Rebuilding the Roof – Part 3

Fiberglass day!!!

To do this, you need the following, three new paint trays, 2 of which will be scrapped, so don’t spend a ton.  We used 2.0 oz and 1.5 oz chopped mat from fiberglasssite.com.  We also used polyester resin, 5 gallon bucket.  You will also need 1/4″ mat rollers (2) and 2 paint roller frames.

You have to know how hot it is outside when mixing the hardener with the resin.  Also we invested in a paint stirring thing for the resin and it helped us a great deal.

Once mixed, take your first roller and apply.  The wood will absorb the first coat, so we had to put two coats on.  You want the resin in the final coat to be sticky but not puddle wet.

This was after the second coat and I was giving it an hour to really absorb into the wood.  It was about 90 at 9 in the morning, so it was a really hot day.

Next I laid out the chopped mat, this is where my dishgloves came in handy, they get covered in chopped mat and resin.  Also, see those wrinkles along the edge, they are your worst enemy, it was bad and it was terrible when we got to other parts.

Next applying the coat of resin to the chopped mat, it was really cool to see it go see through, but the resin dried quicker and I had trouble keeping up with it and getting the mat to be flat against the wood.

Well, after this a few days later, the roof was outside with the hardened fiberglass and it rained, but the wood stayed dry.  It was exciting.  Also when we had to work with it more we started to hate it, it would dig into our fingers and I got so many cuts.

 

Go to Part 4

Rebuilding The Roof – Part 2

So it has been an interesting few weeks working on the new camper roof.

First the new frame needed made.

We then covered it in subflooring and filled in all the spots with insulation.We had a little person that wanted to help, so he got to help hold down insulation while the glue set.

Then the sideboards.

We ended up having a massive issue because we did not add a small piece to the sides where it would hook back up to the camper, so we are in the phase of working that out now.

Hope this helps, Go to part 3

 

Replacing the Roof – Part 1

So as it happens to many pop ups, the roof in ours is rotten.  and we are not talking add a bottle of silicone and pray, we are talking leaking rusty water… more on that later.  Let us get started on this project.

First take your roof off, we had 5 people help us out, it was heavy, in short have help, and put it someplace where you have space to rip it apart.  We knew that we would need to keep the camper dry so it went into the garage, and the roof went into the grass.

I worked on the inside of the camper first, and was able to gain a good footing there, but I knew we had get into the roof, both of us were anxious about it, because if we screwed it up, it would be bad.  First important thing, ours was done with square screws, having the correct drill bit will make the job easier.

First you have to get all the trim molding off, many people on the pop up forums used scrapers, flatheads, and hammers and forcefully pulled it off.  I had done one like this and was not happy with it, I felt like I was bending the metal.  So I started to play and found that there was a plastic trim piece that I could pull out and boom, there were all the screws.

So I unscrewed the best I could until I found many were so rusted they had disintigrated! I always collected all the screws in a small bucket to keep and get proper replacements.  Also we had to scrape off the funky putty used for trailers in sealing them, it is sticky and nasty and we have to get new to put it back.  After that I pulled the base trim off, even though it had been dry for days around us the trim dripped with water.

The metal side pieces were not glued on very well and came off easily, just getting the parts of the hinges attached the wood were difficult to get off.  some hinges were great, but 3 out of 4 are terrible rusted to the screws, more on that later.

I would have liked to take a picture of the rotted wood, it was bad, a good 60% of the wood crumbled in my hands, into the burn pit it went.  I put all the wood aside, and it is still sitting there in my grass, my husband even mowed the lawn around it!

Okay, so take this time to get the ORIGINAL measurements of the roof, this will allow you to make it perfect to your camper, here is mine.

Next I got the roof into two pieces, let me just say, shear will and some muscle I was able to do it, here is half of the roof, this piece is the interior of the ceiling.

Basically it is made doing the following, metal exterior-polystyrene-interior metal, little to no support or anything, so when it rotted it went.

I pulled the interior sheets off fairly nicely and it ended up in rolls, I hope it goes back on nicely.

Then I scraped off the poly polystyrene using a 7 in one tool and a hammer carefully chipping it away.

Trust me this is a short post, but it took 4 days of work.  Mostly while my hubby was at work and the kids were outside playing.

So about the rest of the rusty water, you can see the interior was discolored in this picture.

I originally thought this was a terrible case of mold but you can see a plastic thing on the top left of the picture.  Jayco stabilized these by gluing a piece of metal to the polystyrene and screwing this “clothes hanger” in.  The roof was protected so none of it rusted but this piece took the brunt.

 

Go to part 2