damp repairs to kontiki

[Mrsambulancekidd]

Welcome to the OAP Kon-tiki owners club.
Ours is 28 this year.
Robert has done so much in order to bring her up to date gadget wise.
We do use sites, but we also like to wild as in the photo's and Robert has done a great job because we can stand alone for at least two weeks with no lack of 12v power.

 

[griff71]

yours looks lovely, hope i can bring ours back to something resembling that, I had a busy day today, managed to get the floor timbers in on the rear section by the hatch, i also did a bit of fibreglass repairs to a massive split on the skirt and also brazed the rear hatch frame and welded the stepwell. Tomorrow i will continue on as i have to isolate because my partner has covid, thankfully she's not too ill and even though i can do without losing time at work (self employed), at least i'm stocked up on materials to work on the motorhome earlier than i planned.

 

[The Wino]

yours looks lovely, hope i can bring ours back to something resembling that, I had a busy day today, managed to get the floor timbers in on the rear section by the hatch, i also did a bit of fibreglass repairs to a massive split on the skirt and also brazed the rear hatch frame and welded the stepwell. Tomorrow i will continue on as i have to isolate because my partner has covid, thankfully she's not too ill and even though i can do without losing time at work (self employed), at least i'm stocked up on materials to work on the motorhome earlier than i planned.

I think if you're fully jabbed you don't need to isolate just do a lateral flow every day

 

[Mrsambulancekidd]

yours looks lovely, hope i can bring ours back to something resembling that, I had a busy day today, managed to get the floor timbers in on the rear section by the hatch, i also did a bit of fibreglass repairs to a massive split on the skirt and also brazed the rear hatch frame and welded the stepwell. Tomorrow i will continue on as i have to isolate because my partner has covid, thankfully she's not too ill and even though i can do without losing time at work (self employed), at least i'm stocked up on materials to work on the motorhome earlier than i planned.

Looks like you are working hard on it, so I'm sure you will.
How old is yours?

 

[griff71]

ours is 1995 so she's getting on a bit, i'm gonna have to put some work in to get her back to a good condition, once all the damp areas are sorted i'll reseal all the joins and then move on to the interior, remodelling the rear lounge into a permanent bed, painting all the cupboards, re-upholstering the seats, vinyl floor, etc.

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[griff71]

I think if you're fully jabbed you don't need to isolate just do a lateral flow every day

not jabbed so i'm stuck at home working on the motorhome, (which isn't a bad thing really as i've been stockpiling materials since october).

 

[griff71]

had a busy couple of days, multitasking seems to be the key with this job, as i get one bit clamped and epoxied i start other tasks, so far i've fixed the floor, finished framing the walls, boarded the right side of the hatch, welded, primed and stonechipped the step well. fibreglass reinforced and partially filled the damaged skirt, need to rub it all back as its been painted over the gelcoat. also i have started around gas box and main hab door so thats tomorrows job after boarding rest of the walls.
i've noticed the wheelarch is a bit munted on the edges so am trying to source one online but they seem about as common as unicorn shit for the size i'm after. may have to think outside the box for that task but no rush as i already have enough to keep me busy.
it would definitely be easier to build a new motorhome from scratch than repair an old one, i can't get my head round the numpty that designed these as they are made to fail as far as water ingress goes.

 

[griff71]

well after weeks of crap weather i've finally got the skirt all fixed up and back on the van, it was a bit of a mission on my own as its over 4.5metres but with the help of a few clamps i got there in the end, i also managed to get 2 hatches back on and will do the main door tomorrow.
after that i will start on the other side for a repeat of the work i've already done.
the previous owner has painted the van and a bit peeled off when i removed some tape that was covering one of the openings with polythene, so i have decided that next year, (already got too much to do this year!) i will rub the whole van down and paint with the same 2 part polyurethane paint i used on the skirt.
after over a month of wind and rain i'm chucfed to be able to get some headway on the old girl.

 

[TheBig1]

Looks spot on from the photos

 

[griff71]

its not perfect but its better than it was, moment of truth tomorrow when i fit the door.
the paint i used on the skirt is extremely white but next year i'll repaint the van the same colour, so for this year it will be twotone.

