What have you fixed on your motorhome this week?

[Gromett]

I'm quite spoilt really as I have a choice of places to go too. I really feel for you as it's no fun working in those conditions. Just take care with it all and stay safe please, especially using the jack etc, we don't want a squished @Gromett do we!!!

I am paranoid on safety... Full safety gear even when grinding easy stuff. faceshield, safety goggles, welding jacket and gauntlets etc etc... Double up on axle stands and leave the jack in place as well as blocks. Fortunately even if the van falls off the stands it won't squish me as I am leaving the wheels on and I can easily get under the van even off the stands. The stands are just to give me a bit of extra height, I could actually do the job without...

 

[Guigsy]

Replaced both the sky lights.

Front one made a ping noise on the motorway a couple of weeks ago and started flapping in the wind. Two of the lugs that keep the top dome on had snapped off. The dome was all yellowed and covered in a spiderweb of cracks, so it'd obviously gone brittle from UV damage. Rest of the trip we had strips of gaffer across the width of the roof because the damned thing uses torx screws and I didn't have a T10 bit in my mobile toolkit...

The rear skylight over the bed has been changed from a dome to a flip-up. This is mainly because the solar panel I fitted a few weeks ago is way too big and was an 'interference fit' against the rear skylight dome. A flip-up skylight has a far smaller foot-print. With the added bonus that I can now open it all the way and look up at the stars...

Pretty much took a full day to do both skylights. Removing the old and perished sealant was most of the work. I'm shocked that the old vents weren't leaking.

Interesting fact: If you are skinny enough, it's possible to stand on a step inside the van and tidy up the sealant edges of a 400mm roof vent with the frame around your waist and your upper body poking through the roof for the neighbours to confirm you are indeed, bonkers... and then can bleed over everything when you slip and nearly puncture a nipple on an exposed frame clamp when you half fall back through. Although in my experience, if you don't bleed on it, you didn't make a sacrifice to the DIY gods and it'll break again next week.

 

[rangi]

Fitted a courtesy light in the hab door foot well today and started giving the upholstery a shampoo, just did the Passengers seat as a trial to see if the cleaner I have is any good.

Will know tomorrow when it has dried

 

[Gromett]

Tried to get the inner panel that connects to the inner sill removed today. All going well apart from the around the strut that connects the chassis to the inner sill.. I can't get any of my tools in to get at the spot welds to remove it cleanly. So I have taken some pictures and video and will be having a think about that tonight.

In the meantime I decided to get the front end of the sliding door sill removed and cleaned up. Lots of grinding, cutting and sanding but have it close to ready on the outside now. Tomorrow will be removing the inner panel and cleaning up the backside of this area... If it comes out cleanly I can cut the new inner sill panel and get that prepped for welding in.

I still need to bend this area back into shape and clean a little bit of rust off the outside and treat it. just applied a coat of zinc primer to keep it clean in the meantime. The orange stuff is the bonding sealant they used to stick the panels together. I will also be cleaning this off tomorrow as well.

 

[LOOSE WHEEL]

Common problem I know but the step was not going up on start up after checking fuse next to battry chasing all wireing behind draws changing relays etc found it to be switch on side of step a good drowning with WD 40 and it works fine. Autotrail

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[lawry]

fitted a boom table behind pass seat

 

[Gromett]

Got the other end of the sill removed today and cleaned up. The bit that you can see overlapping (underlapping?) is the inner sill which will all be removed and replaced with a fresh piece of galvanised steel which will have a profile cut on the end to match the step down you can see towards the lower centre of the picture.

I am going to have to spend some time tomorrow gouging out the insulation you can see in the gap. I then have to clean up this area and straighten the metal so that the new sill can be cut to shape and leave minimal gaps for welding.

The sill behind is on the list for replacement but this will have to wait until I get the door section completed..

This is the outrigger that runs from the chassis to the inner sill panel. I have managed to get most of the inner sill removed enough so that I can get the replacement in.
Gave it a quick treatment of Dinitrol 800 to convert the rust. Will be going back in tomorrow with my dremel to clean out the rest of the flakey stuff and recoating again.

It was a bit of a hack and slay job to get access to it. But once I can take the inner sill off I can get better access to cut this neater. Currently I have the bottom half of the inner sill cut off to allow some access but had to leave the top part in place as it is what the door seal is attached to. This is the disadvantage of being a fulltimer, I can't just welly on with the job. I need to keep the van liveable while working on it..

