I too would opt for the dicor, they even sell it at lowes now.

 

Found out that Greg was correct..it IS Butyl Seal Tape. Northwood/Arctic Fox forum confirmed! Thanks, Greg. It'll be here tomorrow! Man, is that stuff STICKY! Good tho, I need sticky.

I already have what Northwood uses as trim caulk.. not Dicor, but GeoCell 2300. Northwood rep was giving tubes of it away at one of the Camping Rally's. Gotta remember to put it out in the sun the morning of the day I plan to use it as well as the tube of glue.

 

Well, tomorrow will be the day of reckoning... I got the glue spread using a sawtooth edged as the help line guy at Liquid Nails said to and pushed the fiberglass flap down into the glue, made sure it was centered pretty close and with the help of daughter put the pipe clamp across the trailer using boards to spread the tension across the flap.

It looks pretty good so long as the glue sticks. Leaving it on for at least 15-20 hours before I remove the clamp. Ummm, after viewing answers about cure time I may let it go 2 days before I remove the clamp. Gets really hard in 7 days. Wish I had heard about Liquid Nails Fuze-It before now tho....Oh well, what's done is done. I got all week before rain.

 

Bud, are you taking pictures as you progress through the repair? I'm interested to see how you're doing this.

 

Dang, sorry. No I haven't been taking photos.... it's a pretty straight forward job. You do have to know a little about RV construction tho... but not a lot. Here, the before photo is up towards the start of this thread...very first post. I'll take another right now:
View of how I expanded the length of Crack with a Dremel tool. This has been filled with clear Geocell 2300. Will be covered today with EternaBond tape.



Here's a photo of where I suspect the water was getting in. I have filled the area with clear 2300, let it dry then covered mostly with white lap sealant (Dicor). Also used a few inches of butyl tape.



View of bottom trim strip with the insert removed. These screws had to come out so I could get to the delaminated section. Requires new butyl tape to reseal.



This is the trim strip I had to remove to fold the delaminated flap back to apply the Liquid Nails. Had I known about Fuse-It I would have used it. Drys faster. Took 2 days without rain to wait for this to dry enough to remove the clamp. I replaced most all screws with stainless. I had many of the original that heads broke off from rust.



Here is an overall view of the whole front side. Had to remove at least 3 screws on the from vertical trim strip to get hte bottom horizontal one off:



If you have any questions I'll answer for you. This won't be the prettiest repair, but it saved me from getting rid of the RV. I couldn't justify paying a pro more than it's worth to do it. This will (or should) last me the rest of my towing/camping days. I am 78 years old now. Health is good and I've never been afraid to take things apart.

 

wonder if some touch up paint would help to mask the visibility of the repair. Maybe do several inches around it to blend it in?

 

Scott, I still have to put the EternaBond over the crack.. it IS white so it won't be as noticeable. We'll see after I get it on today. Gotta run over to the store to pick up another tube of white Dicor before I start this final day of repair. Next is to pick a short camping trip and see how it reacts to the drive.

 

Look forward to the end result

 

Finished product....



Now to get it out on the road to test it out!!! I have some scattered dabs of Dicor I gotta clean up but it's easier to do that after it drys real good.

 

from here that looks quite acceptable

 

It's ain't a beauty treatment, but it's done and didn't cost 10 grand! It'll be usable for the rest my trailerin' days. Spent less than $100 which was much better than 10 grand.

 

Close up of the patch.

 

looks fine. Certainly not show ready, but who cares.

 

Right...I can't see it from the inside.....

 

The most important part is it keeps the water outside where it belongs.

Denny