Can I repair fiberglass?

[Dwayne Burgess]

My motor home has wide curved fiberglass corners wrapping around the rear and extending from the bumper to the roof. I have no idea what has happened but I now have three large cracks approximately 1/2 way across the column and one break that goes all the way across. The fiberglass appears to be appx. 3/8" thick. The rest of the MH is fine and I see no impact spots that may suggest why this part has broken.

Is there a repair I can do myself? The closest RV shop is a 70 mile from here and I would most likely need to leave it there for several days.

 

Any suggestions and/or help will be appreciated.

[Dwayne Burgess]

It has been some time sinice I first posted this and much has happened since. Thank yu to those who did respond.

I took the RV to am R V Repair shop to have the work done. It turned out to be far more complicated than I expected; and expensive.

The material is not fiberglass but some type of Soy matrial. The RV Shop said it can not be repaired and has to be replaced. Each panel (one on both sides, and both had cracks in them) are made in Canida and only once in the spring and once I  the fall. Each panel costs $2500. and they have to be ordered before they are produced. We missed getting an order in bu just over two weeks. Wanting the Motor Home so we could start traveling we took an offer to just have the panels removed and  flat back put in their place. We jumped on the opportunity to get the home back on the road. The decision was costly at just under  $10 thousand dollars. That did include adding new lights, rear view camera and decal matching.

I have seen two more like ours and both have the rear columns broken.

I would not do it again but at $2500. each plus the labor costs we would have been pretty close to the 10K anyway.

 

[P. Vallerie]

D: I've been doing fiberglass repair & custom pieces or 35 years. Do you have any pic's to share? 1/2" crack is a pretty healthy split. You can certainly repair it yourself if you are a handy kind of person. There are different types of fixes depending on where & what if any structure is needed or is it strictly cosmetic. Be prepared to do lots of sanding. Most of the materials that you'll need can be purchased online. I use websites that cater to the marine/ boat crowd. There are lots of how to video's on line that can help guide you. Let's see some pictures of what is going on maybe I can help guide you. Pamela

[Dwayne Burgess]

Thank you for the comment Richard.  A body shop rather than an RV shop is my 2nd choice. Flat rate at RV shops in this area are up to $140.00 an hour and they never get in a hurry doing anything. Body shops are still running at just $100 an hour (some at $115.00 per hour) and there is just no way I can afford to pay those kind of prices and expect to spend any time on the road this summer!