Caravelle's bulkhead restoration - Part 1 of 3

Suomeksi

During the summer and autumn the interior work in the Caravelle’s cabin progressed surprisingly well. There were no major surprises on the way and the work progressed as planned. There are three bulkheads in the cabin and individual blogs will be written about each one.

This first part concentrates on the restoration work of the bulkhead in the front part of the cabin. It separates the front galley from the actual passenger cabin. As we don’t have a galley in our Caravelle, the front section could be called the entrance area.

The following blogs will describe the construction of the bulkhead which separates the seating area from the open rear area, and the restoration of the rear bulkhead which is between the toilets and the open area.

Test assembly

The cabin front bulkheads are original, they came with the aircraft from Arlanda, where the Caravelle waited for its fate from 1974 until 2022. On the entrance side the bulkhead had a grey plastic coating, which had broken and crackled in large areas during the decades. The remaining parts of coating were scraped off and then the old brown glue under it, covering the whole wall, was ground smooth.

In the picture both halves of the bulkhead have been test assembled into place for defining suitable fastenings.

Notice how the lower part of the bulkhead elements protrudes forward, towards the entrance area. This gave the passengers on the other side of the wall, on the first seat row, a little more legroom.

Dismantling and cleaning

The following step was to dismantle all decorative elements and add-ons, such as ashtrays, newspaper pockets, loudspeakers, etc. Furthermore, the fabric covering, on the lower part of the bulkhead on the passenger cabin side, was also removed as it was in poor condition.

The add-on elements were cleaned so that they were ready to be re-assembled on the restored bulkheads as the finishing touch.

Restoring the surfaces

A vinyl coated wallpaper, designed for humid spaces, was installed on the entrance side of the cabin bulkhead. Its pattern and colour corresponded with the original style quite well. The wallpaper was glued on the bulkhead surface using glue which is suitable for outdoor use and is water-soluble, which made it easier to get all the tools clean.

All the other bulkheads in the cabin were covered with the same vinyl coated wallpaper to create a uniform style inside the passenger cabin. On the passenger seating area side the original brown fabric on the lower part of the bulkhead was changed to the new carpet material. Finnair had donated a roll of aircraft carpet earlier in the year. Suitable pieces were cut from the carpet roll for the legroom part of the wall and glued on the bulkhead. The wallpaper on the upper part of the bulkhead was still in good condition, it only needed to be cleaned. This required a magic eraser, some cleaning liquid and a fair amount of proper scrubbing.

The outcome

When the restoration and cleaning work was ready, the add-on elements and decorations were fastened back on the walls and the bulkhead halves were installed into place in the cabin. Only the curtain is missing and the vertical strips from the sides of the bulkhead doorway. These will be installed during the spring 2025.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen and Ismo Matinlauri.

Translation to English by Erja Reinokainen.