Adam, it's an easy fix,, done the same type of thing on my boler, TWICE!
Lots a guidance here on the forum, watch some vids on YouTube to educate yourself and have at it!
Fred
Agree. Its an easy fix and can all be done from the outside.
Easy fix and not expensive [less than $100]. Don't make your insurance rates go up for three years or spend money that could be used for retirement - call me. Check your personal messages [PM] on the forum...
__________________ 'Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.' - - Ralph W Emerson
So sorry to hear you cracked your camper. We went with out 16' layout 4 2006 to Gunstock last weekend. We live on Northshoreof MA. Hope to see you out. We saw a 19' in Merrideth, NH
Easy fix and not expensive [less than $100]. Don't make your insurance rates go up for three years or spend money that could be used for retirement - call me. Check your personal messages [PM] on the forum...
Thank you and thank you to all with the advice. I looked at the damage with my father over the weekend. He is handier than I am and DIY's everything. He has also built two fiberglass wood strip canoes amount other things.
He agrees that this should be an easy fix and that it can be done on the outside. And I've finally relaxed and gotten over my blunder and realize that it doesn't have to be perfect. Besides the $ I just don't feel like dealing with insurance companies and repair shops. Its a nice trailer but it is 18 years old after all.
He is recommending that I use a "Marine-Tex" product that I linked below and things that it can all be done from the outside. I'm going to do a little more research and may not even attempt the repair until spring at this point.
Do the rough work yourself, then have a professional finish the outside
I second the procedure suggested by Jon in AZ. Find a temperature controlled environment, manipulate the broken sections as best you can into the original configuration, and then patch from the inside with resin saturated fiberglass cloth (as described in West System handouts).
While there are different ways to do this, I might cut and glass over thin (1/8” thick x 1” wide x 2’ long) wood splints to restore the curved shape and reinforce the area. If you do this, work in well ventilated area, and use rubber gloves to protect your hands from the catalyzed resin. The work will set within 24 hours and should be good for the winter.
Then next spring (well before the rush to launch) take to a professional boat repair facility in Portsmouth or elsewhere on the coast and have the outside filled and sprayed to original color. Get several bids as even this cosmetic work can be expensive.
1st thing I asked myself when I saw the pic was " is the damage to the FG above or below the floor? It looks like it is below from photo but only you know. I had a micro crack in the glass on the front of my Casita and a local guy repaired perfectly, $250. For that Damage I would pay the $500 deductible. If your rates go up on a small claim like that you may need a different insurance company. As a side note, I have found that many repair folks charge different rates if it is insurance billable vs private pay.
The only significance of the location of the damage is the timing of the repair.
Hope it all works out for you and that this type of accident NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!
__________________
Former Casita owner.
If you have a choice, Please buy, "Made in America"
Sorry to hear that you cracked the egg. The response here is great and there are members to help. If you run into problems you hit me up on my website and I have many members that will help. Like they said you can get access to the inside there are a few tricks for the DIY repair. Once you get to the inside access
You can push out on the corner with leather gloves . Once you get it back in shape you can put a some FLEX SEAL WIDE TAPE ( and when it’s down it’s not moving) With this accomplished the inside repair should be complete but never put all back together until repair is done. The West System is great for first timers and they are always there for support. The only scary part is the grinding (Harbor Freight $20.00 grinder is good or a disc on a drill would work but take way more time and sanding supplies ) you draw a line 3” all around the cracked area. Now you want to take down all the high spots and FEATHER IT OUT to the lines. Now reverse grinding the effected area making it go down just to the tape but don’t go through. Wipe the area down real good with a Acetone. Now take your repair fiberglass and start in the deepest area and cut a lil larger pieces so that you end up with the repair just a lil higher than the it was. Now start sanding making sure you sand FLAT and couture it down . Now the finishing hand sanding can
start with 200 grit and wet-sand it down the use 400 and finish with 600 ( or more ) now the color matching paint could be tricky. You can get gelcoat repair tinting kit but it takes a good eye and knowledge to get it just right. Myself I would get a GOOD SPRAY PRYMER spray wait till it’s dry and wet-sand with 600
Grit. Next spray on the closest matching color you can find in automotive cans at auto stores and match it to a piece of the repair to help find a match and always go to the darker side. At first it will not quite match but a year without wax on it it will fade out And blend in better. Now if it was in a area that was structural the repair would be totally different and would advise a professional do it through your insurance company.
Hope this helps you in your decision on repairs.
No comment on the fiberglass repair, but as to the "backing" issue... After I had a difficult time backing our Casita down a long narrow campsite on a pitch black night, a retired trucker suggested I get 6 or 8 of the HF LED lights (like the ones that are always free with a purchase) and lay them on either side of where I intend to back the camper like runway lights. They not only light up the area, but are easy to spot in both rear view side mirrors. When placing them, you scope out the path within the runway you created.
