Pop Up Camper roof repair/rebuild

joerg68 wrote:
re. rebuilding the roof:

A friend with an old palomino built a one-off negative jig/mold and had a new one-piece roof laminated by a local company that makes all sorts of fiberglass parts. I helped remove the old roof and install the new one. I am not sure if that is a viable approach for you though. The friend is quite persuasive and he got that company (they normally make truck fenders and the like) to make him that roof. It may have also helped that the company was in the truck camper manufacturing business until some years ago, and they made camper tops until recently

It was not an easy thing to do as he had to build the jig/mold, truck it over to the manufacturer, and pick up the finished part. And then it was keeping your fingers crossed if the new roof would actually fit. I am not sure if that approach would save much money/work/nerves vs. your Hallmark quote...

Another popup owner that I know stripped just about anything from underneath the roof and replaced all structural parts as he kept going - he retained the outer skin and corner moldings, but not much more. Either way, fixing a rotted out popup roof is a lot of work, and not of the nice kind.

Sureley rebuilding the roof alltogether is better than patching up a badly rotten one.

Thanks for the suggestion but probably not an option. Palomino will sell me a roof but with shipping that also is not an option. I live in a small town, Homer, Alaska, and there are no companies near me that do any type of fabricating! I see the light at the end of the tunnel with removing the aluminum skin off the roof lid . . . . but I have not tried to put it back together!

I started on the roof panel yesterday. Removing the inside aluminum skin by sections. The panel is made up of four sections with seams connecting each section. I took the first seam apart but have not decided if I am going to take all the seams apart. I debated whether to do the outside or inside and chose the inside; no real reason. I am using a couple of machetes to removed the aluminum from the foam. They are working great - good reach, and get some leverage, and not bending or stretching aluminum at all. Got almost halfway in a couple of hours; moving faster than expected.
Have the roof laying on a few saw hourses. Will put some lumber under it the next time I work on it as the roof is losing its stability as I remove the ceiling panel. Looks like I found an adhesive to glue the panel down to new roof. Not sure if I am going to remove whole panel or not. I am going to look at it this week. The foam on the drivers side 2/3 way back was wet but when I removed some of the interior screws on the roof lid, they were rusted so am leaning toward removing whole panel. Not sure if the leak came from the sides or not. I did find a pin hole on the exterior side of the lid at the section where the foam was wet. Not sure that could let in that much water or not. Here are pictures of the roof:

re. rebuilding the roof:

A friend with an old palomino built a one-off negative jig/mold and had a new one-piece roof laminated by a local company that makes all sorts of fiberglass parts. I helped remove the old roof and install the new one. I am not sure if that is a viable approach for you though. The friend is quite persuasive and he got that company (they normally make truck fenders and the like) to make him that roof. It may have also helped that the company was in the truck camper manufacturing business until some years ago, and they made camper tops until recently

It was not an easy thing to do as he had to build the jig/mold, truck it over to the manufacturer, and pick up the finished part. And then it was keeping your fingers crossed if the new roof would actually fit. I am not sure if that approach would save much money/work/nerves vs. your Hallmark quote...

Another popup owner that I know stripped just about anything from underneath the roof and replaced all structural parts as he kept going - he retained the outer skin and corner moldings, but not much more. Either way, fixing a rotted out popup roof is a lot of work, and not of the nice kind.

Sureley rebuilding the roof alltogether is better than patching up a badly rotten one.

I am in the process of gluing the aluminum back on. I got flashing to replace some of the aluminum I removed as it was stretched and would not lay properly. I would be concerned about the thickness of the flashing if I was not going to coat the whole top with bed liner. I will post pictures. I am doing it a friends shop and keep forgetting to get pictures. I used heavy duty liquid nails but have read about an adhesive on another forum that I may pick up for the actual roof panel.

Any thoughts of just building a new roof? I spent the summer months rebuilding a Hallmark Ute a year ago...

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26972402.cfm

The only thing I have left is the roof, Hallmark wants 6 grand. My eventual plan is to just build a new one, use aluminum tubing for the cross pieces, and use the spray bed liner to finish it off.

Thanks NH.

If you do decide to replace the foam , and I think you should if it is saturated , do not use the white styrofoam , use either blue or pink as they will not absorb water .

