C class roof / overcab rot (1 Viewer)

johng

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hi all, it's time to find out .....

what'sssss been over myyyyy bed :ROFLMAO:


Chevy motorhome Midas freeport

contains some bad photography, a bit of loud music, and the beginning of me trying to work out what on earth has been going on in my overcab bed (whilst I was away from the van)

do please pay attention, there will be questions later!

(ignore the lower pics of carbs and things)

::bigsmile:
novice RV-shell worker
 
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American Dream

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Hi John,

Looks like you're having fun there.......

I've had a quick look at mine and it appears well sealed but....Hey Ho....Wait until summer for that one.:Eeek:

Are you having all the windows out and re-sealing them?

Steve.
 
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johng

johng

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hi Steve..

hope yours is ok .. this one has been like this long before I got it, although I have made it a bit worse :)

I want to reline all the inner walls with ply, although its really only one side/corner that's gone....

Yep quite sure I will need all windows out :)

and I fulltime..brrr...

:ROFLMAO:

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Terry

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Hi John, I may be stating the obvious but you have a leak higher up than the windows :cry: on the positive side the re boarding is a nice easy fix :thumb: Did a similar one 3 yrs ago and improved it 100 %
terry
 
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johng

johng

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Terry :thumb:

yep more leaks than a welsh allotment!

eternabond could become my friend :)

its nice and easy to see the leaks if nothing else, with everything out of the way.. and I cant make it any worse by letting it get wet now..

the front window is definately an issue, as always.. its a silly angle really but I dont want to blank it over..

keeping an eye on next weeks weather :ROFLMAO::cry::Blush:
 

ginge61

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well its a bit worse than mine was but its all good clean fun try useing a wallpaper remover to scrape the top layers off it comes of quite easy leave you with something to bulid of or you just going to take the lot up if so use marine ply good stuf expensive but worth it i keep checking by to see what you been up too

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Terry

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Hi John on the one we did we got new ali sheets 8 x 4 ft £50 and replaced the whole roof and new side strips :thumb: Not sure if this would apply as most yanks have rubber painted roofs.::bigsmile: BTW we just stuck the internal boards with a sikaflex type adhesive bent around and held in place with short props (2 x 1 ) overnight :thumb:
terry
 
Oct 15, 2007
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John, deja vu springs to mind!

We did the old Dodge about 18 months ago, small issue with going to get her out of storage and finding a HUGE puddle in one corner of the over cab!

Thoughts, (might be obvious) check all external roof seals and don't just look above the leaks, one of our previous leaks was well away from the actual damp. If in doubt was my moto and I (well me and the missus) resealed all of the over cab external joints, separating most, cleaning applying sealer etc as part of totally rebuilding the timber structure, some numpty had been at it before, pigs ear is one of the polite discriptors for thier 'work'!

Like else where on the roof once done we repainted to whole roof with elastometric roof paint, not cheap but forms a rubber membrane effectivly over the roof and so far no leaks, aledges to cut down heat on sunny day but.....

Linda is your friend here, she does a specific sealer for the ali joints if you do separate, or want to seal then paint, and she does the roof paint. I'm guessing your roof's ali at 'your' age!!

Can't stress enough check the entire vasinity for potential leaks, non of ours appeared to be windows, just corner seals and marker lamps, from the later don't assume anything or you'll be doing it all agian in a couple of years:Eeek:

Someone may shoot me down but, we used 4mm wood effect ply on the inside and just varnished, well the wife did, I'm banned from painting anything that needs to look nice:ROFLMAO: Took skill that:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Have fun!:thumb:

PS if your having the windows out watch which putty strip you get. I suspect again like ours (age and all that) you'll need the thicker stuff due to wobbly side versus the more modern flat(er) sided RVs.
 
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johng

johng

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wow thanks all ::bigsmile:

um ok..

I was initially thinking on these lines....

assumptions are that I am poor and I need this van on the road asap :) plus I have to live in it and its only March ! and outside at the top of a hill :ROFLMAO:

I was going to line the inner walls with normal 4mm ply, it looks good, smells nice, I wasnt even going to varnish it .. (the walls are presently ply anyway, the criss-cross sheets are coming away one by one)

the aluminium frame is obviously fine, so I have no structural work to do (which was my main worry)

the roof avove the overhead is single skin rubber as far as I can tell, it's the only single skin in the whole van

the outside walls, front and underside of overhead are all fibreglass and I dont want to go near them :)

I have no idea about the windows and sealant as until I get one out i cant really tell how it was put in..

so my thinking was.. remove all damp wood from inner front/walls/ and bed board
remove all insulation (probably reuse as it doesnt get damp)
dry everything
fix leaks
and foam back in and cut some new ply from the timberyard to fit..
(stick the ply and foam together as that's how it is)

its a bit simplistic and by Sunday night I hope to have a lot more wood out and the job may change...

ohh.. one more thing, the single skin rubber? roof is pemanently sunk into a crater..its a tough old thing and has become quite rigid in the shape.. it definately doesn't leak (the water stays up there for ever) but a bit annoying..

