The night before we went to the shop, I took the measurement… The Ohana was exactly 12′. Supposedly she was going to fit. Just in case though- I decided to bring a few tools along to remove what could end up being in the way. Excited to finally be able to protect our baby, we went and enjoyed sitting by the fire with the dogs.
It was a good thing I brought those tools! Over the years the ground outside of the shop had heaved, or the shop had sank. So when the Ohana backed up close to the garage- she was still too tall. It only took a few moments on the roof, in the snow, and I had removed the top length and cap of the smoke stack. With that we were good to go. It was a tight fit, and as we slowly backed her through the shop we had to maneuver the chain hoist out of the way. After she was in place we had about 3.5 – 4 feet to work with above the roof. That was going to be cramped- but it was definitely better than no feet.
I spoke with the owner of the shop, Mike Devaney, and we talked about what was okay to use and what his preferences were. He was a really nice guy! RJ must have vouched for us quite a bit- because Mike seemed to have a good opinion of us and seemed to really like us. I also think that he was pretty impressed about how Laura was a pretty kick-butt worker. Mike was a welder, so once we had the roof treated Mike was willing to do the welding work that Brad and I had discussed. I felt a little bad that I wouldn’t be using Brad- but he was out hunting for at least another week and we were in the perfect situation to get things done. Soon as The Ohana was in and we finished discussing details, it was time to get to work!
We began by wiping down the roof and getting it cleaned and ready for Gaco application. Once she was cleaned and dried, we removed the solar panels so we could work around them, and started applying Gaco Tape along all of the roof edging, around any racking that would have mounting penetrating the RV surface, around the skylights, and the edges of the built up plywood. As I worked around the roof perimeter I came across this: (Remember this pic?)
I had been curious about what this abnormality was on the back corner of the camper. I had used Lexel around it in a hurry hoping before knowing it was not the time to tackle it; but now that it was in the shop it was game on. As I cut Lexel and RV roofing paint I found a strip of Aluminum.
I cut it out, and here I wish I would have taken a picture- because that piece that had been mounted into the side of the camper to hold up the roof to keep it from sinking down under weight. Once the strip was gone, that corner of the roof was floating a 1″ or so above the wall panel! I decided to try an experiment…
… I wanted to see how tough the Gaco system really was. I devised a plan to use the rear roof rack to grab, run a strap down to the bumper, and ratchet the roof down to Gaco treat it. Here is a before tightening it down…
… and after.
With the roof held in place I went back to taping. Once she was all taped it was time for a nice thick coat of Gaco Liquid Tape over all of the taped areas and any other areas that would need some extra re-enforcement.
Mike and his son would dip into the shop, curious about our progress and offer advice or a helpful tool here and there. They were super awesome about it! Due to the change in weather, a lot of Mike’s work had been put on hold. So he told us we could use his shop for the whole weekend! This was super exciting news! With that news, and after hours of fast and furious work- we agreed it was just fine to go home and get back to it in the morning. It would also allow the Gaco Liquid Tape to dry a bit more before we started painting the Gaco itself. Tomorrow would be another big day!
Geoff Murphy 3/27/2020