Weekend cabover tearout and replace

[apierro36]

The mission: Tear out and replace the rotted-to-nothin cabover in my 1987 conquest before 5am Monday when the shop opens for business.

As my first major project on the new camper, of course it was much more involved than i initially thought it would be...


Here's a picture of the visible water damage inside the cabover. Tip of the iceberg, of course, to what lies beneath...


I removed all the paneling, insulation, and luan backer from the walls and bed. Due probably to all the recent snowmelt, there was practically standing water under the foam, and what once was 1/8 ply now was like a handful of wet noodles


Here's what I was left with. I think I beat my head against the wall 3-4 times at this point in the day


I was luckily able to pull one of the side panels out without damaging it too much, so I used it as a template to cut new ones out of 1/4" preprimed luan, mostly just because we have a TON of it at the shop. I used the mirror image for the other side and with a little tweaking it worked fine.


I used spray adhesive to attach the new 1" Insul-R foam (r6.5) in between the aluminum framing, though it was tight enough and I probably didn't need to.


And here's the first side panel installed over all the new insulation with the window flange fit in. The toughest part of the whole deal was getting the window to line up enough to bite the edges and seal all the way around, as it seems the fiberglass was cut a little big...


There was also some rot on one of the floating window frames, so instead of rebuilding the whole thing, in the interest of time i ripped a piece of pine down and patched it.


I used spray adhesive and construction adhesive to hold the front panel in (mostly I used the contact cement cause I didn't have anyone to help me hold the piece,) and clamped it till the liquid nails set. I didn't have the time to leave it overnight, so I sunk some screws into the aluminum and called it good.


This was my biggest worry: getting this seam to line up again with the busted old aluminum strip that was on there before. I called a friend to help put some inward pressure while i zipped it back up. This seam was screwed straight up into a nailer that went the width of the camper, which was all rotted out. I replaced it with a stick of batten, which also later served as a ledger to butt the piece of 1/2" birch I used as a nose piece.


And here she is, roughed in and resealed, with enough time to eat dinner, shower, and get a decent night's rest. I bought some 3/4" butyl tape and resealed all the windows, then ran a line of Proflex RV around em.


Here's another perspective. Since last weekend, I cut an angled piece of foam for the nose and mitered a piece of the birch I used for the decking to go in between where you see the exposed aluminum.


This weekend, I cut trim, primed, bondo-d some little spaces, and now I wait on the lovely lady to tell me what color she wants it! I have some old wool twill fabric left over from a job I was going to reupholster with , and I think a nice light olive would look great on the walls...



There you have it! about 18 hours and full use of the shop over the weekend, and she survived this weeks rains without a drop inside!

More to come as the plot thickens...

[Dolphinite no longer here]

Nice work! Looks like you're a craftsman with motorhomes.

[apierro36]

Thanks dolphinite! Just sinkin my teeth in...

This was the big structural job that had to be done first, Im lookin forward to gettin into the more fun stuff.

[waiter]

Very good work. Thanks for documenting with text and photos. This makes the job less daunting to those of us that haven't done it yet. :-)

Next time it rains, look at the inside of the frame on the front window, see if there is any water in the frame. If so, you may want to drill a couple drain holes on the outside. This is a common source of cabover rot as water gets trapped in the front window frame, and seeps into the inside of the window frame.


John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[stamar]

is it going to be easier or more difficult for a dolphin?

much easier isnt it, just needs aluminum panel and the corner peice.

[Bunneys]

Thank you for taking the time to show the progress!

It looks great!

Andrew.

[sdboltdude]

great job

going to start mine in the next week

its all torn apart and ready to re-frame

going to replace front beam (completely rotted away)

then re-level cab-over and rebuild bunk then reseal windows

will add pics of rebuild when we start

I hope we can knock it out in as good of time as you did...

[apierro36]

@sdboltdude: the aluminum framing saved me. didn't have much structural work pretty much all cosmetic, sunk some self tappers and called it good. Are you gonna keep the cab access open? i just shut mine down, partially out of laziness and partially because i plan on building a fold-down bed extension to accommodate me and the lady.

