1985 Travelcraft: Project #1: Roof Leaks

[LPBolens]

When I picked this Class C motor home up, it was obvious that there were a few issues with the roof. I could see some staining in a few spots on the ceiling, but fortunately not enough damage to warrant replacing ceiling panels, at least not yet.

First step has been to scrub the roof. It is so neglected that I have only been able to clean about an 18" swath across the roof before I have to dump the rinse water and get fresh. The roof itself appears to be either aluminum or galvanized steel with a very thin layer of some sort of rubberized coating on it. In a few spots, that thin coating is peeling off, as can be seen in one of the attached pics. The major problems though appear to be at the TV antenna mount and around the perimeter where the roof meets the sidewalls, as can be seen as well in the pics.

As a complete novice at getting the roof watertight, I am looking for recommendations from others about the best approach here. Should I completely strip the roof, including the perimeter seal, and start over? Or can I feather the edges of the bad spots and then reseal over the existing materials? In either case what about processes and new materials? (At my age, I don't want to be doing this again!)

[Southern-Rv]

If your not goin to replace the roof then the next best is to remove the old sealer and grind clean then coat the entire roof. With metal roofs that age there is likely electrolysis in the metal and it will leak through the small holes that are created by the electrolysis

[Brob]

You will need to either remove the existing coating or at the very least determine what the coating is made of. If it is silicone, then basically nothing will stick to it.

I recently recoated an aluminum roof on my motor home with a two-part liquid EPDM product. My roof looked a lot like yours when I started and I removed all of the existing coating. I used a wire cup wheel on an angle grinder. It was a lot of work, but now I have a good-looking leak free roof.

I posted several photos of the process in my rebuild thread on this site.