Painting the Outside

[Drexel]

Update - I haven't been on here since October but have popped on to say, Rosalyn, your fears have been confirmed. The van wasn't damp - it was soaking. When the habitation guy checked it the damp meter bleeped 99% virtually everywhere he checked. He recommended his Uncle to repair the leaks & do what was necessary but when he looked at it, he shook his head & said it was too bad for him to do. So... hubby has decided that we have to do the work ourselves & try & salvage it. On a positive note, we own a joinery workshop & the guys that work for us seem quite happy to work on it inbetween jobs. First of all I'm taking it to our mechanic to give it a thorough check over to ensure it will pass the MOT as there's no point in doing all the work necessary if it is going to fail. It has low mileage so hopefully this starting point will give us the incentive to keep going. Weather is looking good here atm so repairing the roof is our first port of call. Under closer inspection there was duct tape along both top rails at the edge & another patch with a hole covered in duct tape painted over. We should have closely inspected these things before buying - because I half knew the person, I didn't think they would sell us rubbish. Perhaps he thought he'd it all sorted - I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt but the blackness in the roof when we peeled it back shows it's been leaking for years. Next step is to completely strip everything out & take it to the bare bones & start with cleaning / drying & then insulation followed by 3mm ply. I'm going to be doing a blog post on our website when I get to the end of the project (if we're successful) so I will post a link here when done for you guys to see. Painting the outside of it seems like an easy job after all the initial disappointment in buying a white elephant :-(
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hi Dotplus6
i had to reply to this because its so similar to my experience ,firstly im new to motorhomes and to this site
in September i bought what seemed like and i still think is a good bargain of a camper it was a 1995 Swift Royale 640 in very clean and tidy condition but i noticed some paper peeling in back corner but wasn't over concerned has im quite hands on and a carpenter so went ahead and bought the bargain but soon realized that the damp in the rear corner was every where and had no choice but to start ripping out ,anyway once all rear,side and roof were out i could see little pin holes in places in the roof and that was the leak or few leaks , after feeling like taking it to the scrap yard i researched and came up with a great solution for the roof ,i applied a aluminium suitable flexible mastic /glue to 30 mm wide dpc roll and then using a roller rolled over it until it was smooth and flat to the roof then kept doing the same until the internal roof was covered ,then supported the roof so i could go on top and smooth over and bits that had squeezed through (later i painted the roof with good quality primer and white paint ) after this it felt has though at least i was heading in the right direction ,using the measurements of the spongy panels i ripped out i have replace the roof /back and sides with treated timbers ,30 mm insulating sheets and 3 mm ply which was then papered and painted , but a note of cation is that i measured and copied all fitting i took out the cupboards were a true pain to get back and only tricks i learnt from fitting kitchens enable me to get a decent finish ,but its back on the road and me and the family are looking forward to a good few years of holidays ,ps i joined this site because a good friend recommended that it would be a good place to find solutions to a few problems i still have ,so i will be asking loads of questions soon mainly about electrics ,and Dotplus6 dont loose heart its doable once you accept its not an easy fix

 

[Dotplus6]

Just a little update - the person we bought the camper off heard about the damp (from a relative) & phoned me up quite annoyed - when they'd bought it it had damp & they thought they'd fixed it. She gave me back £1500 towards the costs of fixing it. I did put it through the MOT & it passed & the mechanic said that those old engines should do over 300k so happy to proceed with the renovation - still haven't began the work as we've been too busy but hoping to start next week. Thanks to everyone for their useful comments!

 

[Drexel]

Just a little update - the person we bought the camper off heard about the damp (from a relative) & phoned me up quite annoyed - when they'd bought it it had damp & they thought they'd fixed it. She gave me back £1500 towards the costs of fixing it. I did put it through the MOT & it passed & the mechanic said that those old engines should do over 300k so happy to proceed with the renovation - still haven't began the work as we've been too busy but hoping to start next week. Thanks to everyone for their useful comments!

Thats a great result and very decent of the seller ,i think the fella who sold me mine went out to celerbrate has i drove away and then changed his number or maybe emigrated