Caravan Rebuild - Part 4

Once all of the down struts had set in place after being well and truly clamped down, I measured and cut the across struts and glued and stapled them in place.  This was done over the course of an evening and a morning.  I only had enough clamps to do half the job one evening and then carry on the following morning to do the second half.  This is what it was starting to look like

Here you can see the plastic corner brackets in place, I bought these from a company called DLS Plastics and managed to get 15 for £5.60 delivered.

The plastic corner brackets weren't put in place until all of the glue had set firm.  Now we had to put all the insulation back into position.

It's really starting to take shape now!  Now for the part that we were dreading, cutting out the ply for the front window section in one piece and getting it to fit.  I had carefully made a paper template and my brother was happy to cut the ply as he said if it was wrong it would be my fault because I had made the template!  Brotherly love eh!


Template laid out on ply and carefully drawn round, Lee cut it out carefully with the jigsaw.  We then positioned this in place and I went outside to draw around the window holes so that they could be cut out, again this was my responsibility because if it was wrong it was my fault!  Hey presto...

We positioned the ply in place to check that it fit and the window holes lined up properly before adding any glue.  It was a tight fit, but a good fit, the sister had done good!  We decided to put the Tigerseal onto the struts rather than the ply as it would be less messy.

We used clamps to hold it down in places as the front is curved we wanted to make sure we made good contact.  We also stapled to the struts.

Like the way the tools are artistically placed?  This was my brother setting the scene!

Clamps in place we had to find something to do whilst the glue was setting.  We decided to move back into the toilet/shower room back quarter.  We glued ply to the back panel as there we some tiny pin prick holes in the aluminium so this would give it support and create a watertight seal with the ply covered in Tigerseal.

Here you can see the wood strip put in place just below the wooden support prop, to screw the grab handle into.

To ensure a good  fix it was supported with timbers.  You can see the replacement wood supports at the bottom that have also been replaced.

We also cut and replaced the upper wood struts

By this point my brother was starting to get despondent and had had enough, I then found this left in the shower room when he left!

Not a good sign!

Even my brother handing in his notice couldn't dampen my spirits, when I looked toward the front of the van I was just too pleased with the outcome to be miserable