Hitch and hand brake assembly

I've had a couple of enquiries from other owners restoring their Cheltenhams for some pictures of what the hand brake assembly looks like, so here they are. Hope they help!

Cheltenham sable makes a final trip

I recently became the owner of a not-very-well 1970 Cheltenham Sable, that I'd initially hoped to be able to save. The caravan had been another victim of a so called professional restorer, Phoenix/Burtree Caravans. I have spoken to several people who have fallen fowl of this company and their shoddy workmanship - worse still, some never got their caravans back. All had paid thousands for a full restoration.

From a few paces away the Sable look good but upon closer inspection it was found that the entire body was twisted, all of the fibreglass panels had been chopped about, and a considerable amount of framework missing (not rotten just missing).What was there was not usable, with only 1 upright intact and original. As a result, the body had been fastened directly to its newly fitted chipboard floor which, as you can imagine, didn't like the rain, meaning the body to slowly sink around the chassis. The framework around the skylight had been broken, causing water to pool and leak in as the roof collapsed. On top of all this, there were gas pipes that had been cut and not capped off, the wiring was not to the best standard with joins all over the place, the cupboards had been so badly put back together most of the drawers were either stiff or impossible to open, and the oven door couldn't be opened                                                        because of the cupboard stopping it.

As it would need completely stripping down to the chassis and rebuilding, the hard decision was made to break it up for spares. Although in such a state, it had many new and original usable parts and fittings that could help others stay on the road. 

I started by removing all small fittings; lights, cushions, pelmets and small cupboards. I then starting to remove the rest of the interior. Easier said than done! It turned out that the entire caravan had been glued together with car body seam sealant! The guy must have had shares in them by the amount that was used! The job of stripping out the interior should have only taken a day but took nearly a week!

The body was a similar story. The more I took out, the more of the horrendous workmanship was revealed. It was totally unsafe with pieces of chassis missing, amongst other things.

On the plus side, it has saved me a lot of time and money in parts for my Puku, with plenty of spares for my other Sable too. I have a full set of windows with new rubbers, interior and exterior lights, soft furnishings, running gear, and various cupboards and doors, which will definitely save time on my Puku.

Cheltenham Fawn comes to visit

Work has been on hold for a little while on the Puku, whilst I've had another Cheltenham caravan to play with. A friend of mine has a Cheltenham Fawn that required extensive repairs to its frame and chassis, due to water ingress and poor workmanship by so called professional restorer, who had originally been drafted in to fix the rot problems and just made them worse. After a couple of weeks, the little Fawn's frame was all done and the rotten rear cross member of the chassis had been cut out and a new one welded in. All the 12v electrics were overhauled and the interior reinstated with a fresh coat of varnish and new panelling where required. A nice little day trip out later, she was back with her owners, once again ready to go away on her holidays.

All finished 

j

Lots of rot and old bodge work

 

The dreaded tin worm had got to this bit

Cheltenham badge refurbishment

Another little job to do, is to refurbish the Cheltenham badge.

Firstly give it a good scrub with a wire brush, to remove all the corrosion. Don't be tempted to use a wire brush attachment for a drill, as this can be too harsh and can easily damage the soft metal that the badge is made from.

The next step is to paint the whole thing black. 

Aerosols are the best to use for this. I used satin black, but you could use gloss or matt, as the it will get painted over later, so the finish doesn't matter.

Two coats later and it should look a little like this. 

Now the fun bit! Using a sand block and some 400 grit wet and dry, sand the face of the badge, to cut the paint back over the raised lettering. You need to make sure, to keep the sanding block flat to the badge and the paper tight to the block, otherwise you'll round the edges of lettering off. Keep carefully sanding until the letters are nice and shiney with no signs of corrosion.

Next, give it a quick wash to clean all the dust away, and dry off. Once dry, give it several coats of automotive clear lacquer. I sprayed five coats, to get a deep shine. 

And there you go as good as new. 

If you want a deeper lustre, just keep applying coats of clear lacquer. 

Here's one I did with 20 coats

New cupboards take shape

Plans to bring the puku home this week failed, due to the car deciding to act up. So I decided to start getting the rotten  cupboards rebuilt.

After dismantling the rear over sink cupboard, all that was left, in a usable state was the frame that the sliding doors mount in. Even the sliding doors themselves were of no use, as they been so vigorously sanded in the past, they'd sanded through the top layer of the ply. The rest was just completely rotten. 

