Developing Crack in Sidewall

[JourneytoRet]

One of the sharp technicians at the local RV shop showed me that my sidewall had some repair done from a previous mishap. There is a crack developing and he suggested either covering it with clear tape or some silicone type material. He said that rain water would get behind it and ruin the siding.


Before I run out to the hardware/rv shop, what are you folks experience and advice on this please?

[Colin H]

Originally Posted by JourneytoRet

One of the sharp technicians at the local RV shop showed me that my sidewall had some repair done from a previous mishap. There is a crack developing and he suggested either covering it with clear tape or some silicone type material. He said that rain water would get behind it and ruin the siding.


Before I run out to the hardware/rv shop, what are you folks experience and advice on this please?

Sounds to me that the repair was done improperly & the crack is developing due to stress. Tape, of any form will not fix it. Post some photos so we can get a better idea of your issue.
Colin

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by JourneytoRet

One of the sharp technicians at the local RV shop showed me that my sidewall had some repair done from a previous mishap. There is a crack developing and he suggested either covering it with clear tape or some silicone type material. He said that rain water would get behind it and ruin the siding.


Before I run out to the hardware/rv shop, what are you folks experience and advice on this please?

How about a photo or two.

Andy

[JourneytoRet]

Finally found time to take a pic. It seems to be getting worse.

[JourneytoRet]

here's the pic.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by JourneytoRet

here's the pic.

Unbalanced running gear.

Andy

[J. Morgan]

Is that a crack in metal or is it a crack in bondo?

If the crack is in the metal, (and maybe even if the crack is in body filler) something is going on. Bent frame? Failing frame?

[J. Morgan]

Upon a second look, I can't tell where the crack is. I was assuming in the back quarter area, ant I was thinking the crack was a couple feet long. But I am not sure now.

[Streampunk]

Looks like fiberglass stress crack from the one picture

[J. Morgan]

Ok, it is a motorhome. I read Land yacht and failed to pickup on the fact that it was under the heading motorhome. I was thinking that this was a trailer that someone had painted.

I knew that aluminum wouldn't crack in such a jagged manner.

Since that is fiberglass, my bet is that this is the reemergence of a poorly repaired previous crack that was caused by an accident.

I am guessing that the repair was mainly an overlay that did not go deep enough or wide enough into the parent material.

Using a grinder aggressively for a fiberglass repair is distasteful but absolutely necessary. .

[JourneytoRet]

J. Morgan, from what the sharp tech told me, it is exactly as you describe. So I think you're recommending taking it to my friendly, neighborhood RV shop and have them rework this, right?

[J. Morgan]

Or someone who has done a lot of fiberglass repair on fiberglass.

There are primarily two kind of auto re finishers who know fiberglass, those who work on old Corvettes, and those who work on big trucks.

Both are in demand and both are usually expensive, but as a rule a truck guy would be the cheaper of the two.

An RV shop could do the job if the tech knows fiberglass.

[J. Morgan]

Basically it all comes down to the skill of the individual doing the work. This is very hard to gauge as a poor repair might take years to surface.

[ventport]

Also consider a place that repairs boats, lots of fiberglass in boat hulls. Don't know if they would be more or less expensive then a truck place.

[J. Morgan]

Yep being landlocked I forgot about boat folks.

[JourneytoRet]

Good ideas for me to start. Hopefully I won't have to take out a 3rd mortgage to cover this. Any suggestions on temporary fixes to prevent further delamination?

[J. Morgan]

There are ways to roughly keep the crack in check, but these are not very pretty to look at.

I think that the repair wouldn't be too difficult or time consuming to rough in, the money is going to be in the refinishing, as the whole unit is going to need to be painted if the repair is going to match the rest of the RV.

I haven't seen the RV in person so I may not be seeing problems that may be contributing to the crack, but sans any major unseen problems, I would think that panel repair could be made for about than 2k providing the rest of the unit isn't re painted.

To fix that crack well, about $400 paint and materials , and perhaps 15 or 20 hours in real labor.

[J. Morgan]

Here is a link to how I did some repair on some truck fiberglass hood that were worse than your RV.

[J. Morgan]

http://s245.photobucket.com/user/JMD...0Shop/Tractors

These repairs were made almost four years ago, they are holding up well after hundreds of thousands of miles.

I had the advantage of being able to work from the back side on the hoods, which isn't practical on your RV, but it isn't a big deal.

Your repair would be significantly easier than these hoods.

The difference mainly being that the panel would have to be thinned out a lot on the front and then several layers of fiberglass would need to be lain up to restore the thickness and strength.

I would not use typical polyester resin, but SMC resin, it is vastly superior for these repairs.

(Unfortunately, it looks like I don't have any pics of the actual fiberglass work, just structural reinforcement and the finished product.

Oh well....