No more Mellow Yellow for Bokkie

 Tuesday 16/08/22

This is the second post on work we've been doing on Bokkie during this sit - thanks to the warm and dry weather.

Another age-related issue with these Hymers is the gradual yellowing of many of the internal plastic material, mostly due to prolonged UV exposure.

Before and after of the driver's door.

The habitation door looking much better; we've also replaced the fly screen material.

You can see the difference as soon as the first coat starts to go on.

There are apparently ways to improve the discoloration with peroxide but there are concerns that this can make the already brittle plastic even more so.  We therefore opted to go the painting route followed by many other Hymer owners.  Although the paint may mark and chip with time, it will still be infinitely better than the current nicotine-yellow areas that contrast with the general clean, white areas inside.

Painting the window surrounds

The newly-revived passenger window surround back in place

You can see the contrast between the door, unpainted at this stage, and the window surround.
The problem is the ceiling which houses the bed now looks very out of place.
A future project!

We used a Multi-Surface Paint that gives good adherence to the plastic and should give quite a durable, washable finish and generally applied two to three coats.

While in the UK I had to re-seal the main skylight so used the opportunity to paint the surround 
which had also yellowed and looked terrible against the white ceiling.

One problem with starting a job like this is that once you spruce up one section you immediately want to tackle the next area that then looks a bit shoddy by contrast!  

Owning a 20 year old motorhome keeps one busy but we love Bokkie and enjoy treating her to a little TLC.