Cabover Rot Repair - Odyssey

[bufbooth]

The Driver side Cabover was leaking in the top forward edge when I purchase it and I sealed

it shut but the damage was done and each year the soft spot kept on getting larger. The damage

was that about 6 inches of the top 1x2 framing board was rotted away, and about 1 inch of the

front window plywood was rotted away.

From the window on down was solid plywood, the rest of the area around the window was 1x2 wood

framing with about 3/4 inch of styroform between the framing. Under the outer layer of fiberglass

siding was a 1/4 inch layer of stryroform panels. The inside layer was 1/8 (or thinner) inch sheet

of paneling / veneer.

I decided to skip the framing and use a single piece of plywood. I did install one vertical 1x2

framing board to locking into the existing frame about 6 inches behind the window. Using carboard

for a templete, I ended up with sort of a hexagon (5 sided) pattern that was about 40 inches high

and about 50 inches wide. Going from the inside, I was able to bolt the left side to the new

framing board that I installed, from the bottom I was able to use screws to attach the bottom of

the plywood to the existing plywood cab floor, was able to attach the plywood to the two sides

of the front nose. I was not able to directly secure the plywood to the top framing board, so

I used a couple pieces of sheet metal to connect the top framing board to the plywood. Also,

on all sides of the plywood I used Gorilla Glue.

The plywood was a 3/4 inch sheet of OSB. The 1/4 inch stryroform panels I got at Home Depot,

and Lowes also had it, I had to by 30 sheets of it but only used one sheet.

Dennis B.

[noahrexion]

What did you use to hold the fiberglass sheet back onto the foam board (or OSB)? I guess I'm not totally sure how your cab over is now layered.

Also, did you happen to take any pictures of the paneling disassembly? I think I'm going to be resealing all my exterior paneling this winter and have yet to find anyone with pics/instructions on how to properly take apart/seal the aluminum roof: side areas yet.

Thanks so much for sharing these pictures, I was wondering if you were going to just use plywood after I saw you post in John's thread. Nice to see other options!

[noahrexion]

Actually now that I've stared at your super-sized version of the last photo - it looks as if the aluminum roof bends over the fiberglass siding: is this the case?

Do you have any other photos of this?

Can you explain briefly how the layering goes (ie: siding, aluminum, butyl tape, trim piece, screws, vinyl aesthetic piece...etc)?

I'd hate to put everything back together after a repair and still have a leak !

[bufbooth]

Hello,

On my Odyssey, the aluminum roof bends over the sides, about a half an inch. I did run

into a problem with this, it looked like a small section was getting short sheeted, that is

did not bend as far over. Either it was originally like this from the factory (would explain

my past leak), or age caused my side walls to expand slightly, or I did not have the right tool

to rebend the roof over as far, or I could not compress side installation enough. What I ended

up doing was going to the hardware store and purchased aluminum roof flashing shingles that

were 3 x 6 inches, about $3 for 10 of them. I cut these in two (1.5x6) and bent them 90 degrees.

I think I only used 3 sections of them in which I overlapped them by a ½ inch, so I probably

covered about 17 inches in length.

I then rubbed a little putty on them and slid them under the aluminum roof and then bent the

aluminum roof over the flashing shingles. This gave me about a ½ to ¾ inch over hang on the

siding from the flashing and I was still able to bend the aluminum roof ¼ to ½ inch over the

side. Once I put edge trim on, it fully covered the flashing singles. I put new butyl tape

under the metal edge trim and then screwed it into the siding through the flashing. I did

use a small drill bit to make the hole in the flashing for the screw holes. I then chalked

the trim on the roof, and put in new trim ribbon (covers the screws).

The roof ended up looking nice and solid. When I got to the nose section there was no

Aluminum roofing. I thought about using the flashing to cover the area that the siding and

fiberglass nose met, but ended up using chalking, enough that it ran out when the siding

gets screwed down, that way I know all the gaps are filled in. I then put the butyl tape

under the metal edge trim and screwed it down, chalked the trim on the nose side and put

in new trim ribbon.

Dennis B.

[bufbooth]

I used Gorilla Glue to glue the fiberglass siding to the 1/4 inch foam panels.

I just put the glue on the flats (vs the flats and grooves), that way as the

glue expanded it had room to expand into the grooved part of the siding.

I also used Gorilla Glue to glue the 1/4 inch foam panels to the OSB plywood.

Dennis Booth