Next is the rear roof vent.
The edge had "POSA" (previous owner sealer applied), a hard, white stuff dammed up against the vent flange to quite a depth. And of course the 3.5" tear to deal with.
I sanded down the white stuff. For the tear I'll place an aluminum bracket of some sort over the spot (and probably a matching one on the other side for visual and functional balance) that serves some kind of purpose like a location for a roof mounted something or other (solar panel, awning hook, etc.).
Where the roof metal folds over and staples to the front/back wall surface areas there are several tears (for at least three types of causes, one of which might occur some more as I install the metal again) and these openings must be dealt with. Look near the edge in these shots.
For good custom looks harmonizing with the original vintage design (as opposed to slopped on patch material or Eternabond tape for example) I like the idea of continued use of molding covered butyl tape for those spots. Here's a computer assisted drawing to show what I mean. The pencil is camper wood surface. The red ink is aluminum sheet. The blue is trim and trim screws.
The original design is shown in the center. The above and below drawings are my plan for trim over butyl tape coverings. Overlap in the upper may be better for driving rain on the nose, overlap on the lower may be better for falling rain.
I have enough of the flexible aluminum to accomplish such a design while using new extruded aluminum angle in proper dimension for the straight runs elsewhere on the camper.
Next we see the seam (approximately 2' toward the passenger side from roof top center line) that was so damaged by quite a major bludgeoning. It ain't pretty, but looks a whole lot better than it did before. And it's not obviously visible from ground level.
And after final forming and sanding.
With pressure from below in the form of roof framing and/or insulation board, the seam pops back outward to a flat position.
Overall sanding. 3' by 3' sections at a time. Then get up, re-position the pad, get back down, on knees, bent over, sometimes on belly, face close to the work area for the ever-important visual (swiftly entering a visual/feel combo based on my changing vision), one row at a time.
But eventually it was done. That is to say the initial power sanding.
That was a lot of work. It took me a few days for the knees to recover. Once on the camper, I'll do a finish sanding prior to paint.
