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Winnebago Warrior Roof Sealing


Mrlope

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Hi all, so I've been busy redoing all of the seals on the exterior of my Minnie Winnie, and one that needs to be redone is the where my metal roof meets the fiberglass on the rear of my coach.  I noticed some cracks in the original sealant so I've started scraping it all off as opposed to trying to get enough lap sealant over the top to seal down into the cracks.  I'm concerned about the separation here between the sheet metal an the fiberglass.  It looks like it was originally stapled together and the staples are no longer holding.  There is a piece of wood that runs the width of the coach almost where the seal is, so the only solution I've come up with is to put some screws through the roof, but I know that's not ideal, putting new holes through the roof and all.  Then, I will put a new layer of lap sealant over the seam, and some eternabond roof tape over the lap sealant.  Does anyone else have experience with this, and/or advice?  Thanks!!

 

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I would put it together like it was from the factory.   Mine has lap sealant on it.  Pretty tough stuff - 23 years old and holding still.  Not sure what is underneath the sealant.

 

I presume it screws into wood.  Is the wood (or whatever it screw into) under yours solid?

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My 93 is different, the pictures help alot.   20+ years and the wood is still solid, I think I would copy what the factory did except you might not have a stapler that would handle that so screws would work.  Be sure not to use 4 inch screws:D  Jim

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you not put  eternal bond over any type of sealent.if you were going to use eternal bond .you lay that down first and then go around the edges of the eternal bond with lap sealent.

 

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5 minutes ago, jdfrost64 said:

you not put  eternal bond over any type of sealent.if you were going to use eternal bond .you lay that down first and then go around the edges of the eternal bond with lap sealent.

 

Thanks, good advice, I'll put the tape down first.

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You made me go look Eternabond tape can be applied over sealant !  This is on their website!

They are referring to old sealant, When removing the old sealant if you cannot get every last drop it is not an issue or if it is in good condition, clean and go right over it.

Why anyone would spend big money for the tape and then seal the edge of the tape with another expensive product is beyond me?  I would not do it with my money!   

Edited by jjrbus
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I've been tackling my roof, bit by bit, and just did this exact job on my 91 Warrior's rear seam. I removed as much of the old, cracked sealant as possible, cleaned everything really good with solvent, added a few more staples where I thought it was needed, and then laid 4" Eternabond tape—one, long continuous piece.

On a side note, I had been using Acetone for awhile to remove roof sealant, and I wasn't too impressed with the results: not very effective and close to $9/qt. Dabbing with a rag and small amounts of good ol' gasoline was way more effective for this cheap non-smoker! Also, if you're careful with the angle of attack, a 5-in-1 tool and a standard hammer are invaluable for removing large clumps of hardened sealant.

 

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Acetone is good for that final step of ensuring that all grease and oils have been removed and to prepare the surface for the adhesive.  Didn't find much of anything that did a decent job of removing the lap sealant residue but everything else came up very well with Home Depot paint brush cleaner which contained a mixture of solvents and dissolved pretty much most things including some of the paint so be careful with it.  For the lap sealant, nothing beats elbow grease.

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Mineral spirits works pretty good on many sealers. The issue is keeping it wet long enough.   I roll up or fold paper towels and soak them in MS and then cover them with plastic, sometimes I use tape to seal. Will work even on vertical surfaces with tape.

Soaking times vary, at times overnight.  Then uncover and knock off what has come loose, then soak again, no reason to fight with the stuff, let the mineral spirits:sorcerer: do the work!

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Silly-cone can be removed by using household ammonia.  Sorry no idea for easy removal of lap sealant. After all its designed to resist almost everything.

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4 hours ago, WME said:

Silly-cone can be removed by using household ammonia.  Sorry no idea for easy removal of lap sealant. After all its designed to resist almost everything.

 

I have never tried ammonia on silly cone but have tried everything else and none of it works.   Will try ammonia next time.      Jim

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I have yet to address this so I have a question.

With all the abrasive wheels available today for a dremel or an angle grinder, has anyone tried to use such to clean areas prior to final cleaning and sealant?

If you had positive experience what wheel what tool?

Thanks!

Wade

 

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A dremel is more than a bit small for this kind of work.  What to use will depend a lot on what you have up there.  My Itasca roof transition seam is aluminum to aluminum.  This post refers to transitioning to fiberglass.  You'd want to be really careful around the thin fiberglass with abrasive wheels.

For my aluminum roof, I used a Forney 72755, fine wire wheel cup on an 4 1/2" angle grinder but went pretty light.  You have to wear a lot of protection with these as the wire flings off of these really easily.  I went through 3 prepping my roof for EPDM.  If you have air, a small right angle die grinder with R Type twist locking scotchbrite pads and arbor.  I bought a box of the Sungold very fine and medium and use them a lot around the shop.  You see these a lot in auto stores marketed for gasket prep.

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  • 6 years later...

We recently purchased a 1990 mini winnebago warrior (21' I think)  looking at different options to either seal or replace aluminum roof.  Looking at the comments below, I'm assuming we can thoroughly clean roof and seal with a good lap sealant like Dicor product and possibly use Eternabond tape.  I don't want to spend a ton of money and hope this option works versus replacing the entire roof.  I seem to have a leak(s) over the cab and not sure if it's coming from Max air vent.  Any suggestions?  Thanks

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This thread is 6 years old. If you start a new thread the answers won't get lost in the clutter.

Anyway a new roof runs $100+ a foot. So your looking at $2100 vs $125. 20:1 odds is a pretty good bet.

So CLEAN, CLEAN, then clean some more. Lay down Eternabond  tape on the edges of the Max Air vent. then seal over it with a Snowcoat. Eternabond  for things with flanges,  Dicor to seal other things on the roof. Snowcoat over everything. Aluminum roofs will develop pinholes due to tree sap and bird poop, that's why you need to seal the entire roof with the snow coat stuff.

P.S. Welcome to the world of Toyhouses 

 

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