Repairing holes in Boler shell

[Dave Mc]

Hi everyone, I am knee deep into a 1973 13' Boler reno. Last year, I removed the shell, re-finished the frame and re-mounted the shell. I also removed the furnace and fridge. The problem I have now is fixing the rather large cut outs left behind from the vent covers. Has anyone attempted this project yet. I want to do it properly because I am going to have the whole thing painted when finished. I don't mind doing the work, but I'm not quite sure how to go about it. I want to know if I can do it myself, or if I have to take it to a Professional.

[kevin61]

I painted my trailer so it was relatively easy to patch any holes using fibreglass and bondo and then painting over the patch. If a person is leaving it with the original gelcoat then I believe it is a more involved process to repair and match the gelcoat.

Here is a video showing how I patched a hole inside the trailer. Should be pretty much the same for the exterior. You may just need to fabricate your own large patches out of fibreglass matt cloth.

YouTube - patching a fibreglass hole 0001

As noted by some of the viewer comments on my YouTube Channel I am not an "expert" but then again I'm working on a $1500 trailer not a $200,000 sports car

[Donna D.]

You CAN do this. Unless someone more knowledgeable jumps in, I'm providing a link to Jenny and Brad's Total Boler Restoration. Look how they added to the window area when they changed from the squared jalousies to radius corner windows. IF you have that hard-to-find Bargman L-400 door lockset, NOW is the time to change to a more readily available lockset like the L-300... it requires fiberglass work, but if you're painting, you won't regret the change.

Picasa Web Albums - Brady and Jenny's... - BOLER

[ken h]

Hi Dave
I am no expert, but what I did was used was a piece of formica glued to door skin paneling so it is flexable and take the shape of the trailer when screwed to the inside . bevel the edge of the fibreglass about 3 inches then lay 2 pieces of mat . One 1 inch bigger than the hole ,the next 2inches bigger .when the glass kicks off you can pull the paneling support off the in side and lay a piece of mat about 4 inches bigger than the hole this makes a strong repair
The formica should be smooth , you can also wax it for better release but I found it did not need to
Than fil in screw holes ,body work and paint. It takes a bit of time

Hope this helps Ken