Top interior walls and roof bad!
 

I just bought my first Hi-Lo camper. It is 1989 fun chaser. When I bought for $500 I knew there was some interior wall repair needed. Needless to say it needs more than that. The walls are all rotted away so I am taking that all out including the styrofoam and I will replace that. No big deal. Well when I took the cabinets down I noticed a soft spot in the ceiling. Well, once I got to the aluminum roof I noticed there are several pin holes all over. Once again no big deal I will seal those with etrabond aluminum strips. My question is do I take the whole inside roof off or just repair the side where it leaked? There are no soft spots on the other half of the roof. Seems very solid. If I replace the half that is bad how do I match it back with the other side or do I just glue on some new ceiling paper over the whole area once I have the bad side fixed? Also can I screw into the 1" metal ceiling frame to put up the new ceiling or is that where the cables run through? Please advise. Thanks!

There are no cables in the ceiling, period. They simply come up the bottom half and after looping over pulleys at the top of that part, attach to the lower edge of the top half.

There are probably some electrical wires in the ceiling, but they should be easy to find.

- Jack

Trailor restoration.
 

Please take the time to look under off topic.You will see pictures and descriptions of our 1990 25ft. Classic restoration.I can't help you with the roof question because we didn't have any dammage on our roof. Our roof is rubber. All roofs need to be sealed with the appropriate primmer and roof seal. You would fix your roof first. Look up posts by Jcurtis on his alum. roof repair. The long story short is your trailer is very fixable if you want to spend many hrs. and about $1000.00 on materials. Lets talk walls,we only tore out two walls to the fiberglass. In these areas I used 3m Bondo to seal the walls.You will follow all directions on the can. You may well have many pinpoint holes in the fiberglass that you can't see. Then we used 1" styrofoam sheets to fill the cavities between the metal studs. Our glue we used was Heavy duty Liquid Nails. Glue the styrofoam to the fiberglass. Then we used 1/8inch underlay. The underlay was stained/both sides. Some have used waterproofer or polyurethane on the underlay. Some have used generous amts. of contact cement. This could depend on the time of year you are doing this. Be extremely generous in the amt. of HD liquid nails that you use. We used a $35.00 floor roller to press each layer to the wall. Then we applied 1/8Georgia Pacific paneling that had vinyl on one side. Some have considered renting a machine that will spray icine insulation in the wall cavities or get a co. to do it for you. Also consider using house wrap/thin vapor barrier in place of the rotted brown soggy paper that you tore out. Some have welded in more metal suports or put strips of wood in the wall for support. Use Lexell caulk and spray foam insulation any place you can. We had rainy days after we had used the bondo and had drops that water that we had to do more caulking or foam spray. You will certainly be able to improve some from the original . Better materials are now available ,butyl tape and Lexell caulk. All of your windows must be taken out and resealed. This is a do it yourself job. Need a helper. I,m trying not to over whelm you with details. We are all here to support you as you bring your HiLo back to life. Plenty of us have done these types of restorations /repairs. Let me know what you think after you have read my restoration story.

Restoration of HiLo
 

Revied my restoration story. Good thing I took pictures and wrote descriptions as I had forgotten a few things. Start by covering the floor and all counter tops with cardboard and duct tape. A roll of thicker Ml> plastic to cover bed and couches ect. You can look at 1990Classic Restoration on Photobucket. Pictures by 3SamTLPX-Photo At the bottom of each picture is some description in red ink. Hope this helps you. We don"t claim to be experts.

Thanks for the reply Sam. What u r telling me is what I figured I would have to do. This is no big deal. Lowes has most of the stuff I need. Another question I have is the bottom of the top part has aluminum channel with a weather strip. This is all rusted out on one side and I noticed inside the aluminum channel is a couple of 3/4" plywood strips, which of course are rotten. Is this channel necessary? Can I just use treated 2x4 to reach the aluminum channel and attach a weather strip to the wood? I would use sheet metal screws with the rubber washer to hold the 2x4 to the fiberglass siding. What do u think? And better ideas?

I meant to say to use the 2x 4 to replace the aluminum channel. My typing is not so hot.
Paul

And where do I find this photo bucket u are talking about?

Rotted rail.
 

Not quite sure what you are talking about. We didn't have to replace any of this that you are describing. I would use cedar or exterior grade plywood or Blue wood . You could use treated lumber if it is in good enough condition. I did a project and the treated lumber had many defects in it. This would not be my first choice. We had to special order the 1/8 inch underlay in. It was at a specialty lumber yard far from our home. Not at a chain store. Spend some time on the internet looking at 1/8 paneling/Georgia pacific. One person used sheets of laminate. This would be about the same price as paneling. The seal between the top and bottom layer is a special seal that can be ordered from JR in Ohio. Post a picture of what you are trying to repair. That way others can post to help you out.

Where to find Photo bucket of restoration.
 

When you first find the HiLo trailer forum It will list all the categories. Go to the category of off topic. Scan the pages until you come to 1990 HiLo Classic restoration. After a while you will see the link for the Photo Bucket pictures. Scroll down enough to see the descriptions in red below the pictures.

HiLo restoration.
 

Where are you located? What city or state? Maybe some one lives near you that could advise you.

I saw your pictures. Nice job! Did u use heavy duty liquid nails for the foam to the fiberglass, underlay to the foam and again from the vinyl to the underlay? Nothing else to secure it? And why did u stain both sides of the underlay?

Restoration
 

We used nothing but heavy duty liquid nails on anything we glued in the entire project. The cheapest places for tubes was Walmart at $3.00 a tube. DH really used a lot and we have had no problem with anything coming unglued. The paneling directions called for liquid nails. The reason I stained the underlay is because I wanted to give it maximun protection. It stains seals and fills. I never wanted to have water intrusion again. DH caulked the daylights out of every seam on the outside. I think in the past 11 yrs. of ownership we would check the exterior caulk and would think it was okay. It needed to all be taken off and reapplied. Anyway we can't go back. We were able to beef up the awning supports with lags and improve on other areas as we did our restoration. One advantage you will have is that you can coat all sides of your metal studs with primmer and rust oleum paint because you will be doing a total tearout. Feel free to ask any questions as you go along with your restoration.

Restoration
 

Where we could we used poprivets to secure the underlay to the metal studs. Probably only did this where it was necessary. Our walls have a slight curve to them. On some of the paneling we used one inch white paneling nails at the edges to make sure it was secured. Then we used the seam tape.

Sam
 

Hey Sam,

Could you post a link to your restore info?? Starting on my interior walls this weekend, would like to see your info before I get started.

Thanks
Chuck

Link to 1990 25ft. classic restoration
 

1st. You could look under off topic 1990 Classic Restoration. 2nd you can go on Photo Bucket. 1990 Classic Restoration. Pictures by 3SamTLPX-Photo. Many of the pictures have descriptions in red. Hope this helps you. Ask any questions or PM me. Disclaimer: we are not experts,however it will soon be a year and we have had no wall leaks. Probably spent about $1000.00 on material. Best of luck.

you should use "blue" outdoor rot proof wood to replace the bottom rails, and if you do one, do em all, and yes you should use the aluminum strips on the bottom for debris and water protection. use the stuff they use on window flashing like the stuff they use when you do siding on a house