John

ps more pics of the roof and outside over the weekend

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Oct 15, 2007
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John, old rubber roof eh, Linda's paint comes in a flavor to suit I suspect and if you have a divit in the roof I would question why, you may live to regret and ignor but question non the less. We have, errr.....do we??????:Blush:

We went with typical roof type insulation, basis was that's what appeared the origional was and tacked the wood up with small brass panel pins, stays in place just fine and should be simple to remove if the worst happens. Don't know about yours but our was a complete (************insert appropreate comment to suite***********) to remove.

Have fun.

Want a laugh....RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Fixing water damage on the old Dodge (pics)

Put things in perspective?
 
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johng

johng

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:Eeek::Eeek::Eeek::Eeek:


::bigsmile:

I put some more pics of the outside, up..

the van is gonna take a bit of prep to get it remotely neat outside, on the front.. to be honest some decent tape, eventually, will do wonders for the asthetics!

doing nothing tonight, night off ::bigsmile: hiccup

by the way if anyone wants to help, there's tons of beer, wine here! (well there will be) lol
 
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johng

johng

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it's late...

but could my overcab roof be another peice of wood, with rubber on top? I doubt it....

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American Dream

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Terry :thumb:

yep more leaks than a welsh allotment!

eternabond could become my friend :)

its nice and easy to see the leaks if nothing else, with everything out of the way.. and I cant make it any worse by letting it get wet now..

the front window is definately an issue, as always.. its a silly angle really but I dont want to blank it over..

keeping an eye on next weeks weather :ROFLMAO::cry::Blush:

I'd look at the possibility of recovering the roof in that area if it really is that bad.

A summer job which could mean a tarpaulin temporary cover cut to size in the interim period while you're working on it.

I'm seriously thinking of re-covering the entire rig with 1 sheet of epdm.Preferably the thicker stuff, as it's now 30 years old.

All the more difficult when you're fulltiming.

Good Luck.

BTW I am not a great fan of standing water on a roof.It tend to permeate through or rot the covering eventually.Seen this enough times on normal buildings using Bitumen or rubber.Unfortuantely, if yours is built like mine, it had a flat roof which is slightly concave after many years.I'm looking to replace/install wooden beams across the "van" at appropriate points.
 
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Boo

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EPDM.................I aint seen that for years ::bigsmile:

I was a roofer in america in the early 90's and it was then I was first inroduced to rubber roofing............I then introduced it to the UK on my return and made a business out of it for a few years (until I got too old for roofing :thumb:)

On several occasions I came across sunken roofs and the method of repair was as follows:

Meterials and tools needed
1.Buy sheet 2ins bigger than the size and width to the nearest trims.
2.Buy a second peice to cover the sunken part.
3.Buy a roll of under felt for rubber (BIDIM)
4.Buy rubber glue (any spirit based as it is a contact hedisive painted on both underside and roof but must be left until almost dry before bonding together)
5.Buy a wallpaper edging-roller,sharp scissors and foam rollers and paintbrushes.
6. Hire or borrow a gas flame gun (from any tool hire company)

Potential Method

a) Strip off edgings and aircon and skylight/pipe covers and dry/clean roof and joints with gas-gun and spirit.
b) Cut BIDIM to size of dent in the roof and layer until just above level with rest of roof then cover with the rubber patch (No 2) and bond edges to roof. (see No 4)
c) Start at one end and bond and roll (in 1mtr/3ft sections) until you reach your 1st skylight/pipe ect (using roller as in No5............this is where being a good wallpaperer comes in handy) cut into a cross just a few mm short of the size of the item and bond around, then cut the little flaps so they are level with the top of the upstand and bond the flaps to it. use bits of rubber to bond onto corners (triangles) or round pipe (strip of rubber wide enough to cover the pretruding pipe apart from the small bit to fix the cowel/skylight on)
d) Work your way back repeating until covered.
e) (this could be the most important part) As we all know, water will only run downhill. so make sure you take it right to the bottom of the trim and bond and staple taught (leave overhang untrimed).
f) Fix trims back on with silicone screwing through the rubber (rubber will seal around screws) and then cut off excess below trim.
g) Finally, you can get rubber paint or solar paint and cover all or just the visual parts of the roof.

Proper Job!! (as the cornish say):thumb:

Well that is how I would do it anyhoo :winky:

Hope this makes sense and helps.

Boo
 
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johng

johng

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thanks Bob, it almost makes sense in places ::bigsmile: (its a bit early for me)

Looking at the roof again, critically, it sags from the front skylight all the way forwards, and then has another seperate concave bit over the far left corner :whatthe::Eeek:

Internal pic on blog.. sort of shows the drooping... I really dont want to know about now.. this was a quick fix of the leaking seams and new wood inside... I cant be doing with re-roofing :O......

