This lovely fellow has to have a hard time with us. It’s only place is outside under the naked sky and fully exposed to everything the Finnish winter has to offer: Snow, water, really cold temperatures, and sometimes – maybe sometimes – also sun and a bit warmer temperatures.
Since quite the beginning I realized a little surface mold inside the van but always thought it would be simply a condensation issue as the van would freeze also from the inside (we had up to -30°C here this winter) and then occasionally be heated and warmed up again. Any moisture from inside – maybe coming from snow that has been carried inside on my shoes – would then probably condensate on the ceiling and walls and start building up mold there. As it seems by now, there might be other reasons for this issue as I am discovering step by step.
After figuring out that the front door steps are constantly wet under the rubber mats that have been glued there, I realized what I had seen in many other VW LT projects to be true also for my 1979 one: The sealing of the front window is leaking in the right and left bottom corners. As at this point we still have about 0°C here, I just went for a (hopefully working) quick fix and filled the gaps in the old rubber sealing with some boat and car sealing that also dries under water. Even with cold temperatures and occasional snow melting water running down the window, this fixed sealing could have a chance to really work. Does not look great but hopefully does the job until the body work is done and the front window has to be taken out anyway.
One of the many “search and find” games was around the gas stove. I realized some frozen water on the stove but could not really come up with a reason why it would be there. After some search I figured out that above the stove there was an electric fan for taking out moisture from cooking. It takes the air through some short ventilation pipe through the roof into the outside environment. Luckily everything seems tight and sealed there but there was simply no cap or cover on the top of the pipe to cover it from rain and snow coming inside. And we had plenty of snow on the roof so that it would come inside and start melting in the piping.
Lucky me, easy fix: I bought a new ventilation cap in the local caravan store and screwed it to the pipe. Now my van is safe from rain and snow again.
This adventure to be continued…
