Final update for tonight but this may be important for others in my situation.
The cab floor is not made of fibreglass or other impermeable solid skin. The wet timber that I was seeing and removing WAS the skin.
That's the catch.
I was thinking I was replacing interior rot without effecting exterior at all, but seems the under exterior of cab is plywood and will need to be replaced (it's sodden and simply breaking up). This means removing seams and reframing and resealing. I don't have the knowledge or tools unfortunately. Don't think Home Depot has that aisle.
So I'm presuming that normally people remove wet surface material then allow to dry out. It's too late for me: I scraped away entirely and ultimately removed a section and was shocked to see the windshield below...
iRV2.com RV Community - Are you about to start a new improvement on your RV or need some help with some maintenance? Do you need advice on what products to buy? Or maybe you can give others some advice? No matter where you fit in you'll find that iRV2 is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with other RV owners, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create an RV blog, send private messages and so much, much more!
Yes, I did exhaust all the threads that I could find. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything that was exactly the same as my situation but some impressive repairs of cabs and lots of good tips on possible leak spots for cabs.
I persevered with mine and am just putting the trim etc back up after drying and rebuilding. In case there are other desperate newbies browsing I'll upload my photographs when I get back from the trip. My damage wasn't catastrophic and I was able to clean it out without removing the seams or skin. It will get a going over for leaks in the shop when I get back but I've sealed everything I can find with a self sealing aluminim repair tape to at least get me through the trip.
I agree with one of the threads that it's not the work skill level, though that is daunting, but the research and understanding or lack of of how an rv is put together. I had no idea the skin was a coated plywood and the wet wood I was removing was the shell itself, and would definitely have approached things differently. (Gentler, looked to dry out rather than remove).
I've learnt some things:
The hair dryer is your friend when looking to dry out fast;
Don't keep attacking rotten wood unless you want to punch a whole in your floor (very disappointed to have put a crack in mine);
Label all the screws you remove (even placing stretegicly wasn't enough).
It's actually not that hard, or expensive, and can be extremely rewarding, if you have the time.
We are in the process of rebuilding our bunk now. I have been meticulous about bagging and labeling the screws we removed. Even if we don't plan to reuse the screws (rusted or would rather use steel) it's a good idea to have them for size comparisons or if you run out of your new screws and just need one more screw. Thanks for posting and update when you get back.