Getting there.

Tomorrow I will be removing the rest of the inner panel and start to get the new panel marked and cut ready for fitting.

It looks like Friday will be the day it all starts coming together again

 

[Gromett]

Whoohoo. My boroscope just arrived. I can start inspecting inside the hidden bits to see what else needs doing..



Handy tool. £20 and a long semi flexible fibre optic camera so I can view it via wifi on my tablet... Nice large screen and a very long neck on it. Will post some pictures once I unpack it and set it up.

 

[Tykatem]

Finally got round to removing and replacing the rear quarter panel on my motorhome. It was damaged whilst parked up in daylight on the road outside my home. It would seem that someone bumped into me without my knowing and leaving the damage as shown.

After getting hold of a replacement panel I removed the damaged part...

And with the help of a tube of Soudal Fix all "job's a gud un"

Pete

 

[mpdcymru]

Just fitted a replacement remis blind to the passenger door - easy enough but had to wait a long time for the replacement part.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[maison]

Common problem I know but the step was not going up on start up after checking fuse next to battry chasing all wireing behind draws changing relays etc found it to be switch on side of step a good drowning with WD 40 and it works fine. Autotrail
View attachment 187142 View attachment 187143

Have had the same problem a couple of times.

It's tempting to leave the "protective " cover off afterwards as removing and replacing it takes much longer than a quick wipe with a brush and a spray with silicone lubricant.

 

[Allanm]

In the process of washing the van, I knocked one of the top front marker lamps with the brush and the plastic lens fell off, smashing into a thousand pieces ( well, four, but a thousand sounds more dramatic!) I managed to glue it all back together and fit it back on with a length of Gorilla Tape. Two new lenses ordered and should be waiting for me when we get back to the UK on Sunday.

 

[Gromett]

The back doors on my van are well battered and have a really crappy DIY paint job. Time to clean it up.

The bottom half is hammered blue hammerite. The top half will be cleaned up and vinyl wrapped in a gloss white.
I then have some 1" red reflective tape to go across the border of the two to make it neat.

I will then be stripping the framework of the racking back to bare metal and giving them a fresh coat of White hammerite.
And redoing the petrol can in fresh red..

I have a new high level brake light on it's way so I can clean up the top ledge and fit it to a nice clean surface.

 

[WillH]

The entrance handrail in the van has been getting a bit loose for a while and I have been putting the job off. Got round to it today, first disconnect and remove the fridge (I kid you not), took over an hour because of sheared screws etc. Tighten up the handrail, one minute. Replace the fridge another hour, the foam needed re-positioning, vents cleaned, draught proofing renewed, sheared screws removed. Total 3 hours to tighten one screw!

 

[PP Bear]

Heading out for a long weekend to South Wales, so a full valet, wash & wax then gave this a try and see if it’s any good.

Comes up very shiny I have to say

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Wildbill]

not so much today but over a few weeks new head lining all rotten wood removed and replaced
bill

 

[Rockcrawler]

Heading out for a long weekend to South Wales, so a full valet, wash & wax then gave this a try and see if it’s any good.

Comes up very shiny I have to say
View attachment 188636 View attachment 188637 View attachment 188638 View attachment 188639 View attachment 188640

Bit of a tight squeeze in your garage

 

[LOOSE WHEEL]

Nothing it passed m o t

 

[gus-lopez]

replaced the cover strip over screws in all the aluminium rails.
Had front wheels rebalanced ( free ! ) after knocking a weight off.

 

[ROB1CHELSEA1]

Fitted a Waeco coolfreeze in my garage.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[David mcclinton]

Put van into garage in Blantyre for gearbox rebuild could not find another box anywhere but thanks to seeing a post on here it's getting sorted

 

[tonyandcarol]

Carver fan master been playing up for weeks took it out and stripped it down. had another one that was faulty and made one good one from the two.

 

[Janine]

The ball on the end of the gearbox linkage had worn through so we couldn't get 1st gear.

Quick Google and £4.95 spent at the local Vw dealer got us climbing the Welsh mountains again

 

[Dilbert]

MOT passed this week And cured the bad running/ over fuelling on tickover by cleaning the pressure switch on the fuel rail ( petrol boxer) just need a good wash and sorting out the peeling faded coach lines .might get a heat gun to get them off and see what it looks like( auto sleeper plastic body) any suggestions?

