Caravan Rebuild - Part 3

So everything had been glued at the front right hand quarter, the ply that had been removed came off in one piece but it had been too small for the area it covered so when we used it as a template we needed to measure carefully in certain areas to ensure we made it a little bigger to ensure a good fit - not an easy task.

Ply nicely fitted, you can also see we've taken a look at the right hand corner, replacing wooden timber, now the  insulation will be glued to the ply then glued and stapled to the wooden corner frame

We were really chuffed with the outcome of cutting the ply, there were so many angles to get right the likelihood of it fitting wasn't good but it did!  To get the wires through the ply we used some electrical tape to secure garden string to wires and used it to pull the wires through the small hole made in the ply.  Tigerseal was added to the back of the ply before pushing into position.  To get the ply tucked nicely under the window seal without having to remove it, I used a trick found on the Wizards Caravan Repair Site, I put garden string under the seal and gently pulled it up, lifting the seal over the ply whilst pushing the ply down at the same time.  Worked a treat.  We then stapled the ply in place along the struts that we had marked out on the ply before fitting, and stapled the ply down underneath the window seal.


Now this was in place we could but the wooden down struts in on the front window section, as we needed the ply in on right before we could secure one of the down struts on at the side.  The down struts were Tigersealed, stapled to the across struts at top and corner braces were used as well for good measure.  Whilst the tiger seal was setting the down struts were held in place with clamps.  When removed this is what it looked like, at this point there are no windows in the van.

Here you can see the additional ply section that was fitted just above the window, so all right side covered..  You can also see the new down strut on the right hand side.

The top struts were screwed into the wooden plinth above.  This pushes right back into the front of the caravan and awning rail screws mount in this.  When removing it for rebuild we noticed that the caravan guy hadn't managed to get it back  into position properly so the awning rail at front hadn't been screwed into anything!

Here you can see exactly how we pulled the wires through, and the corner repair with ply on.  The staples will be removed before painting once the glue has set.