Carpe Diem And Get Caulking

Two days of sunshine in the forecast so I needed to carpe diem and get caulking! I am not even sure that "caulking" is a verb but I will use it liberally and quite the opposite of how I use caulk. Caulk can go bad in many ways when it comes to sealing all things on an Airstream. There are stories of good trailers being caulked to death by over enthusiastic caulkers. I am certainly no expert but I do pride myself on getting as smooth and small a running bead of caulk as possible. Before I tackled more of the weatherproof sealing on the outside, I needed to order more caulk because there is nothing worse than running out on a perfectly sunny day! The forums are filled with an assortment of "favorite" caulks and one AS owner even published and forwarded to me a handy-dandy cheat sheet for what caulk to use in what area of the AS. All these brands and types of caulk are new to me as I am only familiar with those used for household renovations.

 So here is my stash of sealant now, minus the tube that is in my caulk gun currently and the funky little, fancy hand pump and small nozzle contraption of Acry-R (second photo).

Some of the Sika 221 is Aluminum Gray, 1 is Black and there are 2 tubes of 100% silicone - 1 white and the other galvanized aluminum. The word in the forums is to never, ever use 100% silicone because it: A - reacts with aluminum; B- is impossible to remove; and C - gets sticky and attracts more dirt; and D- the most difficult and sloppy caulk on the planet. I am not sure if any of this is true or just AS trailer lore. But I will say that when I purchased the super secret Acryl-R "found only through Airstream store", I ordered the starter kit for caulking and it included the 2 tubes of 100% silicone- go figure! Vulkem 116 seams to be the "big Daddy" of caulk and I think I will only use it for attaching metal parts to other parts and under any self-taping, stainless screws I use instead of rivets. The name alone is intimidating enough for me to remember to only use it in extreme cases of caulking madness!

The base of my running light fixtures had a smear of old, gray caulk that mostly cleaned up pretty easily. I ran a bead of clear polyurethane caulk around the base only, careful not to caulk the removable cover to the base in the process. Four running lights - complete!

I used the same clear polyurethane caulk down the outside edges of my windows where aluminum trim meets aluminum. It pretty well disappears once dry and hopefully it will not attract dirt because it has a nice, light appearance around the trim work on the Airstream.

Here is a combination of the clear polyurethane around light fixture and top of the window (bottom right) and the riveted seams are sealed with the super, secret Acryl-R. The metal nozzle is super fine and produces a nice small bead that really is just meant to go into the edges of aluminum panels. The caulk in this small can is a really pretty metallic silver to mimic the shine of aluminum. So far, I love it! The bead line isn't perfect because it is a hand pump operation to get it through the nozzle but I think it will work for my first time weather sealing the trailer. Again, I was most apprehensive because of all the negative comments regarding this step of the process.

The beauty of aluminum is that even with my matt finish (pre-polished outer shell) you can still see my reflection and my attempt to capture an action shot! I always consider caulk to be my friend and I hope that it treats me well in return, especially when you get to the non-water based caulks and sealants. I have to psych myself up for the process but at the end of today, I am feeling good about the results.I would say two-thirds of the trailer is completed and some of the caulking will come when I change out things on the roof. I have one more day of sun until the rain returns. Hopefully, I will see the efforts pay off with a drier trailer. I still need to remove the old seals around windows and doors to take care of that water penetration area all the way around. My plan is to know the floor is staying dry and observe any leaks coming in over the next month or so, so that I can move onto putting down new floor tiles. For now, I need to order more replacement items so I can continue getting the roof and exterior finished. If you know me at all, you know I am just waiting to get at the fabric pieces and at the moment I am showing tremendous restraint on that front!