92 Tioga Arrow Ford E350

Here is a link to my experience repairing a badly water damaged cabover.

Cabover rebuild thread


Jose

thanks...good advice. I have a friend with a large metal shop and he would be willing to build the entire top nose from aluminum and join to body. Wonder how that would work out? The rest of the vehicle is solid, just aged.
adding granite counter tops (paying attention to weight)and probably rebuild cabinets with reclaimed heart pine.
I own a paper so I am able to trade the work for advertising, so my main concern is what out of pocket I will have. That is why I'm avoiding an RV place like the plague.
If I could figure out how to post photos on this board I'd put a couple up to give you an idea of the damage.

"How far back do I remove and rebuild"?

Till you get into good material


"rot seems to go up to window overlooking the front".

Yep, front window needs to be looked at to make sure it doesn't leak. Your seeing after effects of not doing that. Don't forget to check out above window, the lights are also a known problem and need to be maintained (above window).
When I put mine back in I made a access panel so I could just open that panel to see if there are any leaks with a flashlight and look at clearance lights.
Labor...I hope your doing this yourself. If not it could get into big $$$. I rebuilt 2 trailers about 75%, each time my labor hours was about twice what I thought it would be. But the price of doing it yourself versus a rv dealer was maybe 90% less. But sure didn't feel like that when I was actually rebuilding them. Lots of rebuild stories on google. Try something like "class c rebuild" IMO if you got it cheap enough and it has a good running gear, you'll have better than new when done at about 1/10 the cost.

Edit part:
"Thought of rebuilding with wood, then wrapping nose with aluminum".

IMO Stick with same type of material that original was built with. That way you'll be basically rebuilding that same as it came new, if at all possible.

ETC... if have haven't done so yet, do a good inspection of the whole thing. Bumper to bumper. Would a shame to get front rebuilt and the rear is also bad.
Most window leaks(not all)the reasons for the leak is weep holes plugged up with dust turned into dirt that plugged up hole and/or old putty around the frame allowing water to penetrate to inside. Sign of poor maintenance. Which a lot of RV's are in the same boat. Many, many people don't fix leaks until it becomes very noticeable and by that time a lot of damage has been done. Having said all this remember it is a 1992 so that s over 20 years old. Nothing against 20 year old rv's (some are better built than new) but you've got to use them after you fix them to get your money back.