The frame was sanded down and given 4 coats of varnish.

I dismantled the cupboard as carefully as I could, to ensure that I would still be able to use the remains as templates. This way I quickly had the side panels and the top cut from 9mm plywood and the bottom from 6mm plywood. A bit of glue down each rebate and a few panel pins, hold the whole lot in place.

Whilst I was waiting for the glue to dry, I made a start on the very delicate front pelmet. I'd already manage to remove the ply front and shelf front but dismantling the rest of the structure looked like it wasn't going to end well. I decided to mark out the top and bottom panels, directly on to the new timber, before attempting to dismantle it any further. I then cut the new panels, again from 9mm plywood, and checked them against the originals. This proved to be a good plan, as the second I started to prise the panels apart, they literally disintegrated!

With such a complicated piece, it's always advisable to take as many photos as possible. These as invaluable references when reconstructing. 

I measured out where all the the uprights were to go on both pieces, then drilled and screwed them together. 

The next step, was the end panels. The originals were starting to delaminate but after a bit of thought, I decided to repair them, rather than replace, so they would match the rest of the unit. 

They were given a good sanding and then plenty of glue squeezed between each lamination, before clamping them up and leaving them to set over night.

The following day, the end panels were fixed in place. This gave me the positions to fit the battoning for the front panels and shortly after the front panels themselves we fixed in place with pva and panel pins. A hockey stick moulding covers up the join in the top shelf. 

An oval piece was cut from 9mm ply and stained to match, then fixed to the middle of the top shelf. This will be where the gas light will fit. The whole unit was then given 3 coats of satin varnish.

The last job was top fit the white hardboard backing panels. These are just glued in place. 

Back with the over sink cupboard, the next job was to remake the doors. Having selected a piece of 4mm ply with a nice grain, the doors were cut, using the old doors as a guide. The handles and catches were then transferred from the old doors. The edges of the doors have to be thinned down to 2mm, to fit into the runners. They can then be squeeze into the runners before fixing the center brace back on to hold them in. The last job for this cupboard was again the white hardboard backing panel, which is just tacked in place.

My loft is turning into the caravan

With the British weather doing it's usual and training constantly, I've moved more than half the interior in to my loft so I can continue work.

The cupboards are coming along nicely. The table, seat bases, chest of drawers and all of the kitchen drawer fronts, have now been sanded back and refinished with 4 coats of satin clear varnish. 

Various parts after the second coat.

Before and after. 

Wall cupboard finished

Seat base finished.

All the parts have come out better than I'd hoped. The drawer front are solid oak and have suffered a bit of water damage and  become quite stained. Once vanished however, the grain came out and they look great.

With the drawer front looking good, I thought I'd make the inside look just as good. I decided to use an old road atlas to line them. I made each draw have it's own little theme

The Aberdeen drawer

The Yorkshire and Aberdeen drawers and memories and Joe's drawer bottoms.  

The bases after outlining the different maps.

I made sure to put Cheltenham on one of the bases, as well as Selkirk, where I got the puku from.

Wheels

It's been a busy couple of months for me at work, so I haven't had much chance to do any work on the puku. The weather, of course, not helping either.

I had to use the wheels from my sable, to bring the puku back from Scotland and it's been sitting on them ever since. So I thought it was about time i got it some boots of its own.

With the puku's wheels back home I gave them a good clean and inspection. One of them had quite a bit of surface rust but seemed ok. The other, initially seemed in better condition but then I noticed that at one point on the rim, on both sides, the metal had become very thin presumably from sitting in mud, with a flat tyre. So unfortunately I think this wheel will be for the scrappers. 

I took the other wheel to a local garage to have the old tyre removed.

Back home I started cleaning the rust from the rim with some 80 grit sand paper. After many hours of sanding, most of the worst rust was gone. A quick going over with 250 grit wet and dry and it was ready to paint.

For ease, I used white Hammerite spray paint, as it can be applied directly to barely metal and goes on reasonably thick to help hide some of the pitting. It is also reasonably resistant to stone chipping. I had intended to use the smooth finish but picked up the hammered finish by mistake. As it turned out, the hammered finish worked quite well to hide some of the pitting. I then went over the front face with a few coats of the smooth finished paint. 

 I'm very pleased with the finish. Now just to get a tyre fitted and find another wheel!