So I have now fabricated solid wood for side and rear roof wall and am set to glue the aluminum back on. Thankfully, I have a friend who has a wood shop and loves to work with wood! He has all the tools and the replacement pieces are much better than what I cold do with basic tools. Here are my questions:

1. Going to use Heavy Duty Liquid Nails unless someone tells me otherwise.
2. Don't know what to do about the wet foam on the rear third on drivers side. Any suggestions?
3. I am really considering hard painting the whole top after putting trim pieces back on with a truck liner paint, then put in new rubber sleeve that fits in trim pieces. This will take care of any pin holes, and make it permanently waterproof. I would still have to seal up the corners.
4. Also thinking of putting in new weather stripping along the roof and base where it comes together when it is closed to create a better water proof seal.
5. Also thinking of putting another piece of aluminum along the front to keep rain water from driving between the roof and base while driving.
6. Not sure what to do about the wet foam. IT will freeze in the winter and may create a problem with swelling.
7. I plan to weld together the two rear brackets together on the lift mechanism. I think this will give added stability and take some pressure off the roof.

The foam has really got me stumped and want to close it all up as is and hope for the best or buy a new roof but living in Alaska will make shipping too expensive and I already have most of the work done. When I removed the aluminum from the good side wall, I basically had to peel it off and that bent and warped the aluminum. I think it will glue ok but am concerned about the roof. I don't want to have a wavy roof that would tend to collect water in spots.

I was trying to glue the aluminum back onto the wood roof side walls I cut out. One of the them had warped from drying out and one of the aluminum pieces was too stretch out from removing it that it would not lay flay on the wood. I got a new piece of 1x6 and cut out a new wood side wall and am going to purchase aluminum flashing for the aluminum skin. It won't be dimpled but it will work, hopefully!

I also spent some time last night looking at forums for pull behind pop ups about replacing foam and am leaning towards peeling away the aluminum ceiling and replacing foam. A 4x8 sheet is $30 at my local lumbers store (this is AK)!

Any suggestions? David

The rear was hacked together by the previous owner and he plastered the whole thing with caulk that was already pulling away by the time I got hom. I was going to remove caulk and silicone it but saw the damage to the aluminum and have decided to fix or replace the back aluminum piece. I think I am thinking of cutting the aluminum off about 2 inches below the top edge and slide a new piece of aluminum under the remaining aluminum put dicor tape and silicone it then put the drip edge back on that goes along the top. This piece should cover my seam I create. I plan to use Dicor tape then paint it with the truck bed liner or use silicone if I don't go that route. It seems like the best option, especially for the rear roof wall as it is pretty damaged.Here are pictures of rear roof wall:

The roof itself is styrofoam with a wood trim around the edge and two pieces of wood spanning the distance from side to side. Both rotted on the passenger side. I am not sure how far in the rot on the wood 'beam' spanning the distance from side to side as I cannot get to it. I have removed the wood form the sides of the roof as they were rotted; not sure what to do with the wood support 'beams.' The back third of the foam on one side is wet. I am told that the white foam does not dry out!

So I have decided to remove all wood that I can. Removed the two roof side walls and repriced a new side wall. They are at a friends shop so I will get pictures later.

I have decided to replace all wood on the roof ceiling. The core is foam with 1x3 wood around the edge and two 1x3s going across the wall to divide roof ceiling into three sections, if that makes sense. The passenger side was all rotted and have removed that but the 1x3 wood boards going across are rotted on this side. Not sure what I am going to do as I do not want to remove who aluminum off roof. I may just pray in foam but have a couple different friends coming to give me advice. Here are pictures:

Here is the passenger side edge with wood trim removed:


Here is a picture of the rotted cross piece of 1x3; it is the dark section between foam. Not a great picture.


The drivers side roof edge is in better shape. It is rotted about 1/3 way toward front then the wood is as good as new. It is a real bugger getting the aluminum off the good wood. I wish I knew what they used to glue and laminate the wood to aluminum. I am thinking of cutting the trim edge piece at the mid point with a 45 degree cut then glue in a new piece. I would reinforce the ceiling. The camper has a upper cabinet there with a piece of OSB glued and screwed to ceiling to hold cabinet. I may put a 1x3 along the inside wall where it meets the ceiling to reinforce that glue joint. Here are pictures:


I dont have a picture where the rotting stops.

The rear aluminum side wall is in bad shape and I would like to replace it. Need to find a supplier. Here is picture:



Questions for forum:

Any recommendations for rotted cross wood?
Any supplier for RV replacement aluminum?
An Adhesive for gluing aluminum to wood? I was thinking of Liquid Nails but it does not mention aluminum in its list of uses.


Thanks for reading and I welcome any advice or suggestions!

David