Recaulking rubber roof edge

[turboo]

I have a rubber roof 1999 Fleetwood. The roof is in pretty good shape however the edge sealant is degraded. Basically the roof consists of a rubber sheet wrapped over the wooden frame roof edge then attached to the camper with an aluminum strip along the whole side, the common type with a center section stuffed with a long piece of curved vinyl strip, to cover the screws. My question is, I need to carve out the old sealant , and do not want to nick up the rubber, so a metal scraper is out of the question. I guess I'll make some tools out of plastic. Then I need to clean it up somehow. heres what the edge looks like. Heres what I bought for sealant. Any tips on how to proceed? One photo shows the hatch and its seal, looks to be pretty in good shape. One of the seals had some small cracks in it, on the antenna exit, and I just smeared some sealant on it, it seemed way too much trouble to try to carve all that old caulk out . Is that OK?

[mellow]

I thought Dicor's claim to fame was that you could use their cleaner then put down the lap sealant over top the old stuff.

[RICKIM]

Do yourself a favor and do it correctly.....remove the old caulk. It sucks, but you really should do it right.
Home Depot sells plastic caulk removal tools made by Hyde. You can find them where they sell the silicone.
Purchase some naphtha while your there. It cleans up the old residue and quickly drys.

Take your time and do a section at a time, once you get going, it goes quick.
Unfortunately, owning a truck camper ends up turning into a labor of love.

There is more info in: Camper Maintenance/ caulks, sealants-Roof replacements repairs,
found in the university.

Good Luck
Rick

[Moose10]

I've thought about this same thing and like DWeikert's method. It sure seems like a TON of work to remove all the old sealant.

[DWeikert]

I recently resealed around my roof vents after noticing some cracking. I just got up there with a brush and some soapy(Dawn) water, cleaned off the dirt, rinsed thoroughly, waited for it to dry, then applied the Dicor over the existing sealer.