My Trailer Redo - Days 52-53 - Repairing the Crack

 
This part of the job isn't really done, but it's all I really have for today, so I'll show you what I'm doing before it's finished.

In two places, the lips of the halves of the trailer were not adequate to hold the Trim-Loc in place when I get to that point. While I could probably just use an extra bit of adhesive and hold it on that way, I'd rather have it fit the way it's supposed to-- to just snap over the lips.

In this place, on the roof, it had been trimmed down too short. Seems very odd, since the matching place on the front end doesn't have this problem.



What I'm doing is jamming a piece of wax paper covered cardboard in the seam and then building up the lips a little bit on each side with fiberglass. Of course this meant I had to sand off the gelcoat to get down to fiberglass to bond to.

The place on the roof is working out really well. I'm not worried about these being super thick for structural reasons. I just want them sturdy enough to hold the Trim-Loc. I'm thinking three layers. Not there yet. This is the first layer in this location. The cardboard and wax paper are still in place, so if you can't picture what I'm doing you'll have to wait till the end.



The area on the back of the trailer is trickier. The lips are completely broken off right where there is a "bump" in the level of the surface.



In addition, there is almost no space at all in the crack. I couldn't even force a piece of light cardboard in there. Consequently, the job isn't going to be as good, but I think it will still be adequate to keep water out from under the Trim-Loc. On Wednesday I built up a section on the right side.

Today, I trimmed that back to about the height I want, and it looks OK. So I added a second layer of fiberglass.

I also put the first layer on the left side. I'm actually making a wider space between. This will give me somewhere to fill with the 3M sealant (which came on Wednesday!).

These lips will all be covered with the Trim-Loc, so my primary goal is to give that something to hold on to, and to make sure water can't get under it.

Once you open the sealant, you have to use all you plan to within 24 hours, so these spaces have to be all ready before I do any of that.

	See Index for Trailer Refurbish Cleaning the Crack
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