Holes in panel

[Gibby]

Washing my autotrail frontier yesterday and came across holes in the rear panel next to the reversing camera housing. The van is 2018. Has anyone come across this before and if so what is the solution? Thankyou

 

[Vipar]

Oh no the mice are getting desperate now due to panic buying no scraps of food about so they are chewing plastic. Better go and check my van ??

 

[peterc10]

It looks like you may have reversed into a hedge and caught a sharp branch. Is it just the paint or is the hole through the plastic?

 

[Gellyneck]

It looks like you may have reversed into a hedge and caught a sharp branch. Is it just the paint or is the hole through the plastic?

That was my initial thought but the branch would have to have been pushed up vertically through the panel and would probably have caused scratch damage to the rear panel below the lip.
Wonder if it's anything to do with the attachment of the smaller panel below the high brake light?

 

[RandallC]

177 air gun pellet??

Maybe.

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[Gellyneck]

177 air gun pellet??

Maybe.

Would have to be a reasonable shot as the lip is only about an inch or so of an overhang. They'd probably have just shot a hole in the main back panel? Or maybe through the "O" in Auto-trail as a target.

 

[The Coops]

Bad moulding never had an Autotrail mainly due to the damp reports and an Aunty Liz who called hers the sponge! ! I think it may be a bad moulding on the trim, when they have put the gel coat down it looks like there has been a slight air bubble which over time has burst letting water in, if its under warranty no problem as its just a case of filling and spraying (nearly put spaying!) If out of warranty about a £250 job but at this time cosmetic

 

[Gibby]

It’s not just the paint that’s come off it is holed through the outer panel. Definitely not reversed into anything!!

 

[Allanm]

looks like a bad moulding then, I would let your dealer know so they can book it in for a repair.

 

[funflair]

Im with AC/DC pretty sure it will be a bubble under the gel coat and it has come away over time it shouldn't go right through the panel so try poking a cocktail stick in and see how far it goes, if you could find a bit of white gelcoat it would be an easy job to fill it.

Martin

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[Gibby]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated

 

[Gellyneck]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated

Don't know if you've seen this thread as well?

Sika or Gelcoat?

Up on the roof for the first time to give it a little clean and found a hole. The hole is about 20mm dia and is in the plastic moulding over the cab on my AutoTrail. I obviously need to fill it and reseal. Happy to do it myself, as it is on the roof so wouldn’t be seen, but unsure wether I...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[POH]

Had something similar on our imala 730 on one of the roof rails hole just appeared about the size of a 20p got it done under warranty seems like it was a bad batch might be worth trying dealer to raise a claim.

 

[TheBig1]

That moulding is abs plastic I believe, and not a type of grp with gel coat. Just a thin fragile edge that has crumbled due to vibration I expect

 

[funflair]

That moulding is abs plastic I believe, and not a type of grp with gel coat. Just a thin fragile edge that has crumbled due to vibration I expect

I was pretty sure it was GRP on Autotrail and the holes look typical of bubbles under the gel as it's an inside corner in the moulding process.

Martin

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[TheBig1]

I was pretty sure it was GRP on Autotrail and the holes look typical of bubbles under the gel as it's an inside corner in the moulding process.

Martin

you have more knowledge than me on the production process of course, so you are probably right. I was just thinking some of the end caps used in production of caravans and motorhomes is abs plastic. That picture shows the panel is very thin of course

 

[funflair]

you have more knowledge than me on the production process of course, so you are probably right. I was just thinking some of the end caps used in production of caravans and motorhomes is abs plastic. That picture shows the panel is very thin of course

Thanks I do have a bit of experience, it's just the gelcoat that is thin the panel itself will be a lot thicker hopefully, what happens is you brush or spray the gelcoat into the mould and then after it has cured you go on top with the fibreglass, any external corners you see on the finished piece are inside corners in the mould and these are difficult to get the matting to stay in and if it pulls away you get a bubble that will eventually burst. A more reliable method is a closed mould and resin injection but the tooling and equipment is a lot more expensive, we made proto-type tooling and a set of 20 parts for somebody for £150k it proved the design and they got to test the product before spending over a Million £ to do the same thing but in 20 minutes that we did in 3 weeks.

Martin