Reconstructed Skylight for a Vintage Caravan

An acquaintance came to me through a friend because he needed help with a rare spare part. It was for a vintage caravan from the 1950s, reportedly built in 1957. The skylight had become brittle after decades of exposure to intense UV radiation. Cracks had formed at the mounting points, and several pieces had broken off at the corners. However, most of the structure was still intact, making a reproduction seem feasible.

I explained that he first needed to reassemble the damaged fragments to create a complete template. Using glue and tape, he was able to temporarily fix the remaining parts of the skylight. Then he was to fill the inside with plaster to produce a stable negative mold. A few weeks later, he brought the finished plaster mold back. Together we sanded the areas where the old fracture lines were still visible and smoothed the surface a bit.

On the self-built vacuum forming table aboard the c-base, we vacuum-formed several sheets over the mold. To do so, we heated plastic sheets until they became pliable enough to form over the mold under vacuum. The first attempts failed — the temperature wasn’t quite right, and wrinkles formed, known in the trade as “webbing.” After two more tries, we finally achieved a clean pull without distortions.

The acquaintance took the finished piece home, trimmed the excess edges, and mounted it on his caravan. This replaced a component that had been unavailable for decades. The new skylight is now back in use and serves the same function as the original.

With this small project, I also experimented with producing a video in the vertical short-film format for YouTube Shorts.