The skylight did not come off whole....I managed to make a temp skylight - to get us out on the road and it latest the season. Click here to read all about Daisy's roof garden.
I had been looking for a replacement for about a year, I needed to get a 1970's one, so it would fit.
Well lucky for me, a friend at the Retro Caravan Club spotted an old Sprite, way passed saving. The guy who was scrapping it was amazing and even had the skylight delivered to me! (He was a mega helpful guy and helped to save Daisy! Its nice to know there are some great people out there.) So at last I had a skylight, would it fit, would it work!!
I would love to be able to save all the caravans, but there are a few which are way passed the point of saved. This is the skylight, from a newer Sprite, made by the same people as my Bluebird. Also saved was the old gas lamp, which my friend has for his little Sprite. So as much as its a shame to see a van go off to that great big campsite in the sky, it did help to save mine!
First job was cleaning it up....
We had friend over for tea and he laughed and said, only you Alice would have a skylight in bits on your kitchen side!
It came up lovely! Cleaned and sprayed the metal work and hoped it would fit!
My temporary skylight, click here to read about how I made a it, had held up for the season. I couldn't fit the rubber seal onto the old metal which ran around the inside of the hole. So after chatting with my husband, about do I bodge it on or remove the metal plate......I was scared that metal facing plate was hiding lots of rotten wood. (out of sight out of mind....) But like he said, get that plate off and do the job right. So many jobs on our Daisy had been bodged, its taken so much more time and money to fix. If the old owner had just say, fixed the lights, not screwed in an old lighting board, it would have saved me so much time and money. Also would have saved Daisy so many extra holes and damage.
I went for it and removed it, now bare in mind, am pretty ok with all things creepy crawly. (apart from earwigs, I mean, goodnesss....) I don't remember a time I've screamed and run to find my husband, ever! Well I screamed and ran for the house!! Am going to save you from a photo of the many tiny little dead bodies I found hidden behind the facing plate....
Hubby to the rescue and Henry the hover....
I was very surprised that the wood was not bad at all! Cleaned it all up and gave it a few coats of vanish, then once that had dried filled any holes with caravan sealant.
This photo makes it look a lot more black than the wood was, a few coats of vanish sunk into the wood and really renewed it.
This was one of two jobs on Daisy I was really dreading. So I really made sure I just took my time. Working around, mini people's naps, school runs, rain, work and life...Its very hard to get a proper amount of time to get things done on Daisy, so it can get quite stressful and standards slip! This job needed me to really take my time, thinking about each step. Even though it take a large chunk of my weekend time, which I should be spending sanding, it was worth it!!
I think am going to paint the black rubber too, as distracts so much, also did manage to make a bit of a mess of the paint.....
Wow, it was a shock, its so white!! We had got used to the gentle orange glow from the temporary skylight. Its going to take some getting used too and we have already talked about maybe adding a film of plastic to change the colour.
I needed to get the new skylight on, so I could sand around it. Here she is, am so proud of my hard work on this skylight, I had to change around fittings, and do lots of extra work but it was worth it! We have had lots of heavy rain and Daisy is bone dry! Am so happy!!
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