Exterior

Ok here are some exterior pics from when we first got her

The badge...this is what makes us all feel a little glow. I have no idea why, we had no idea what a Viking Fibreline was until last week and now we all get squidgy about it...how bizarre, people keep telling us it's middle age creeping in...who cares, we like it!!

Here is the first set of conundrums and considerations. Below the bead, the substrate looks like a sort of fibreglass that is metal in colour but has a sort of plastic feel to the top layer (forget the paint I'm talking top layer of substrate). So we are assuming until told different that this is fibreglass. Above that bead sounds feels and looks like aluminium, but we keep talking to people and they keep saying "Ahhh yes, of course the fibreline was all fibreglass" so are we mad? Are we misreading the surface? There is a lot more of the original paint adhering to this area and I'll be honest, aluminium isn't a substrate that I normally work with and I keep wondering how I'd check this theory. I know if you put aluminium through the dishwasher it gets a white film on it....haven't even got a dishwasher, never mind one that will take a full size caravan. OK, silly idea.

Here's another pic and you can see under the right hand window a joint...would that happen with fibreglass? Unlikely I would think. Can you see the texture change between the 2 areas? I've perhaps made the pic too low res. The two look, feel and sound totally different.

OK, while I'm here I have a question about the jointing trim. We intend removing the trim and removing any gunk and gunge underneath...well, we keep reading about gunk and gunge under this type of jointing area...mainly newer vans. We haven't started this...just in case the van falls apart when we do this. We will check first honest. We will obviously have to try and find some rubbers that will fit the trim.

And before you dash off to look at the interior - in the next post - have a think about the windows. You can see them, they are the old aluminium ones and the rubber around the "glass" is quite cracked. I am currently just removing the mildew from the rubber and wondering how we can feed it to keep it sound in the meantime. There is water ingress from the centre window (which opens) on the front of the van but none from the 4 sealed units (the 2 curved windows and those next to them). This makes me think that even if the rubber is a little perished that it is more likely the actual window seal as opposed to the glass seal that is causing these problems.