So new to the Caravaning world and we recently purchased a Coachman Pastiche 2000 500/5. We knew there was a little patch of damp due to a soft wall however as we have investigated its gone from a small issue to quite a big one. Both rear top corners have cracks along the corner length and one side has lost the plastic section used to attach to the body. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to fix this?
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I've got a 2004 pastiche. I'm afraid if my van had problems like that it would be going to the caravan breakers for peanuts. Even if you did the work yourself with the cost of parts/materials it's a major job. My caravan is only worth £1500 so not worth spending possibly a minimum of £1000 and a hell of a lot of hours on the project it would have to go. As much as I love my pastiche I'd have say bye bye to it. Sorry buts that my opinion others may say different. Just one other thing, well done Birdman for finding a new rear panel. Mick.
The new back panel Birdman found at £575 you might find that if you made a silly offer of £200 you may get it. They may think we've had it stock for along time and who else is going to buy it. Worth a try but only if you are ready to buy it and put the
hours in to fitting it. Best of luck. Mick.
Not a lot of good news to bring from me either I'm afraid! Others have really said it already.
Damp damage in caravans is like the proverbial iceberg, what you see on the surface is inevitably only 10% of what you find when looking deeper and stripping down panels!
A van of that age has quite limited open market value, even if pristine, but significantly depressed value if major damp repairs have been necessary (and it would appear to be pretty much as major as it gets!). It'd be difficult to justify the material costs and labour hours to repair as a DIY project with expectations of selling on at any point and covering those costs. As a professional/paid for repair, just out of the question, a van half that age would probably be close to a write off for professional repair!
Those sorts of projects are done as solely DIY enterprises with the satisfaction of resurrecting it as the only reward, and expecting to put many, many, man hours, and some sizeable money into materials, to achieved an end result that is only as good as your renovation skills! People do do it successfully, and it's not impossible, but is a big task and requires some good skills.
As a use it as-is/bodge it up and scrap later use, some consideration should be given to health aspects. With damp, usually comes mould, and mould spores can be seriously hazardous to health when inhaled!
Difficult decision time, probably worth spending a little time pondering viability and cost of DIY repair, IF you have the skills/time/motivation/workspace (you'll likely need undercover dry workspace to replace/repair the end moulding!), otherwise sell on as a project for someone else (if cabinets/fittings/appliances in very good order, there is a market for them with people doing renovations/DIY custom camper builds), or just scrap it!
If you plan to do it yourself - there is a caravan DIY group on Facebook, its called DIY caravan repairs & manintenance (can't post a link) I'm sure they will have lots of suggestions.
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Topic: Newbie with Damp Coachman
via mobile 01/9/2024 at 9:14pm
