Fixing water damaged front corner

[austinado16]

The latest project has been to repair the right front corner of the box on our '87 Starcraft Nova.

It appears the front verticle section of the roof has been damaged somehow, and then the water leak has been getting down into the right front corner of the "box."  This caused the front of the box to fall away (falling forward) from the rightside, creating a nice gap and allowing more water ingress....and more damage.

So, I took the ABS nose panel off to reveal the single sheet of paneling, and cheesey construction of the box.  Mmm.......staples, particle board, some 1x1's, and something that looks like hot-glue......real nice!

Fortunately, the water damage was minor/moderate and I was able to screw the box back together using some 3-1/2" long and some 1-1/2" long galvanized "run-ins."  It is actually stronger then when it was built.  Once it was all screwed back together, I painted all the exposed wood with "Man-O-War" Spar Varnish to protect it from any future contact with either moisture or water.

I was considering covering the front of the box with insulation, and then realized that there was no way to insulate the sides, and it was probably a huge waste of time and money.

Here's a before and during picture.  I'll take an "after" photo, after I'm done polishing the paint with Meguiar's No. 6 Cleaner/Wax.

[Jeremy]

Looks good.  I had to repair some water damage on the right front corner of my popup too.  Removed the aluminum rail cap, pulled the staples out, peeled back the alumium skin.  Cut out the bad section of 1x6 and spliced in a new piece.  Reassembled, restapled, repainted.  Stronger than original.

grab a scrub brush and some spray paint and give that camper a good cleaning! (and paint the frame too)..   sorry, I'm a bit A.R. about rusty frames.

[brainpause]

Looks exactly like the innards of the '84 Starcraft we are remodeling.

I think it had been changed by the time yours was made, but when we replaced the floor in the '84 Starcraft, there was a layer of aluminum on the very bottom. What this did was make any water that got inside, to stay there, and slowly rot the floor. It couldn't go up or down, so water just remained. You might check that. You could, potentially, pull the aluminum from the bottom, but I wouldn't do that unless you are sure about the floor's strength. We replaced with 3/4" plywood, which is way stronger than original floor.

Larry

[austinado16]

Yes, the exterior is pitiful isn't it?  I've already started polishing the paint using Meguiar's No. 6 Cleaner/Wax.  The paint and even the decals are coming right back to life!  Once I'm done with all the polishing I'll give the frame a good cleaning and then paint it.

Right now I'm sort of in demo mode so I want to save the painting for last.

My floor is done the same way.  Linoleum on top, particle board (ie, sponge) in the middle, and a sheet of aluminum on the bottom.  Real nifty idea.  Too bad they couldn' t seal and/or protect the open ends where the particle board is just exposed and able to wick up any water it comes in contact with.

Unfortunately, the sides of the box are some sort of board material that appears to have been hot glued and then electric stapled to 1x6's, with a piece of paneling on the inside.  It would have been nearly impossible to get the outer fake board skin off the 1x6's without snapping it......so, I tried to get the most amount of structural integrity with the least amount of de-construction.

Turned out good and hopefully I can salvage the front of the roof as easily.