1968 Travel Queen Resto Mod - 13. Exterior, Skin & Openings

You're a patient and talented man.........enjoy your posting! Makes my interior painting look like a piece of cake.

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.

The sheet aluminum is about .023" in 4' widths and as long as the camper - including cab-over bunk. It uses a horizontal line pattern running north/south. The first 4' width is top center, with the vent holes and then crimped seams into the next sections, which drape down the side and include the window openings. Next is the diamond pattern, gold-colored sections, just below the windows - also crimped into connecting seams for widths of about a foot. Then back to the horizontal to finish out the bottoms of the sides to where they meet the wings.

Incidentally the back wall and the front cab-over walls are diamond pattern (as are the gold-colored side segments) and the cab-over bunk floor and front camper box wall are back to the horizontal lined pattern. Those front and back wall diamond patterned pieces have seams allowing in and out placement and are not crimped. That's why they are handled as individual pieces.

The roof and sides aluminum however are not easily separable and I had no intention of trying. At first I felt I might have to Michael Angelo it by getting out some scaffolding and working its bottom on my back.

After thinking about a few different ways to work the metal, it became painfully obvious I would need it down on the ground and hang out on my knees for a few days. With my vision correction being what it is, there was also a lot of belly work and spreading my body weight over the metal like I was trying to make a frozen river rescue for someone who dropped through the ice.

I used a tri-folded packing blanket and a yoga mat combo to cushion the raised pattern of the horizontal lined aluminum from my bony protuberances - like knee caps. It was some difficult work for several days. Let's get started.



In the previous post there was a picture of how an original cabinet screw came through the framing and pushed its point almost out through the aluminum skin. Instead of puncturing, the aluminum stretched and held. This next photo is an example of the same kind of sharp pointed hit, but this time from the outside in. It's similar to hail damage, or rocks thrown, but of a more serious nature. Here's how it looked from the underside.



I concluded the best way to deal with these areas is to first remove the stretch(es) and/or crease(s), then re-shape to the original pattern.

After a few taps meant to flatten...



And after completed flattening.



And then on to the next issue. I'll finish shaping each area once the aluminum is flipped over.

This shows where some blunt object banged on the roof. It was flattened in specific portions. (Nearby was a greater area of damage right on a seam! I failed to get photos of it from this side.)



Making this.



So that's the general method. Now I moved on to an area of greater concern. This is the under side of the gash near the front roof vent, where I have enlarged the escape hatch opening to cover the gash (the one that had a dark green patch). Look close in the foreground; see the branch caused cut right near the front lip? Then a long crease and finally the main gash further away in the photo.



Flattening the crease incrementally.



And completed initial flattening.



I marked the new hatch opening and took this close up. The gash is about 3/4".



Then I drilled a stop hole in either end, paying particular attention to placement so as to not have the tear continue past the drilled hole where the metal was initially creased.



And set to work cutting the new opening.



Here you see the gash about 1/2" from the edge, an area that will live under the sealing butyl tape of the hatch.



After completing similar work on the entire back side, we rolled the metal in a large diameter roll and re-opened it, top side up.



Continuing work on the same "gash area", I finished cleaning off the old patch and continued shaping the area.



I found it's best to keep the raised horizontal lined pattern at the openings to keep the overall metal in a straight condition.



And here's how it ended up.









Tomorrow I'll continue with more of the work done on the roof metal.

The time had come to lower the roof metal for thorough evaluation and prep work. Using the poor man's block and tackle (two single lengths of rope – one per side – left uncut. Remind me to tell you about my dad and his 100 foot length he was too cheap to cut – the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree), and eye bolts/screws instead of pulleys (have you priced pulleys lately?), I rested the driver side low.



Then the passenger side and DW helped me remove the ropes and spans of lumber.



The first thing I did was to center it left and right and front to back then clamped it in a few places. Then I went to the front side marker light holes to examine my earlier transfer of placement to the camper wood. It was right-on! At least within a small fraction of an inch. Yes! And on top of that, my roof flattening reasoning had also panned out. The roof circumference dimension had not changed, the metal fit perfectly. The flattening had only slightly bulged the rounded corners, like a tire hitting pavement.

