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vjf · 10-06-2015, 07:35 PM

Hello, I am new to the RV world. We purchased a 1991 Winnebago Warrior in September, the person we purchased from said it had leaked at one time but he thought the leak was fixed.
I started to do some renovations, like painting the walls and we removed the carpets and put in the vinyl flooring that looks like wood planks. It rained for many days here and when I went to remove the cushions over the bunk they were wet. My son started to remove floor, we noticed that the nose was covered with little pieces of rug and the wood frame around the floor under the side was rotted, The wood that was supposed to be under the nose piece was completely missing. There was no framing on the floor, just solid board.
I looked up several videos on replacing the floors. I could not find one on the Winnebago. The floors were solid 3/4 plywood with no insulation or frames, as I had seen in the videos I looked up. I believe it may have been replaced before. On the left side the floor went to the wall, on the right side when I was trying to get the board out I realize it went under the side wall.
The side walls have styrofoam insulation, which seems ok on one side, the other side has a hole in it, probably from a rat. The front wall has the long pieces of board which are rotted and then the solid wood on the sides of the window which seem ok. I figured out today, how to get to the screws under the side wall to remove the board.
I would like to replace the missing pieces of wood under the nose and the side walls before replacing the floors. I have some questions if anyone knows the answers.
Can you sand the board that is left after removing the wall paper and what you can get off scraping off of the styrofoam wall or do you just leave whats left of the luan board and glue on top of it. I do not want to do wall paper but I would like to put up maybe paneling. IF I take the screws out of the window inside will the window come out? I do not really want to remove the window if I do not have to.
Do I need to get all of the wood that was stuck to the fiberglass shell or can I put the floor over it. I do have to do a couple of fiberglass repairs , when I was removing the wood floor I went through the fiberglass, I did not realize it was the bottom of the floor. Also the fiberglass on the nose area has some small holes and pin holes, I think some of the holes was where a board was across the front. It also has some pin holes.
Any info anyone has would be greatly appreciated. I am attaching some photos.

Thanks, Valerie

Mich F · 10-07-2015, 10:49 AM

I believe a total cabover rebuild is required for that MH. You have to get rid of all that rotted wood. I would imagine it is much worse than what you see there.

vjf · 10-07-2015, 01:35 PM

We are going to take the sides apart from the bottom and get more of the wood out today, my sons are both here today so I am hoping to get more cleared out.
I do not have place to put it under shelter, I have a tarp over it but I need a larger tarp. I see you are in Plantation, I am in Tampa, Fl. Hopefully we will not get any rain for the rest of of the week and my son is off Friday also.
Are you rebuilding your rv? What type is it?

Mich F · 10-07-2015, 10:50 PM

I'd suggest going at it from the outside. It's not really that difficult to take the cabover section apart to fix everything.
My RV in the picture is a 2001 Itasca 31C. I bought it in June of last year, with the intention of rebuilding the cabover section and selling it. My son who has been working on RVs for 20 years was going to spend about 3 weekends rebuilding it, after which we'd sell it. Of course we're now about 16 months into the 3 weekend rebuild. It's been rebuilt (a long time ago actually) but there are still a few minor items to do before it's completely finished. It's my fault for not getting on him more to get it finished. He was working 5 days a week doing RV repair at a shop, and doing my rebuild, along with other jobs on the side, on nights and weekends. Two weeks ago he quit his job and is now in business for himself, so hopefully my 31C will be finished shortly. I've been helping him work on other class Cs and As and travel trailers, while mine has been sitting unfinished.

vjf · 10-08-2015, 07:21 PM

Well you all sure have been busy. That is the way it usually goes. You get everyone elses stuff done and yours is unfinished. Hopefully you will get it done. Its great your son has the experience to work with you to repair your rv. I hope it works out for him going into business for himself. I know it takes longer to do when you have to work around a work schedule. My oldest son works for Fedex at night and my younger son works for Publix. We are working around there work schedules.
I was able to do the painting on the walls and putting in some of the flooring, but I am slow. It took me all day to finish the floor from the kitchen to the back room and it is a tiny space. My son helped me with removing the carpet and putting some of the vinyl planks on the floor. This rv is 27 ft.
We did not get much done yesterday. We removed what screws were left in the bottom side to try and remove the rest of the rotted wood frame underneath the side wall. My son tried to remove the screws from one of the front window to remove the wood board underneath the window. We could not get the last screw out. We will probably try to wd 40 it. We got a little more of the bad wood out and the last piece of board on the floor out.
Hopefully tomorrow we will get more done. I just have to figure out how to get the rest of the laun board off of the styrofoam insulation.