Fixing the roof (again)

Emma's op went well, but she needed a couple of weeks to recover before we could set off again in the van. This gave me time to fix a roof hinge that had broken when we were at the Purbeck Folk Festival.

There are three hinges running along the side of the roof, these attach the roof to the van.

On the back hinge, the old rivets that attached the hinge to the van had been pulled out; I think due to age and the pressure of the horizontal gas strut.

Unfortunately, fixing this meant lifting up the whole roof on one side, i.e. taking off all the gas struts, and drilling out all my wonderful rivets that I put in after reattaching the roof the first time.

I re-riveted the offending back hinge back on and added an extra rivet for good measure.

I also reinforced the other two hinges with a steel plate as I did for the back one during the initial renovation.

After finishing the three hinges, the gas struts could go back on. This was surprisingly easy considering the trouble we had with them before. And now the roof, and the van (and Emma), are ready to go.