1994 Itasca- fiberglass roof bubbling up

[Ricody]

Hello everyone:
My 1994 Itasca Suncruiser fiberglass roof is full of "bubbles", I started taking things down, railings, antenna, foof vent and in the process of taking down the 2 a/c units.
Have anybody taken down the fiberglass sheet to be able to look at the plywood for water damage, is there any other easier solution?
Your imput wil be helpfull, i'm a newbie when it comes to RV repair.Thank you

[AFChap]

Man, if you're "a newbie when it comes to RV repair" I would not even consider removing the roof !!!! I've seen pictures in forums of rigs after someone removed the roof and then were wondering "what do I do now?" ....

[Ricody]

AFChap, if you stumble into any pictures or how to, please e mail me, mine "feels" pretty soft, I'm sure I have rotten wood underneath, I took aprt the section over the console and even the metal there is corrouted there. I'm afraid to remodel the inside of the RV to have it ruin again, but I see your point, another one of my "craziness"

[94bago]

Ricody,
What model Itasca do you have. I recently purchased a 94 Itasca 34RA. Maybe we can we can both learn from our mistakes. ha ha It would be kind of like the blind leading the blind or dumb and dumber.
Thanks,
James

[Ricody]

Hello James,
I have a 1994 Itasca Suncruiser, 34' on a Chevrolet Chassis, 454 motor, The motor home hadnot been moved in 4 years untill the last long weekend,I drove it 17 miles to a campground in Naples, Fl expecting the worse, and guess what, thcalipers got stuck and the brake lines caught on fire, the autopark is on all the time, the electric stairs won't retract, the awning had to be taken out because the arms were twisted and finally, after we came back from the little trip, it wouldn't start. I tried for 3 days and it wouldn't cranck, batteries were ok, but nothing will happen, my teenage son went there today, kick several times the brake pedal and.... it started, i'm thinking it has to do with the autopark been on.
i started taken down railings, vents, etc from the roof but had to put it back on because started raining (typical Florida weather), so I started taking down the section over the console, a lot of rust and water damage there. Let me see how I figure out to post pictures in this forum so you can get an idea of what we are doing, and don't forget 2 blind people are better than one any time :=)
Ricody

[AFChap]

if you stumble into any pictures or how to, please e mail me, mine "feels" pretty soft,

Soft definitely does not sound good when it comes to a roof ...I believe the one I recall was the second link below, a '73 Winnie with metal sides, etc. The owner totally replaced the roof with new material, etc. That type of construction would be different from the fiberglass sheet with curved roof cove on each side.

Here are some links for you to look at that will give you some idea of what you will be getting into, although neither is a fiberglass roof. One option of course would be to replace the fiberglass with a rubber roof as in the first link. Though I prefer a fiberglass roof, rubber could possiblly be easier to do as a do-it-yourself project.
http://www.rvforum.net/miscfiles/RV_re-roof.pdf
http://picasaweb.google.com/thehandierman/1973WinnebagoIndianRoofReplacement#

Good luck with your project!!!

[Good man]

Originally Posted by Ricody

Hello James,
I have a 1994 Itasca Suncruiser, 34' on a Chevrolet Chassis, 454 motor, The motor home hadnot been moved in 4 years untill the last long weekend,I drove it 17 miles to a campground in Naples, Fl expecting the worse, and guess what, thcalipers got stuck and the brake lines caught on fire, the autopark is on all the time, the electric stairs won't retract, the awning had to be taken out because the arms were twisted and finally, after we came back from the little trip, it wouldn't start. I tried for 3 days and it wouldn't cranck, batteries were ok, but nothing will happen, my teenage son went there today, kick several times the brake pedal and.... it started, i'm thinking it has to do with the autopark been on.
i started taken down railings, vents, etc from the roof but had to put it back on because started raining (typical Florida weather), so I started taking down the section over the console, a lot of rust and water damage there. Let me see how I figure out to post pictures in this forum so you can get an idea of what we are doing, and don't forget 2 blind people are better than one any time :=)
Ricody

Ricody...
Didn't they make a movie about this? ...No, Wait! It was "The Money Pit" and it was about a house!

AnnnyWaaaay... Where there is enough serious determination and drive (and money) to do a thing, it can usually be done.

Read everything you can... Others have successfully gone before you and lived to tell about it. Many of them are on this board and will help you succeed.
Good Luck!
Jim

[Ricody]

AFChap,

Thank youfor the links and the encouragement,mine looks like fiberglass roof and definitly is curved roof cove on each side,I think I will like going with fiberglass, all I can say is I don't know what I'm doing but somehow will be done, I have an open mind and listen to people with experience even when I'm hard head (I can tell you a contractor ask me for a huge amount of money to build my house and told me if I didn't like the price to build it myself, short story... I did and saved 1/2 the price on the construction of the house doing exactly what he would have done, sub contracting crews.)

Will post some pictures soon, so you guys can laugh with me on this experience.

