Just bought an old Viscount... eek!

[Deleted]

(I just posted this over at caravanerforum and was told this place was great for old caravan renos.... so)

Hi,

Myself and my wife are brand new to caravaning, having just bought a second hand old 16ft Viscount caravan. It was cheap compared to others because the owner had just moved in with a relative and had nowhere to store it, and wanted to be rid of it.

I bought it as compared to others in the lower price range, this one doesn't have any leaks, has new, very strong drawbar, new suspension, new disc brakes. I wanted a van that was structurally sound so we could focus on just making the interior as nice as possible, which is the sort of work we can do I believe.

Now for my biggest concern over our renovation. There is one exterior portion which really needs some work, and I'm not sure how I could best do it without replacing the entire side of the van. (See attachment)

The previous owner (who has been living out of this van), used to take his three kids around in it too. He took out the original 2 bunks from the front (I believe that arrangement where the top one folds down to become the back of a couch when not in use) and put in three. These are no longer in the caravan, but this modification, of three windows where once there were 2 is still there.

Now, I'm really considering reinstating 3 bunks in the front, as we have 4 kids, and we could have 3 in there and one on a convertible dining area... So I'm happy with there being the three windows, I'm just not happy with the visual look of the job (even though it's sound and doesn't leak). I'd be happy with any concept that just neatened up the area and looked 'intentional' rather than slapdash really.

So... how could I go about best fixing this area in a way that it looks good, but without spending vast sums of money? This is supposed to be a fairly low cost renovation?

We do plan to repaint the exterior of the van if that changes the recommendation.

Oh... and also does anyone have any idea what year/model this is? (I am picking it up today or tomorrow after the owner cleans it out of his stuff)

Attachments:

[Deleted]

Spoco2 welcome to Classic Caravans which is a great place to be a member if you are a Viscount newbie (like me). Since joining I have read lots of postings about caravan siding repairs and from what I have learnt it would seem that the best budget renovation for the side of your van would be lots of careful preparation and a careful paint job. I looked at re-siding some of my 1971 Viscount and found the cost really expensive as it is hard to match the same metal profile. I reckon the front "nose" looks like it is new and doesn't seem to follow the typical Viscount profile that the rear of the van would suggest. Remaim

[greedy53]

mate welcome to the joint, and after looking at your van and problem i would first try a good polish with a mild cutting compound in it
i don't know where you are

[Deleted]

Hello spoco2, and welcome to the forum.
To improve the exterior of your van, you might be able to locate some of the same cladding from caravan wreckers, and replace the section from the front to approx 300mm rearward of the windows, with a 50mm overlap at the join to to allow for good sealing. One vertical join would look much better than the 'various joins' that are there at the moment.

Good luck

Chris

[Deleted]

Hello and welcome - I would just paint it over when you paint the rest of the van. I have a caravan that had been majorly changed and was a mismatch of panels. I painted it with 6 coats including the grey etch primer (Jotan) then paint Dulux Weathershield Acrylic) and put on some contrasting colors on the van to take the eye away from the mismatching panels (and a few little dents). Worked a treat :-)

[Deleted]

Thank you all for the great replies. Since getting it home we've ripped out a lot of the insides (it only really has the kitchen bit left as original) and I've used a high pressure hose all over it to clean and check for leaks. Luckily none. I had thought that finding some cladding and running it back to just behind the windows would look good. The idea of just filling, smoothing and painting sounds appealing though :-) . We're in Ringwood, Vic and just today we thought that if there was a place you could scavenge old caravans that would be great to be able to source a table and other caravan internal fittings for our reno (going for clean, modern look inside). Are there good caravan salvage places near us?

[Deleted]

Also, remaim, you're right that the front isn't original. The previous owner took out the front window in order to have the three bunks there (and the back window in order to have an air conditioner mounted there).