Delamination of the Sidewall 1

I have been meaning to get around to this for some time, autumn seemed like the best choice.There has been a previous repair in this area and it was picked up on a service we had done in September 2006. I asked if it would need immediate attention, but as it was not through water ingress, just had to keep an eye on it, and it did not get any worse. The wallboard inside has come away (the sidewalls are a bonded construction) not sure about the bond of the polystyrene to the aluminium skin, as on a trip the aluminium bowed a little in the strong sunshine (yes, we did have some).

So it is a journey of discovery, assess as I go along, then do what I think is best.

Action Plan; Clear the area to get at the wallboard, re-glue everything, put back together, job done.

Front offside, cushions removed, the delamination is under the window and the full width of the seat.	1st job, is to remove the pelmet and curtains.	Five screws held the pelmet to the underside of the lockers. Next the window blind...A
A single screw holds the window blind side in place.	At the top remove the end cap, which is a push fit so a tug got it off.	This one had a single screw, sometimes there are more.
Blind removed, next, the seating has to come out, which is attached to the wall.	Four screws hold the rear of the seat-back to the wall.	The screws holding the cross pieces were then removed. The thinking behind this was, I wanted to leave the front of the cupboard in place.
But that was not to be. The only thing stopping the seat coming out was some screws behind here from the other side.	So the front has to come out with the seating; that means these two electrical connections, 240v and 12v will have to be disconnected.	Switched off all power, the 240 volt supply at the fuse box. Also put the 12v switch to the off position.
The 240v switch for the heater (on the right). Two screws and it was a simple matter of pushing it through a slot in the ply to the rear. The brown box (on the left) is for gas operation.	Held onto the side with two screws, but this black thing (a gas sensor or something) cannot be disconnected from the circuit board.	It can be disconnected here at the back of the heater. Also cut through varius cable ties to release the black wire.
It was pulled through the front. The 12v supply was disconnected and put into a terminal block and covered with electrical tape for safe keeping.	Now removing some screws that held the side to the front drawers and moving the drawers to one side after removing four screws....	allowed the removal of the seating, there is now a clear space to work in.
A join in the wallboard towards the front, pulled the coverstrip off, it looks a bit yucky!!	The window rubber was removed a bit to aid removal of the wallboard. Marked the wallboard where there will be a new join, this should be hidden by the pelmet.	Wood looked stained, so out came the damp meter. Checked the whole window, it is all dry.
After cutting the walllboard with a Stanley knife and straight edge, then running it down the side of the window it just came away.	For bottom of the window used a chisel to gently prise the wallboard while scoring with a Stanley knife.	Still held fast at the floor. The only place the wallboard was stuck, was to the wood, none of the polystyrene was secure.
Scoring through at floor level, it came away.	A closer view of the HIT&MISS glueing technique. I thought you had to get 100% coverage as it is a bonded sidewall and that is where the rigidity comes from?!	At the bottom mid point of the window, again staining, this time the meter showed a higher reading in one area. Suspect it could be a screw in the lower rail. Will have to take it off to investigate.

 Page Created 19th November 2008