Discoveries

Well we haven't got much further with "doing" but a bit further on with understanding a few things to do with how the van is made and what the next steps are to be.

The van's were originally designed and made in South Africa. The base and lid are of fibreglass, but as I suggested, the centre is aluminium. That is the area that the windows are set into.
The chassis is painted steel. We need to get underneath first. It all looks pretty good but with a Haynes manual in hand I shall be scrabbling beneath to get everything lubricated and greased...also make sure none of the rust gets any worse...most of that is on the side supports and isn't deep. Not really looking forward to that part.

A trip to Perthshire Caravan Company near Errol was enlightening too...looks like all our everyday needs and also some less usual ones can be found locally.
One of the first things to do will be to buy and fit the plastic that trims round the windows and to get some draught excluding typ product to seal up the windows. You can see how cracked the plastic is and how badly the water has damaged the area ...this is about the worst and can be easily repaired but it looks very sad just now.



We can get the plastic by the metre from Perthshire Caravans, we can buy new window closers too and so all I need to search for in the DIY stores is a way to increase the seal on the window as it is closed and as I say, a draught excluder type material might just be the thing. Anyone know better, let me know.
meantime please enjoy some more pictures of the damage to the sills




This last looks worse than it is I reckon. there has been no carch on this window for a long time but the really black, black is actually what oak does when it gets wet. It's the tannins. None of this is spongy rotton wood. I think the saving grace for this bit has been that the van has sat at a slant..and this has been the back end of the slant.