Staple Quandary

Masterful work! You really thought through and carried out the repairs to last, not just a band-aid.

Maybe a heat gun would be your new buddy for the putty tape. You could always come back in the Summer and try to get a bit more squeeze on it, too.

Good luck on the rest, you're a credit to RV'ing and thanks for posting the pictures.

westend, afraid I haven't been very diligent about taking pics, but here are a few:

Teardown:



Both outer wall studs and taillight brackets rotted



Studs except for corners were less affected, paneling delaminating



Worst damage was across the bottom. Floor sill and rear wall bottom sill completely rotted. Some rot of the floor. This is a shot of the LH rear corner, the longitudinal sill was rotted for about a foot forward. RH rear was sound.

I repaired the floor and sill as best I could, removed the loose material, painted with thin epoxy and patched with epoxy putty where needed. New floor sill, new bottom wall sill, spliced in new studs.



Studs are notched into the bottom sill and scarf jointed at top. Bonded w/ epoxy, with splice plate.



Painted the wall panel with the epoxy and built up with Bondo, the other handyman's secret weapon :) I had to trim the wall panels flush to the bottom of the floor to replace the floor sill, the blocking is to capture the backside of the panels.



New taillight bracket. Splice for RT rear is just above.

I have done all the work from the outside, as this FW is a rear bath model. Left to right across the back is the wardrobe, toilet, vanity and tub/shower. Too much to remove, and as it turned out most of the damage would not have been accessible from the inside anyway.

This work is being done outdoors, camper is covered with a 29 ft x 49 ft silver tarp from HF. Didn't start until mid December, weather has not been too bad, but I have lost some days. Even on days I can work, they are kind of short, what with the temps and daylight.

I am ready to re-skin it, but I am wondering about installing the other parts afterward. Not sure if the putty tape will conform and seal well in mid 40's temps. Wait for warmer weather?

I've installed siding for years. When I stapled the aluminum siding back onto the new, non-rotting frame, I used my Duofast electric narrow crown staple gun. It shoots a 1/4" X 9/16" staple. The staple schedule should be many and closely placed.

I also added in large sheets of aluminum panel in certain wall areas. For the panels, I drove in self-tapping, large head fasteners along with some construction adhesive. Gotta' love Liquid Nails, I must have used 50 tubes when I rebuilt the Hilton.

A rental yard should carry the narrow crown staplers and the staples are cheap, 5K for $10 and they are available in different colors at siding distributors.

Good luck with your restoration. Have any pictures to share?

Not sure if you have a harbor freight in your area but you can get a cheap stapler there.

Before I started this trip back in Aug I tore out and rebuilt my small slide and replaced the floor and some of the framing.

I had no trouble with the standard staples you get from the hardware store but they really need to be STAINLESS STEEL.

These worked fine. And they are plenty strong if not stronger than the originals I pulled out.

Dont worry too much about using exactly what the MFG used. They have lot of different reasons for using specific types of hardware and one of the biggest factors is time...how long it takes to install. Strength is not always their first concern.

Mine has held just fine and I expect will easily go another 10 years.

You might want to check out Teks Lath screws. They're readily available in big box stores in various lengths, are pretty well-made screws, and have a nice big flat head sort of like a built-in flat washer. I use them for all sorts of things.

Well, did a little more testing this afternoon. Screws it is. I may tack around the edges w/ the staples, where the skins are under the cap strips anyway.

Jim-Linda, Tango I'm a big fan of McMaster, but this is the rare case where they don't have what I am after. Their medium crown stapler apparently uses a T50. Too bad I can't use a crimping type stapler, LOL.

jjrbus, yeah, HF's medium crown also uses the T50. I just bought one of their narrow crown combo units (~ $23) which I used when splicing in the new wood. Worked great instead of clamps, screws, nails, etc while the epoxy cured. Just didn't work so well for the skins. No big loss :)

Thanks to all for the help, I've apparently got a direction now :)

I'll second McMaster-Carr for a suggested source.
They DO have just about anything you need.

My first thought was I know Harbor Freight has wide crown staplers. $21.99. So I looked and I'll be they use an Arrow T50 type staple! The HF tools are not the highest quality, I just replaced a brad nailer which was only 15 years old!

When aluminum or fiberglass skin is put on under an extruded aluminum trim, it is held on with a number 8 hex head bolt, so dry wall screws should work.

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-gauge-wide-crown-stapler-68029.html

Look on McMaster-Carr website, they have everything ever made.

Jim