When investigating the front window frame it was clear that the water / damp had rotted the wood frame of the sidewall. I started by removing the wall board. This is made from thin 3mm plywood so not too bad to remove, i used a stanley knife to score the wall board then a paint scraper to get under the board then prise the wall board away from the polystyrene insulation. Where there was damp the wall board almoust fell away with little effort.
With the wallboard removed you can see the rotten wood frame, the side window frame is just visable on the left towards the top of the picture as you can see the side window frame looks good. The ‘dark’ looking wood in the lower right corner of the picture is the gas locker floor… rotten! more on this on another page.
With the metal trim strip removed you can see the rusty screw, this had to be removed in orde that the bulkhead panel could be removed. Also notice that there is a lack of mastic. I also removed the lower metal trim strip as i needed to investigate the floor in this area.
After removing the trim strip i then removed the long thin ‘wedge shaped’ body panel that extends from the front of the caravan to front of the wheel arch, behind which was this wedge shaped piece of wood as you can see it is also rotten.
As you can see in this picture the wood batten that is sandwiched between the outer skin of the caravan and the floor is rotten so all this will need to be replaced.
Removal of the door frame revealed more rot as can be seen in the picture above. Look closely and you will see the thin outer metal skin, then the rotten broken up frame then the rotten thin interior skin.
The picture above shows the door frame from inside the caravan, you can also see where the internal side wall skin has been removed. Again, looking carefully at the bottom of the door frame you will see where the internal skin is flaking away due to the damp / wet condition.
Elddis Whirlwind XL Restoration 