Working along on this as I can, got the sides more or less back on it, starting the fight with windows and doors now. Here are a few pics, enjoy:

[IMG]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/706/32...a82cef9f43.jpgIMGP3438 by Lineswest, on Flickr[/IMG]

Front third removed and sanded / painted:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/590/32...b99751896f.jpgIMGP3439 by Lineswest, on Flickr

Framing up:

[IMG]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/696/31...8e6703c04e.jpgIMGP3440 by Lineswest, on Flickr[/IMG]

... and lacking a real vacuum system to assemble the "Fully Laminated Durable Construction" that came from the factory, I put some tie-downs to work with lots of liquid nails:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/781/32...2afce7cc93.jpgIMGP3450 by Lineswest, on Flickr

Almost ...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/679/32...64370c1df0.jpgIMGP3453 by Lineswest, on Flickr

One down, still needs the caulk on the outside after a day or two of letting the butyl tape squeeze. I also cleaned up the side, looks pretty nice - not perfect but also not rotten any more :cool:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/296/31...ff5bba904d.jpgIMGP3455 by Lineswest, on Flickr

Shaping up nicely, keep it up and you will have a new Hi-Lo

That looks darned good, sir! Well done!

- Jack

Rebuild
 

I also concur that it is coming along nicely. You should be ready for spring time camping.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I know that the roof itself is looming, and there are a couple of soft spots on the opposite wall. At least the wall won't need a total tear down though.

As for the roof, I've been leaning toward the method suggested by a couple of others of just starting over with a membrane roof. I had a thought about another option though ... could be a bad option ... can a fiberglass panel like what's on the siding be used for a roof? Lowes sells these FRPs in white, and there are also straight plastic panels there like what gets used on the inside of commercial car wash bays.

I'm thinking the caveats could be UV resistance? Cracking?

Any thoughts appreciated.

-Leland

Those are interesting questions, r67! You could easily provide UV resistance by coating the roof with almost ANY paint, but I'd lean toward the white elastomeric stuff. It's flexible and is designed for roofs. You can find it in Home Depot, Lowes, ACE, etc.

I think the possibility of cracking is a more serious consideration. But, fiberglass can be reinforced at screw attachment points. Again, painting with white elastomeric would reduce the thermal load from the sun significantly, so you'd have fairly minimal expansion problems. Possibly, if the screw holes were drilled somewhat oversized and you used washers or wide top screws, there wouldn't be too much stress at those points.

I think I'd stay away from plastic. I wonder how corrugated metal roofing would work? The stuff I used for my trailer carport is not very heavy. It comes in 10x4 ft panels that bend easily along the long axis to follow any "hump" in the roof. It's galvanized and already painted and can be attached with rubber washered screws to prevent water penetration at those points. There WOULD be a problem at the ends, since there would be openings under the panels there, but I suspect there's a solution.

- Jack

Very interesting idea Jack. More stuff to ponder on.

Much appreciated
-Leland

Roof ideas
 

Search the internet for what others have used to re roof. I would be afraid to do anything but a tried and true method. You don't want to do all the work to the rest of the HiLo and then have leaks. You might be able to wait to do the other soft spot wall. It can be a chalenge when so much work is needed.

That's a good point too Sam, thanks. I can probably let a majority of the other wall wait, some of the rot is from window leaks so those will need to be dealt with but the goal is not a whole lot more than that.

When I get the old roof off, I'll probably have a better idea of how things look too.

And your comment on "tried and true" is right. It has occured to me that I've taken care of what I considered to be a critical strength and stability problem in the wall ... but I have done nothing to address the problems that caused it in the first place!

A quick update from 24' Classic land (I noticed that someone recently listed a 2000 24' Classic for sale that was in excellent shape ... needless to say it wasn't me :) )

Here's the door back in place:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2857/3...919fa501c8.jpgIMGP3458 by Lineswest, on Flickr

And now the 7.4L goes to work shuttling the trailer around the carport a bit. The roof comes off next so having access to both sides seemed like a good idea:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/668/33...1e8ceeda17.jpgIMGP3457 by Lineswest, on Flickr


And now ... the roof and decking comes off:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3680/3...dd8175a0c7.jpgIMGP3489 by Lineswest, on Flickr

What a mess. Good thing I started with the sides, the roof feels really daunting but the metal beams are brushed and painted in the rear 2/3s. The front 1/3 comes next after I rebuild this decking, then I'll work down the other side.

I did uncover the failure mode for the original aluminum roof. Buried under the rubberized coating that was smeared all over it as a bandaid were holes and holes and more holes. It was leaking like a sieve from many, many locations.

r67, Great post! seeing it being done makes it easier for me to get started on my re-roof. As I said before, for the price of the complete kit, Dicor is the way to go. (this is my opine). We just sold our 2nd home here in Fla, and have moved to a Tiny Home (from 2,000sf to 900sf). So before starting my re-roof, I'll have to build my garage/shop. That'll take a month.
Have to say, while blowing out this house prior doing a complete reno, we lived in the Hi Lo for about three weeks. We truly enjoyed our 27' sanctuary.
Best of luck, my friend, and keep up the stellar job.
Tree

Thanks Tree - and good luck getting the garage/shop built up. That will make the project a lot easier I'm sure. I've been learning quite a bit about this aluminum roof and doing some thinking about the best options too. I really like the membrane option, but I've leaned away from it for now.