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[almichie]

Looks like a tidy job that - the most I’ve experienced was an Avondale caravan we owned for a couple of years - the awning rail and front section seam leaked (didn’t they all?) and had that off and rebuild the inside post repair.

It looks like it should be ready for summer at this rate?

 

[griff71]

probably ready by june as i've still got damp repairs to the other side then a total renovation inside, flooring, decorating, upholstery, etc.

 

[TheBig1]

Looks like a tidy job that - the most I’ve experienced was an Avondale caravan we owned for a couple of years - the awning rail and front section seam leaked (didn’t they all?) and had that off and rebuild the inside post repair.

It looks like it should be ready for summer at this rate?

A friend bought a brand new Avondale caravan. Within a year, a gap appeared behind the sink unit. On inspection at the dealers it was discovered the wall was loose and had distorted. The dealer contacted Avondale and some idiot suggested they put the van on a forklift and squash the van against a wall to straighten it. An even bigger idiot at the dealership did just that, having covered a wall with cardboard to prevent scratches

Avondale eventually took it in and replaced the wall and upgraded the inside to the newer specification after it was mentioned that the owner was a national councillor for a big club. To be fair they did a great job of the proper repair

So no, it's not just motorhomes that are built crap

 

[griff71]

well its been a while so thought i'd do an update, been pretty busy at work so not accomplished as much as i'd hoped on the repairs but i've managed to achieve small goals that keep me focused.
i started attacking the other side and hit problem after problem due to previous owners bodged /quick fixes. i had to remove skirt like on the left side but the rear hatch was glued to it with what i can only describe as the strongest thing known to man, due to the shape of the skirt restricting my ability to get at the glue i decided to just cut the hatch off and rebuild the skirt, so a job that i thought would take 3 hours to get the skirt ready for minor repairs ended up being 4 days of rebuilding with resin and fibres just to get to square one.
anyway i've finally got the skirt repaired, reinforced in several areas, epoxy primed, and undercoated, meanwhile i've also fixed the rear damp/rot areas which were pretty straight forward after my learning curve of the first repair. i then moved on to the front section which contains the boiler, water tank, and also the bathroom, i removed seating and boiler but the shower and water tank were a bit too much for me to pull out and not destroy due to my patience for fiddly tasks being non existant, therefore i decided that for those areas i will cut a piece of grp from outside ade get at it that way, the grp is below the skirt so not seen, easier to epoxy that back on than rebuild bathroom.
anyway, still loads to do, will keep updating when progress is made, i can see light at the end of the tunnel for this stage and i'm actually looking forward to the next stage which is painting and changing the lights, etc before laying the floor.
will post more pics tomorrow as these don't fully show where i'm at now

 

[Swifter]

Thanks for the update . This highlights the lottery of buying a secondhand motorhome. I wonder how many people who own a motorhome could carry out repairs to these standards? Good job . Fabulous work .

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[griff71]

i knew there was work to be done but didn't quite realise the amount, thankfully i'm 80% through the damp repairs.

 

[griff71]

well its been a busy few weeks, finally finished all damp repairs, had a couple of stress cracks to fix so opened up the wall from inside to find a previous owners bodge job, looked like they injected acetone into the wall to melt insulation and then injected a litre of resin into the vois, needless to say it didn't work so i ended up cutting the whole bodge up out and rebuilding the wall area from scratch using my trusty west system epoxy and biaxial fibreglass matting.
after those were done i turned my attention to the cloth ceiling, decided it had to go and started cutting it off only to find it held in place with infinite amounts of staples, painstakingly i have removed several kilos of staples and filled the holes and gouges. i wish the guy in charge of the staple gun had been on mastic duty at the factory coz the mastic guy was a bit thrifty with his materials!!
i also discovered a few small leaks in the roof so i've filled all the tiny holes, used 2 coats of interprotect and am part way through painting a marine non slip decking paint. i also decided to fit a ceiling fan after discovering wires hiding inside one of my skylights.
another job i've made progress on is painting the cupboard doors, will also start painting the ceiling once i've sanded filler down.
starting to make a bit of headway now that all the structural repairs are finished, hopefully i get it done in time to have at least one trip this summer!