Then I went to the rear side-marker lights and marked the holes on the camper wood. Check!

Okay, let's see what we got. Starting on the passenger-side roof looking rearward, here are two spots needing work. The closer got hit with something, the further got hit with something worser, and right on the seam!



And passenger-side front, the original 14” square cut out with the attacking branch damaging from front camper edge (with its own hole) scratched and grooved backward until about a 1” gash abeam the cut out opening. That had been sunken and patched with a combination of lots of silicon and what appears to be a dark green gas tank-repair type of patch material.



Driver-side front. Hmmmm, not bad, not bad at all!



Driver-side rearward about mid-ship. Good lord! This is one of a few where interior cabinet walls are screwed to the roof framework. Just a little too much force guys huh? Sunk that screw too deep did you? Shipped it out like that anyway? Thanks a lot guys. You must have passed your skills and care on to your trainees. I think they built my 2013 Komfort.



Close-up.



But the rest of the rearward driver-side, not too bad.



Back wall looking forward toward the rear vent opening. Uh – well? Okay. I'll see what I can do.



Now this angle looking forward from the back on the driver-side isn't near as pretty as it was looking the other direction. Light reflection matters.



Back wall passenger-side. Yeah, I knew about this, but had forgotten to say anything until now. I have a couple of ideas.



So after squaring it up good and fit placing, I drilled my pilot holes for the new escape hatch opening. Look close you'll see them in the far corners.



Let's see what the lower walls are like.

Waste water vent driver-side.



City water inlet driver-side.


15 Amp electric inlet with metal label.



Water hook-up label.



Gravity feed water inlet, left front camper corner and reflector.





Right rear camper corner and reflector. I think that's some lint or a hair on the lens.





Left rear camper corner and reflector.



Right front camper corner and reflector.





Passenger-side cab-over side window.



Driver-side cab-over side window.



Front of dinette window passenger-side.



Rear of dinette window passenger-side.



Galley window driver-side.



Right-rear side marker.



Left-rear side marker. Must have hit something from the rear.



Right-front side marker. Notice it's position from the edge molding and compare it to the other side next.



Left-front side marker, back from the molding more than on the right side.



In addition to drilling pilot holes in the new escape hatch opening, I marked the new upper refrigerator vent opening in the same way. My smallest drill wouldn't fit in there at the correct angle so I used the Dremel tool to hold the bit. That was a lot easier to obtain the correct angle and to make the long reach from below. I also drilled a “stop-hole” in the 3.5” tear at the rear vent opening.

I'm saving the new cut outs lower down (water heater, utilities hook-ups, propane compartment, etc.) until later. As I attach the skin from top-center, downward on each side, I'll be pulling and fastening and therefore be able to mark the cut-outs more precisely.

Okay, let's prep this metal. We slid it to one side and DW helped me roll it under and then over, up-side-down on my new work-bench. A nice solid surface! Pity the knees.





Smiley - (DW's little yellow angel of a Jeep) you'll have to sleep outside for a few days. Think of it as “camping out”!

But before that I decided to finish the rough opening cut for the front cabover windows. Now - what to do with that?



I made some very tight measurements and was able to justify shifting the window to starboard by a very small fraction of an inch, even though it was already about 1/2" further inbound than was the other side. From there I made my straight lines in pencil. Those lines compare to the pink lines of the holes in the metal.











It looks like I didn't get pics after the cut, but you'll see the results in other subsequent pictures.

Then it was on to marking the location of the side marker light positions. I started in the front. Climbing the ladder to the big sheet metal piece in the sky, I measured from a front cabover side window corner, out to several spots on the metal marker light holes. I transferred that data (with the permission of NSA) to the camper wood. Then I eyeballed the piece in its lofty place in the sky from my lowly place on earth and determined where the mounting screw holes were in relation to the big wire access hole (based on a twelve hour clock face) and their approximate distance from said wire access hole, and transferred THOSE to the camper wood. And finally, I located the desired placement of the aluminum bezel (currently a humble plywood template) in association with it's balance on the opposite side.

I ended up with this...



