What a beautiful day again...middle of April and the weather is scorching. This little lady was sunning herself and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Anyway, time to get on with the job in hand. There isn't much to tell, I had to firm up the window frame and then fix it to the internal panel. This has all to be as close to perfect as I can manage and it takes a little while to get the dimensions correct around the window aperture. If it isn't correct then it will be a weak point.

Once I got it all as close to the original as I am ever going to manage, I stood back and had a right good look. What needs doing before I put the aluminium skin back on?

Well, I have to make sure that both driving lights on the front are working as only one was before I started all this work. Now is the perfect time to sort out any dodgy wiring. I backed the car up to the caravan and hooked her up. All the lights are working as they should...must have been a bad connection I suppose.

Right, the next job is to pack the cavities with insulating fibre, the same stuff that you have in your loft. Easily cut to size with a Stanley knife, I trimmed pieces to fit all the cavities. I used a runny mixture of PVA glue and water to hold the insulation in place...just pour it on as you are placing it in. The glue helps to hold the fibre up and guard against it sliding down as you bump up and down the British roadways that our benign government keep in good order for us! Pff.

This is the point where I remember that I haven't cleaned the mastic of the aluminium skin yet. So it's on with the kneepads and down on my hands and knees on the garage floor scraping, scrubbing and washing the old mastic into submission. Rinse with pure turpentine. Rinse with IPA. (I am not taking any chances!). This takes the best part of 2 hours or so and sets me back a bit. I had hoped to get the window in as well today, but thats not going to happen now.

I am using two different products to seal this skin in position. A non-drying mastic for where the aluminium is laying onto wood, and a bonding sealant for where it is laying on to other sheets of aluminium. I am not ready to fit the trims yet so it will be a simple matter of making sure the aluminum sheet is fixed in place.

I forgot to take pictures so I will describe one other procedure that I had to do. If you remember there were holes in the aluminium skin just above the window. Well, try as I might I have not been able to source a piece of salvaged aluminium to fix over the top of the damaged area. What I eventually settled upon is to use a heavy duty silver adhesive tape along the inside of the aluminuim skin. (This is something that I just happened to have lying around. I got it from contractors that were lagging the steam pipes at the factory where I work. I mooched the half roll they had once they were finished the job. I have no idea where you can get it from, but it must be out there somewhere!) It is designed to work at temperature so I expect it to have a no problems staying in place inside the skin of the caravan. This will still leave the holes of course, but I intend to fill them with a little catalloy, rub them smooth, then run a strip of coachtrim along the top of the window to disguise it. I will get to that part later on though.

For now though it is time to lay the skin back on to the caravan and get it fixed in place. Using my brother as a glamorous assistant we offered the panel up to the frame and dropped it onto the mastic I had put on the woodwork. A little bit of adjustment here and there - get this bit right, because water does not need an invitation to sneak in - and we screw it down to make sure the bonding agent gets a good grip. Here is the finished article all fixed on.

To me it is the perfect birthday present and looks bloody marvelous.