We Bought a RV Clark!! Oh no! Rebuild thread

BRUISER said:
Delete hole over the top bunk. When it rains and you are sleeping up there it sucks. Super loud on plastic cover.

Put in a side window or side vent to let out CO2 of you ever have issues from Genny or heater.
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Had not thought about rain noise. One more good reason for deletion. Thanks
 
With some help from a couple buddies, We removed the front panel. This window was leaking like a siv. I could also tell that it had been leaking around every running light except 1. Previous owner repairs left a lot of screw holes. Took me a few days of looking at this panel to decide I dont want it anymore. I think itll be too difficult to fix this pc. properly. My plan to replace this panel will include a deletion of this front window. Entirely.
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This is the bottom of over cab bed. Actually, the part you see is the outside/ above the cab side. (The side I see if I look up while driving) The flip side of this is stained a nasty brown color from the rotten luan that used to be glued to it. I dont think I'll use this either. It has a lot of extra holes as well. But, I am going to save it. I have another plan for it that should work well.
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Taking the panels apart required removing the aluminum corner pcs. that previous owners had used as a repair. The best I could tell.. these repairs didnt do much to stop the leaking. Oh well..gotta fix it. This is what I'm dealing with, as far as removing old crap/ prepping for repairs. Sooooo much time has been spent removing globs of caulking, glues, expanding foam, screws..etc. which were all used for repairs. This is tedious work. It's for the birds.
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Gee! I didn't even realize how Crappy their built! Thought mobile homes were bad. Guess they do what they can to save weight, But their Notorious for Hidden leaks! Think of all the TV shows, & Trailer Race shows, where a car drives thru them & the RV's & Mobile homes, Explode, into dust & splinters! Wowser!
 
They are built crappy compared to a brick house, mobil home,or even a stick built, but think of this....

Rv's are built to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. To a certain extent anyway. Everytime you hit the road in one, those are the forces rv's face. Every bump in the road, railroad tracks, uneven transitions into parking lots, speed bumps..all the wind and rain..60,70,80 mph....can a brick house do that?
 
We were able to make patterns and cut new pcs for the round corners. This is my Buddy Kieth. He just bought a YJ. and needs a winch. So I struck up a deal with him. He helps me on the rv, and I give him one of the winches that I had won in a raffle!
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We were able to pull back the outer shell and slip a piece of luan behind it and draw out our pattern. Then cut it out with a skill saw. The new luan will then be glued directly to the outer skin the reattached to the aluminum frame. Once in place foam will attach to this from the inside. All of the damaged walls will need to be rebuilt in this manner. Just getting the old wood off of the outer skin is a major PITA!
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Time to stick the luan to the skin.
I had tested a few different spray glues that I bought from lowes. None seemed to work well enough, so I called the rv place and asked what they used. So..This is what the pro's use to glue Rvs together.
Stay'-put..its 28.49 for a 15 oz. can. Yikes!!
I bought 6 cans. This is a big project.
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We sprayed both panels and let tack up for about 3 mins. This glue works fast and man does it work well!! A small part of the luan touched the siding before we were ready...holy crap!! It took all we had to pry the 2 inch section appart. We needed extra help. Brooke to the rescue! We were able to line up everything and started rolling it all out. FACT....This stuff will never come apart.
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This side went relatively smoothly. Its solid with no wrinkles. At least we had the entire outer skin to work with. The other side wont be as easy. Apparently ,sometime ago, a portion of the drivers side skin had blown off going down the interstate. It had been patched up with some plywood. I knew it was like this when I bought it so Its gotta be fixed. I've gotta plan!
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There's literally so many things to do, it's hard to stay focused on anything. I've been working on this thing every night well into the AM. I am happy to have all of the "tear out behind me". Theres been many hours spent just staring, thinking and figuring.
I've decided to focus on building my exterior panels. Theres still a lot to do before they'll be reinstalled on the rv, but the weather was great, so I declared it PANEL DAY!
I went to lowes and bought a sheet of 1/2" treated plywood , and 4 sheets of the white shower panel frp. This is basically the same stuff the outer sides of the rv are made of.(fiberglass reinforced plastic.) I decided to use it for the exterior panels that needed replacing. The front nose cone pc., the over cab pc.,and the 2 small pcs that go behind the van seats. At 31 dollars a sheet, this will be much cheaper than buying rv panels, ...not that I ever found any rv panels for sale.

I used the original body panels, which were damaged, and traced patterns on the new frp board and the 1/2" treated. I used contact cement to stick em together.
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You're quite handy at this.....maybe floors shouldn't be your only specialty. Kinda like admitting to tile work in that udder thread.
 
The contact cement FAILED!! The treated wood was way too wet.
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So I set them in the storage shed with a little dehumidifier and a lot of wind!
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This is the old above the cab panel..
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We traced it onto the new frp, cut out the new piece, then used the killer spray glue to attach it to luan sheets. Then cut it all out to the proper size. This panel is large enough, it needed 2 sheets of luan. This panel was by far the hardest to make.
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I reused the old original panel, I was able to cut and make my new driver side, above cab panel out of it. ( the panel that flew apart on the interstate)
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As you can see, I haven't cut the window out yet. I'm seriously considering deleting this window too.
 
I found some more pictures of some of the tear out. I hope you get a sense of how crappy and tedious this part of the job was.
This is Bobby working to tear out/rip apart the original walls. You can see part of the foam towards the bottom of the pic.
Remember.. the walls are layered. paneling/foam/luan/outside frp. The foam was stuck pretty good. It was hard to tear out. The luan comes off of the frp in splinters, the frp then needs to be sanded smooth( all the way down to the white)
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Brooke on the outside, helping to hold the wall in place as Bobby scrapes.
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This box is an outside storage box. I had to remove it so I get to everything. It's not rotten..just water stained. Since this is box is not seen, it will get mold treatment and replaced after wall is rebuilt.
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Sanding the last layer of luan away. Total time spent with a sander on both walls, the upper side pcs..and panels...probably 10 hours. Every hour sucked.
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This wall is almost ready!
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WARRIORWELDING said:
You're quite handy at this.....maybe floors shouldn't be your only specialty. Kinda like admitting to tile work in that udder thread.
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Whatta ya say you and I go in together on one of @Tacoma747 5ton trucks and have Dylan build us a camper for the back, now that he's a pro at this too :cool:
 
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