Waterproofing the Rear!

Well, for once I am taking advice I usually give to new homeowners... take care of the roof and exterior maintenance before working on the interior. We have had a lot of rain these first few weeks of spring but a sunny (2-days-in-row) and "no" client work in my work room coincided today so I devoted the day to problem solving, cleaning, and sealing the exterior trim on the rear end of the '65 Tradewind. The front window doesn't seam too bad as it has an extra rock guard covering. In the rear, from the inside of the trailer, I could see moisture on the upper corner of the back window. The plywood floor has also been very moist. I was planning to tackle the new water lines but I changed gears and heard my own voice saying to take care of the roof before getting to the interior! I did some crowd sourcing for advice and although everyone seams to have their own favorite product, the hot tip of the day was to clean the aluminum with rubbing alcohol and use a finger dipped in a dish detergent solution to smooth out the bead of caulk. This advice was a game changer and produced a decent looking caulk bead (after I cleaned up the line). I worked in small sections, a couple of feet at a time because by mid day the temps were dropping and the product was drying faster.
 "Before" photo and when I noticed that the back is flat except for the 1.5" at each corner. My trailer being built in 1965, was the last year for flat glass. Every year after that the trailers have curved glass. I love that my flat glass windows are easy to get replacement glass for but the flip side is that I will have to watch out for every point where the flat window meets the curved section.  I could clearly see that the previous sealant was deteriorated and a nice hole was visible for water to enter.
The gutter and edge cleaned up really well with a soft piece of cotton and denatured alcohol. Because I needed to seize the day and get this sealed up, I used an RV sealant that I could find locally. I may experiment with trying different products as I move around the unit to see what product gives me the best results. From the forum responses, everyone seems to have a favorite brand (insert Austin Powers character, Fat Bast&$# chuckle here).



Finished bead on the outside edge of the rear window. Next project will be to replace and install new glazing strips as the originals are all cracked. I have 20-4' pieces on order! Plus a few other new treats for the top exterior of my vintage trailer! Bring on the sunshine!


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