I haven't been looking forward to this job, not because I thought it would be hard. Because I knew it would be the sort of job that once I started it, I couldn't leave it half done. (Working around baby's naps, I never know how long am going to have.)
So I knew I had to wait till a day my husband could be with the mini people. Well it turns out that this is not an easy job for one person. I cannot remember the last time I swore, let alone the amount of times I did, possibly screamed at one point... (Kept reminding my self, I got through three births, I can get a window trim on!) Well, it didn't end well, ended up almost in tears. With a fair amount of blood from cutting my hand, running down the plastic trim. Heed my warning....
In the end, my Grandpa and husband came to the rescue before I had some sort of melt down!
Heat, heat was the answer! Using a hair dryer, they managed to get the trim on, without the level of rude words I used.
Though, coming into a job half started.....they missed a few of the many catches, which I had cleaned and sprayed. (They where drying.) So they will be working on it together tomorrow. I count my self lucky that they took this on, it's my least favourite job so far. And the only one which I heard my self saying 'I hate my life right now, whose idea was this!'
Don't underestimate the power of a Grandpa!
Old plastic, slowly becomes brittle. The window trim is really important, as condensation drips off glass window and hits the plastic. Running off out of the van. When it starts getting old and cracks or is damaged, water starts running into the wood/caravan. This can just put water marks around the window or it can slowly rot away the wood inside the wall.
This should have been my first job, to save off any more damage being done. It took along time for me to get to this job. (Was busy getting the rotten wood out.)
Looks like someone had been here before, trying to remove these window catches. On each window, it attaches by six points. This meant that a quick job, slowly turned into hours.....due to having to cut out/hack saw and swear a lot, just removing the old screws!
If you can get help doing this job, it's really hard pitching all the different bits into the plastic and use heat! Cold plastic is not going to do any of the work for you!
I cleaned up and sprayed the old window catches. Some need to be replaced but I can come back to replace them later.
Tips:
Before removing anything, mark where the screws are.
Buy a little bigger than you think you need.
You need, a hair dryer, screwdrivers (a flat one too to go under the plastic to help pull it over.) Possibley a hack saw and hammer.
Two people, you don't need to fix it at any other points but where the fittings are. Get these in quick and it will hold it in place while you get the rest on.
Take your time, it's easy to slip with a screw driver doing this.
After a year of using Daisy, we have worked out that we have used the wrong size window trim. So will have to re-do this job.......am not going to lie, am dreading it! Click here to see what else we got up to so far, in doing up Daisy!
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