A new paint job

The last few weeks I have been busy working on my caravan. There has not been much to talk about in that department as it has been a constant slog of sanding and filling, sanding and filling, etc. Very monotonous and time consuming. Now, though, there has been visual progress at last.

There are a number of jobs on the go. The door and doorframe have been removed, the temporary metal coverings that bridge the holes left after the removal of the fridge (done presumably by previous owner) have been removed and the holes plugged, the exterior wall has been prepped, primed and painted and the window nearest the door has been removed. For some weeks now I have been living without a door and more recently without a window at the head of my bed! But it’s all coming together now.

In this entry, I will tell you about the new paint job.

In order to fit the new door, I needed to remove the doorframe, clear out the rot and make good. Then prepare the exterior wall ready for the new doorway. That was the beginning of weeks of preparation, filling in dents and shaping the old awning rail. The body filler then needed sanding back. I use three different grades of filler; a coarse paste for sculpting, a medium paste for filling any holes and getting the final shape, and a fine paste for smoothing and covering any blemishes.

Eventually, I got to a point where I could prime the surface ready for painting. It was at this point that any blemishes I missed showed through. There were not many. Where there were some, I had to sand back the primer and refill, sand back and re-prime. I used white spray primer over most of the surface and grey on the lowest section.

After a few coats, it was ready for painting. The topmost section I painted blue. The shade of blue is called ‘Clear Skies’, not that that means anything to me, I just like the shade.

The main bulk of the wall is yellow. The shade is called ‘Kingcup’, don’t know why, but it’s a deep yellow with a hint of orange. Very summery. I have had to do several coats, though, as I have had problems with flies being attracted to the colour. Each morning I have had to sand off up to 50 flies! Still, it means I’m getting a richer shade as a result.

Then the lowest section is ‘Land Rover Green’, a deep rich green.

There is plenty more work to do, but at least it’s starting to come together.

Recently, a driver of a local timber merchant dropped some short Oak beams off asking if they were any use. Hell, yeah!

I then got offered some odd bits of timber. Daniel collected a load of planed stuff, a lot of which will be useful for framework. There is also about 4m of 1x1 batten. Michael collected some worktop. He went to get a large section of teak effect Formica worktop and turned up with an additional offcut of black marble effect worktop. Suddenly, I have the materials for a new kitchen!