Some semblance of Normal

When I last wrote, there was a long list of things that weren’t working/going well. The broken tow bar, roof leak, mashed fender, etc.

Well, the tow bar seems to be working fine. The roof isn’t leaking despite unusually heavy and frequent rain where we are staying (more on where later). Oh, the third RVlock was also having issues. I diagnosed it that the bar that operates the latch was bent. Once I straightened it, the lock has worked fine.

I had spent some time looking for body shops for the RV – but there simply wasn’t anything out here. Not that we wanted to be out of the RV for the week it probably would take to fix it. The last fender we had repaired (much less damage from some lady in a gas station) took two days, and then we had to go back for the Diamond Shield. Thus we chose to do the repairs myself. Click -> to see the detailed damage.

I had done a lot of bodywork in my life – but mostly the kind where Bondo is being used to smooth out damaged metal. This repair job was fiberglass that had 10 breaks. One of the things I discovered when I took a better look at the fender was there was a large crack in the lower middle – where nothing hit it. Looking behind I could see there was a fiberglass patch, poorly installed in that area either at the factory or where the front cap was made. Lots of Bondo had been put on the outside of the front cap as well.  The twisting stress from the accident caused the damaged area to open up.

I reviewed my “fiberglass repair skills” on YouTube. It really CAN be a good resource so long as one is discerning. Time to order supplies: TotalBoat epoxy, mixing cups and sticks, small cheap brushes for application, a good mouse electric sander, a supply of sandpaper for the mouse as well as for hand sanding. I ordered two different thicknesses of fiberglass (single layer and mat), and a large duffle bag to put all that and some additional tools I would need. I had no place to store all this when it was raining, so I put a tarp under the front of the RV and I’d push the bag underneath when I wasn’t working.

Oh, and I tried several goo removers – the RV has Diamond Sheild on the lower front; a dense plastic film that is supposed to limit rock chip damage.  It can be peeled off with a little heat but leaves a nasty glue behind that almost nothing dissolves (I even tried gasoline, which did work).  Several hours went into a tedious cycle of application, waiting for the goo remover to work, then scraping.  In some cases the goo was simply sanded away, sacrificing sandpaper in the process.

When fiberglass breaks, the edges shred. It is like when cardboard is torn – it won’t go all the way back together, so each of the breaks needed to be cleaned up so the pieces could be put back in the correct place.   I first sanded down the inside and outside edges to give the epoxy clean access to the underlying fiberglass.  Then I ran a hacksaw blade between the damaged edges to cut off some of the frayed fiberglass so the sides would fit back into their proper alignment.  

Also, there is a metal U-channel support behind the fender that was “glued” across the joint between the front cap and the fender. It took me about 6 sessions of several hours each to straighten the support, clean up the torn edges, and epoxy the damaged sections together.  On the back, I used mostly the thick fiberglass mat and epoxy to reinforce the damaged areas. On the front side, I added multiple narrow strips of single-layer fiberglass across the cracks.  Once everything had been reconstructed, work then moved on to Bondo and spot putty to smooth the outer surface.  I used a combination of a metal ruler and my hand to identify low spots; marking them with a pencil and then adding filler.  I used a foot-long 1×2 with sandpaper wrapped to even out everything.  Once I could see that this process was going to lead to a satisfactory repair, I ordered paint from PaintScratch.com. Their database was incomplete – I had to choose several different years of Tiffin motorhomes to find the three different paint codes I needed. I also ordered some primer and clear coat paint. With this automotive-style paint, the colors are sprayed on in multiple light coats.  Then when finished a clear coat is applied (in a similar manner) which is then polished to a shiny finish. PaintScratch supplied 12-ounce spray cans whose sprayers worked surprisingly well.

I think the one thing I failed to get was a better quality masking tape as I had some issues with the stripes – paint leaking under the tape.  I had to respray a number of edges to get clean lines. The most time was spent trying to get the surface as smooth and clean as possible. Some of the smaller defects didn’t show up until the first layer of finish paint was applied.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The headlight is now reinstalled and several layers of clear coat have been applied, but the surface is still “too orange peel” and needs further work (at the next long-term RV park, hopefully).

To recap – our insurance probably would have covered this repair, minus a $500 deductible.  Our rates surely would have gone up.  I spent less than that buying paint, tools, and supplies.  And most importantly, we didn’t have to leave our RV for a week to get it repaired. 

In other news – we have been working at Henry’s Lake State Park in Idaho.  It is only about 20 miles from West Yellowstone and thus Yellowstone National Park.  For three days (each) of light and sometimes interesting work a week, we get a full hookup site – and coincidentally a place to work on a broken fender.  

We’ve made a number of trips to Yellowstone as well as other local parks.  That is another advantage of this arrangement, 4 days off a week and lots of time to explore.  We even climbed Mt Washburn in Yellowstone.  

Oh, and two small doggies will be joining us soon.  Pictures and names coming in the next blog.