How do you work with THAT! Notice the 4-6 holes in the piece of wood just above and left of the new light placement. Those are staple holes. The original design had stapled along one edge, a block of wood about 3" square that sat there in the cavity kind of floppy-like. The original marker light used one mounting screw to it, and the other to the front vertical member. If you look close you can see where the original two screw holes are/were.

I didn't want to use the original method. It seemed too flimsy to me. I studied the area. I could glue and clamp a horizontal piece. I could glue and clamp a vertical piece. I didn't have clamps with the proper reach. I didn't necessarily want to glue TOO many places on the paneling (there's some theory behind that desire). I concluded to following method. And I did the driver's side first. Let's get that little board out of the way.



Then I played around with some scrap wood from the original bathroom closet shelf system and made this replacement.



Here it is going in with a front view. (You get a sneak peak of the marker lights beta version 1.3 in this photo). I used great care to get the screw holes to line up.



And its unglued back side. Note how the paneling bulge forces out the bottom of the board's lower surface.



And that gave me a template placement of this.



I took the beta of version 1.3 into official issuance and routed out the hole to match the others already done.



And routed/drilled the remaining wire channels.



Then belt sanded the surface flush.



I moved to the passenger side.







With extra ribs (roof stringers) some spots were harder to drill than others. Here I brought the hole out to the surface.





The theory behind the routed holes (the diameter matches my chosen size of bezel hole, which matches the back of the new clearance lights) is to provide a cavity for tucking the wires without adversely affecting the solid surface mounting of the lights. With planned 3/16" bezel material, and 3/16" routed depth (25% of the 3/4" plywood thickness) I'd gain a 3/8" deep cavity for each light, plus whatever depth is added by insulation wrap.



Same thing here on the back wall. Note the additional porch light hole. Its wire comes through a hole drilled straight down through the plywood, an original design that I am reusing.



I didn't do the rear side markers because by now I was starting to fear my earlier educated guesses that the holes were all going to line up with the actual holes of the metal. That metal was still on the ceiling. Would those front marker lights match up? Would the sheet metal even fit the shape of the new roof line caused by the flattening? I started getting uneasy feelings and decided to take DW's offer for help to get that metal down. Okay - here we go.

Now before I move forward on the Hmmmmm regarding the big piece on the ceiling, I'm going to address some more of the back wall, as well as modifications to the wood for clearance/marker lights.

Let's start with the back wall.

After a basic cleaning and straightening of the back wall pieces, and before their sanding - a task which hasn't been done yet, even as of today - I laid them out for back wall template purposes.











This is where I marked all the holes (screws/lights/damage) in red pen. Then came back and pink highlighted those for easier evaluation with the metal taken back down.













And then I did the same on the front wall.



{Edit 2/9/16 - The following method described for protection of the clearance/marker lights wiring (using a piece of heavier house wire sheathing) was discarded after finding a better method - that of routing a deeper groove in the wood itself for a proper channel.}

And this might belong under the "Electric Thread" (see beginning of this thread on page one for an index to other threads in this Resto-Mod), but suffice to say for now, this is my replacement for a similar original method of protecting the clearance/marker light wiring as it passes through the critical wood corners.



And here's how it fits on the camper.



And my first attempt at lowering the profile of the wiring packet so as to allow a flatter, more solid fit for the clearance lights.



But something still felt wrong.

Again I suppose this fits in Electric, but I got out my new LED clearance lights (it was hard to find 3" LED surface mount lights but I took a tip from Gary over in the Avion Thread) and looking at the back, I determined perhaps a better method for tucking in the extra wiring for easy future maintenance.

After a careful examination front and back of exactly where the existing metal holes were, and what were my requirements to cover those holes in a more "measured" and balanced way than the original method of slapping them up wherever the installer's eye wanted them sans tape measure, I made new marks to reflect the exact positioning of each light, purposely moving them somewhat inbound from the original spot so as to make a better sealing and caulking joint than their original closer edge position. Also, the sheet metal holes in the flattened front center board needed butyl tape cover and protection.

Thus, the plywood templates for a small piece of aluminum plate UNDER each light for covering the holes, and an extra depth for a wiring cavity due to the aluminum's planned up to 1/4" thickness.



That little plywood flare would butt up to the edge molding, and between the two pieces, would cover and protect the sealing of the butyl tape over the various holes.