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Terry

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Hi John, as said in earlier post we (mate & me) did the same job about 3 yrs ago.-- used 6 sheets of ali, 7/8 tubes sikaflex type glue, and 4 lenghts of side trim.It took one day to sheet it up and another to refit stupid window in front, side trims and finish off :thumb:Inside a couple of hours to fit and stick all boards to luton and a couple of hours next day to finish off/replace blinds etc :thumb:We used 3 mm internal pre-finished boards,same type that O'learys sell for £15
terry
NOT TOO SURE IF YOU CAN MAKE THE INTERNAL PICTURE OUT BUT WILL GIVE GENERAL IDEA sorry for caps :ROFLMAO:
 
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johng

johng

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I havent touched this for a couple of weeks.. but yesterday I went and brought silver Lead Flashing tape, Bitumen based and 10M long and 10CM wide, also 2.5 L of thompsons flat roof fexible roof sealer, also silver..

I thought silver would be a good colour, and the roof will look a whole lot better all the same colour :)

I am not going to do anything about lake titicaca, and the tape/paint is a cover-all for now, I really cant be doing anything much on the outside/major roof work, while I live the van...

Inside, I will continue to remove all wood, good and bad, and restick the outer walls to the foam and re-ply the whole thing ...
I need this van dry, tidy, and most of all, to be used for it's proper purpose :Cool:

I dont need a 6 month overcab compete rebuild

:ROFLMAO:

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johng

johng

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well I have revisited the roof job again, since March.. Dad came down from the North, and on Friday/ Sat and Yesterday we pulled more of the internal overcab ceiling off..
We got 4 sheets of 8x4 3.5 ply and 2 sheets of foil covered thermal insulation foam.

Above the insulated ceiling panel was aluminium sheet, and this is the top of the roof of the van.. I think there are a few coats of rubber above that...
there is an exterior cross member, covered in rubber paint as well.. I am not sure what it's purpose was, but it's been sagging for sometime. Also, the end of it has been exposed and water has found it's way along and through a break in the ali sheet, causing ceiling damp. The sag has allowed water to collect, which has made the sag worse....

So.. I had lying around, a long 25x25mm box section of ali, and cut into 3, these been tied into the roof structure to help support the shape.. the 3 beams go front to back, and some more foam above them gets the whole thing flat again. They will also help hold the new ply sheet up as it will not be bonded (there isnt anything for it to bond too)

There is now a new lake forming because the old one has gone.. I dont know why RV's have flat roofs.....

Previously, the front section of the ali sheeting has been broken and repaired... I suspect when the truck was much younger, someone drove into a tree or a signpost...

the new inner side walls, and 2 of the four transverse panels (ceiling, and a smaller piece) have been cut and are ready.. most of the new insulation is cut and ready..

Next job is to clean and seal up the outside of the van (and leaktest), before I refit the inside walls properly .. (question, I have tape and roof paint.. what should go first, tape then paint over, or vice versa?)

I will be replaced the overcab floor as well...

it's getting there and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... ::bigsmile:

will post a few pics on blog during the next few days
 
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Boo

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The tape should go on first dude...................it's called flashband and it's used in the roofing trade to temporary repair gutters, flat roof, lead and the like.................it should last a couple of years.........don't forget to use the primer you should have got with it before applying the flashband dude!
You could then paint it over with silver solar paint (find it at most DIY and builders merchants. :thumb:


Boo
 

Geo

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Sorry guys this is begining to sound more like my garage roof than a motorhome repair:Eeek:

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Geo

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Just had a look at his pics:Doh: Oh boy that puddle just has to go
I think its the root of all his problems, it may well hold watyer for days,but its also a source for water ingress on windy days when its not raining:whatthe:
I guess his seams are subject to water 24/7/365:cry:
Geo
If it looks like a roof
smells like a roof and quacks like a roof
then i must except its a roof:Blush:
 

davetthedon

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To Roof or not to roof?...that is the question

What r u doing? The quickest fix for this is to insure it, buy a gallon of 4 star and a box of matches, and move into the girlfriends house for the duration....At least it will dry out then. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:


As the old Jewish businessman said to his mate "Sorry to hear about the fire Abe". Abe replied, "Be quiet, its not till next thursday."

DaveT

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johng

johng

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thanks Dave thats great :RollEyes::Smile:

at least i can turn up on a site and throw fresh fish from the roof straight onto a barby! :ROFLMAO:
 

Geo

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What r u doing? The quickest fix for this is to insure it, buy a gallon of 4 star and a box of matches, and move into the girlfriends house for the duration....At least it will dry out then. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:


As the old Jewish businessman said to his mate "Sorry to hear about the fire Abe". Abe replied, "Be quiet, its not till next thursday."

DaveT
he tried that 3 times
It keeps going out:ROFLMAO:
 

davetthedon

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Or you could......

thanks Dave thats great :RollEyes::Smile:

at least i can turn up on a site and throw fresh fish from the roof straight onto a barby! :ROFLMAO:
I've got a floating solar powered pump somewhere in the garage for a water feature. That would be novel on the top. ::bigsmile:

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Geo

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Don't cry John:Doh: we have all been there and it will all come good, promise:thumb:
 
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johng

johng

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nah it's ok Geo :) I have a sense of humour ...

I am just messing with an old van really.... I know the correct concours procedure for this is a long lay up and a complete roof and sidewall rebuild.. but I also know life is short :ROFLMAO:

This will be water tight and rebuilt in a few days time, trust me! looks like a sunny weekend again, will get well into it then...

I do enjoy windsurfing... just had a thought :)

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