Speaking of which, that's the next project. Anybody got any tips or tricks they'd like to share? I'm thinking a hinged arrangement, maybe 18" foldup, latched upright. Should I deadleg it and hinge the deadleg? Should I use 45 degree brackets screwed into the seatbackers? I plan on installing a ledger for it to rest on the length of the bed, but beyond that I'm still in planning stages...Shoulda used 3/4 AC or something for the bed in retrospect, but that 1/2" shop birch was just laying around begging to get cut up...

[sdboltdude]

Going to rebuild but keep cab-over opening.. mattress is in good shape so I can open cab or close to sleep.

@sdboltdude: the aluminum framing saved me. didn't have much structural work pretty much all cosmetic, sunk some self tappers and called it good. Are you gonna keep the cab access open? i just shut mine down, partially out of laziness and partially because i plan on building a fold-down bed extension to accommodate me and the lady.

[PixieChick]

Thanks so much for this wonderful post. This is a project I too will need to tackle so this will help tremendously! What a fantastic job you did too...

[Gary_M]

Speaking of which, that's the next project. Anybody got any tips or tricks they'd like to share? I'm thinking a hinged arrangement, maybe 18" foldup, latched upright. Should I deadleg it and hinge the deadleg? Should I use 45 degree brackets screwed into the seatbackers? I plan on installing a ledger for it to rest on the length of the bed, but beyond that I'm still in planning stages...Shoulda used 3/4 AC or something for the bed in retrospect, but that 1/2" shop birch was just laying around begging to get cut up...

When you get some plans together I would love to see them. I too want to explore putting in a bed extention for the overhead cab. I have a 87 conquest too. I'll be sure to share any ideas I come up with on my end as well.

[outside]

Great job. I wish I could accomplish so much in such a short time. I'm still a bit confused though. I get how all the rot is gone and all interior parts replaced but what did you do to find and stop the leak?

I've been dealing with this problem for a while now. Re taped and sealed all windows (yes, the frames have the holes for the water to escape), roof also completely sealed. Also proflex rv'd all running lights and trim. Seemed like I had fixed the problem but now i see the moisture is back. All i can think of is that it must be the corner trim. I haven't even attempted to look at it yet but I'm imagining rusty and broken screws with of course dry rot. Anyone who's been through this repair yet with advice would be so helpful. Thanx

[sdboltdude]

its a good chance its your seams//corner molding//
that was the case with my 1987 mini cruiser
if you take off seams do it with care even if screws break off your going to want to re-use old
corner mold/trim your going to also have to clean them up so no silicon is on them.& clean rv seam)..then use 3m 5200 and put back trim.....
I could not use old trim it had to much bond-do & rot from last owner with his "quick fix"
its not fun to make your own corner molding and bend it around cabover the first one we did was not clean so we had to complete redo that side lucky we bought extra corner molding......

Great job. I wish I could accomplish so much in such a short time. I'm still a bit confused though. I get how all the rot is gone and all interior parts replaced but what did you do to find and stop the leak?

I've been dealing with this problem for a while now. Re taped and sealed all windows (yes, the frames have the holes for the water to escape), roof also completely sealed. Also proflex rv'd all running lights and trim. Seemed like I had fixed the problem but now i see the moisture is back. All i can think of is that it must be the corner trim. I haven't even attempted to look at it yet but I'm imagining rusty and broken screws with of course dry rot. Anyone who's been through this repair yet with advice would be so helpful. Thanx

[waiter]

Where do you see moisture. One source on some models is the front window frames. I couldn't tell if yours was like this or not.

The front window doesn't have a drain, so water can get between the window and frame, then spill over to the inside frame.

If you have this window, look in the inside "U" channel of the frame, if its got water in it, then this is your problem.

Either drill holes in the outside corner of the frame (to drain water) or remove the rubber keeper and re-install it so the seam is on the bottom, This will allow water to drain.

BACK WINDOW. I've seen this with the back window also. and I suspect this is one of the reasons a lot of rear window Dolphins have the back end rotted out.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 auto