I was able to make one template for the five front markers and the three center back wall markers, a second template for the two back wall left and right markers (screw holes here were spread further due to a PO placing a larger tail light lens over the replaced and failed clearance light spots), and a third template for the side markers (which tale to be told another day). The templates should harmonize with each other, perform the job of covering inconveniently placed sheet metal holes (including that caused by the front wall roof flattening), and add an element of custom, classy bling to Lil' Queeny's wardrobe (and just hope we don't have a wardrobe malfunction).

Will it accomplish all that? Well - at this point you'll just have to trust me.

So with a plan in hand, I broke out the drill and started cleaning out old - and making new - wiring channel holes.









By now, I had version 1.2 completed for the front wall. Version 1.3 had not yet been envisioned, and was still to come.

Downwindtracker2 wrote:
That corrosion is painful. I lost a roof on a'72 tent trailer to it. Good luck.

Yes - very painful. And lower down on the back wall like that is the worst places. There were several design issues that contributed to the whole bottom edge letting in water, mostly a weakening of the wood by the wrong fastener attachment to the amount and type of wood. Another spot was on the wing under the original propane compartment, and off course at all four corners where aftermarket jack brackets damaged the camper in the same way.

I'm trying to answer some of those things as I re-design the build - and of course that metal will be cut back to where is necessary, retain what can be, and hopefully, a little bling added to Lil' Queeny's exterior in a way that is understated, but classy.

Basic aluminum corrosion issues researched so far reveal its commonality, especially where it is in contact with wood. My metal will go back up against foil-backed bubble-wrap. Hopefully that will slow or stop further corrosion.

I pulled DW's car out of the garage and we rolled out the front-wall and cab-over ceiling sheet metal. I went to work.



Here's the vee point on the front ceiling edge, where it overlaps up under the front cabover wall metal. It's up-side-down.



And the edge. I started flattening and reshaping the angle with hammer backed by 2x4.



This photo shows the silicon still all over the corner even after major scraping already. But more cleaning and scraping was still to come. Naptha really softens the silicon for easier scraping though. And I decided to clean well - even the places I would cut out and/or cover - just so I could see exactly how much to retain.



And just look at the holes! Also holes where the front bracket of the under wing steel grids (jack mounts) were screwed to the front wall of the camper box (which were pulled out by tie-down pressure. My tie-downs will NOT be attached to the jack mount grid.



Tools of my new trade (a real body man has better tools).



This was the first rip/tear I came to for actual repair. I was earlier aware of several more in other places. The first one I really found was at the left-rear corner of the aft ceiling vent - it's about 3.5" long. But no time like the present to start the fix.



A buddy who had helped me get the metal off the camper originally had asked if I was going to drill a hole in the end of that (roof) tear to stop the rip like they do with aircraft (he's a pilot) and that irritating 100 watt incandescent that hangs above my head (usually shut off to save energy) popped on at full brightness! "Oh sure", I said with hardly any delay, like I had been thinking that all along.

It brought to memory both the fact that I had heard something like that many years okay and had since forgotten, and of my Dad teaching me when I was about thigh-high how to use a glass cutter tool across a windshield crack to keep it from continuing. It made sense.

Here's how I addressed this one.



Then came the metal straightening. Now I'm not a body man, but I do have a body and so I figured that qualified me. I used that thing on the top of my body to evaluate the situation, and those two danglies on either side of my shoulders to move about this way and that and went to town. Well - figuratively I mean. THAT day I actually stayed home.

I assume most of these dents came from rocks thrown up over the years.



I determined no amount of hammering back to shape would work unless I was able to remove metal stretches and creases. To me, that meant hammering flat first one way, then coming back around from the other side for final shaping. Without any real experience, or correct tools, I used what I had on hand to accomplish the task, including various scraps of steel, some shaped on the bench grinder. You'll see those little jigs in later pictures, especially as I get into the roof. First hammer outward. I had solid steel underneath to flatten against, paying particular attention to remove the stretch and crease without adding new hammer caused creases - however tiny. I was MOSTLY successful.



Which later resulted in this after re-shaping from the front.



