I just wanted to vent…
The original forward roof vent was patched with a piece of aluminum that fit over the hole with a good overlap. I drilled it to fit the screw holes that were already in the roof, and screwed it down with some #8 stainless steel self tapping screws. The lap was sealed with a generous bead of Dicor Self Leveling lap sealant. The stuff appears to be oil based, not water based. It remains flexible forever, or so they claim. I don’t know if it is the best for this application, but this is exactly what it is made for. I also put a fair amount of it on top of the roof, over the tops of all the screw heads and around the edges of the patch. One problem I see is that there is now a small area to trap water right on top of the patch. Another concern is that the aluminum plate I used to make the patch was not treated in any particular way, like anodize or alodyne. I also don’t know if the original roof had any such treatment. I also don’t know the exact alloy of the roof patch, only that it was recycled from an inside panel on one of the original side doors. It is a bit thicker than the original roof material, and if it holds up 10 years or so it probably won’t matter.
I did use a paint stripper wheel and a power drill to clean the roof in the area of the patch really well. It remains to be seen if that was a good idea or not. I may have cleaned through a protective coating and done some harm. What I do know is that you should never use a wire brush or steel wool to clean aluminum. The microscopic bits of iron that are left in the aluminum will catalyze a corrosive reaction and eat the aluminum up.
The lap sealant completely filled the lap joint (which is good) and some of it squished out where it dripped into the truck. It’s very messy and not easy to clean up. A little forethought and some newspaper would probably have been a good idea.
The process for putting the vent back down in the new location was very much the same as for putting on the patch. I just had to cut out the opening and drill the pilot holes for the screws. While I did reuse the crank up vent, I did not reuse the cheesy 12V fan. I installed a Maxair TurboMax which has an external plastic hood that goes over the existing crank up vent. It includes a high efficiency 12V fan which is shielded by the external hood so you can operate it even when it is raining. The plastic hood is translucent white so some sunlight will come in through both the external hood and the original crank up vent lid. The resulting skylight is not entirely sufficient, but the light is free and can be augmented by high efficiency florescent or LED lighting.
The wires for the TurboMax were routed per the instructions, but the control panel was a slight problem. Like the AC (Air Conditioner) vent, it is designed to hang down below the ceiling surface which would have caused more head bumping, so I had to recess it. Since I hadn’t planned quite far enough ahead I was forced to rout out a pocket for it in the 2x6’s upside down overhead, which meant sawdust in eyes, hare, teeth, etc. Basically I took a bath in the stuff and ate a bunch of it as well, yum!
The hole for the AC in the rear was a slightly different issue. I just needed a flat top opening, which was already there, but it had screw holes for the original vent all around. I countersunk these holes, which were now supported beneath by the 2x6’s, in preparation to install #6 stainless steel flat head self tapping screws. I then pushed a bunch of the Dicor Self Leveling lap sealant in between the aluminum roof and the underlying wood rafters until it was squishing up through the screw holes. When I drove in the screws it made a mess and squished out everywhere, but that was the plan. A thin layer of the lap sealant over the tops of the screw heads was then applied to make sure water never comes in around the AC unit.
Those screw holes may well be inside of the rubber seal on the base of the AC unit, and so they may never see rainwater but there is still the possibility of condensation. I don’t ever want to see dry rot around my AC vent. I also painted the inside of the 14.5”x14.5” opening for both the AC unit and the front air vent. The AC opening will never be seen as it will be covered by the AC outlet grill, but at least it has some protection from moisture. The front air vent will be seen, at least parts of it, so painting it now was just to avoid having to take the bug screens and everything else apart to paint it later.
All of this was another month of work. Now all I have to do is spend about $700 on a new Coleman Polar Cub 9200 BTU air conditioning unit and then pay the nice men to drop it on top of my truck. I am in no rush to spend money though. There is plenty more for me to do.
To be continued…
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