Well, this afternoon, in the heat of the day, I pulled the can of Bondo Short Strand Fiberglass patching material out and jumped in with both feet! I've been calling them "bullet holes" because there were 14 different holes in the shell from various improvements that we've made that needed patching.
However, to be fair, the holes were different sizes that ranged from shotgun sized to 22 caliber and were on both sides and the back. Let me explain...
When we began our remodel, first thing I did was pull the residential
light fixture that was over the refrigerator/stove area because it was mostly made of glass and had already shed one of the glass panels during the ride home from Michigan. Well,...that was enough of that and I pulled the entire fixture, capped and taped the wiring and used duct tape to seal the holes through the shell. We have since installed three puck
lights under that kitchen cabinet that work just fine for the few times that we've felt we needed that area lighted.
On the back of the camper, it looked like we had been escapees from a shotgun wedding because there were two massive hole where the spare tire had been hanging on the shell. We installed the spare tire carrier that fits into the hitch receiver on the bumper but that left two huge holes that I covered with, you guessed it, duct tape. They were about 1" across and there was some damage to the shell where they had been stressed from the
weight of the tire bouncing along as the camper traveled down the road.
Also, near the back, on the right corner of the shell was the fresh water fill point for the internal fresh water tank, That we no longer have, that had been removed, leaving the mount hole that was almost 2" across as well as the three mounting screw holes from the plastic inlet. GONE! Maybe the exit side of a 30.06 deer rifle slug...
Lastly, there were five holes under the kitchen sink from the
electrical breaker box as well as the
electrical outlet that fed the water heater that went directly through the shell. Those holes were about the caliber of a 9mm handgun.
I think you can see that we looked every bit like someone that had escaped from a B movie drug smuggler camp and could only guess how many FBI agents were on the lookout for us!
So, I broke out the Bondo and the hand sander; after a
light sanding to create a margin around each of the holes, I mixed my patch material and started filling each area/hole with a little of the patch. The can recommended multiple layers for most effective coverage so that was my plan.
It worked like a charm and after patching and sanding (I hate sanding) and patching and sanding (did I mention that I HATE sanding) those holes are his-tor-ree! The patching material is a forest green color so there are some rather awkward markings on Ziggy just now but the mess is cleaned up and I'm planning of finishing the patch job with some glazing material to smooth out the final pin holes/divots.
All things considered, I did great. (Yup, y'all can cheer now, here, if'n you want to...it looks fantastic.) We are water tight and ready for camping!
Sorry, no pictures because this job is boring! And messy, so I wasn't touching my camera while I was wearing rubber gloves and a face mask. But, I'm feeling pretty good about this...thinking about a little while
paint to touch up those dark patched areas, but it's awesome!