Roof Rebuild of Class C due to Water Intrusion (4/18/09)

If you have gotten this far, you know that this site was set up to follow what will be progress or failure revamping a 1991 Tioga 24' Class C Motor Home. Right now, I'm going to address apparent leaks overhead. In November-January, I rebuilt the front Cab-Over Section.


I suggest doing any of this kind of work before there is any warping, staining, rot or rusting. Serious damage can be negated if effort is applied sooner rather than later. The effort will also cost less and be much easier.



So far, so good as I've been able to dissect the beast and satisfactorily to me, build it better and leak proof.


I had to create a scaffold system to allow me to walk completely around up there with the roof just below waist level.


Leak Proof is important. I'm not trying to postpone damage, to get another year out of it, to piece it back together to sell to someone else. I really hate those things. If I'm going to roll up my sleeves, I want to be successful. I want to FIX this; not put a bandage on it!





[Go back to Nov.-Jan. if you are interested in the Cab Over Rebuild.]



OK, here we go.


This week was spent 'Setting up'.







The storage unit needed a bit more than a 'sweep out'; electric was turned on, shelving moved, motorhome backed in, tools, materials delivered from old stock in my garage and new materials from Home Depot. After this, I had to set up the scaffolding I had built for the first go around in Nov.-Jan. to rebuild the Cab Over section. However, I now needed enough scaffolding to go completely around the 24' vehicle.. so I could work safely and somewhat efficiently on the entire roof.



Awning should have been removed first to make things easier.



Measurements were taken, materials bought, delivered and assembled. Somewhere in this proceedure, some 'think time', reorganization and then some more rethinking was necessary until I felt comfortable with what I had assembled for my safety 7' off the concrete floor. All is together and seemingly working well at this point.






Next, was the removal of most of the aluminum trim molding all around the perimeter of the roofing rubber. Everything was saved and after my wife spent hours of her patient time cleaning, she held each piece while i worked them gently with a hammer and wood scrap as dolly, to reshape them as close to new as possible. Aluminum is easy to rework.


All items on roof as well as all aluminum trip around the edges of the older rubber roof, needed to be removed.



I have yet to remove the awning on the passenger side of vehicle as I honestly do not know yet how to do it safely! Have some printed material on it that I will read before I do that, but right now, I dug into the basic stuff to just see what I was up against, in the way of water damage.





Might I say, this is the point at every project I do, that I ask myself, "What the H___ am I doing here? Why did I dig this far? Why didn't I...............etc. etc. etc. It's normal.

It was clear that in the Front and in the Rear, 'someone' had investigated deep enough to realize this rig was in need of some serious effort in order to be saved, and instead, just put it back together.



I really dislike this feeling, but know, KNOW, that everything is fixable. Yes, maybe I'm going to have to fix more than I want to, but, I'll get it done and have a better item when done.





Scraped old sealant goop off the items on the roof, then removed the items, one by one. Removed the drivers side molding on the edge of the rubber roofing.



The ROT, was evident almost anywhere there was a joint, corner or 'rounded' molding covering something. Rounded corners are suspect always as they are near impossible to seal with cheap moldings.




Then, removed the molding across the rear of the roof as well as the vertical aluminum molding in the aft end, where it wrapped forward to meet the roofing material. Had to cut this with a sabre saw, at this point, as I only wanted to go as far into this rebuild as was necessary.






Damage only, would be addressed at this point. Replacement of all aluminum corner moldings with custom fiberglass trim will occur later.

New Moldings Installed on Cab-Over

Sorry again for the delay.  We have been scrambling to get the new moldings finished and installed as well as it seems a thousand other things needed around the house, before we leave on this trip out west.

So to cut to the quick, please enjoy the photos here and let them do most of the talking.

One molding on the ground and the other still on the mold or form it was made from.

After making the new moldings, I used the form they were made on for support while I sanded and faired them to near perfection and then painted them.  I had wanted to paint them with Awlgrip linear polyurethane 2 part paint, but found the catalyst I had in the garage had gone bad.  So, at the last moment and out of time. I ran to Home Depot and got a spray can of their best Rustoleum's gloss white (when in doubt, throw money at it- :)
($5.97/can rather than $2.99).  A couple of coats, an hour or so apart and then let them dry for 2 days.

Installed them with Truss Head Stainless Steel  #8 x 3/4" machine screws and 3M's 101 Marine Sealant as caulking on the underside of the molding -run as a bead 1/4" from the inner edges.  Also used a dollop or pea sized ball of the grey putty that is used for window caulking and Dicor's Kit, pressed out to the size and thickness of a dime maybe and layed over the inside of the screw holes.  This way the screw was sealed first by the grey putty, and then next and all around by the 3M marine sealant.  Not sure how the 3M sealant is compared to the Dicor, or GE's off the shelf stuff at Home Depot, but Dicor Sealant runs about $8-10/per tube.... 3M's 5200 is more of an Adhesive and runs 9-14/tube....the 3M 101 Marine Sealant ran me $17 per tube.  Hope its as good as it's price reflects!   Note that the new moldings and all this sealant effort was applied OVER the existing Eternabond tape on the edge.  I felt there was no need to remove the Eternabond but to bury it from the elements for the rest of eternity.

Held molding up to motor home and pre-marked motor home with pencil, then taped the surface on the motor home first, so clean up was easy and precise.

..............CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT!

Job is done and we are off to the mountains for 4 months!  Yea!!!!!