Water damage repair
I just bought a new (to me) toy hauler - it's a 2001 Coachmen 261TH with the Filon fiberglass sidewalls. In my pre-buy inspection I found some water damage and rot, but bought it anyways since the price was right - even if it costs me thousands to repair. Anyways, now I need to do the repair work.
First let me highlight the damage:
It's on the front left corner - and on the outside just presents itself as some cracks and bubbling in the fiberglass.
If you push on the outside wall however, you'll realize that there's no structure to it - it's likely just supported in this area by the very thin fiberglass outer skin. I'm not sure which was first - a crack in the sidewall that led to water intrusion, or water intrusion from the window just above that led to sidewall damage due to lack of structure.
On the inside you can't really see too much, since there are cabinets immediately opposite. The interior wall is completely separated (it feels much worse than it looks in the photos), with two of the drawer support brackets being attached to basically nothing.
All told the area affected is about the first 6' length of the RV, going up about 3-4' from the bottom. The front corner itself is solid, but the damage seems to really start right after the rear of the water heater door (the front most hatch in the photos).
My questions now for the community are two fold:
1) Is it safe to use the toy hauler as-is short-term? If I just cover the cracks on the outside with something to prevent further damage (eternabond, more fiberglass, etc) - do I need to worry about the trailer disintegrating driving down the road? The rest of the structure of the RV is largely sound.
2) What's the best course of action for repair? Should I cut out the skin for the damaged section, do whatever frame repair is needed, apply new skin plywood, and then re-glue the skin panel itself (doing fiberglass repair for the new seam I created when I cut off the skin)?
First let me highlight the damage:
It's on the front left corner - and on the outside just presents itself as some cracks and bubbling in the fiberglass.
If you push on the outside wall however, you'll realize that there's no structure to it - it's likely just supported in this area by the very thin fiberglass outer skin. I'm not sure which was first - a crack in the sidewall that led to water intrusion, or water intrusion from the window just above that led to sidewall damage due to lack of structure.
On the inside you can't really see too much, since there are cabinets immediately opposite. The interior wall is completely separated (it feels much worse than it looks in the photos), with two of the drawer support brackets being attached to basically nothing.
All told the area affected is about the first 6' length of the RV, going up about 3-4' from the bottom. The front corner itself is solid, but the damage seems to really start right after the rear of the water heater door (the front most hatch in the photos).
My questions now for the community are two fold:
1) Is it safe to use the toy hauler as-is short-term? If I just cover the cracks on the outside with something to prevent further damage (eternabond, more fiberglass, etc) - do I need to worry about the trailer disintegrating driving down the road? The rest of the structure of the RV is largely sound.
2) What's the best course of action for repair? Should I cut out the skin for the damaged section, do whatever frame repair is needed, apply new skin plywood, and then re-glue the skin panel itself (doing fiberglass repair for the new seam I created when I cut off the skin)?
Moved to Tech Issues forum from DIY.
