to persue the seller for a partial refund, he refused so we took him to small claims court and the Judge ruled in our favour (Bonus !!)
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Classic Mustang with DAMP!
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