Travel Trailer Reno Adventures

Roof Removal - Part One The next step was to get the exterior roof off the trailer.  The side skin tucked into the roof piece so the sides were not coming off until the top was off. The roof bent over the sides and was held in place by what else: screws and butyl tape.  We started by getting all the screws out of the sides that hold the roof in place. My son enjoyed removing all the screws - with the electric tool! Next was onto the roof front seam, that went fairly smoothly.  Once is was free the aluminum siding popped right up.  Note the siding sticking up.  Also all the exterior lights are off! On to the roof back seam.  That was a bit tougher.  The framing that it was attached to was all rotted.  The screws would spin and spin but not come out.   Just a peek to see what was underneath! If you look hard you can see the front panel sticking up. All the screws were out now we had to tackle the butyl tape.  That was the only thing holding the roof to the si

Corner Trim Now that we have a place to work it's time to really get started.  We know there is lots of water damage and rot going on so the best thing for us to do is to completely dismantle  Lettie down to the trailer.  We wanted to get the exterior skin off first.   We started removing screws from all the corner molding that was holding the skin together at the corners. Yes more screws and more Butyle tape! From the start I knew the back passenger corner had issues.  It was caked with silicone and there were even a couple of heavy duty nails holding the trim in place.   We were able to pry a couple of those nails out with a hammer.  But the last two or three we had to give in and cut the nails. Once the trim was off we got a glimpse of what was waiting for us under the skin.  In a couple of spots we could get a screwdriver in the seam and it just went right in - there was nothing in there to stop it! Back driver side top corner (Tally the Y

WINDOWS If you have not noticed I did pull the windows out.  It was one of the first things I started on after cleaning out the stuff. I had two firsts: 1. Just how many screws are in this camper 2. Dealing with Butyl tape  There is a a screw just about every 5 inches around every window.  Thank goodness for Brian's hammer screwdriver, or what I would call it, a power screwdriver. Once all the screws were out these window don't just fall out.  This is where the butyl tape comes in.  It's this sticky stuff that comes in a strip about 1/2 wide like a roll of tape.  You stick it on to the edge of the window and stick it into the opening.  This creates a water proof seal.  A lot of times this tape dries up in older trailers.  Not Lettie.  Her's was still sticky!  So once those screws were out I needed a flat scrapper to get in between then window frame and the trailer skin to pry out the window. Now that they are out I have a winter project of cle