Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

When I built my teardrop I fiberglassed the exterior and then sprayed it with bedliner.

Where I used a round over bit on the edges is starting to crack. I have gotten some water damage in the galley that is delaminating the plywood some.

I am thinking of using some 3M 4200 to fill the cracks and then putting a lip guard on the edges as well. Like the one linked below from trim lok

https://www.trimlok.com/plastic-extrusi ... uard/mylar

https://www.amazon.com/Trim-Lok-JLGB-12 ... RH1BC?th=1

Anyone have any other suggestions or perhaps a different edge trim that would work?

Thank You

Wayne



Some pictures of the teardrop edge.

https://www.rotdoctor.com/ another resource to look at.
Tom

Socal Tom wrote:https://www.rotdoctor.com/ another resource to look at.
Tom

Thanks I will look into it.

Looking at the trim lok again I'm not sure it would work.

Someone on amazon asked How tall is the short end of the L? Inside length?

Trim lok replied with "The lip (inside edge) is .181". The overall height of the lip (outside edge) is .281". All dimensions will be within +/- .010" tolerances."

So with the round over radius I have on my teardrop( 1/2" if I remember correctly) I don't think the small L short side would come far enough down on the vertical wall to cover it completely.

I did find this trim though
https://www.amazon.com/Insert-Options-L ... VJKCX&th=1

My answer is grind it out. Yes I mean the ply, the glass the bed liner. Take it until you have solid wood, then start adding layers of glass and resin until its back close to there it needs to be. Then fill with epoxy and micro balloons and epoxy, then refinish with the bed liner.

Anything else will take almost as long and not really fix it, just being a bandaid is not good enough.

I'd follow Scott's approach, mentioned above. Fiberglass tape is going to solidify the joint and prevent it from any additional movement or separation. It'll be a good bit of work, but I'd bet that it would be the longest term solution and best bet at preventing any additional water intrusion. The painters tape shown in my photo was a technique used to make fairing the tape edge into the surrounding glass a little easier.

after looking a Scott's will be doing the same on are new fiberglass builds.
if you do this because with expansion different rates in wood and fiberglass and even in different spots from the Sun hitting it. A good chance we'll start getting some lift and condensation underneath it. from time to time over the years look at it and make sure hasn't lifted

Thanks for the replies

I used Raka 3.25 Oz tight weave cloth with the 350 non-blush hardner and 127 low viscosity resin. I purchased the pumps for them as well to help get the correct ratios correct. Then used the raptor bed liner spray.

So I'm not sure why it is cracking all the way through to the wood.

Unfortunately I don't have a garage right now so that kind of limits what I can do. I sold my house in Feb 2020 and was going to build a metal house/shop but we all know how lumber prices went. Now Steel is up 240%

I might have to temp fix it until I get the house built.

3-4 oz glass does not have much strength in the way you would put it on a joint. It should be a 45degree angle of the fibers. Granted 45 degree glass costs a lot more. But when you use 90 degree you only have half the fibers giving you strength when on a joint like that. the one parallel to the joint really do nothing. You did nothing wrong on your trailer, the glass is just meant as a smooth water proofing layer, not to be structural. But a little movement as you found out can open a joint, and using 90 degree cloth does not help as much as 45 degree.

Now you say not having a house, thats the good thing about grinding it out is you can be water tight again quickly. Basically you go at it with the grinder until you hit solid dry wood, then slap a layer or two of glass on it. Lets say you have a 3 inch crack, you grind it out with a paddle sander on a grinder, will take less than 5 mins to chew thru a lot of wood. Then you mix some epoxy, put on a patch of glass and wet it out. your first patch should be as large as the ground out area. Then do you a slightly smaller area with the next patch. even with just 2 layers of glass and epoxy its water tight.

You can grind out a joint and have it glassed in an hour, with a few layers. Grind out the next area, and do a few layers, then add more to the first to get it close to level. Keep working on one area and going back to the previous as needed. Once you get all of them ground and filled, you do filler to get em smooth and level. Then re coat the bed liner.

edit look up biaxial 45/45 glass

edit 2 jump to about 10 mins in this video, or just watch from the beginning and pretend its wood not glass. https://youtu.be/4XoeGV2KhGc https://youtu.be/4XoeGV2KhGc

Scott, thanks for the info!
I will check those videos out

It was the first time I have fiberglassed so I wasn't sure if I did something wrong lol