sad and desperate

[john_5040876]

No i haven't come to the wrong web page,and anyway im married!

Whilst putting the van away on friday the door of the barn,for want of a better word, swung shut and smacked into the side of the van.

There was nothing i could do to stop it as it punctured the side panels in four places from top to bottom.

After going back today (i was shaking too much yesterday) i have noticed the holes go all the way through, but in the cupboard/fire space.

A friend of mine suggested putting vents over two of the holes and covering the other two with reflector lights i.e white on the top and orange on the bottom.

Like i said i am extremely sad about this and desperate to get it sorted,i've only had the van six weeks. It's a bailey 2001 model.

If you were wondering the guy who ownes the barn has a lenght of angle iron to keep the door back and as yet has not been in touch with me regarding this incident. Thanks for reading !

 

[Richard_5041394]

Oh dear! I do feel for you. It sounds like the damage is a bit nasty, but the suggestion of using vents/reflectors might just have some merit in it. I have used reflectors to cover up minor (non-penetrative) dings on the side panels from awning poles etc. However, if you've got holes right through, the main issue must be to ensure that no water can get into the side panels where the aluminium is punctured. You must check too that the damage is purely as it looks, and that there is no more serious structural damage to the sidewall that is less obvious. Look into/around the damaged area from inside and out - can you see any framework/structural components etc, or is it just the aluminium/insulation/wallboard sandwich that is damaged? If it all looks OK then depending on the amount of indentation to the external wall, you might get away with using vent panels to cover up, but you must mount these carefully and seal the fixing very well with a good mastic compound to stop any water ingress under the edge of the vent panel. Same will apply if you use reflectors. At the end of the day whether this is a feasible solution depends entirely on where the damage is, and how bad it is (there are only certain places vent covers are going to look 'OK' anyway..!). You're not going to ever 'not know it's there' I don't think, but you might be able to live with it! Any internal damage should be a little easier to 'make good', depending on where it is; and of course you need to consider all of this in terms of resale value at a later date. Just don't bodge it - it needs to be a good neat job, well done, or get it done professionally. If you don't think about it carefully before you start, you'll end up making it worse rather than better - and you'll feel even sicker! Like I say, I do sympathise (we've all been there at some point in some way!). Best of luck... Richard.

 

[nor]

i really think you should get a quote on a repair.its quite a new van and such a shame. what about your insurance.if the dents have gone right through you might be letting in water thus other problems.the internal is up to you but i think you need to get the main work done by a proffesional. good luck.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello John, Sorry to hear of the damage, Richard makes some good points, especially about the resale value. It occurs to me that you will probably have insurance, and that is what its for. It rather depends on how you want to keep your arrangment with the owner of the storage but there may be case againt him, just consider if the door had closed on you, your wife or children?

 

[gary]

It is quite incredible what damage can be done in the blink of an eye and when you have to stand there helpless to do anything about it..

All is not lost though these things are repairable and reflectors and vents are good and cheap options especially if the outer skin is not punctured. In general caravan repairers tend to want to stick a new skin over the old which is very expensive but a new breed of more expert repairers can fill and spray for an invisible repair at much less cost.

 

[john_5040632]

Thanks for the sympathy and advice. After visiting a repair center and weighing up the pros and cons, it's going to be two vents on the middle holes and an orange reflector(moved two inches) on the bottom hole and finally a white or red reflector on the top hole.

Three of the four punctures have gone thru, one is in the toilet the others behind the fire flue.

The caravan repair lads say that to repair would be very expensive and some dealers have been known to use the cover up method on vans damaged on forecourts.

Just to top it all off i've also bumped the car on the snow.............:-(

roll on the summer

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I had a mishap a few years ago when some timber made a dent in the van side.I covered it with a 9 X 6 vent and it looked OK but the dealer persuaded me to have a new side skin .They made a mess of the job and had to do it again.It still looked better with the vent on !!My friend bumped his new van at the dealers before he had paid for it.The dealer fitted an external shower to cover the damage.Last year on the ferry we collected a couple of minor dents which I covered with an awning light and moved a reflector.If you can do that sort of thing and it looks OK then bearing in mind what has been said about sealing I would take that route.An external power/gas point would cover a big dent and get over the hole inside as well.