Facelift

I got a good deal when I bought our little camper years ago, but it did need some work. I've gradually spent time and a little money over the years to upgrade and replace/fix things. Two things have been on my list for a long time: paint and replace the patched in plexiglass side window.

Old Plexiglass Window

New Old Stock Window

Someone had busted out the original side window in the past and of course hadn't saved the frame. Some previous owner had stuck a chipped and cracked scrap piece of plexiglass in there and then calked it up real ugly. Due to that, the window had no way to open to provide ventilation on that side. Several years back a company that specialized in selling surplus from warehouses, opened a crate they'd gotten their hands on. Inside were a bunch of windows with Uhaul stamped on them. Well they posted them for sale on their website. Didn't take long before a group of us stumbled on them and they were sold out in a couple days. NOS (New Old Stock) Uhaul windows for the campers that Uhaul had claimed they didn't have any for years. At some point they had a batch of replacements and had gotten rid of them I guess while cleaning out a warehouse. I talked to the folks at the company and they said they bought a bunch of stuff in crates from somewhere all site unseen. They had no idea what was in the crates till they opened them at their warehouse. And even then they didn't know what they went to. So with luck I landed 2 of them a right and left side. (I have the other as a spare in case one of them ever gets busted.) Well this week I finally got that installed by a window guy. Thrilled to have finally gotten around to it.

Before New Paint (but freshly cleaned)

After New Paint (Shiny!)

The one thing that is the most noticeable about the camper has always been the outside of course. Mine had lost most of it clearcoat and shine years ago and was mostly chalky and rough. It made it difficult to keep clean and when you did clean it, it was a chore. I had a couple of options: paint or wax. When adding layers of wax to the fiberglass campers,you have to use a lot of it. Most folks go with a ZEP floor wax and put on 5-6 layers. This gets it shiny but also leaves imperfections visible. You have to use barkeepers friend or similar product to really clean and whiten it. Mine ha a fiberglass patch that was visible and some discoloring due to water from rusty drain hole in rear window running down the back of it. With painting, the wife and I discussed what color for 2 years before we decided to keep it white. I took it to my bodyshop guy and he did her up nice with a new coat of paint in Super White. Now she's shiny and clean looking. He even painted the rock guard to match. It was a hard plastic with a rough finish to it and a bit yellowing. Now it's smooth and the same color as the camper. All in all, I'm happy we finally got her done up right. I feel the paint adds more to the value of the camper than just a wax job.

So with the facelift done, I'm turning my focus to some other tasks as I prepare for our next big adventure with her. More updates to come over the next month or two as we continue some work and find some time work in adventure.

Rock Guards on Fiberglass Campers

So the Uhaul, like many other fiberglass campers with front windows, came with a rock guard. My thoughts on this are that Uhaul wanted to make sure that the glass didn't get shattered either from a truck towing it and throwing up rocks behind or a car towing it and rocks from the road coming over the roof of the car. In any event, it's a great thing to have in my opinion.

The front window is a solid glass window. Unlike the door, rear and two side windows, which slide open and have a screen, the front has no way to open and therefore no screen. There are two types of rock guards on fiberglass campers that I've seen: a solid plastic/fiberglass piece that clamps to the front window (Scamps seem to have this style) and a hinged piece with shocks. The Uhaul comes with the later. I suppose having a hinged guard vs a removable piece that could get lost is better in a rental environment.

The nice thing about the Uhaul rock guard is that I can open and close it as needed. I tend to close it at night since it's right at the top bunk and it blocks out the sun in the morning to let my son sleep a little later. Granted that's a benefit only applicable to those with kids on the top bunk but for us it's a big one. I also like that when open it provides some shade over the window. You can even use the shocks to hang towels on to dry if you're at the beach or anywhere that you may be swimming. The one downside I can see is that since it shades the window so much it does block out some of the vistas you could view out the front. That's minor for me as I tend to have the car parked in front of it most of the time. (Some folks have said they don't like having the rock guard at all so they can see all the way through the camper and out the back window when towing.

