66 | Project Polly happy with the brand new Mini Heki hatch. Complete with a clear, double-glazed dome, sliding insect and shade screens, and with a locking mechanism on its highest opening position to stop the dreaded “Heki Thump” of it suddenly slamming shut when windy, it transformed Polly’s bed/dining/living area.
Singing in the Rain
P
olly’s return home brought with it some rain, but I was now able to laugh at it. That was until the night before the Brisbane Show, when Mrs iM and I were ‘overnighting’ near Sydney Airport in preparation for early departures the next day. It had been raining steadily all night and at times quite hard, but what did I care? We were watertight. How good was that at last?! Around 01:45 Mrs iM awoke to find her bedding wet and a steady drip coming from the front passenger-side corner of the roof hatch. NOOOOOOO!!!!! What to do? We couldn’t stay as it was still raining, so the only thing was to head home. We both missed our early flights and quite coincidentally, Pia rang around 10:00 am regarding another matter. When I told her the news she was mortified (putting it mildly). Ten minutes later she was back on the phone, advising Olli would fly down the next morning, collect Polly and take her back to Brisbane to find out what went wrong. By that time the rain had stopped and I’d been up the ladder for a look and to take some photos. There’s a wide plastic valance around the hatch and instantly I saw the problem: the rear passenger side corner had lifted, allowing water to run straight in. Not good. To cut a long story short, I returned Polly to Brisbane a few days later and left her there for a week. Southern Spirit Campervans picked up the tab for fuel and airfares and were prepared to remove and replace Polly’s entire ceiling
Top to bottom: It’s surprising how much of the original sealant was still in place; Hatch removed and there was the rust, but not too bad; Inside the hatch, red dirt was ingrained from years of rental travel. Interestingly, Polly’s had a second ceiling skin added at some point, probably due to water damage. Hmm…