Rebuilding Mark's Scotty Siding
Last
Updated: 06/29/2005
This
is the metal edge strip. A small screwdriver with the
blade sharpened to a chisel edge (as was suggested
on Nancy
Kroes' site) and a
rubber mallet was used to drive the point under the
nail head. The screw driver is then twisted to
hopefully pry up the head of the nail. However, this
maneuver ended up snapping off the head of the nail
about 90% of the time. But all was not lost, I was
able to pull out the rest of the nail using a
vise-grip.
Lifting off the
metal edge strip after all the nails were removed.
This
is what is left when the nail head snaps off.
A vise-grip can be used to pull the rest of the nail
out.
Removed the
Window Frame and Metal Door Frame from the camper.
Removed inside window trim and Scotty Logo nameplate. Then
started prying off the sheet metal skin.
The sheet metal came off in three pieces. Then removed
1/4" thick fiberglass insulation. It looked
like it was just scrap pieces they had laying around the
factory.
Then
started prying off the 1/2" thick plywood. The Mr. Heater
is in the picture also, just testing it out to see who it
works.
More
prying of plywood away from side of camper. As you
can see, the plywood is very de-laminated from leaks in the
roof. Also MANY MANY Staples!!!
he
entire Scotty with the windows and door removed to start
removing the plywood.
A
pencil compass was used to draw a line all the way around
the perimeter of the plywood exactly 1 1/4" in from the
edge of the plywood. The plywood was then cut on that
line with a jig saw. The piece is then removed and
will be the template for the new plywood. I'll
just place the removed piece on top a new sheet of plywood
and measure out from it the same amount all around
the outside edge and cut to fit.
I
expected a lot of rot, but did not really find much, just a
lot of de-laminated plywood. Which I removed and replaced
with new plywood.
Removing the 1
1/4" piece of plywood around the edge. It has small
staples holding a rubber edge strip to the edge of
the plywood. There are 1/4"x1/2" 18gauge
staples holding the 1/4" ceiling plywood to the edge of the
side plywood. And to top that off, there are
nails, which hold the 1"x3" pine board to the
plywood. Lots of nails, staples and fasteners
to be removed!
For
the nails that could not be removed easily, with out
damaging the plywood, I found I could remove most of
the staples by cutting them off with diag-cutter, and just
leave them in the edge, not going to hurt anything.
Then
the old rotted plywood was put back together and used as a
template to cut the new replacement panel. Then a
line was drawn around the outside edge exactly 1 1/4", so
that it would fit the opening. Some people use the
metal sheeting as a template.
The
rubber bead-edge was cleaned up and most of the old paint
removed from it. Then it was stapled back on the edge
of the plywood.
The
whole thing was then put back on the side of the camper
with the help of a floor jack to persuade it into
place.
Painted the
plywood outside.
Also
painted the plywood inside the trailer. It was a warm day,
garage door is open, that's about 2 feet of snow on
the ground you see out there.
Stapled 1/4" flat
Styrofoam type insulation in place
Then
stapled the aluminum skin back on again. Used 5/8"
18gage zinc coated brads using pneumatic nail-gun The
half-rebuilt window was placed back in the opening just to
see how it looked.
Not
as big a problem as the front, but this back end had some
rotted wood which was easily repaired with a new 1x4 piece
of pine. The plywood was in good shape but was loose
because the steel staples had rusted apart, so it just
needed to be screwed back down with new zinc coated wood
screws. And the aluminum skin needed refastening with
stainless steel screws.
