Thanks westend, that's a great tip! I can use that not only on Tow-Mater, but on a few difficult zerks for Lil' Willy and on that red/orange trailer he rides in sometimes.
Today - exterior trim cleaning, shaping and straightening, prepping corners to receive trim and butyl tape, installing with butyl, trimming after days of temperature cycles.
Remember this stuff I had draped over Lil' Willy some time back? Yeah - time to get it back on.
The shaping is important. The trim doesn't seal anything, the butyl seals. The trim only holds the butyl, like a bandaid.
So it's important to get it starting out in good shape, especially where previous screws have distorted it.
And where there are bigger bends, it tends to fold on itself.
There are places where making cuts to help the bends are required, and other places where it's just important to shape it with the hammer after screws get installed.
Once flattened it's also easier to clean well.
I also "hammer-and-pliers" shaped this piece before fully removing it (while screws held it still). Then an examination of the sheet metal stapling revealed a need to remove staples, tighten the form and re-staple.
From the upper seam...
Especially through here...
Down to the lower corner where it shapes back toward the forward.
This whole corner was pretty loose and the reshape and staple really made things feel stout.
I think that pic shows completion.
I know this one does.
Regarding the butyl install, I tried a new technique. Of course first was surface prep: scrape old caulking and dried butyl, wash that with Naptha, then wash it all with lacquer thinner, verify staples and edges are all down tight and flush.
Then the new technique.
This time I put one layer of butyl over the camper surface requiring seal.
Then I put a layer on the trim, and a starter screw into one end.
Then I called on DW and she held one end away from the sticky butyl while I zipped it up from the other.
That's the awning rail without a bend and extends away from the curved roof line over the door.
Where it met up here with the right rear piece which by this time had not yet been removed.
On the other side with the big roof repairs, I first put in one layer, then a second folded above it for gap filler, then the one layer on the trim and got DW's help again.
I also did something similar in the same area on the other side.
But I shifted and got back into two layers on the trim, and then screws started through the butyl so I could locate existing holes easier. Always trying a better way. I usually get the best method just about the time I get finished with something.
By the time I was done, I had trim back on both side of the camper from where the front wall/roof meets the lower front edge of the cabover, back to the bottom rear corner of the camper.
Once up it looked like this.
And where the upper curve part comes down to meet the awning rail, it required an angle cut, which from the factory was kinda wonky so this is more of a custom shaping improvement here.
That also allowed for straightening of edge trim damage where it had been dragged across stuff in past. The aluminum is the type which is easily formed.
With screws in, I proceeded to tighten it up evenly and start squeezing butyl. I also found forming the remaining trim between screws with the hammer greatly helped in both squeezing the butyl evenly, and making the whole install appear pleasing and effective.
Several days later, on a cool morning, I trimmed ooze.
And most turned out pretty nice, while other areas of more significant repair and special attention turned out acceptable.
For now. We'll keep close watch on this stuff.
This was a hard post. I had too many photos and they were in strange order and sequence on Imgur upload. Hard to tell which ones are correctly entered into the narrative.
And that's just a taste of the subject. But enough to get across the idea.
