Repairing the roof

[hops]

We have the privilege of owning Hops and Harvest, our vintage caravan bar. We were lucky enough to buy her fully restored and ready to go but now after 6 years and many weddings and parties she is in need of a bit of TLC. We are hoping that we could get some advise on how we would go about fixing this roof? We are also noticing that the sides of the van are also starting to split. We have attached photos below. We are looking for a waterproof option as you never know who might get rain on their wedding day!
 

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Hops,

Welcome to the forum.

That's a great van you've got there - I checked out your Facebook page to see more photos.

How much do you know about its history? It looks to be from the 40's

Everything on a vintage van is fixable given enough time and enough money, and sometimes a little bit of ingenuity. Your van will require a fair bit of work to get it back into top condition, but there are people and threads on the forum that can help you.

For starters can you tell us what the roof is clad in? Is it canvas?

Don Ricardo

[hops]

Hi Don,

THank you for your response

We are not very over her history I am afraid, but we thought it was 50s?

It does appear to look like there is some kind of fabric/material liner underneath the paint but exactly what that is I do not know. Any advise on how we could work that out?

Thanks
Hops

[shesgotthelook]

Hello & welcome Hops,
There are a few good threads on here about calico rooves, I can't put my finger on them straight away but if you have a read of my thread on my Globe caravan, starting page 2 it has a bit of a blow by blow of how we did ours. Calico from Spotlight, lots of paint under, water on the calico, stretch & staple & lots of paint again.


Cheers, SGTL

vintagecaravans.proboards.com/thread/17511/globe-caravan-rescue-restoration

[hops]

Thank you SGTL, that is a lot of help!

Do you have any recommendations on removing the existing calico? Do we need to prep anything underneath? Or do we just add on top of the existing?


We really appreciate your help!

Cheers,
Hops

[tooleyau]

Aug 7, 2022 9:31:05 GMT 10 hops said:

Do you have any recommendations on removing the existing calico? Do we need to prep anything underneath? Or do we just add on top of the existing?


We really appreciate your help!

Cheers,
Hops

I restored a 1957 caravan and had to remove the calico from the roof as it had similar issues to those you described. As the calico/canvas is "glued" on with layers of paint we used the standard paint removal process by using a bunnings heat gun to soften the paint and a scraper to scrape it off the timber. Just be carefully you don't burn the timber by focussing the heat too long on a single spot.

There are a number of youtube videos Youtube vids

After restoring our 1948 caravan - Lady Evelyn - I wrote the story and below is the section on putting the calico on the roof.

Full story of the restoration is here Lady Evelyn


Calico on roof.
While in Albury at the end of August we also picked up several metres of calico and chose a slightly cloudy day to roll the calico roof on. We didn’t want it drying out too quickly. We had washed the sizing out of it in a hot wash and spent 2 hrs crawling round the floor ironing the wretched thing. Calico wrinkles terribly when washed. We then rolled it up around a large cardboard roll to keep it as flat as possible. If we folded it, there would be creases. So with two tall ladders and one of us on each side we put about a metre wide layer of undercoat and sealer on the roof and proceeded to unroll and stick the calico to the roof. Once we got the first two metres done, it became easier. We ducked inside the caravan occasionally when we got to a skylight. Given the size of it, we didn’t do too bad a job wrinkle wise and no joins. Another 2 or 3 layers of undercoat and sealer and then two top coats – tight as a drum and leak-proof. When we bought the stuff we hadn’t measure the distance so made a rough guess and added some for shrinkage and a bit for luck. I think we had 10 centimetres left at the end to cut off.
After the roof was finished, and the calico was trimmed, the caravan’s edges were lined with aluminium J-mound and the sail rail was added for the awning. The roof skylights were also added and covered with tinted Perspex.