During the winter I had to pause my attempt to fix the roof because the temperatures were too cold to work with epoxy resin. The weather was still quite cold at the beginning of April.
However, in the middle of April, the weather changed and spring came back to Germany! 
I finally seemed able to continue the work on the outer cabin.
Discovering rotten wood
The cabin had been exposed to the weather for a long time. Over the years, water had seeped trough tiny cracks, unprotected edges or porous paint. After constantly absorbing the water, the wood had become rotten. After thoroughly examining the entire cabin, I found rotten wood almost everywhere: At the front,
the wheelhouses,
the back,
the side,
the roof…
The cabin seemed ready for a thorough refurbishment!
Removing the rotten wood
I removed all the rotten wood utilizing my hand-held circular saw and router.
Luckily, only the outer layer had suffered. The basic construction underneath still seemed intact.
Over the course of several days, I made my way all around the cabin cutting out the rotten wood.
In some places, the underlying steel construction had also suffered from the wet wood and became rusty.
Especially the frame in the back seemed quite rusty.
Removing rust and painting the steel frame
Fortunately, I started the renovation project early enough to save the frame.
Most of the rust was more or less easy to remove and the steel wasn’t noticeably damaged.
After removing the rust, sanding and cleaning the metal frame, I applied anti-rust paint.
Once I had painted all the metal, the cabin seemed ready for the next step of the restoration project.
Patching the cut-outs with new wood
Once all the rotten wood and rust was removed, I cut textured coated boards to size and started patching the gaps.
In contrast to the previous builder, I didn’t use screws to mount the panels because most of the water had seeped into the wood through all these screws.
After adhering the new wood, I sanded everything to make sure the surface was smooth and even.
I repeatedly applied the same process all around the cabin,
until all the cut-outs were properly patched.
After a few weeks of intense work, I had finally reached a major milestone. All the rotten wood was removed and replaced with new panels. The cabin was ready for the next phase of its restoration!