I described on Caravantalk how my gas locker door became damaged.  For the sake of readers who might face a similar problem, here follows a description of how I dealt with the repair.

To remove the infill panel from the door frame, there are twenty or so screws to remove from the inside frame. The panel might be reluctant to move because when it was assembled, mastic was applied to waterproof the joint. Once I got it out I gave up on the idea of simply refacing the panel, because the polystyrene core was too broken, with the damage extending into the lock area.     Materials were sought to make up another one.  All of them I found I already had, either in the garage or sheds.   First, a piece of 4mm ply, then a 2ft square of polystyrene, and lastly a piece of uPVC sheet.

A piece of aluminium sheet would have served equally well.   The uPVC was rescued from an old uPVC door disposed of in a local skip.  Having got them all cleaned up, they were bonded together using grab adhesive, applied from a pressure gun.

 

After cramping up, they were left under pressure overnight.

Next day, the outline of the old panel was copied on to the new blank, then carefully cut out using a jigsaw.

Two new ventilator grills were required, and these were bought on ebay for a couple of pounds each. Once they arrived, one was placed centrally on the new panel, I marked around it, then cut the circle using the jigsaw.

Before fixing the grills, the uPVC face was rubbed down with wet 600grit wet & dry paper to remove the gloss.  Once dry, it was given a couple of spray coats of grey primer.

After drying overnight, the front grill was fitted using some silicone sealer.   Once dry, the front face, after a light rub down with wet 800grit paper, was given another coat of grey primer.

Next day, the second grill was measured and a sufficient amount of the tube section was cut off, so as to allow the second grill to be fitted snug to the inside of the panel.   That too was fixed using the silicone sealer.   The front side of the panel was ready for final painting.

My Avondale is twenty years old now, with it having been in my possession for the last ten.   The original colour is no doubt faded, so even if original paint was available, it’s unlikely that it would match.  So I’ve experimented with different shades of aerosol cans and have settled on a paint used by British Leyland during the early 1980s which is almost a true match.   So the final two spray coats were applied using an aerosol of Rover Arum White.  After being left overnight, it was ready to refit into the door frame. A bead of mastic was applied behind the front flange, with the new panel pushed up tight and the screws re-fixed on the inside of the door.