Hello Folks Bit the bullet today and after reading all the Fix it club repairs,i decided to attackl the front panel damp we've got.
So i took out the gubins inside now exposed the battens and the Rot !
Look's as though all vans follow the same trend regarding; build
what i can't see is how the front shelf comes out most of the decayed wood is down to the window seals by the look of it,i did think it was the rail that carrys the vwindows as a screw was unwound and i thought that was the answer but wrong again i think ?
can anyone shed any light please oh its a 1999 swift conqueror many thanks Kevin
I have heard that the front shelf is sometimes fixed with screws that are under the outside skin / front panel . They can be a pain to remove , although i haven't had to take one out best i can come up with is to use a hacksaw blade and slide it between the shelf and wallboard and cut thro the screws .
Our front shelf on our Fleetwood colchester was attached to the top of the box that made up the front gas locker. It was screwed only in a couple of places and stuck in the rest. We found that our shelf was rotten as was each wall to half way along each side window.
If the wallboard is still hard but the joist leading from the around the widows to that side is damaged I'd recommend taking a bit of the wallboard off and checking, as we found the left side wallboard was not soft/had no sign of damp, but the polystyrene behind it was so wet I could squeeze the water out of parts of it when I took it out.
I wish you luck, it's a daunting job to take on, but well worth it once its finished. Just expect it to take longer than you planned/hoped as things always crop up and knock you backwards.
We've finally got everything back in and after having to cancel out Easter break we are looking forward to the May day bank holiday and our first trip out this year :)
Thanks for the reply Wizard it would seem a very solid fix whatever it is,i need to remove because the batten that appears quite bad is inline with this shelf,i will have another look tommorow when i go down to decide how i'am going to re-build the structure of the frame,i know these vans need to be kept light ,but they are a joke in the way of build quality,many thanks once again Kevin
I can answer this one! The shelf is made of a sandwich of wood and and outer ply. Ply on which 3 spaced strips wood are placed, wider in width at the front, two smaller in width toward window wall spaced and ply top. Before the ply top is glued on the shelf is screwed.
The easiest thing would be to hacksaw as Wizard said and then remount with brackets. I tried to remove the top ply to get to the screws, which I managed but the ply didn't come off on one piece. I was hoping I could remove and then screw the shelf back into place and replace the top ply - in the end I damaged the shelf too badly trying to get to the screws - hence why in hindsight hacksaw would have been best.