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Delamination


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I have a 2004 holiday rambler endeavor and a section behind the curbside slide out is delaminating.I know why this is happening because the gutter at the top in loose.Does anyone know of a glue that will spray from the gutter and go all the way down that section.I will then put pressure on it till it adheres,looks like a pretty simple repair but i need a glue that will run down to the beltline but also cling on to the top section also.Any suggestions will be good thanks.

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20211224_112510.jpg.7509c55ca619e6d0f1730e13e08e8bd1.jpgI've done a little research on this because I have several spots on my coach. Mine are under the windows and the bedroom slide is exceptionally bad at the right corner. I found this company during my search ....

Delamrepair.com  

Let us know how the repair turns out.....cheers

Edited by Flyinhy
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Advice from most people is not too fool with it. 

But sometime you gotta do what you gotta do >>>>   I had a bad area passenger side starting below the upper beltline all the way to the lower beltline.  This was caused by a bad section of upper beltline where the rear cap met the roof, there was a hump in the fiberglass and my guess is the caulk failed there allowing water into the beltline which worked its way under the fiberglass side and all the way down the beltline going down the rear.   

I did get advise from a RV tech that worked at a large repair shop that worked on RV's.  He came over and looked at my issue and I told him what I wanted to do and he said it "might" work.  He said that on smaller spots they would drill a hole into the area from the outside and then inject epoxy behind the fiberglass and with the RV close to a solid structure use a large piece of plywood against the RV and 2X4's jammed against the structure push against the side of the RV and let it cure. 

Here is a thread I did, it was a big job, overall turned out OK except............. read the thread

I used a two part West epoxy,  There are others.  But the only problem with epoxy is that you really don't have any control where it goes when you are pouring it in.  Every hole/crack has to be sealed.  I had anticipated this (I thought).  I spent time taping lower openings and seams.  My first "pour" the epoxy came out into the void at the back of the coach, running down on the inside in an area I couldn't access to try and seal.  So I stopped and put pressure on the outside of the coach and let it cure.  That sealed this area for me to continue doing pours, doing about 1-2 ft at a time, putting pressure on the outside of the flat form I made.  The reason I did it this way was that the epoxy would have built up pressure behind the fiberglass and left a bulge in the fiberglass.   The last area I did I actually injected it using a long piece of copper tubing, a plastic bottle, and an air nozzle to push the epoxy out of the bottle, through the tubing up into the void. 

The other thing is that if you get epoxy on anything you have to get it off ASAP because if it cures you are screwed >>>> Epoxy Oh NO!!  In my case the epoxy had run out of a hole where the dryer vent was under the plastic I had put on the side of the motorhome.  Didn't see it until I was done.  No way to get it off, ended up scraping it off, sanding and then repainting the area.  The paint turned out good but the clear coat didn't blend with the old.  Not that noticable but I see it every time I look for it. 

One issue is that the way the coach is constructed.  The fiberglass is attached to the side first.  The side is then attached to the chassis and the motorhome with probably the read cap as the inside is assembled.  At some point the roof is dropped onto the coach.  Both the rear cap and the roof overlap the side fiberglass.  There is not way to get epoxy behind the side fiberglass without drilling a bunch of holes at the seam.

 

 

Injector.jpg

Belt mold.jpg

Repaired Delam.jpg

Epoxy on side of motorhome.jpg

Last form.jpg

Edited by jacwjames
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The way the fiberglass was layered on my coach there was no way to do that, and trust me I was hoping I could.  There was no way to get the fiberglass out from under the roof cap.   I did remove a window to gain access in that area but even with that I couldn't lift the fiberglass that far off the wall.  Also removed the dryer vent as a point I could inject/pour the epoxy.  I ended up using some pieces of wood running them between the fiberglass and wall to hold the fiberglass off and let me use the funnel that I created and then the air injector.

Initially I was able to gravity feed the epoxy into areas and then at the end I air injected it.   I used I made a couple different tube assemblies ~4 ft long, pushing it al the way in and poured the epoxy in the funnel and then started to withdraw the tube.  I was worried that it would be slow but the epoxy flows pretty fast until the hardener kicks in.   For the funnel I just used copper tubing and bent as needed.  The air injector I used a short flexible sink connector so that it was easier to handle while dealing with getting the bottle of epoxy ready.  I used a heavy plastic gator aide type bottle, plastic was pretty thick so I could handle it easier.  I drilled a small hole in the bottom same size as my air nozzle.  I put a screw in it while I filled with epoxy.  Filled the bottle with the mixed epoxy, screwed in onto the flexible portion of hose, pushed into the area I wanted to inject, removed the screw, inserted the air nozzle, and gave it short burst of low pressure air.  The last pour I had to have an all or nothing approach.  I pushed the tube up toward the area of the belt molding that caused the problem and started to inject/blow the epoxy,  Then worked my way down fanning a the area below.  This all worked better then I expected. 

The prep work I did paid off as for the form and having all the boards cut to put pressure on the side of the coach.  I used a large piece of smooth plywood to press against the fiberglass,  BUT to distribute the pressure I used 2 X 6 & 8" boards stacked horizontally with 2X4's vertical, I put pressure on the vertical pieces which distributed the pressure to the horizontal boards and then the plywood.   I also used the window and dryer vent opening to my advantage and used wood clamps to help pull the vertical 2X4's against the wall.   You can see what I did in the last picture.

To  actually screwed a 2X4 hoizontally along the lower belt line after it was removed.  I sued this to be able to stack the plywood and horizontal 2 by boards in place and the screwed the vertical 2X4 to the one along the belt line.  I didn't put pressure on it until the epoxy was poured/injected and then worked quickly to place the precut boards that put pressure on the side.  I did multiple practice runs to work out the bugs and test fit everything.  I used scaffolding when I was working higher. 

The key was having a good place to do it and having the side wall of my workshop was ideal.  You have to be able to put lots of pressure on the form so that the epoxy doesn't bulge the fiberglass.  

This project wasn't easy and unless you have a good place to do it and the nerve to try I'd suggest not doing it. 

 

thumbnail.jpg

Injector.jpg

Wall form.jpg

Edited by jacwjames
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