Removing the moulding meant taking off two sections of awning rail as well as the moulding itself as it wraps around the caravan edges slightly. Fortunately the awning rail is made up of several sections so I only had to remove a five foot section on each side. This meant I could also further inspect how well the rail itself was sealed. Pulling out the infill strip from the aluminium rail showed all the screw heads were well rusted, some gone completely. None of them came out without any work! Cutting a slot in the head with a cutting disc in a cheap Dremel knock off worked for a few, allowing me to use a flat bladed screwdriver. This only worked on screws that still had a head, others had to wait until the rail was off, then I could use mole grips on what was left and unscrew them that way.
Removing the moulding was the same story of very rusty screws that I dealt with in the same way plus some staples, again very rusty. Once it was off I could see where a lot of water had been getting in. Under the top inside edge of the moulding was a wooden baton that was intended to give some support to the moulding. This had been screwed to the caravan skin only, there was nothing inside for the screws to bite in to!!! It was the same with the screws holding the moulding on, only screwed in to the skin. How it was meant to stay firmly fixed I don't know. The skin is under 1mm thick, no way screws will hold firm in that. Once water had got in it had rusted the screws allowing more water in.
The batten was sodden and rotten at one end and it just pulled off easily offering no resistance at all.
Mmm, how was I going to deal with this? I now had an awful lot of holes to deal with.
Simon.