When we first got the Uhaul I noticed a couple of issues with our rock guard. (Which I must say from the folks I've talked with and those I've seen for sale since, not all of them still have theirs.) It's made of plastic so like with anything plastic it's a bit brittle after so many decades. It's hinged at the top. Ours had apparently been broken at the hinge point on one side and the PO had moved the hinge over toward the middle and re-riveted it. So we do have a "hole" in the top side when it's closed which does allow for rain, leaves etc to come through. I do have to clean out the leaves before a trip since it's parked under a tree at home. I may try to patch it at some point.

The other thing I noticed with ours was that there were issues with the shocks. The original shocks were lightweight and after a few decades had worn out. I took the original shocks to an auto parts store and I matched them for length and bolt size. The pressure in my replacements is likely higher than the original ones when they were new. But I don't see any undo stress. If you have issues with yours, then I recommend replacing them.

On a side note, if you do not own a rivet gun, I'd invest the few bucks in one with a fiberglass camper. They're really useful; especially with the double hull of the Uhaul. They will allow you to attach things to the outside without having to drill through both hulls and using bolts on the inside. The hardware that connects the shock to the camper had snapped a rivet and the other one was close behind. So I ended up re-riveting it and it was quick and simple. Here's a link to a video on how to use a rivet gun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPwNsQMnx88). It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Just make sure you use the right size rivets for the job.

Feel free to comment with any questions.

Rain, Rain Go Away

So the first thing I discovered with our new Uhaul was the leaks. Due to the way the windows are made and mounted, as the old parts wear out the tend to leak. Most Uhaul owners have to deal with this at some point. Try not to silicone if you can. It's a mess to get off later. That being said I have patched some areas with roofing sealant in small doses. I found out a couple of ways to deal with our leaks.

1) Limit the amount of water running over the window.

This is a no brainer. If the window's leaking then a percentage of the water running over it is coming in. So decreasing the amount of water running over it will decrease the amount coming in. This is not a final answer as during heavy down pours you're going to see a lot of that water still coming in. However as a first step to resolving my leaks, I decided on gutters. Now you can figure out how you want to do those, if you want to make your own or use window shields. I went with a vinyl product that's pretty simple to work with and uses heavy 3M bonding tape vs drilling holes in the side of the fiberglass.

 EZE Gutters

Basically you can buy this by the foot and it comes in a long roll. Then measure out where you want and cut. I think I used a pruning shear to cut it and then finished the end with a box cutter. You want to make it curve down on the sides a bit. This is will help make sure the water channels correctly. From my experience this definitely helped.

I also had problems with the door leaking and used some extra I had inside the top of the door to make a channel. I'll have a separate post about that coming up.


2) Clean out the window traps.

On these windows there is felt in the tracks. (that you can replace if you want to take the window apart and drill out the rivets. There's a guide on FiberglassRV site to do this. Also a PDF of that thread exists here.) There is also some drain holes. Mud and yuck tends to build up in these tracks. and can block the drain holes. So before you go tearing your window apart to replace or grabbing a sealant, clean out the tracks. You'd be amazed at how much that can do. There was so much gunk and bugs in my rear window track that the water caught in the track would backup through the felt and bubble up the inside track.

Here's how you should clean them. First pull up the seal. Go ahead and pull it all the way out. You'll want to clean it out/off. I thought about replacing it but haven't found replacement yet. Now get some tools and get in there and clean out that track where the seal sat. You may find dirt, grime, and all sorts of yuck. You may find a small flat head screw driver and an old toothbrush helpful here. Some silicone spray will help. Make sure the drain holes are clear too. Some folks have drilled them slightly larger to allow for the water to flow out faster.

3) Finally, you may want to replace the weatherstripping (it's gets old and cracked and dries out) that holds the windows in place. Most of the fiberglass campers have clamp ring style windows that I think seal better by clamping to the fiberglass. The Uhaul windows are different in that they sit inside a weather stripping seal that surrounds the hole in the fiberglass. I have not done this yet but I plan to and I will document what I do when I get around to it. My Uhaul came with one window busted out and a plexyglass piece in place. That's the worst leak I had to deal with was that window. I did get my hands on another Uhaul window (rare) and I'm planning to pull out the plexiglass and put in the new one. More to come on that when I get around to doing it....

For now I have no leaks. So I'm happy.