2001 Lance 1121 Rot Repair
Update 05/02/2020: This is a topic I posted in 2014 detailing the replacement of the two rear skirts on a 2001 Lance 1121, which is an all-wood frame camper. After the skirt replacement, I then cov...
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I can hardly believe it, but I've finally finished this repair! The last few weeks have been particularly challenging, as I've been trying to finish this with injured shoulders. The MRI I had on my left shoulder showed what I expected it would......... rotator cuff tears, plus old injuries that I probably aggravated when I fell on the ice. I've already talked to the Doc about the possibility of repairing it, and it's only about 50/50 that he could do any good, so I'm going to just give my shoulders a good long break from doing this kind of stuff and hopefully I'll be able to hold off surgery for a few years.
Anyway, enough of that stuff. Let me show you how this turned out! I'm really kind of proud of it. Getting the edge trim back on the passenger-side was a little more difficult than the driver-side since I didn't have a wall to brace against. I ended up using a couple of load bars I have for securing things in the bed of the truck. Load bars are those things that truck drivers use to secure cargo inside a trailer. They expand and press against the inside walls. Those worked great for compressing the putty tape under the edge trim.
The edge trim is in place and caulked here.
I also got the molding installed to cover the seam in the filon. Because the seam is now higher up on the skirt, I had to get a little fancy in how I terminated it on the forward end. The only way I was going to get this to match up was to stick it down, then cut and shape it in place. I cut it with a razor knife, then used a Dremmel tool with a sanding drum to round the edges freehand, then used some acetone to smooth the surface. The top edge has been caulked.
The awning support got cut into the molding a little on this end.
Putting the molding on this side had an added challenge. The surface height of the skirt filon came in a little lower than the height of the skin above it. I had to use a couple layers of 3M VHB tape to even out the surface so the molding would cover the seam without looking funny. The seam is also very close to the compartment door below it.
This is how the driver-side turned out. I had to cut and shape the molding around the compartment door. The strange color of the trim is my attempt to touch up some scratches with paint I thought would be "close enough"...... NOT! I'll have to find something that's a better match.
So for the first time is about five months, the camper is back on the truck where it belongs.
I wasn't able to wash the camper before starting the repair last November, so It's looked pretty bad all winter. It got a bath today, and the anti-freeze flushed out of its system.
The weekend after Easter, we will be going to Greenleaf State Park in OK and hope to introduce my grand-daughter to the joys of camping with Gandpa.
:):)
Anyway, enough of that stuff. Let me show you how this turned out! I'm really kind of proud of it. Getting the edge trim back on the passenger-side was a little more difficult than the driver-side since I didn't have a wall to brace against. I ended up using a couple of load bars I have for securing things in the bed of the truck. Load bars are those things that truck drivers use to secure cargo inside a trailer. They expand and press against the inside walls. Those worked great for compressing the putty tape under the edge trim.
The edge trim is in place and caulked here.
I also got the molding installed to cover the seam in the filon. Because the seam is now higher up on the skirt, I had to get a little fancy in how I terminated it on the forward end. The only way I was going to get this to match up was to stick it down, then cut and shape it in place. I cut it with a razor knife, then used a Dremmel tool with a sanding drum to round the edges freehand, then used some acetone to smooth the surface. The top edge has been caulked.
The awning support got cut into the molding a little on this end.
Putting the molding on this side had an added challenge. The surface height of the skirt filon came in a little lower than the height of the skin above it. I had to use a couple layers of 3M VHB tape to even out the surface so the molding would cover the seam without looking funny. The seam is also very close to the compartment door below it.
This is how the driver-side turned out. I had to cut and shape the molding around the compartment door. The strange color of the trim is my attempt to touch up some scratches with paint I thought would be "close enough"...... NOT! I'll have to find something that's a better match.
So for the first time is about five months, the camper is back on the truck where it belongs.
I wasn't able to wash the camper before starting the repair last November, so It's looked pretty bad all winter. It got a bath today, and the anti-freeze flushed out of its system.
The weekend after Easter, we will be going to Greenleaf State Park in OK and hope to introduce my grand-daughter to the joys of camping with Gandpa.
:):)
