Hy-Tech coatings, for AS roof?

[streamer09]

does anyone know if this stuff will "chalk" after 5 yrs. or so and cause streaking on the lower part? thx

[cwf]

Originally Posted by streamer09

does anyone know if this stuff will "chalk" after 5 yrs. or so and cause streaking on the lower part? thx

Per conversations with them, you do not get the 'chalking' effect with this product...also, you can put a 'clear' topcoat for added protection and ease of cleaning. That would fully eliminate any 'chalking' as the 'protective' coating would be the consumable, and it is clear.

This stuff is for coating the tops of busses... especially school busses which drag their roofs through lots of trees and live 'outside' most of the year, moving almost 9 months out of the year..

Our local 'bus barn' has a hundred or so for the skule dis-trick....I stopped by to discuss with the Maintenance Supervisor.. he said "We have never had a leak or need to recoat and there is no 'chalking' of our roofs which are NOT top sealed." But, then, this is Texas, the sun probably just atomizes the roof from a solid to a vapor...

I ordered and received my shipment today of the Bus-Kote...., primer and sealants...

Roof was 'cleaned' yesterday... all day project... as I also removed a LOT of mold!!! Check out the pics of before/after... this is the 'ZipDee Awning Roof Key' which is a strip of fabric between the roof and the aluminum awning cover... Close inspection of the roof pic will show the difference when clean and not:

[streamer09]

looks interesting, thx for pics etc. hope i have time before cold weather!

[cwf]

Trying to complete roof prep. Found failing antenna coax. Worked 3'hours trying to remove the baseplate!

Still have another couple to go!

[cwf]

I decided to replace all of the Sensor.... all of it...

As the sun set in the West, I continued my ATTEMPTED removal of the Sensar baseplate.... over 7 hours...

I don't know who or what installed this!!! I struggled and struggled... working to separate the wonderful, outstanding, excellent, superb Sensar baseplate from my equally special Airstream roof!

There was a solid layer of some white nuclear waste with the attraction of a Black Hole!... The entire baseplate, from the center drilled hole for deploying and turning the Sensar Antenna, out 2 inches around the perimeter of the baseplate..!!!

Yet, there was WATER underneath in places.. the whole 'front' under the baseplate... which appeared to have saturated over the years from rain... the whole thing appeared to be a 'fiberous' mess....it was also packed into the hole where the coax was supposed to enter the roof... and it appeared to be the same nuclear waste, black hole attraction... how, in the name of all that is UN-holy could this POSSIBLY leak??? For the remainder of this post I will refer to the Black Hole Goo as 'sealant'

Ok, yes, it leaked... and... It took hammering of a couple heavy duty paint scrapers between the roof and the baseplate.... constantly scraping to pull out chunks of the 'sealant'... to eventually separate the two... wow..

Feeling better, I then saw there was a plastic grommet protecting the hole in the roof from being damaged by the Coax... It had been filled with the 'sealant', totally bonding the coax to the grommet and roof... now what? Frustrated, I used needle nose pliers to pull chunks of the 'sealant', finally, with brute force, freeing the grommet... but the coax... well, will end up in the trash dump.

Now, 'gently' tugging on the coax, it barely moved.. great... all this work and now it is stuck...

Nope... it starts moving! I get a couple of feet of coax out then what shows up? THE Connector!!!!! I found the 'coupling connector' where the Airstream folks had connected the Sensar coax!!! Amazing.. It was still taped up with some great black electrical tape, also from somewhere near the Black Hole! I carefully cut away the black tape....revealing the connections.. and the connectors were tight!

Hooray!!! I carefully unscrewed the coax connector and what did I find? WATER and CORROSION!!! Really!!! Water and Corrosion!!! Wow.... So, I was in shock... how could this be...?

Ok, press on... I removed the 'coupler'... and what did I find? hmmm? no water... just corrosion! So, I cleaned it up... then checked... NO VOLTAGE! Oh, no... a bad cable in the Airstream shell!!!??? Nope... Defective wall module! Replaced the wall module... snugged up all connections... and what? I now have proper voltage at the roof!!! Good.

It's dark... so, I clean up things and head in for the night.. Tomorrow, I hope to complete the install.

Next post... using 'proper sealant'...

Will put up the pics soon... and hopefully a completed picture tomorrow..

[rmkrum]

Water often travels down coaxial cable from unsealed connections out in the rain. It ruins the coax totally.

Get some silicone self-sealing tape from Radio Shack or your local big box store and wrap any exposed connections with it once you verify there is no water in the connector. Just cleaning the connections will not prevent trapped water from corroding the shield part of the coax and making it useless.

Been there, had water dripping out of the far end of some rather expensive Ham Radio coax. Ruined the whole run.


Sent from my pocket Internet using Airstream Forums

[cwf]

Here, hopefully are the pics... of the Baseplate off the roof.

[cwf]

Here are pics... one more coat... for total of 3... tomorrow. Company recommends two.

Significantly cooler inside and can put hand on the roof with no temperature concern..

[cwf]

Final coat, #3 applied yesterday by our sons. Camping this afternoon!

[KJRitchie]

Looking at the 2nd photo I see rough areas. Did the paint set up too fast? How did you apply it, brush or roller? Did you reseal all vents before painting?

Kelvin

[J. Morgan]

That is a real improvement Channing!

Looks great!


Brevi tempore!

[cwf]

Originally Posted by KJRitchie

Looking at the 2nd photo I see rough areas. Did the paint set up too fast? How did you apply it, brush or roller? Did you reseal all vents before painting?

Kelvin

Yes, Kelvin, my adult sons showed up to help dear ole Poppa. They put strips of reinforcement fabric rather than my requested solid run fore/aft. I was glad
For the help.. As they neared the bow, they got "better"...but the stuff is pretty thick.

I brush applied Enviro-patch(EP) to all roof penetrations after cleaning and sealing everything. A layer of EP, fabric, more EP. SMOOTH out well. Notice the difference between the curb side rear rough patch and the skylights... I used EP only around plumbing and fridge vent so that I can remove and repair as needed without major risk to underlying fabric.

After proper cure of 48 hours on the EP, I applied the "primer" in the morning and afternoon. That evening (double the cure/recoat time), I applied first coat of Bus-Kote. Followed by an overnight cure then two more coats curing each overnight to next afternoon. We have had record high temps in Texas during this time.. Helped since I had no cover. I "cut-in" around all roof penetrations with brush then used 6" x3/8" nap roller on a long pole to apply the primer and Bus-Kote. Cleanup with water.... But once "cured".. You have to scrape it off.

Time from start cleaning, repair antenna, reseal, scrub roof with scotchbrite pad and rinse very well, on our 34' was about a step a day. Brushing final coats about 50 minutes each. Not including setup/cleanup.

Today it is already over 92 degrees and inside is a balmy 81.5.. Only the vents open... I am sure as the sun hits broadside temps will climb.

[cwf]

Update..
Following this weekend where temps were in the 90s in the day we found the interior roof was same temp as the air inside. The walls were 8-20 degrees warmer! So, our roof coating has made a significant improvement. And it is much quieter!!! Night and day the ACs would cycle on and off... NEVER did that at these temps before!

Will see...

[PhilipKS]

Nice! Another Item on my 'to do' list. It will be nice when I start putting stuff from the 'to do' list onto the 'Ta Da!' list.

Philip