We thought we tell you about one of our recent projects. We've told you already how much we love having Ribby, the Eriba caravan, in our extended family.
When Ribby (Ribs) came to live with us, she was a fine caravan in every respect bar one. She had a patch of rot in her roof which had had a quick patch up job, but needed some skilled craftsmanship for a more permanent repair.
Who better to put on the project than Jimmy and Blue Bear, both of whom are skilled engineers and have very skilled and dextrous paws.
The first job was to back Ribs into the right hand side of the garage so she wouldn't be exposed to the elements when her roof came off. It was a good job we had the caravan mover so we could inch her in. It was a tight squeeze as you can see, with lots of calls of 'breathe in Ribs' especially on the freezer side.
The roof came off and was carried carefully into our makeshift workshop - the dining room. Carpenter apprentice Oscar, sitting by the hammer, shows you the piece of wood we had to cut out, with the rotten section in the middle.
In the foreground you can see the beautifully crafted and ultra smooth replacement section. We had to take a cross cut saw to it to cut some strips in the back, so it would bend into shape, then it was glued in and weighted down. Once the glue was set, we did some fibreglass filling and skimming then, in best Blue Peter style, we finished off with a sticky back plastic covering.
The roof was now fixed but the tricky bit was still to come, getting the roof back onto Ribs and attaching it to the cantilever springs. It took a big work party of bears most of the afternoon, but we're very pleased with the finished job.
Aunty and Uncle G were the first to use Ribs after her repair when they came down for a Norfolk holiday and we think they were quite impressed. We'll be out in Ribs ourselves shortly to check the repair out for ourselves.
Love from the caravan repair crew xxx
2 comments:
Uncle and Aunty G. really enjoyed last month's holiday in Ribs, and were the envy of other caravaners because her new minders had her all set up and waiting for their visit. They enjoyed some very good weather for their stay in Norfolk, but on two separate nights they experienced very heavy rain and storms but remained snug and dry. They thank Jimmy, Blue Bear and Osca for doing such a good job.
Well done master crafts bears! Good job boys! I'm sure Ribby is feeling much better.
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