JimTheSoundman
Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2016
- Posts
- 6
I've have purchased a 1991 Sportscoach Pathfinder and am in the process of gutting it and turning it into an office on wheels. This is the first RV I've ever owned or worked on, so although I have a lot of HomeDepot skills, I don't have any background in using them on RV's.
There is a lot of water damage on the sides, but the roof looks intact and leak free except for a small spot above where the driver sits.
So water has gotten behind all the side panels, and damaged everything.
Looks like the wall panels were originally 1.25" Styrofoam with paneling glued to both the inside and outside of it, to make a rigid sandwich wall board about 1.5" thick. There is some aluminum framing materials, but it looks like those are only on either side of the windows, and not spaced at any regular intervals, like I was expecting.
On the outside, under the fiberglass skin, the water has rotted away the wood almost completely, so although it was very thin wood, maybe 1/8", it was still providing a lot of rigidity and protecting the Styrofoam from damage. So now I'm faced with a tough decision, do I strip off all the fiberglass panels, and glue on new thin wood panels to the Styrofoam and then try to reattach these long strips of fiberglass siding? The panels are long, like 25 feet, so trying to get them realigned will be super difficult.
I also don't know if I need to reattach paneling at all, maybe I should just put mastic or liquid nails on the Styrofoam, glue the fiberglass directly to that, caulk all the seams, and call it a day. That would be the easiest, but the aluminum trim that covered the seams was screwed into that paneling, which is no longer there, so I'd be gluing that trim in place since I wouldn't be able to screw directly into Styrofoam. Not really a good thing to do, and probably would spring leaks quickly. So it's a tough call.
I don't want this rehab to take six months or a year, I'm working on it eight hours a day, seven days a week, and I want to pound it out and be done with it. But, I also don't want to have to redo it in six months because I cut corners now. I also don't want the fiberglass siding falling off as I'm driving down the road. So what to do?
Any advice is appreciated. Sorry if the backstory is a bit verbose.
There is a lot of water damage on the sides, but the roof looks intact and leak free except for a small spot above where the driver sits.
So water has gotten behind all the side panels, and damaged everything.
Looks like the wall panels were originally 1.25" Styrofoam with paneling glued to both the inside and outside of it, to make a rigid sandwich wall board about 1.5" thick. There is some aluminum framing materials, but it looks like those are only on either side of the windows, and not spaced at any regular intervals, like I was expecting.
On the outside, under the fiberglass skin, the water has rotted away the wood almost completely, so although it was very thin wood, maybe 1/8", it was still providing a lot of rigidity and protecting the Styrofoam from damage. So now I'm faced with a tough decision, do I strip off all the fiberglass panels, and glue on new thin wood panels to the Styrofoam and then try to reattach these long strips of fiberglass siding? The panels are long, like 25 feet, so trying to get them realigned will be super difficult.
I also don't know if I need to reattach paneling at all, maybe I should just put mastic or liquid nails on the Styrofoam, glue the fiberglass directly to that, caulk all the seams, and call it a day. That would be the easiest, but the aluminum trim that covered the seams was screwed into that paneling, which is no longer there, so I'd be gluing that trim in place since I wouldn't be able to screw directly into Styrofoam. Not really a good thing to do, and probably would spring leaks quickly. So it's a tough call.
I don't want this rehab to take six months or a year, I'm working on it eight hours a day, seven days a week, and I want to pound it out and be done with it. But, I also don't want to have to redo it in six months because I cut corners now. I also don't want the fiberglass siding falling off as I'm driving down the road. So what to do?
Any advice is appreciated. Sorry if the backstory is a bit verbose.