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New Project

Posted: Fri, 13 Jul 2007, 11:35 pm
by Peter&Denice
The my new van is unfortunately in a right state, one side is hanging off, the front end has completely broken off, ripping out 3 large sections of fibreglass, 2 hinges on the door end are broken & the door window is bust.
When I collected it I couldn't understand why it was so heavy, oh its got 18 inches of water in it, so I have thrown out the interior, what the mice hadn't eaten had turned to a thick black liquid.
The roof has collapsed, you can push it out, but it soon just falls back in.
Unfortunately we agreed to have it without seeing it.
Anyway I need some advice:-
I need to get some new hinges, anyone now anywhere in the Berkshire area & what the going price is?
In the base at the door end what do the hinge fixings secure into. Thought about using nut & bolts but I do not seem to be able to get to the underside of the hinges, is this section solid?
With the roof to try & add some support I was thinking just forming a piece of 6 inch wide aluminium sheet just pop riveting it to the underside of the roofi, do this seem ok?
Sorry if the questions are not clear?
Pete

New Project

Posted: Sat, 14 Jul 2007, 6:15 pm
by txfsealord
Hi, our Ansfold wasn't in much better state than yours...... I used 4" good-quality household door butt hinges, made of extruded brass with stainless-steel pins. You cut them in half, so you have to buy 9, ending up with one spare. This only gives you 2 fixing holes per hinge-flap, but this eases the problem of finding new hole positions. Our 'van had been 'repaired' several times so the hinge-mounts looked like colanders. Bonded into the 'glass are 16swg steel plates which take a M5 thread very readily, this is the easiest way of attaching them for all the areas you can't get at the back of. Before you start to do the sides, though, look along the outer moulding-line in the 'hull' & check for straightness. If it's had that water in for yonks, the plywood base under the central floor area (between the upper & lower hull mouldings & not actually exposed anywhere) may be rotten, allowing the hull to droop. This obviously smashes the hinges up as they're out of line. Ours was dreadful in this respect, I extended the drawbar to the back to support the hull before changing the hinges. This was a complete cure, the only penalty being the extra weight.

Hope this helps. I'm happy to discuss further if you want to.

Steve Lord.

Roof

Posted: Sat, 14 Jul 2007, 6:31 pm
by txfsealord
Just re-read your question.... the roof is double-thickness; ours has the inner layer only turned itself inside-out at the back. I intend to make a channel-section 'bow' in thin mild steel, about 1" x 1/4" section & fix it to the strap loop positions. We've stripped all the interior trim from ours too as it was either ruined or very heavy. Must keep everything, especially the roof, as light as possible for the sake of one's back when raising! If using ally, I'd suggest 18 swg x 2" flat strip to start with, fold a 3/8" flange on each edge over a suitable piece of wood in the vice & then gently stretch over your knee so the flanges stick upwards on the outside of the curve. Gives you somewhere to mount your lights, & somewhere to run the wiring too!

Steve

Posted: Sun, 13 Apr 2008, 12:13 am
by Admin
Pete,

Has your new project got a chassis number? and what have you done with your original Portafold? Have you kept it to use while the other is being worked on?

Posted: Fri, 13 Jun 2008, 10:21 am
by alexdundee
It would be great to see some pictures of your restoration... :)
Before and after pictures I always like. 8)

portafold

Posted: Tue, 17 Jun 2008, 4:45 pm
by Snorbs
Hi,
Even though our portafold is stored in a garage we always have problems with mould and we use everything you can think of to try and stop it from happening :cry:.I do have a confession :oops: i have not had time to go and look at the portafold this year so i don't know whats it's going to be like and the last time i used it and saw it was july last year,o'dear!!.

good luck with yours.

to snorbs re mould

Posted: Tue, 17 Jun 2008, 6:18 pm
by Gordon McLaren
have had exactly same problem with mould , but had less of a problem after painting with vinyl silk emulsion (tried on interior roof first) , get the odd small bit of mould now , but nothing that can't be removed with hot water. worth a try. gordon

Posted: Tue, 17 Jun 2008, 7:06 pm
by Admin
The problem with the mould is that GRP isn't 100% impervious to water. I know what your going to say "But they make boats out of it!", correct, they do. But if you leave a GRP boat in the water long enough it'll fill up and sink. So no matter how hard we try there's always going to be some ramifications of this fact and it's generally going to manifest itself in mould.

The best thing you can do from what I can tell is to keep it highly polished on the outside with a good quality car polish and use anti mould kitchen and bathroom paint on the inside.

mould

Posted: Tue, 17 Jun 2008, 10:02 pm
by Snorbs
Hi Matthew
I just read your last post about mould !!

I see you took my advice on using the kitchen and bathroom paint !!.I repainted my portafold last year because it had some mould come through over the winter but, the mould does not appear half as much and as quickly i found when i used the kitchen and bathroom paint compared to normal emulsion.
I do know quite a few people with portafolds and none of them think about wiping over there portafold and trying to let it dry out before they fold it down so,when i see them at the next show they have a huge amount of mould and they don't no why.They always laugh because i try to shut it up as dry as possible but, i'm not the one sleeping in a mouldy portafold
:)

Mould

Posted: Sat, 09 Aug 2008, 8:52 pm
by txfsealord
We keep ours in a nice dry garage & we've never had a problem with mould. I think it's the only 'normal' problem ours doesn't have! Mind you, until very recently it didn't have any interior trim either; it'll be interesting to see if this now goes mouldy.....

I won't 'arf be disgruntled if it does. That interior trim's extremely difficult to do when you're as un-handy at gluing things as me.

Stressful...

Steve