Yellowing of Thetford locker & service doors

Is it just me that is suffering with their Thetford locker & service doors yellowing with age ?
I have a 57 registered Nuevo,, not that old but old enough for the door surrounds to start yellowing and prematurely ageing. Is there anyway to recover the whiteness as it looks unsightly against the bright white coach body.


Cheers Dave.

Hi Dave
I use a white caravan polish from Care-avan and recommended by Bailey caravans, I have used the stuff for 4 years on 2 vans and find it very good for bringing the life back into the white GRP body work.
In fact I have just spent the day washing down the van with Fenwicks and have started polishing the top half to remove the grey marks.
Really good stuff, its 12.99 for 500ml www.care-avan.co.uk.

Boaby

I have the opposite on the Windsor. The cab, habitation door and rear of the van all all still white its the sides that are yellowing and they look terrible imo

I've worked & still do with plastics for the last 30 years & they will ALL degrade physically & colourwise due to age & UV light.

Cast your eye over exterior plastic fittings on old caravans, you will see dull, matt & powdery surfaces, all this is due to them being 'untreated',
by that I mean as they left the molding machine that made them.

The ONLY cure is to remove the part if possible, lightly abraid it, panel-wipe it clean, spray with plastic primer, then spray with appliance white,
( or whatever colour ) Halfords own brand is super stuff, the part will then remain the colour just the same as the vehicle.

I came accross a pack of plastic we'd had for many years not long ago, the top sheet was well 'yelloed' I wiped it, sanded it, then snapped it,
it was still yello right through & VERY brittle, (age)

In our case it would be the bonded sides that would have to come off !! which is out of the question. The GRP bits are fine and are still nice a white and look ok after their 5 years (next week).

2 or 3 years ago it had a "deep clean" and polish which didnt improve things in fact had I been paying for it would have wanted my money back.

These vans are not built like yours they dont scrub up well after xxxx years.

Thanks for the replies everyone probably didnt make my self very clear but I was talking about the plastic surrounds around the service & lockers doors & not the actually coach built walls. wondered if there was anything to bring the white back or if its knackerred due to uv. is it a big job to replace the thetford surrounds ?


Dave

Nuevo, yes it WAS perfectly clear to me what you were on about, & that is also what I was on about

Its the plastic surrounds that can be removed, prepped & painted, they will not 'yello' again.

modelman wrote:
Nuevo, yes it WAS perfectly clear to me what you were on about, & that is also what I was on about

Its the plastic surrounds that can be removed, prepped & painted, they will not 'yello' again.

OOPPPS! don't know how that happened

roli wrote:In our case it would be the bonded sides that would have to come off !! which is out of the question. The GRP bits are fine and are still nice a white and look ok after their 5 years (next week).

2 or 3 years ago it had a "deep clean" and polish which didnt improve things in fact had I been paying for it would have wanted my money back.

These vans are not built like yours they dont scrub up well after xxxx years.

Hi Roli, thats a bummer, BUT, as I stated, it CAN be sorted, but by painting, admittedly a big job for some, but I wouldn't bat an eyelid to do
such a job, it would be exactly as above, just a bit more of it

Hi folks, my '05 Nuevo had the yellowing surround to the cassette locker and the 240v socket cover.
As it happened, the socket cover recently broke and was changed to a bright white one by my dealer.
I had thought to try and paint the surround to the cassette locker and was glad of the suggestions by modelman, especially the bit about using a plastic primer.
Can I just ask what "panel-wiped" actually means, though.

Incidentally, the white rubber strip along the sides of the 'van (where the sides meet the roof panel) were also very grubby when we got the 'van. I've found that using some Cif (ex-Jif) on them, brings them up a treat.

'Panel wipe' is clear, liquid 'wipe' thats applied all over surfaces that are due to be painted, just about ALL of the so-called plastic cleaners
such as 'back to black etc are simply silcone based sprays that 'shine-up' plastics, but, silicone is a killer to ANY new paint, this awful stuff
leaves a slipery surface that paint will never adhere to, so, the panel wipe is to cut through & leave a super dry, contaminate-free surface for new paint,
ALL automotive paint shops & paint suppliers will know of this.
Never attempt to even apply primer until this is done, you never know whats been put on your plastics previously.
Once the plastic is 'clean' the plastic primer then etches into the skin, then there will be a perfect surface for the new paint to stick to.

Our surrounds have gone off white noticeably in the short time since getting our Nuevo as well but not as bad as some I've seen...

I did wonder about changing ours for the grey surrounds as fitted to alot of the newer vans but guess it would cost a good bit to replace them all and seems tad extreme....

More recently I've also noticed our fridge vents have gone off white as well and yet the covers which remain in place all the time except when we are using the van are both super bright white

Does this happen I wonder because Thetford use recycled plastic instead of virgin plastic as I know UPVC windows also yellow in the same way if virgin plastic is not used.

CC

The problem anyone has with vehicles with a 'range' of different fittings from different makers is that although they LOOK similar when new, all
the plastics are slightly different, so you just about always end up with different rates of 'decay' one can still be white after say, 2 years, when
other bits can be well yellow!

I'm very suprised that M/H makers don't gather ALL plastic fittings prior to fitting & paint them in one job-lot, after all, they paint some plastic
rear ABS panels & bumpers ( there're not all GRP )

Although stripping them offis ideal, NON of the faded parts need to be removed, anyone or paintshop can easily mask-off, prep & repaint the plastics,
believe me, the result will look like you have a different van.

Although I use a lot of plastics, I don't know what the U/V stabilisers are or just how they work, so for me, painting is the way to go

I don't really know what I'm talking about here but I came across a "vintage computer" website a while ago where they restore & use old computers.
Someone on there who works in the plastics industry came up with "Retr0bright" which restores the yellowed cases to their original colour. It's a bit involved and I don't know if it would work with motorhome plastics:
http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

Frank

PS
This board is trying to tell me that I've spelled "colour" incorrectly

Impressive stuff that Frank, & I knew nothing about it, but I think i'll stick to paint

Thanks all for your replies think I will put up with the yellowing as really dont fancy all the bother of painting. was hoping there just might be a secret to getting the whiteness back.

Dave

Daz?