water damage repair questions.
I have a 1994 Alpenlite 5th wheel that I am borrowing from my uncle. When I borrowed the trailer, it had not been used or maintained in 10 years and needed a lot of cleaning and attention to get it up and running again. There were two leaks that had caused some damage over time that I thought I had repaired.
One was a leak in the caulking around the rear window that caused water to damage the wood flooring in the kitchen. I re-caulked the window and have had no more problems. The other leak was a crack in the skylight that had caused the inside ceiling paneling to separate some around the skylight. I patched the crack with some leftover caulking from the rear window, and this also seemed to fix the problem until this spring.
I full timed in the camper from September to the end of December for work, and then parked it for the remainder of the winter. I then took the camper on a trip in May and noticed that there had been some water seepage around the slide-out, but it had not caused any damage. A week after the trip we received seven inches of rain in four days.
The skylight and the slide-out leaked considerably causing quite a bit of damage.
The rest of the wooden kitchen floor started to buckle and interfere with the operation of the slide-out. The ceiling around the skylight began to sag and a piece of trim fell off.
I started to remove the wood flooring with hopes to replace it with linoleum, but I am unable to remove all of it without first removing the slide-out. From what I can see, I should be able to remove the trim around the inside of the slide-out and the slide it all of the way out on to the forklift on our tractor. I have removed the large screws holding the trim on, but I cannot get it to come loose. Is there any other fasteners I may be missing, or is the trim also glued on? Also, is it a good idea to remove the slide-out on your own, or should this be done at a dealership?
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/4258/dsc05273zm4.jpg
The seals on the slide-out seem to be the cause of the leakage, but the metal on the bottom has also worn through where the slide-out must ride on some type of roller. If I can get the slide-out out I would like to cover up or replace the bottom piece.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/4193/dsc05279lm6.jpg
I have removed all of the trim around the skylight and started to remove the ceiling panels hoping that the panels would come out easily and could be replaced, but the panels were glued to the insulating foam and are needing to be scraped off piece by piece. As I peal the panels back, the foam and remaining wood is still wet and smells like mildew.
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3181/dsc05274bk1.jpg
I was hoping to remove the old panels, replace them, and then patch the hole where the skylight was, but this is looking to be a lot more work than I had intended to take on.
I would like to be able to use the camper again this winter, but if nothing else I would like to at least return it in a little better condition than it is now, although my uncle has no plans of ever using it.
Is this restoration still feasible, or should I consider taking it to a dealer for repair. Also, will a dealer repair it for a reasonable price? Reasonable being hopefully under $2,000. Any thought or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
RE: Your Rig
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/2703/dsc05004po4.jpg
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4337/dsc05006qq3.jpg
My Alpenlite and old truck.
