As most of you know that after crashing the last caravan that I had rebuilt, (getting side swiped by a road train is not a nice experience!) we decided to buy another and rebuild that using much of the old caravan as was possible.
The replacement van was a little longer and possibly older but I thought this would not matter much! On getting it home I measured it! It turned out it was not only longer but also narrower! To anyone silly enough to attempt this project of using one van to rebuild another, this means every cupboard and sheet has to altered, cut to fit and used so that fixing holes don’t come in the wrong place and show! This makes the job ten times as difficult, one great big jigsaw puzzle!!!!
I was lucky that I had about one and half sheets of grey left over after building the old van!
I noted water had been getting in and damaging the panels inside. So on starting the project, the whole inside was stripped out and 99% of the lining sheets replaced with new plastic coated grey panels made from the first van. To my amazement I used every inch of the old van panelling and the new sheets left over to cover the inside of caravan number 2!!!
The best surviving windows were put to use as they were bigger than the ones fitted in van 2. The windows were all made to open and close correctly.
I set too and built a new kitchen cupboard and fitted the stove and fridge from the first van. It was quite difficult to get the kitchen unit to fit between the end of the single beds and leave enough room for a double bed at the other end. We left in the single beds and a cupboard with 4 draws in place but they were re-panelled, and new drawers were made to fit under the beds and eventually a table made to fix between the 2 single beds.
The wardrobe received new sheeting and was extended to make a storage cupboard near the doorway using the wardrobe door from the first van.
The system of how to fold up the double bed to make a sofa and leave storage underneath was worked out and made, using some of the parts of the bed from caravan number one. While replacing the end ceiling panels I replaced the electric lights for the more modern ones. Over the double bed I built storage cupboards using doors from the first van. Nothing fitted! I had to alter every door, just as I had had to do with the kitchen cupboard doors!
The pop-top, had fairly new canvas and nice new white ceiling panels that had been replaced recently. This would be ok to leave as it was I thought! I was sadly mistaken!! One day while closing the pop-top, it broke, splitting the white panels! As I looked at it I found it had been very badly done! No wonder it had fallen to bits!!! So waiting for fine weather I now took the whole thing to pieces and remade it using extra beams from the other van roof. I hope it is now considerably stronger and with no hardboard panelling showing to the weather, (all outside stuff is now aluminium.) The new ceiling sheets were painted as it was made and I was very pleased with the result.
The vinyl flooring in the old van was removed and I now cut and fitted this in van 2. luckily I found there was just enough to cover the floor using a small remnant left over from last time.
Our first thought had been to use the mattress cushions from the first van but we decided, having done all this work, we should buy nice new foam mattresses for all the beds and cut them to fit and recover the whole lot. I wish it had taken just as long as it took to write this, but we ran into many difficult days of cutting the mattresses and sewing them by hand, then making new blue covers on the machine to cover them all, including the padded wall panels behind the single beds. Looks good now though, worth all the effort!
The Porta Potty was fitted and a new cover made and this now serves as a drinks table when not in use chuckle!
Recently I removed the wheels and springs, and fitted new bushes to the ends and took a look at the brake shoes, these seem ok. Also I repaired the mudguards while I had room where they had split at the edges and were letting water get into the walls of the van.
I will fit the wheels from the first van as they had new tyres fitted before the fateful trip to Denmark. So now, when I have completed this work, and the exterior re-painted, we have to get the paperwork necessary to use it on the road again. But till then it can be used here at home to sleep any of my peregrino friends that would like to come see us.
