Repairing the drip rail and new rims

At some point some genius cut out a small section of drip rail in front of and behind the rear door. The reason for this appears to have been for some type of wooden porch. It looks like they cut it away to get the porch flush with the side of the camper.

Whatever the reason it ended up royally screwing up the camper. water poured down from the hole in the drip rail directly on to the door hinge and seam, from there it went directly in to the camper. Its no wonder the floor was completely gone in this area.

The optimal thing to do would be to remove the complete section of affected drip rail and replace it with a new one. Since I am not made of money I decided to put in a patch at both spots.

I cut two small pieces of aluminum and bent them into shape, drilled the rivets out of the affected area, and hammered the patches into place. I used butyl tape on the seams. Now they dont leak at all.

The other thing I did was to find a set of aluminum rims to replace the steel ones that came on the camper. The rims are 15x7 with a bolt pattern of 5x5.5. The steel rims were rusted to the point that it was started to affect the structural integrity.

The rims I found are Amreican Racing rims. they were $100 for a set of four in Craigslist. That leaves another set of two for another camper!

I think I'm close to sealing all the leaks...

Window Screens Pt 1

Yesterday I began working on the window screens. The screws that hold them in place are completely rusted and have stained the aluminum.

First I removed the screen frame from the trailer.

Then I took it apart. The frame is nothing more than some flat pieces of aluminum screwed to a tubular piece of aluminum. The screen is sandwiched in between them.

I took the flat pieces and sanded them with 220 grit sandpaper, then 800 grit, then some #1 steel wool. Then I cut out a new piece of aluminum screen and put everything back together.

 


I discovered a Fastenal store not far from my house and I love it! They have every nut, bolt, or screw you could ever need.

I bought 150 #4x1/4" stainless pan head sheet metal screws for less than $5.

These are the screws I used in the picture of the completed screen above. Being stainless they will never rust like the original ones did.

I then installed the screen on the camper. Here is a quick before & after.

Before

 

After

 

Now I need to get the rest of the camper polished so the screens dont look so out of place!

 

Rivets

I've completed most of the metal/rivet work on the camper.

I installed the last of the banana wraps and riveted them in place.

Before

 

During repair

 

 

 After

 

I talked before about using Olympic rivets and not wanting to splurge on the rivet shaver. I used a dremel with a cut-off wheel to shape the rivet head and they came out fine. It's shinier than the rest of the rivet but once i polish the camper you shouldn't be able to tell the difference.

roof patch

 

I thought I had all the leaks sealed until that huge storm we had the other day found a few more for me to seal. I will hopefully have those taken care of by this weekend then I can move on to more interesting stuff.