So then it was rain, almost every day on and off. As I managed to keep rain out using the tarp- but I was certain the front skylight was the issue. With no access to a garage I was stuck tarping her for now… 🙁
Luckily I ended up with an opening in the weather, and RJ had left over Gaco from The Ithaca project- so she convinced me, along with the paint guy at the hardware store, to use the opening in the weather to attempt a Gaco repair on the front skylight. I picked up the bucket from her house, threw on my paint clothes and the necessary painting supplies, and tossed back the tarp to try and seal it up. As I opened up the area around the skylight I could immediately tell what was wrong. There was tons of gapping, and they had used rubber seal, like you would find on the bottom lip of a garage door, around the base of it and then painted an RV roofing product over it. The product stuck to itself well enough, but the bond to the foam had totally failed, and there were gaps and holes all around the skylight letting water in. Once it was cleared I quickly scrubbed and dried what I could, then taped the perimeter of the skylight, and painted the Gaco tape. Later, as rain started to show, I left the big 5 gallon bucket on the roof and used it to hold the tarp up high enough from the wet Gaco in hopes it would dry underneath.
Meanwhile, while that round of Gaco set, I began by painting all of the bed with Vissner Mold Killer that makes Killz seem like a baby. (Seriously, they don’t even stock it on the shelves at the hardware store- you have to special request it from in back)
My intention was to spray foam the nose, it would hold it all together, be much lighter, and act as insulation once in place. I was concerned about the window over the passenger side though- it was cracked and Laura and I wanted to replace it. So I took it by our local glass shop, Lakeshore Glass, to make a plan. We talked it over and spray foaming around the inside of the window should not be an issue since the glass replacement would be done from the outside. We agreed with the owner to wait until spring, in which it would have to be done before we did the Gaco on that area and we sealed the outside edge of the window in.
So after she was painted inside I began filling all of the voids and openings around the edges with spray foam. Once the foam had set I began carving it back down to flush it with the walls.
After that I ended up cutting the new plywood bed platform- it couldn’t fit in the motorhome as a whole- so I ended up cutting it in half and bracketing it together.
Then we re-used the angle brackets that were previously installed with un-rusted and matching screws. I sprayed under the overhang of the plywood and let it set.
Next Day we were off into round 2. The rain let up again, so I pulled the tarp and got that skylight Gaco painted!
Once that was good to go- it was time to spray the nose!
Find The Flow!
Once it set it all ended up looking like this:
And as per procedure- it was time to carve!
I painted the new plywood and foam with mold resistant primer. During this time, Laura had decided she wanted the walls of the bedroom textured. We agreed on an orange peel texturing, with the nose being carved sprayfoam it could only help the surrounding area match a little. Next step was to tape and plastic off the bed area. Then it was spray, knockdown, and prime time. Every step of painting or priming was a pain at this step. Due to the season and rain it was cool and humid- making curing a difficult process.
It took days of catching the weather and waiting; but I eventually got another coat of Gaco on the skylight and it cured. We had some rain during the day, so I decided to test the front skylight. I pulled the tarp and kept an eye on it that day- and we were dry up front! Mission successful! I decided to hold on to the tarp and keep and eye on it for the next few days though. The morning we was sorely dissapointed… 😭
When we opened up the Ohana the next morning- we found something new. Now that water wasn’t pouring into the front- it had re-directed it’s initiative to the middle skylight where the Fantastic Fan had been installed. It was puddled all over the floor underneath it. It had soaked everything that had been sitting on the couch underneath it as well, dilapidating the box that had been holding my painting gloves. Water was now traveling inside the sealing into the cabinet above the couch. I should have guessed from what I had originally assumed were old signs in the ceiling. Regardless, I was super frustrated! 🤬
I put the word out- we needed a shop ASAP. This needed to get inside so we could clean up the roof and get it Gaco treated. We were able to find one with a possible opening that next weekend. So I was determined to work on the roof a bit to get it ready for a fast and furious overnight (and hopefully next day) in a shop. I waited for openings in the weather and headed to the roof when I could. During this time I had already ordered replacement skylights for some of the roof vents- I swapped out the old ones with new:
Another thing was the roof access ladder. It was solid up the side of the RV- but at the top where it mounted into the roof it was quite wobbly. I decided I would pull the top and install a new piece of 3/4 Plywood underneath it. This would give a substantial support for the top for the top of the ladder, and give a reinforced walkway to the rear piece of plywood.
I mounted the plywood into the roof joists and along the edge of the roof frame. It sucked down nice and tight. After that I installed some bulkier and stainless screws to mount the top of the ladder- Solid! Last but not least I pulled the vent cover from over the Fantastic Fan. I peeled up the edge to find:
Old caulking and another attempt to use a product to lap seal the edge of the skylight. This time it was even a worse product than the front. It was some type of foam (window seal?) that they had caulked around. It was soaked to the core- doing nothing but wicking and feeding water down into the edge of the skylight. 🤢 I pulled it and cleaned it up- getting it ready for when we pulled it into the shop. Until then it would live under the tarp. Next I was headed back inside.
We painted the inside walls and ceiling to the bed area.
Then painted the bed floor with Duplicolor Bed Liner. We had purchased the vinyl we were going to wrap the edge into the cab with. Once the bed liner had dried, we measured the material, cut it, and stapled the top edge into the plywood. We were going to wait until we were inside in the warmth to stuff the foam padding in it and glue the bottom edges.
It was a bit of a back and forth process- after we painted I went along with a little more spray foam and made sure to get all of the smallest gaps around the windows and such, carved the foam back, and finished up what needed painting.
That weekend snow hit- and so our shop became booked, as we were lower on the priority list. Luckily, RJ knew someone that had a shop and was willing to ask them. The original agreement was for one night- she vouched for my integrity and he agreed. We talked and if we could get The Ohana to clear @ 12′ or less we were in business. So with that we were able to get into a shop that weekend!
Laura and I got our game faces on- because it was definitely time for the big push to get this girl stabilized for the season. But that folks, is the story for next time! 😉
Geoff Murphy 3/26/2020