[Ricody]

Good man, you are right!!!!, maybe this is going to be the second part of the movie, and i'm sure it will be as funny, there is no money left here but a lot of determination (the wife is rigth behind pushing me).So far I have got really good advicefrom "postings", it is going to be a very intersting experience.

Thank you
Ricody

[94bago]

Hello Ricody,
Dang, sounds like quite a trip! Everybody made it home safe, thats the main thing. I just received a very good explanation on the auto brake issue from Roger at [email protected]. If I can figure out how to foward it to you, I will. Other wise you may try contacting him directly. It sounds like you and I have the same MH. Hopefully two minuses make a plus!!! How long have you had yours and do you have an operators manual? I recently put in the two air shocks and learned a lot on the first one. If you need any ideas on those, I would be glad to help. It wasn't too bad after the first one.
Good Luck,
James

Originally Posted by Ricody

Good man, you are right!!!!, maybe this is going to be the second part of the movie, and i'm sure it will be as funny, there is no money left here but a lot of determination (the wife is rigth behind pushing me).So far I have got really good advicefrom "postings", it is going to be a very intersting experience.

Thank you
Ricody

[AFChap]

I suspect using fiberglass as the finished roof would require very similar preparation to using rubber sheeting as the guy in one of the links I provided did. I presume Winnebago Owner Relations could provide you with the fiberglass sheet, probably with all the original vent, etc cutouts if desired, in exchange for your coach s/n and a certain quantity of $$$. The catch would be that if you don't get the roof cove curvature the exact same as the original factory build, the fiberglass sheet would not fit... being too wide and needing to be trimmed would be much preferable to being too short!!!

[Ricody]

James, i have the original manuals for the 1994 Itasca Suncruiser if you really need it, add up another incident to my collection, the driver side windhield was cracked so i took it to a place in Florida (insurance will cover the repairs), they took it out and then call me saying couldn't install the new one because I had rotten pieces where the metal meets the windshield, automaticly I thougth about them trying to squeeze more money out of me, got in my car, went there and ..."money pit", 6 inch long rotten hole in one corner and a smller one on the other side. There I was , no windshield and the s... M/H wouldn't start, I think it has to do with that "autopark", I got underneath and found the famous green switch, and the unit isleaking some oil ??, long/short story.. $245.00 towing bill, let's see what I do tomorrow.

[94bago]

Hello Ricody,
Don't let go. It sounds like you gotter by the short hairs! When it rains, it pours! I am going to check on the cost of a owners manual and see what the damage. Is there a part #. I am very new at this rving and forum posting. I am not real sure of manuvering around on this forum. I think we are suppose to kind of stay on topic. I would like to correspond directly to you if possible. My personal email is [email protected]
Keep up the good work,
James

[ccook129]

EPDM RV Roof Replacement Project

[Ricody]

Originally Posted by ccook129

EPDM RV Roof Replacement Project

Ccook129,
Thanks for the pictures, the more I read, the more I'm incline to go with fiberglass roof, nune doen't have a crack in it, I will like to take it out and re-use if possible. i got involved with mechanical issues, working on them and in the meantime, readinf a lot in the forum.

Thanks for the help guys!!!!

[Ricody]

Hello Everyone,

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this project, but after economy changed several years ago, extra money have gotten more difficult to come by. We kept using our RV to local campgrounds and still enjoying it, but at a smaller scale.
On the weekend of the 4th of July we took 2 weeks vacation and decided to visit all natural springs WITH RV accommodations in Florida, we started by the west coast going north, turned around by Gainsville and went SE all the way to Miami and back to Naples,Fl ,final destination.
Between Ocala and Sarasota, under a huge storm, thin layer of fiberglass sheet on the roof got unglued, air cut off underneath and hell broke loose, water everywhere!. I'm screaming and @#* and look to my wife and saw her with a grim on her face and she tells me [It is not a vacation,it is an adventure] . I couldn't believe it !!!!

So I started working on fixing the roof a couple of weeks ago, here are some of the pictures:


First thing was to put some way to get up high to work a little more constable, I used a 2x6x10 plank of wood and placed it from side to side on the roof so I could walk on it (most of it very soft).
Next it was time to remove all a/c units , vents, fans, etc on the roof:





Once these were off the roof, I started taking down pieces of fiberglass, it was pretty easy with a 9" compound finish spatula peeling it off because everything was kind of wet, specially the plywood underneath the fiberglass.
To my surprise all I found as support beams were 2 metal 1'x1' going across supporting the a/c units, nothing else!!!. The roof was made (from top to bottom) with a very thing sheet of fiberglass, what looks like 3/32 sheet of plywood or luan??, 1" of blue Styrofoam, another 3/32 plywood/luan and the liner.

I took off the liner and the bosom plywood/louan looks in pretty good shape so I decided to replace top plywood/louan and repair the rest.

[Ricody]

That is what the roof looks like once I started taking off fiberglass and plywood, the blue you see on the pictures is the foam. Will follow with more pictures another time.
If I'm not crazy, I'm getting there!!