MATCHING COLOURS
His latest project is this Don Cadet caravan , believed to have been built in 1956 or thereabouts . When he acquired the van , it was in appalling condition . Rot had claimed the plywood offside wall and it was being held together by duct tape . The interior was a shambles . Anyone else would ’ ve put it in the too-hard basket . But not Andrew .
Over the last 12 or 18 months , the Don has received a new offside wall . All dents have been filled and sanded . Andrew even still has the van ’ s original licence plate – to give you an idea of the van ’ s age , the licence plate starts with a ‘ G ’.
There is still a lot of work to be done . However , now that the body of the van is looking almost like new again , both the interior and the exterior have been painted . But given the state of the van when Andrew acquired it , it was difficult to be sure about the original colour – the existing paint was old , faded and peeling . However , when he removed some trim here and there , it exposed a yellow colour that Andrew could be confident was the original .
It was a similar story inside . The existing white paint had seen better days , but when he removed some light fittings , he discovered a vibrant mint colour . Now , he wasn ’ t certain that the white paint was original – it seemed more likely that the ‘ hidden ’ mint was in fact the original colour , and so he colour-matched a sample and used it to coat all interior surfaces .
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