I ordered some more glue for the floor and while waiting for it to arrive I decided to strip the inside of the door, below shows the amount of rot in the bottom of each panel.

The new floor is laid in the rear and bonded in place. You can also see the new door frame is in and the aluminium frame is remounted.

I decided to replace the edging for the floor with hardwood as opposed to softwood, I know that if the caravan is sealed properly then the softwood shouldn't get damp etc, but having used hardwood on the boat I saw it as a no brainer.

I picked up the hardwood and also the plywood from Beers Timber, where I always get my timber. I couldn't have rebuilt Sabrina without them due to the cost that some timber merchants charge for hardwood.

If you are in the Northwest and are looking for timber then pop in, they have several branches:

Beers Timber & Building Supplies, 
Darlingtons Industrial Estate, 
Chester Road, 
Gayton, 
Wirral, 

You can see the first section of floor in place, the ply is glued to the support timber using Gorilla Glue, a waterproof wood glue.

You can see the first piece of foam dry fitted:

I had problems finding replacement foam locally but managed to find some on Ebay, you can't use the normal insulation from places like B&Q, you need the close tolerance stuff. I picked mine up from Coleshill from a firm that seem to do insulation for everything. I can thoroughly recommend them if you are stuck for foam for your own project:

DAWN CARROLL

Unit 2 Roman Way Coleshill West Midlands B46 1HG United Kingdom  carroll.d@btinternet.com    http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/eatingrose789rugby/ Once I'd cut the side piece out it was time to start striping the rear, I planned to remove 31cms of lower ply, 45 of foam and 60 of the upper ply so the laminate created has an over hang of at least 6"

Once I'd chopped the floor and cut the foam it was time to bond it in place, I bought my resin from The Glue People and spoke to the Managing Director Richard who suggested I use their EM400 resin, I ordered 6.5KG of it which as it turns out is about half of what I needed.  They can be located at

http://www.thegluepeople.co.uk

The EM400 mixes like most 2 pack products, but as opposed to Epoxy resin that I'm used to it is more like a cream, very easy to apply, although if you were mixing by hand it will take some time. I bought a cheap food mixer from Tescos and used that, then threw it out, the completed lower layers of the floor is looking good:

Tomorrow I'll cut the top pieces of ply and dry fit those while I wait for the next batch of glue to arrive and I'll also rebuild the door frame and seal it back in place. The rear of the caravan has its strength back so I can sort the cracked aluminium above the door out at the same time.

I'd been thinking about what what to do about the rot in the floor, I the problem was mainly with the top layer of 9mm ply, but some of the lower ply also had rot in the end grain.

After much uming and ahing I decided just to chop it out, its what I did with the boat so decided it would be the best option.  I've chopped it all back to good timber and where possible to a chassis support, I then plan to cut the foam back at least 6 inches to create and overlap for the bonding.

I had a couple of hours spare today so decided it was time to clean the roof of Kitty, the wind got up and temperature dropped so I gave up after doing half of it. You can see the difference below, I'd done 1/4 by this time, I'll finish it off early next week if the weather improves.

First afternoon of striping, the whole of the rear end appears to be suffering from damp and rot, so much so that some of the timbers are actually sodden. I'm amazed she didn't fall apart on the way home to be honest, it does explain the cracks above the door as the rear support timbers that hold the side to the chassis and the chassis end timbers have rotted to nothing.

You can see the rear of the caravan below, where the bathroom was, I'll have to replace about 1/4 of the top layer of the floor and about a 30 cm strip of the lower floor.  Looking at the cost of exterior ply compared to marine ply I may as well get a sheet of marine ply and use that.

I still haven't worked out where she is leaking from, I have a feeling its something to do with the roof and/or the side rails. I need to figure it out and seal it before I fully fix the interior for obvious reasons, however she needs to dry out before I can start work on the rebuild.

The door frame had rotted to almost nothing:

You can see through the floor here where the door frame was:

I'm hoping to have the back end sorted by the end of the week, fingers crossed!

Woohoo, I picked Kitty up today and brought her home.  What a trip. I went to Halfords first thing to get some towing mirrors and a breakaway cable for the brakes. While heading to Grindleford I realised that I had forgotten the double sided tape to hold the number plate on so stopped off at Glossop Caravans.

I hooked her up, fitted the breakaway cable and headed off, absolutely terrified to be honest, having never towed anything  before it was an adventure. I'd planned my route, avoiding the A6, basically going over Snake Pass (A57) and through Glossop, I'm glad I did, don't think I could have coped with the A6.

I got home without incident and then 30 mins or so of man handling she is now on the drive, over the weekend I'll start striping her out and getting reading to fix the damp.  From what I have seen most of the internal screws have rusted, I assume from the general damp in her so I'll WD40 them to aid their removal and then replace them with Stainless ones so it won't be a problem going forward. I'm hoping to have her finished by the end of March.

I spent the morning going over Kitty with a fine tooth comb, looking at her damp problems and checking her out ready for the trip home.

The floor near the door has de-laminated and might actually have some rot, although I won't know until I have a good look at her on the drive, the door frame is completely shot, rotted in most places to nothing, the damp appears to be coming in from a couple of cracks above the door, having done some reading it appears to be a common fault on early caravans as there is no support behind the aluminium. When I repair her, I'll bond a new piece of aluminium over the cracks and then a piece of timber over that to create some strength.

The damp in the front right corner is very bad, but I'm hoping its just damp and rot hasn't had a chance to set in. There also appears to be mould on the inside of some of the roof panels, this just could be because she is damp or because the roof is leaking. The roof trim has been screwed in place using normal steel screws so I'll remove the trim, reseal it and replace the screws with stainless steel ones.

All the running gear all seems to be in great condition, no damage to the chassis etc all the rear lights etc work although they will need to be dismantled and fully cleaned, I'll probably replace the actual bulbs with leds or if I can find a suitable led light cluster replace the whole cluster as they appear to be fully sealed so could be bonded the the body and prevent any future leaks.

I've removed the awning and other items in the storage lockers to make her lighter when I tow her home and have planned a route that avoids the A6 as it can be a bit of a nightmare when you approach Stockport.

Below are some current photos of her inside, the wood is a light oak colour which makes her very light and spacious.

The bathroom needs to most work as its just an empty room at the moment, I'll fit a shower tray, a cassette toilet. I'll probably extend the wall to create more of a square room and provide a little extra space. The room is a little dark so I might fit a roof light, but we'll see.

A couple of photos of the outside, I'll repaint the green stripe and replace the front running lights as they have rusted beyond repair, the gas locker seems a little fragile, but it could just be that the lock is broken, worse case I'll get another one from a caravan breakers, or reinforce it using some fibre glass "battons".