Cracked front camper skin - Replace?

Sounds like a good plan! One sheet, no seams, and doing away with the window. You may find someone to supply it already painted. My son works in commercial glass and they deal with a lot of aluminum. He bent up new over width trim for me in white, matched the camper perfectly.

Not sure how you might fix, there are a few threads repairing the nose due to water leaks, not that I recall cracks. If skinning with al sheet, which sounds like it would be fairly easy, think I might also look at pre finsihed, even if painting to get better color match.

As to the material I didnt think they had started the molded noses that early on the Caribou. But I also thought the material on the molded caps was some type of plastic similar to our rear cap. All the molded caps had Ive seen had 2 or 3 embossed horizontal lines on them. If its smooth more likly filon sheet. Though either case if its setting all winter, unless its protected, Id be caulking or temporarily sealing the crack regardless of what it looks like. Tape would be a more permanent/temp fix, wont be pretty, difficult to remove if rebuilding but sealed.

Is it molded fiberglass or Filon that is cracked? The reason I ask, is you say it is less than 1/8" thick. It could be molded fiberglass, but I question it. If it is Filon, that would explain why a fiberglass shop could not repair it. I think Filon is a form of fiberglass, but not molded fiberglass.

If it is Filon, you might call Crane Composites for ideas on how to repair.

Wayne

here is some related info. http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/19060945/

Good recommendations, both of which I have looked into.

I took it to a local fiberglass shop and they told me that patching material as thin as it is, less than 1/8", wouldn't hold, that it would probably crack again. I considered using 5200, but fear that it would show big time?

Had an RV shop suggest the aluminum deck plating method. Like that idea, but decided I would go with smooth aluminum sheeting instead since it comes in 48" wide x 96" long sheets, which is sufficient to cover the entire nose section, joint to joint and side to side, with a single sheet, and then paint it to match the rest of the camper. That should look like original skin.

I've seen a few use the thin aluminum deck tread. Looks fairly nice. Don't know what that would cost.

I've thought about using 24" aluminum flashing. It comes in 50 and 100 ft. rolls and is pre-painted. I don't know of anyone near me selling sheet aluminum.

Depending how big, you could use fiberglass patch, sand then repainted. I haven't done it but have seen many boat cracks done like that.