If you have insurance just use it, that is what you got it for. Otherwise you are paying those fees just to be paying those fees and not getting any value out of paying them.
If you have insurance just use it, that is what you got it for. Otherwise you are paying those fees just to be paying those fees and not getting any value out of paying them.
If you have a minor at fault accident that costs $500 to repair and you have a $300 deductible, it makes no sense to make a claim that could raise your premium.
__________________
What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
- Bertolt Brecht
Thanks again to all who have commented. Its quite a split between the "call insurance/pro repair" and the "DYI" crowd. I'm currently tilting DIY, but haven't made up my mind. I do think it would be nice to get a quote or two for a professional repair. Its just hard to find the time to even look for repair shops and make calls. And then I assume that I'll need to tow the camper there for a quote. Tough to ind the time.
For reference, I was able to insure the camper for $100 a year so its pretty cheap. It seems low and my guess is that as an 18 year old trailer they have a very low valuation on it. My deductible is $500.
For reference, I was able to insure the camper for $100 a year so its pretty cheap. It seems low and my guess is that as an 18 year old trailer they have a very low valuation on it. My deductible is $500.
At that price it's probably more assurance than insurance, "yes, this is a trailer".
__________________
What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
- Bertolt Brecht
There can be a world of difference between a collision where the insured was at fault, vs not at fault. A collision where the insured was hit is VERY different from one where the insured hits a fixed object, depending on state laws.
Who pays for repair of the damage is the only difference I see. The choices are:
The person that owns the trailer.
The insurance co. of the person that owns the trailer
The person that hit the trailer
The insurance co. of the person that hit the trailer.
That's all there is.
__________________
Byron & Anne enjoying the everyday Saturday thing.
I would fix it myself, you can do it, but I would start from the inside with the patch then fill it in, fiber glass, smooth out with Bondo for the top fill, use hand grinder with metal disk, goes faster top off with sandpaper on Bondo and paint it. Make sure you check the bolts that hold the body on the frame. When I did my frame half of my bolts were rusted in two only 25 holding mine down. wear dust mask!
I finally tackled this repair. I ended up using the marine-tex product which seemed to be a good match for this repair. There were not many good youtube videos on how to apply it. I believe it is basically an epoxy resin. Kind of like bondo, but thicker and goopier. It was fairly difficult to apply smoothly. I ended up doing 3 coats of the marine tex, sanding in between. I did this repair from the outside and did not add fiberglass to the inside. I decided that if I had issues with this repair cracking or failing I could always fiberglass from the inside later.
I purchased the 14 oz container of Marine tex because it only cost about twice as much as the 2 oz. The 2 oz wouldn't have been enough for this, but I probably have half of the container left of so.
I figure that I should probably paint this so that it doesn't yellow and to perhaps make it match the off-white color of the gel coat. But I have no idea what to use for that. Any paint suggestions?
On with some pictures. I should say that this was a relatively easy fix. I have no skills related to body work, fabrication, etc. I'm not even very good a mudding drywall. The cost of the repair was about $45 for the Marine Tex plus some sandpaper which I had. I hand sanded but mostly used an orbital sander. I think a palm sander would have been better, but I don't have one.
Here are a couple pictures of the original damage. And then a couple after I worked the crack to be flush and sanded down the loose fibers. One thing that I would probably do differently next time is tape it all of before I sand and I would have made the "repair area" smaller. You can see that because of one very small divot I ended up covering over, and sanding up a larger area of fiberglass than I needed too. On the other hand going with the larger area may have allowed me to blend it in better without ended up with a hump over the repair. It definitely took more material and some more time with sanding than it would have if I had taped a smaller area.
Here are pictures of the work in progress. First its all taped off with the first coat. It was difficult to "build" so I ended up with some low spots (for some reason that picture is very small, but you can see the divots).
Then there is a picture that is after 2 additional coats have been applied and sanded. You can see that I ended up wtih it built up to the thickness of the tape in most spots. It was difficult to taper this without damaging more clear coat. I ended up taping it again just off the edge of the repair and setting on the orbital with a 220 grit to taper the edge. The final picture shows the repair more or less finished. It actually sticks out more in this picture than it does in real life because of the lighting.
Last picture. This repair is definitely a 5-10 footer. And here it is from about 5 feet or so.
So, any suggestions on how to paint this?
Also, now that this repair is done I'm finally ready to get it out of the barn and get to know this camper a little better. We only used it once and it was already winterized. So I need to work to understand the water system better, de winterize. Flush and sanitize tanks, check out all the systems, etc. Looking forward to that.
P.S. the stump that did this to me is long gone now and I will certainly be more careful in the future.