Plastic coating over wood peeling outside under bed-How to fix?

[pvstoy]

Hi all,

My friend has a Hawk and has contacted me because under the bed wood has the plastic covering wrinkling and coming away from the wood. What have you guys done for this? Thanks.

Patrick,

We have a problem with the plastic covering beneath the bed overhang as the attached pictures show. The material started to wrinkle years ago, but just last (?) winter small pieces ripped off at the attachment point . The dark area is the front window of the camper, view is straight up. Do you have any suggestions how to handle this?

It looks as if the entire length of the attachment area will eventually tear off. The plastic material is not glued to plywood. I have exterior primer paint for the house to paint over the exposed area. If I cut the plastic at the edge, what glue would I use to fasten it to the plywood?

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Wild guess here. There's some water intrusion going on. I would ensure the joint is well sealed.

 

[kmcintyre]

I have the same thing on a 2001 Eagle in a few places. It's almost like the coating was heated on somehow. Not sure if you can repair it or not unless you replace all the wood.

 

[Basin Deranged]

I'm not familiar with the plastic fabric you are dealing with but have had good luck with contact cement for re-gluing similar products. You might want to try a very small area first to see if it is compatible. Be sure to apply a thin layer of the contact cement to both surfaces, then allow it to set up sufficiently (about 15 minute in warm dry weather or per the instructions on the container) before pressing the two surfaces firmly together.

 

[SunMan]

I had the same thing going on in a smaller area but not quite as extreme. I trimmed the wrinkles out with a razor blade where they were torn so they didn't collect water in them and painted over the wood and plastic with white paint. It's been a couple of years since doing that and the area is still sealed. No further issues for me.

 

[Ted]

We had the same issue on our 2004 Hawk. Used a straightedge to cut off about 6 inches of the plastic all the way across. Then, like Sunman, painted the exposed wood with white paint. It was hard to tell where the plastic ended and the paint started. Also never had issues afterwards.

 

[kmcintyre]

Those of you that used white paint, any specific color or sheen you used? The plastic is kind of shiny so I'd think a satin or glossy white (but there are tons of whites out there). Thanks!

 

[SunMan]

I used the same Rustoleum gloss white that Stan recommended in another thread. Perfect match.

 

[pvstoy]

Thanks everybody for great ideas!!

I will pass on this web page link and suggest the cutting with a razor knife and follow up with white paint to match. Excellent!

 

[ski3pin]

We had the same issue on our 2004 Hawk. Used a straightedge to cut off about 6 inches of the plastic all the way across. Then, like Sunman, painted the exposed wood with white paint. It was hard to tell where the plastic ended and the paint started. Also never had issues afterwards.

Barking Spider is having the same problem with his 2005 FWC Hawk and ended up doing the same fix as Ted and SunMan.

 

[pvstoy]

Thanks Ski. I'll have to call my friend and see how it turned out.