Compartment Rust Repair

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

cbeierl

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Posts
684
Location
Nashua, NH
I developed a serious rust problem along the bottom lip of the right rear compartment on my 2005 Vectra.  As you can see in the first photo the area circled in red is essentially falling apart, including the metal holding the right-hand door latch bracket.  The only thing holding it together is the plastic molding along the bottom.

To fix it I cut off the old compartment faceplate above the rusted area and then made a drawing of what I needed and took it down to a local sheetmetal fabricator.  They charged me $75 to make the new piece.  The new sheetmetal can be seen in the second photo, temporarily clamped into place.  Since I had clearance (from the door latch assembly on the inside of the door) to do so I made the bottom piece under the battery compartment a couple of inches taller to give me a little more structure there.

The third picture shows the new piece painted and installed, with a new plastic molding strip along the bottom.

The last picture shows the completed repair, with all new rubber seals applied.  I think it came out very well!
 

Attachments

  • Rust Before.jpg
    Rust Before.jpg
    200.5 KB · Views: 227
  • New Sheetmetal.jpg
    New Sheetmetal.jpg
    168.1 KB · Views: 190
  • Attached & Painted.jpg
    Attached & Painted.jpg
    204.7 KB · Views: 183
  • Repair Complete.jpg
    Repair Complete.jpg
    201.1 KB · Views: 185
Kevin Means said:
Looks great! How did you attach it?

Kev

It's attached the same way the original was--with 3/16" aluminum pop rivets into the vertical flanges of the righthand compartment and into the old piece and mounting bracket on the far left.  I used 2 layers of 3M Molding tape to match the thickness of the original rubbery seal between the compartment flanges and the faceplate.  I used some paintable latex caulk between the styrofoam edge of the compartment floor and the new faceplate.  There are three screws that go through the edge of the floor into the flange of the new sheetmetal and the plastic molding.  I also used a small steel backing plate as reinforcement behind the joint between old and new on the righthand side of each opening.  The joint itself was covered with aluminum duct sealing tape (subsequently painted) to seal the opening.
 
Actually, this is the first time I've done anything like this--I was definitely nervous when I started cutting away the old sheet metal!
 
Nice Job! Most of us will be doing some of that as Winnie has a problem in that area. I wonder if we can get the panels from Winne & paint them ourselves? Some like the compartments on the slide out side of mine would be a trick to replace. Art
 
That's a great question Art. My coach looks like its had some work done before. As well the rear bumper looks like it had a meet-up with a pole at some point. Does anyone know the availability of replacement panels / bumpers etc?
 
I think almost all parts are available from Winnebago. They may have to be manufactured from the molds and drawings they retain.
 
For those interested, here's the drawing I produced to give to the sheet metal fabricators.  (If anybody with a 36RD wants to do this same repair, please note that the righthand compartment cutout is actually drawn about 1/8" too far to the right of where it should be .)
 

Attachments

  • SheetMetalRepair.jpg
    SheetMetalRepair.jpg
    171.5 KB · Views: 72
Is that beach camping or road salt?
I've been cleaning and repainting mine from the salt air, but nothing that bad
 
SCVJeff said:
Is that beach camping or road salt?
I've been cleaning and repainting mine from the salt air, but nothing that bad

I would say it's the road salt--hard to avoid that up here in New England.
 
Mine has it bad and I live below the salt belt so for me road salt is out. When I removed and bead blasted some smaller parts under the generator I found no primer on the factory metal. I primed & painted with rattle can several years ago & still looks like new. I live 22 miles inland from the Gulf. Why does my cheap paint job hold up & factory's does not? They do a great job on their aluminum but not on their steel. Art
 
Chris - Great restoration job.  The compartment area looks like new now. Your fabrication reminds me of when I restored a 55 Thunderbird (in another live) and making new sheet metal parts for it.

-Russ
 
cbeierl said:
It's attached the same way the original was--with 3/16" aluminum pop rivets into the vertical flanges of the righthand compartment and into the old piece and mounting bracket on the far left.  I used 2 layers of 3M Molding tape to match the thickness of the original rubbery seal between the compartment flanges and the faceplate.  I used some paintable latex caulk between the styrofoam edge of the compartment floor and the new faceplate.  There are three screws that go through the edge of the floor into the flange of the new sheetmetal and the plastic molding.  I also used a small steel backing plate as reinforcement behind the joint between old and new on the righthand side of each opening.  The joint itself was covered with aluminum duct sealing tape (subsequently painted) to seal the opening.

Just an update on this info.  I just finished a similar repair on most of the left hand side of my coach.  Instead of the 3M Molding tape and latex caulk I used Butyl Putty Tape (Putty Tape / Butyl Tape 1/8" x 1" x 50' Black One 50ft Roll) between the new sheet metal and the flanges of the compartments and the styrofoam edge of the compartment floor.  This is the same material I used to seal the replacement shower skylight I had to install last year (old one cracked).
 
Back
Top Bottom