Here are more back side photos in various states of cleaning and repairing. This rusty looking corrosion cleaned up much nicer than how it first appears in the photo.







After flipping and shaping it was time to start sanding.









Notice the drilled hole in the tear from a jack mount lag bolt hole.



Your eye will start picking those out automatically, especially as we get to the roof.





And then I was done for now with this piece. We rolled it up and moved it back out of the way.







I looked up at the big piece on the ceiling and I thought, "Hmmmm".

That corrosion is painful. I lost a roof on a'72 tent trailer to it. Good luck.

So there I was. Dabbling in the camper metal. At long last - doing something with a part of the project that I knew was going to take some big work.

I had the smaller pieces down on the bench. I had the reusable trim basically cleaned and prepped for use and a plan in my head for how to make it work in spite of the shortcomings of some of the original engineering and design. I didn't know NOTHIN' yet! (Referring to the big sheet on the ceiling).

But with continued confidence and that "can-do" spirit that comes from a whole lot of time and effort already invested, I made the metal plunge and started into the easiest piece. The front wall of the cab-over.

There was a general order to the effort. But also a flexibility in what to do at a given time. Scraping the majority of the butyl tape (the green stuff was very strong and dense and hard to remove, but still pliable), hammering flat the edges and holes, naptha/brush cleaning of final residues, dry scrub brushing the back sides (dirt, fiberglass shreds, etc.), washing with water and a rag, washing with a naptha dampened rag, close examination of holes and edges with tears starting, drilling small holes at the ends of tears to stop the rips and finally - some hand sanding to get a feel of the sanding requirements.

The metal pieces - or most of them - were original cut by hand with hand sheers. Can you imagine? The metal was sharp anyway, but with lots of jagged edges, safety and care were paramount. I handled each piece tenderly and that helped me keep my head around the safety factor.













Here I have the vee straddling a piece of angle-iron to work and retain the bend.



Look at that jagged edge!



And how was I going to deal with this? I found it to be just one of the coming metal hole challenges.





I got a good hand sanding on that piece and set it aside (didn't get a picture) and moved on to cleaning and preparing the back wall pieces, seen here on top of the main front wall metal (cabover ceiling and camper box front).







Bottom edge, under the rear storage access opening (my dump access).















Those back wall pieces were templated up against the new back wall wood and clearance light holes were marked, as were all the various holes marked. Then I came back and highlighted all those marks with a pink highlighter so I could see it all at a glance; same on the cabover front. I didn't get pictures. And I did some woodwork and planning too for clearance light issues. Didn't get pictures. I'll get a few pics and provide a little narrative on that whole thing before we're done.

But for now that's good. This work has been lasting days. The back wall pieces are not yet sanded, but the whole roof metal is, at least a first sanding. But that's all to show after the next post, which will talk about the second biggest piece - the cabover ceiling and camper-box front wall, arguably the most dented piece (from rocks thrown up by traffic ahead of you). It was there when I started building new skills on body work.

Here's a collection of my cleaned molding. The two hanging arched pieces are J mold or drip mold, found on the front and back roof line edges.

Their shapes changed to a covered wagon like arch as I hammered the screw holes flat.



Above those are some straight pieces that are the same material and are angle mold or L mold pieces found on most of the camper edges.

The drip mold was found only over the front and back walls. The edge above the driver and passenger doors are simply angle mold, so theoretically you get rain run-off right onto your head as you come and go from the truck cab. I think I'll change that.

Close ups of the drip mold.





Here are close ups of the angle mold.





And check out this cool technique - cut by hand it appears - to run the angle around a curved section of the camper (back wall - tailgate-opening trim near the tail light rounds).



You can still see some paint on some of those pieces; I'll complete cleaning prior to installation, but wanted to get it to where I could clearly see and manipulate it as I custom use it. I have plans to purchase extruded aluminum angle (rigid stuff) to use on the camper's straight runs, and to save my usable flexible (annealed?) original pieces for the rounded sections.

It started out much messier!

Here are some pics of stuff I didn't clean, but saved for potential use because it is more mangled than the rest.



You can see the two similar shaped pieces, with their bends - those are from the front camper box corners and are mostly right angles. I should be able to easily replace them with extruded angle, custom cut to fit.

