Restoration of 90 25ft HiLo Classic.

[sam-HILO]

What a job!!The worst part is getting started. We took our pre loved pre enjoyed baby to my Mothes' house. Plenty of yard and electric. We started by packing everything up for storage in her garage. Next we cut and fit/ductaped cardboard to all of our new flooring. The ends of the trailer have no water damage. We took out both end windows removed/scraped the old goo seal and cleaned with paint thinner. Two layers of butyl applied and reinstalled. We used Lexell calk on the exterior window. Smooths out great with a little dish soap /water on the finger. I spray painted any rusty hardware on the front rock shield. We have ordered stainless steel screws from Mcfeelys. Any rusty screws are being replaced. Next we took an exacto knife and cut out 6' of the bottom paneling in the shower area.The plywood1/8 'is all split and dried out. I had to take a putty knife and push/scrape the underlay from the styrofoam. The majority of the styrofoam is dry. We removed the strip of wood from theplywood that is next to the wall. So far we have torn out above the Ref. aand the bottom section in back of the vanity. Hubby does some shallow cuts with his multi tool. Water was pouring in the escape window. Took out the escape window then had to drill out the broken poprivits and replace. Resealed with narrow caulk tape. Our plan is ro use lexell caulk at the edge of the guide where it meets the paneling. The plywood ledge is only a little wet in a few spots. It doesn't need to be replaced. I plan to coat the plywood ledge with Thompsons waterseal,several coats. Hubby went and caulked the exterior bottom trim with lexell caulk. I restained the ledge wood/both sides.Had to figure out how to take down the large cabinent above the dinette.Did that today..Left the mattresses in the trailer covered in 1 mil.plastic. Made a 48mile trip to the lumber store that ordered 1/8 Russian birch underlay for us. Got all the underlay stained with Minwax Early American stain,both sides. Plan to coat with Thompson water seal for maximum protection. This week is going to be very rainy so we will see how are window resealing holds up. Need to do some serious reinforcing where the awning arm re attaches to the back of the vanity wall. I've been taking lots of pictures and will try later today to get my daughter to post them. Unearthed a broken coroded wire in the wall next to the Ref. We think this is the wire thatgoes to the lights in the front of the trailer. Hubby had to fix /rewire a couple of years ago.

 

[sam-HILO]

Part two restoration questions.

I think our water dammage came because we didn't realize the need to caulk above the trim on the bottom of the top half. We also didn't realize the escape window was leaking. When we are all done all of the windows will have been taken out and reinstalled with butyl tape. Advice needed from anyone that has done wall replacement. Our seal is shot and I'm thinking that we should replace it at this time. That way we could be shure to be able to remove all of the wet panel/underlay. I say the seal protects from water dammage/bugs. Hubby disagrees with me. I realize changing the seal yourself is an all day job. I am open to any and all suggestions. My thinking is to do this once correctly so as to notwaste time and materials.