Two Month Update-Sealing and Caulking

May,2010

After we sold the Scotty we made a beeline down south to the desert. First stop ,Vegas, where Tony removed all of the marker lights, brake lights and baggage doors. Most of them had been poorly sealed and were already leaking.He applied new butyl tape ,reinstalled them and caulked around the edges. We moved onto Winslow , Arizona (above photo) where the motorhome got a good washing and it’s first waxing. Still a lot to do but we’re making progress.
The work that Ken and Kevin did was so uneven. We were around for most of the build and we tried to spot problems and get them fixed but so much was hidden or not done as promised. We’re always making new discoveries. Some of it is astonishing. Most of the CTEC siding was glued onto the luan using a red glue which Ken ran out of before the driver side had been glued. He told us that he would order more but instead he used a different type. It is just now curing but sometimes when the sun heats it up we get bulges.
 
Besides the poor sealing with the butyl tape , Ken had not caulked around any of the trim , doors or windows. We found gaps where the siding had been cut too short. This is the back window.

  This is the gap around the trim for the left side rear wheel well. It didn’t have any caulk or other sealant. The other side was done correctly ,sealed and caulked.
           
Gaps and no caulking along the corner trim strips.
           
  The baggage doors were made by Interstate Metal Fabricators in Oregon and are the worst doors we have ever seen. The door panels filled with water in the first rain. There is no seal around the frame of the doors and the water delaminated the layers. We went to the factory and showed them the problem. They rebuilt the doors but still did not use any seal and we had to caulk around them to stop the water intrusion. The frames of the compartments are aluminum but Interstate painted the metal before they bent it so the paint started to flake off while the motorhome was still in Ken's shop. Some water is still getting inside of the doors so we’ll have to seal around the inside too.
 
One of the first things Tony did when we got the motorhome was put Eternabond on all of the vents and the front roof seam. We were worried (with good reason , as it turned out ) about the type of job Ken had done installing and caulking the roof. The Eternabond didn’t stick! There had been a bad batch and we got some of it. It was probably a good thing that it didn’t work because the cabover already had some water in it and we never would have known if it hadn’t rained more and actually filled it to the point where it started to sag.  Eternabond sent us replacement tape but we wanted to be sure that it stuck so we waited until we were sure that it would stay hot and dry before applying it.
Tony wrapping the Eternabond over the edge of the gutter to cover the screws.