 

[griff71]

got a bit more done the last 2 weeks, painted one side and got the inside rear almost ready to build a bed. it got to 46° in the van whilst i was glueing the rubber flooring down, needless to say i'm quite high now. aalso layed some peel n stick vinyl to the walls, just a bit of trim to put around the corners and ready for putting all lights and cupboards back together.
should be able to get cracking on the kitchen area soon.
also got all new vents, window rubbers, etc to put on the painted side before turning van round and repeating that process again.

 

[Lenny HB]

Only just caught up with this thread, what a brilliant job you have you should get quite a good few years out of the old girl now.

I have replaced interior walls on a caravan in the past but nothing like the scale you have done.

 

[griff71]

its been a mission to be fair, every job i start seems to grow into a lot more than i anticipated. but i'm getting there now, still got drivers side, rear and over cab to paint externally but 90% of the major repairs are done so the painting will be easier than what i've had to deal with so far (i've probably jinxed myself now )
one thing that pissed me off was all the cupboard doors, i cleaned, sanded, primed, painted and topcoated them all but needed to make space so i stacked 15 of them together and they all stuck together and ripped chunks out of each other when i seperated them. the paints had been on for a few weeks so i was a bit surprised and totally gutted when that happened. back to square one there but i'm not going to dwell on it, 12 cans of stella that night and a lot of cussing and i'. over it.

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[jockaneezer]

Could I ask what sort of paint you're using and how are you applying it please griff71 ?

 

[dazandandrea]

Doing a cracking job there griff. Hope its not too hot for you at the minute.

 

[griff71]

Could I ask what sort of paint you're using and how are you applying it please griff71 ?

for the outside i opted for a marine 2 pack polyurethane paint, there was a lot of holes to plug first which i did from inside using west system epoxy and biaxial fibre cloth. i sealed outside with a marine epoxy primer call interprotect then did 2 coats of international perfection undercoat and 4 coats of the top coat, should have been 3 but i messed up the 3rd coat, this paint is great but its not easy to work with and it eats rollers, on my 3rd coat i had a roller melt within a couple of minutes which wrecked the finish.

 

[griff71]

Doing a cracking job there griff. Hope its not too hot for you at the minute.

its quite hot inside while i been doing the vinyl, went in again today to finish the rubber flooring that will eventually form the boot, sealed all joints with black pu40. one step closer.
ready to make the bed frame now.

 

[jockaneezer]

I find some of those cheap foam mini rollers don't last 5 minutes with some paints. I buy the pretend lambswool ones from Toolstation now, they seem to last longer, but I'm only painting steelwork or machinery with them so the finish isn't too important.

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[griff71]

I find some of those cheap foam mini rollers don't last 5 minutes with some paints. I buy the pretend lambswool ones from Toolstation now, they seem to last longer, but I'm only painting steelwork or machinery with them so the finish isn't too important.

yeah i tried the more expensive rollers from a boat chandlers which are meant to be solvent resistant but i find them hit n miss, i've also tried the toolstation ones, they don't seem to disentigrate but they hold too much paint and cause runs which is a big problem with the paint i used, its very thin and needs to be layed on thin.
the paint job isn't perfect but its way better than it was so i can live with that, i will be putting some vinyl decals on so that will help camouflage my worst bits.

 

[griff71]

almost finished replacing and refitting all the vents, windows, etc, on the newly painted side, just the fridge flue and kitchen extractor left and ribber screw cover strips to put on. giong to have to replace all screws i used as the heads are a bit too wide for the screw cover strips, no biggie but a slight inconvenience.
weather has turned to crap so gonna have a chilled weekend and relax for a change before painting the opposite side.

 

[Lenny HB]

Looking good.

 

[monzer]

Must take a great deal of satisfaction out of all the work you have done.

Well done and this thread should be a bookmark for the countless others who have found issues with damp.

 

[griff71]

Must take a great deal of satisfaction out of all the work you have done.

Well done and this thread should be a bookmark for the countless others who have found issues with damp.

thanks, yeah it is satisfying, especially now as its starting to take shape, the initial damp repairs were quite soul destroying because hours of work shows little results but as i'm now past that stage and painting/putting certain finishing touches in place its deffo a boost.
i was quite down about the whole thing at one point as the amount of work to do was quite daunting but i've now broke it down into smaller tasks and once one is complete it is an achieved goal which psychologically helps boost my enthusiasm and keeps me going.

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