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Date:         Sun, 19 Jan 1997 15:43:56 -0600
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Brian Kraft" <bhkraft@gj.net>
Subject:      Re: Rubber seal

Re: Rubber seal

> Lawrence Johnson (ljohnson@halhinet.on.ca) > wrote on Sat, 18 Jan 1997 at 19:21:23 -0600: > > Just before the PO sold the Westy to us, he did this "repair" - he > removed the rusted metal strip and glued with GOOP on to the top. > What a mess, and it's coming off in spots, and I can't get it off in > some spots. Some warm summer day we'll have to remove all the > smeared GOOP and install a replacement. > > I'm not saying that it can't be done neatly and securely, its just > that the PO was inept. I'm not willing to see if I'm just as inept > GOOP-wise. > > Larry > '86 Syncro Westy

Well, I seem to be going the cheapo route too because as the retaining clip rusts away and the seal droops down, I'm cleaning out the rusty pieces and gluing sections at a time back up in place with GE Silicone II clear sealer. The 10-year-old rubber seal itself is still in good shape and is not rotting away anywhere so I'm still trying to use it. The hard part is getting all of the rusty pieces of old clip out of the seal, don't even think of glue until you can get the groove cleaned out. I don't know exactly what "GOOP" is, but I chose GE Silicone II because if I ever want to replace the whole seal, it shouldn't be too difficult to peel off the soft silicone rubber as it's not going to bond rock hard to the fiberglass top. Didn't have to use very much Silicone II, I just did the left side and half of the right side at the same time which used most of one tube, it set pretty fast and I didn't have to keep holding it up in place for very long. So now I have a rubber seal that is about half old rusty clip and half silicone sealed, sort of a work in progress but you can't tell the difference as there isn't any drooping. As the rest of the clip rusts out, I'll do big sections at a time until it's all silicone sealed. If I had torn the whole rubber seal off, I guess it would be a toss up between a replacement seal with an aluminum clip, and trying to glue back the old one which would be difficult without something or someone to hold it in place until the silicone cures. I might try to glue one section at a time between corners because of this gravity problem. I know that some of you will cringe at the thought of this patch job and will advocate something more professional, but so far it seems to be working OK and I don't plan on selling the camper anytime soon. -- Brian Kraft <bhkraft@gj.net> Grand Junction, Colorado '86 Westy GL Syncro --


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