I don't believe the trim does ANY sealing! That ain't its job. It is the butyl tape UNDER the trim that does the sealing. Of course sealing is what keeps out the water, not trim. So when people think they need to crank down tight on the screws to help the sealing, it simply distorts the trim, perhaps the metal (or whatever surface), starts to strip out the screw hole (wood, aluminum stud, etc.) and squeezes out the butyl tape. No - the job of the trim is to protect the butyl tape and secondly, to protect the structure corner from bangs and hits and to direct water runoff in the case of the drip mold. The butyl tape does the sealing and it is soft. It needs to be treated gently and if damaged the trim should be removed, the butyl replaced, and the protecting trim re-installed. Slopping caulking, especially silicon, over the trim and on it's edge just ain't gonna do it. A proper bead of the right caulking along the trim edge? Now that is proper! but it should be minimal and correct, not slopped.

Incidentily, it's been said before and I'll restate it here - DO NOT USE SILICON. It is only removed by scraping, and lots of it!

That's my conclusion and I'm sticking to it! :)

Anyway, here is a short trip through the cleaning process. I started out scraping the various types of butyl tape from the trim. I think the dark green stuff was original from the factory. I found it on most of the areas.



Note the distortion of the soft annealed stuff when tightening the screws. That was all hammered out flat.





The paint removal process enlisted the help of an old toothbrush, some "sprayable" paint remover (highly recommended), a brass bristled brush, and lots of patience, wetting application and patience. Did I mention patience?

At first I brushed on the remover (from the steel bowl) then moved on to the spray bottle (any pump spray bottle would work, but I used the one that came with the product when I ran out of the first can).



I finished up with a stainless steel bristled brush to burnish the aluminum.

These are my "save and reuse" pieces in various state of completion.



During this time I was Internet searching for a source to provide replacement molding, should I find I need more similar product. I know it's out there, but I couldn't find it. I have one more email out to an aluminum place for some answers, but no response yet. Not to worry, the trim install is still futuristic.

As I started to say, I'll use new, rigid extruded aluminum in most places, including places that never came with trim where there are non-original holes in the sheet metal to rectify. Then I'll use my flexible stuff (even the straight runs) on the curved and rounded places as needed. I'll be turning some of it into J trim over the truck doors. I'll be reshaping as needed. I'll probably head over to Harbor Freight for a cheap metal brake for clean bends.

I think originally this stuff came flat on a roll and was shaped at the factory by a rolling press and cut to length. I think it is still available in the world, but I cannot find the application (no longer used on today's RVs) and I don't know the right words to search. That's why I've been placing a question mark after the word annealed.

Later, when I talk about the roof metal, you'll see how I plan to double up the stuff - an angle AND a drip mold - in places.

One more thought. I found NAPTHA the best solvent for the butyl tape. Applied and reapplied two or three times (keeping it wet), brushed with a toothbrush, or rubbed with a rag, wiped clean with some of my previously used paper towels, really did the trick.

Now I'm a lacquer thinner kind of guy. Okay, okay brake cleaner in some situations, but lacquer thinner is my go to. Of course mineral spirits is on the shelf too. And recently I got some acetone because you always hear people talk about using it (to clean the surface before applying new sealer or whatever). When I was a kid, we called everything "paint thinner". But these are all different - slightly or greatly.

Now I'm no chemist, but I did take chemistry in 8th grade and I've been ingesting chemicals my whole life, thanks to Monsanto and others, and I went so far as to buy a periodic table school-size wall hanging when I was in my teens (that was before Metallica posters) so I figured I have the RIGHT to conclude chemistry issues - right or wrong.

Lacquer thinner wouldn't touch this stuff. Acetone wouldn't touch this stuff. Mineral spirits wouldn't touch this stuff. Naptha is a little oilier and less evaporative than those others. DS left me six quarts after a job he did, so I had it, I tried it, I liked it. It did a great job on the butyl and even better - it softens Silicon!

Yes, you heard me, "Naptha softens Silicon", tell it to the world! Instead of scraping hard rubber like silicon, I was able to scrape layers off softened silicon with Naptha. Try it next time you come across the evil stuff.