The Cab Over Rebuild Continues

We had snow, ice, and freezing rain February 11-14th. 

Since the camper was covered with a tarp and Adco cover, we worked a little more on the inside removing carpet and priming some areas with Zinnser. 

When the weekend came, we were ready to get to work.

The arrows show a few more pieces of water damaged wood we still need to remove.

After removing the rest of the rotten wood, the hubby installed a 2x2 frame under 

the window and attached it to the metal side walls.  

We used adhesive and self tapping metal screws. 

We added additional framing around the window, up the metal side walls, 

and a support under the fiberglass seams (not seen in pic). 

We installed the lower brace; 1x4 ripped down at a 23 degree angle

on one side and a 30 degree angle on the other. 

We were able to reuse 4 of the nose pieces but had to rebuild one. 

We reattached the nose and called it a day. 

The next morning there was a significant threat of snow so we had to hurry.

We coated all the exterior surfaces with Henry's Emulsion. 

It's used on roofs to seal and create a water tight barrier. 

It's an asphalt product but goes on easily with a bristle brush and had no fumes.

The emulsion dried pretty quickly even in below 30 degree weather...

but we still helped it along a bit.

We setup a heater under the tarp to speed drying in the bottom pic.

Once dried, we used Liquid Nail Extreme adhesive, bar clamps, wood shims, 

and 18 gauge 1" galvanized brad nails to secure the fiberglass around the bunk. 

We used wood shims and leftover pieces of wood to support the fiberglass 

attached to the bottom of the bunk while the adhesive cured. 

It was extremely cold and a snow storm was beginning to roll in. 

We weren't sure if the adhesive would cure in this weather but we had no other choice but to try.

We finished gluing and nailing the last bit of the nose when the sleet started to fall.  

(I look hot in safety glasses, haha!)

We quickly put the window back in and covered the RV. 

Back to it after the snow melts. 

Lesson learned:

• DO NOT CLIMB INTO THE BUNK WITH BAR CLAMPS UNDERNEATH. They will come shooting off and scare the crap out of you, potentially hurt someone, or break your windshield. Thankfully we just got a huge scare. 
• DO NOT STAND UNDER THE BAR CLAMPS. One of ours slipped off while we were installing them. It slammed into the ladder and not my head.