 

[Emmit]

Sorry for the length of this.

The first part of this story has been done in the past but I thought, because I've revisited the window, the latest 'fix' could be useful to Funsters.

When we bought the Hobby, we missed things that we should have seen when viewing it. One which could have been serious as it was so subtle was there was a very thin bead of sealant on the top of the outside on one of the windows. Why? thought I?

I went inside and decided to remove the window to get to the bottom of it.
First thing to do was to remove the recessed cup screw covers. Scratched my head for a while as the covers sit flush and 'male' to the window frame. The answer? Insert a safety pin through the cover at it's edge (It may be necessary to hold the pin with a pair of pliers if you're not blessed with 'hard' fingers) Skewer the cap, twist and the cover comes out of its hole.

Next, remove the 16??? Screws holding the outside of the window to the inside cover of the window which incorporates the flyscreen and blind. That done I discovered why a previous owner had put the sealant on the outside( Can't blame the Dealer, the sealant was manky and was cracking away from the outside wall/window. It was an old fix)

There was the dreaded water ingress at the top of the window that had obviously come through the friction fit between the window and outside skin. This was slightly exacerbated because the outside walls of the Hobby are curved and so, if there isn't a perfect fit, water can get in between the frame of the window and the wall.

Fortunately the ingress was minimal and, when I found it, the weather was dry and I was able to allow the inside wall to dry out which it did quickly.

I then put the inside window cover back in place and started to screw those sixteen screws back into place. It was then that I came across both the reason I had got the ingress and the reason the sealant was there.

A couple of the screws refused to tighten up. When I got down to the final turn, the screws just went around and around. Obviously, as they were at the top of the window, a tiny gap had appeared on the outside which allowed very slight water access. Hence the sealant.

The fix.

The screws used by Hobby are 2" x 8 threaded throughout their length. The threads are not very aggressive and the head of the screw seems of a narrow diameter. I bought a few 2" x 10 screws. They are obviously 'thicker'. However, the shaft of the screw is the same diameter, It's the actual threads which created the extra width of the screw itself.

However, the head of the actual screw itself was broader than the original screw and furthermore wouldn't go down the 'female' hole where the screw was housed.

The answer was quite simple. I got the hand held angle grinder and with it whizzing (technical term), I played the edge of the screw head on the grinder, turning it as I did so and by doing so reduced the diameter of the new screw head to that of the old one. The last bit could be done of course with a screw held in vice and filed down with a file. Once it was down to the correct diameter, I was able to screw up the window.

Before I tightened up the screws however, I employed something on the outside window to ensure that water ingress would not longer be a problem. I bought a tube of 'Captain Tolleys Creeping Crack Cure' This is a liquid sealant that works through capillary action so, if there is the slightest gap between the surfaces of the window and the outside wall, the sealant is sucked into the crack where it seals and hardens remaining malleable. That's what I did to the 'van. I applied the sealant on the outside, went inside and screwed up the window. Job done.

This week I revisited the window because I had to adjust the tension between the fly screen and the blind. Good news, the inside of the window frame was dry. The not so good news, another screw was turning without biting. It was a simple task to grind down another screw and re tighten. The outside window remained hard up against the wall. Job done.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[lawry]

Ran out of Guiness Quick trip to Asda (30 for £21) fixed it

 

[Phillybarbour]

Nothing - bought my third new motorhome last week and there is no faults, that's a first. Also my first Globecar.

 

[tonyandcarol]

Carver fanmaster i built out of 2 faullty ones did not last long so bought another one of ebay and fitted it at the weekend works a treat.

 

[1_man_and_his_dob(lo)]

Not exactly on the motorhome...but the utility tent on the back of my campervan had a fight with the strong winds at St. David's C&CC site a few weeks ago....and lost.

So this weekend I fixed this bit:

Now I just need to work out how to fix this :

 

[Minxy]

Not exactly on the motorhome...but the utility tent on the back of my campervan had a fight with the strong winds at St. David's C&CC site a few weeks ago....and lost.

So this weekend I fixed this bit:
View attachment 191287

Now I just need to work out how to fix this :
View attachment 191288

Just needs sewing back doesn't it? Bring it here and I'll do it for you.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}