Chickie had several coats of fading house paint on the outside when we bought her.

The original aluminium on the front and back ends was too damaged to save, so we replaced it with new caravan siding.

We salvaged the original “J” mould for the seams. It had corroded badly in some spots from bad silicone, and generally lost most of its gold anodising.

The J mould went back over the edges with plenty of neutral cure Sikaflex to form a seal. Then any major dings were bogged or panel beaten where we could.

We had decided early on that we weren’t going for mint-new perfection on the exterior or paint. Chickie was 53 years old, and had a life, and restoring to showroom state would be difficult.

At one stage we considered spray painting the outside, but given we had no indoor space where we could control that opted against.

In the end, it was multiple coats of good quality primer, and exterior water based enamel. We’re happy with the result and its miles ahead of its old finish!