1969 Wayfarer Renovation

[msglasadventures]

Hi everyone. Just joined this forum and hope to get some good comms by sharing our experiences. My wife and I have many years experience in renovating homes but this is our first caravan. We recently purchased a 1969 Wayfarer, although this could be a misnomer as, from the research we've done to date, Wayferes were rebadged over their history. Anyway...we have started to strip the inside of our van and I was expecting to find a metal frame in the walls where we could strip off the internal lining and replace. When we started, it quickly became apparent that the walls were already insulated and the side wall panels were, in fact, a bonded sandwich type panel, with the external cladding, insulation and internal wall panels were one piece. There was little to no internal wall frame, except for a horizontal timber length situated at the sheet join, about half way up the side walls. After an inspection, we decided to strip the internal wall lining off to remove the water damaged sections and replace with new panels. Well....the fun started late on Sunday afternoon when we were about 2/3 of the way stripping the internal wall panel off the the insulation when, as I was removing the screws from the wheel arch to the wall, the whole side of the caravan dropped about 50-75mm and scared the shite out of us both. I've jacked the wall up and supported it as best I could but now I need to come up with a plan to fix the issue.

I have some ideas but I would love to know if anyone else has fallen into this trap. 

Thanks for your time and happy renovating.

Max & Suzy

[shesgotthelook]

Hello & welcome. Your van definitely looks to be a Wayfarer to me. Regarding the sandwich panel, I just did a quick search & if the following link work, other people's stories may be of some help to you. Not for the faint hearted!

vintagecaravans.proboards.com/search/results?captcha_id=captcha_search&what_at_least_one=sandwich+panel&what_all=sandwich+panel&who_only_made_by=0&display_as=0&search=Search

[msglasadventures]

Thanks for the link shesgotthelook, much appreciated. We've got some work to do.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Msglasadventures,

Just confirming that your van is indeed a 1969 Wayfarer. It is one of the vans Wayfarer built to be sold through Reg Hunt Motors in an ill-fated exclusive arrangement between the two.

Some of the Wayfarers built in the mid to late 50’s were built by other manufacturers and badged as Wayfarers, but not from about 1960 on.

Good luck with your renovation (and I mean that sincerely). Hopefully it will all come together for you.

Don Ricardo