I'm about to post a few pictures of the roof decking come back together (below), see what you think. Especially where the metal "arc" wraps over between the top beams and the siding, it's really rough. There are weld joints that don't line up well, and general unevenness too. I've been concerned that they could be potential tear points so I've been looking into other options.

My plan right now is to experiment with peel and seal aluminum "tape."
MFM Peel & Seal® - Aluminum - Roofing Membranes 50036 : MFM Cart

It's been used a few times (if you believe the internet) on camper roofs and I like it's chances to roll over and adhere well to some of the surfaces that the HiLo folks left buried under the aluminum covering. I interacted briefly with one of their techs and he seemed to think this would be no problem for the product.

And of course, if it doesn't work, I'll let everyone know and you can all say "I told you so." :)

A few picks of the roof decking coming along:

Some ceiling is in place, and a new wood beam across the huge empty gap that was in the back bathroom area. HiLo originally had a thin aluminum strip running beneath their 1"foam to help strengthen this. I inserted the wooden beam into the remaining foam on one side, and then lofted it to the wall frame on the other.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/573/33...16a08c7c58.jpgIMGP3491 by Lineswest, on Flickr

And the inside. Note the new ceiling trim pieces. I'll clean those up later, for now they're doing an important job.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/745/32...1110f0dc02.jpgIMGP3492 by Lineswest, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3798/3...9c601eb5c3.jpgIMGP3493 by Lineswest, on Flickr

Foam board in place:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3935/3...b17ce3e396.jpgIMGP3496 by Lineswest, on Flickr

And top decking cut and sized. It laps over the original white foam about 3 inches on the center to help unify the old roof with the new roof:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3821/3...0766964a50.jpgIMGP3499 by Lineswest, on Flickr


Here's one of the places where I wish HiLo had been a little more careful. The top wood is laying atop one of the metal beams ... which comes out of alignment to weld to the curve-over. This was all buried by the aluminum covering:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3948/3...3080ccd8ac.jpgIMGP3501 by Lineswest, on Flickr

One last shot for now. Glue is the next step, hopefully sometime in the next week, then on to the front 1/3
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/757/32...f36ef8696f.jpgIMGP3503 by Lineswest, on Flickr

Roof replacement
 

You are doing a good job on the roof replacement and saving thousands of dollars. Another forum member used 4ounces of gorilla glue and 2tubes of heavy duty liquid nails per panel.

Well, it's been a while. Tough spring for doing repairs (job was taking a lot of time on the weekends) and then I got pretty sick and have been recovering and a bit slower because of that. But ... there was a little progress:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4191/3...42a35062_z.jpgIMGP3530 by Lineswest, on Flickr

and a new board in place:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4190/3...4c2fec05_z.jpgIMGP3588 by Lineswest, on Flickr

Hopefully things start moving along a bit better now.

A few update pics. Got the roof decking back together on the passenger side (door side), now I'm starting to work back down the driver side which, thankfully, isn't as heavily damaged.

Restored passenger side:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4250/3...431a3967c9.jpgIMGP3665 by Lineswest, on Flickr

On the top, you can see I've left a "backbone" of the original aluminum roof in place for now. It's adding some strength as I wander around on the top.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4225/3...903a144946.jpgIMGP3669 by Lineswest, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4219/3...ca49a49b70.jpgIMGP3670 by Lineswest, on Flickr


A new "skylight" now on the driver side:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4246/3...f9ee0ec6e0.jpgIMGP3666 by Lineswest, on Flickr

Painted and ready for new decking:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4196/3...3abb9f0942.jpgIMGP3667 by Lineswest, on Flickr

very extremely well done and looking very nice. great job and lots of hours in that! well done.

Looking good
 

Looking real good. Better than factory. Lots of rain this spring. Before you know it you will be out camping.

Thanks Sam and Maestro ... so here's a question for you all. The side of the trailer that I haven't fixed yet looks like this, you can see where I've highlighted the delaminated sections:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4275/3...45f5b020_c.jpg28864679621_e62df75a6e_k by Lineswest, on Flickr

Unlike the door side, most of it is okay so pulling the whole thing off is silly (and probably hard). I'm trying to think of different ways to deal with this. I feel like I need a plan before I get the roof finished with new outer material though because it will wrap over the wall top and make any wall repair more difficult.

My thoughts so far:
1) don't do anything except reseal the windows (needs to be done anyway) and get as much glue back in those sections as I can with the windows out

2) Make cuts on the fiberglass outer to pull sections out for repair and rebuild those pieces like I did the door side wall. Maybe cover the "seams" that I'll be adding with some nice racing stripes? :)

3) other options?

Thanks for any ideas on this one.

Delamination
 

Not an expert. Maybe with the window out you can see better the interior wall. Search the net for the right marine product that you could use. It might be possible to peel the exterior off and re glue.