And the hits keep coming...that poor cabover was abused as a child....

[Tina]

What did that cabover ever do to them to deserve such abuse?

 Now we come to the CB antenna bracket. (this is what my brother said it was for)  Right smack on the edge of the top, screwed in with several large screws and piled on with some sort of sealant that certainly did not work over time.  Inside the camper where that is located, of course..the wood is rotted on the ceiling as well as on the edges.  It did some major damage and contributed very much to the overall devastation in that front end.

I'm not even certain I can fix this on the outside:

I assume that gaping hole below the bracket is where the CB wire went in. I wish I had seen that the day I went to look at this.

Show stopper?  {{sigh}}

I'll trudge on.  LOL

Thanks for all the tips and tricks,  I did get some liquid nails in different formulas.  One is for sub flooring, which is supposed to be heavy duty stick-um power.  I also got some lexer, and I have been patching up small teeny tiny holes that I see as I go. Keeping the camper dark and looking at the areas I've removed rotted wood  is a great way to see little streams of daylight shining in. Leaky leaky....  ;-)

They're watching me........

I got the new frame built for the stove vent and in to test. Fits great, now I need to glue it firmly and screw it in as well.

This weekend will be full of activity in there.  I hope to get a lot accomplished.

Hope everyone is doing well.

P.S.  Not sure what happened to this blog post the first time I hit publish, so I tried again later. If it appears twice...my apologies to the mods.

[Lakota Wolf]

Have to give you a HIGH 5 ,Tina,,, Your tackiling your project with vigor and determination. You come across a hurdle and ya step back,, look it over and being stubborn enough not to give up.

I know what you mean with the channeling stuff,,, When I have ordered it, it was a hit and miss,, I have been fortunate the last couple times and got some good stuff that fit snug,, and once it was a disaster. So many places making a knock off replacement product and are making it cheap as possible to get into the market.

[Tina]

You get what you pay for.....a word of caution on ordering the sealer stripping for the outside channels.  I got the stripping, it's VERY thin stuff.  And, it does not fit snugly in the channels.  There will not be a good seal with this cheap thin stuff.  So, twenty bucks down the drain if I can't get a refund.  I will need to locate the heavy duty stuff that is on there now, or clean up what is on there and put it back in.  Maybe once it's cleaned up and reinstalled it will fit the length it was supposed to before it buckled out.  Seems to be in great condition, just dirty.

[Tina]

Thanks Rich!  I am going to tough this out for sure.  Hope to see everyone else do the same. :)

Daniel, when I looked outside on the cabover area where the pin holes were I saw the same as you.  There are several areas where there will be new pin holes very soon.  So....I was looking at automotive/marine pinstriping yesterday.  I was thinking that on the inside I can seal it up along the length of the area...it's in a straight line thank goodness, and on the outside use the pinstriping in a 1" width.  That way it would not look bad, and I might even get a color to match the teal striping on the camper.  

Amazon has several colors available and I won't need much of it. 

Has anyone tried this?

Update on what's been going on the last couple of days.  I took the stove hood over to my Dad's and he's going to paint it up nice and shiny purdy for me.  He's really good with that kind of thing. I hate painting, and it hates me.

 

I managed to get the CB antenna bracket off without damage to anything.  It looks like I can clean that up and fill those screw holes just fine.  YEY!

I've been removing trim to make way for the support framing, I am hoping to have all of the new support system in place over the weekend.  I'm not a beer drinking anymore..but I might just grab a six pack in case I need it. LOL It's supposed to be hot this weekend.  Good to finally see summer, but working inside the camper will be a sweaty job.

I've fixed a few areas on the ceiling where the boards had rotted, or were just plain missing, including the nasty area where the A/C wire was.  That will get completely redone, the board it was in had a hole drilled through it and the wire was inserted.  The wood was completely rotted out, so all I had to do was chip away at it to get it off.  I will replace that area with the rigid foamula that I am picking up today.  Almost 30 bucks for one 4x8 sheet of that stuff!  I'm grateful that I won't need more than one.

I'm looking into formica over the weekend too. I have no idea how thick or thin that stuff can be purchased, but I am considering recovering the stove/sink counter top with that instead of tile.

I won't go into any expenditures for the future materials until I'm ready for them.  I never know what I might run into that would stop this project in it's tracks, so I don't want to have money invested that I can't get back.

Hope everyone has a great day. It's Frrrriiiiiidayyyyyy!

[Russell E Johnson]

Thanks, Rich. All ego boosts are appreciated.

[Rich Thomas]

I have to give it to you guy's: Russ, Tina and Dawn, for sticking it out and doing as well as you can with what you have. I salute you all !!

[Daniel Long]

The cabovers on Class C's always the worst of it. Being above the cab, all the joints, the windows, etc. tend to lead to failures of the seals early on. I've looked at 8 or 9 Class C's when the LH1 was stranded in FL and they all had issues with leaking up front. My old Tioga's aluminum skin was literally corroding and forming pin holes everywhere up front. I wound up using 1" foil backed foam board inside and sealing the pin holes up with a combo of flexseal inside with caulk outside.

[Russell E Johnson]

Oh I understand the frustration you are feeling. It gets old to keep finding more and more damage and wonder if you are beating a dead horse or if it is worth the effort. I was ready to throw in the towel and scrap the whole thing. You have a good plan and a dream of the outcome. You are out nothing till you spend money and start rebuilding. Maybe when you hit the last of the damage the rebuilding will look positive and the drive to finish will be back. Good luck.