A few years ago I bought my vinyl wrapped '77 Palm Beach. The wrap was done some time back (2012?) by a previous owner.
Yesterday, I was showing a friend a pic of the coach on my phone and hit the "Lens" option by mistake. Imagine my surprise when Google found one similar ..it was a pic of the coach by the company that did the work, Gator Wraps of California.
Here's what it looked like back then:
and what it looks like now:
When I first picked up the coach, the interior walls were warped from long-time leaking and the rear bedroom cabinets and lower locker/walls were swollen and powdery - even the floor of the battery box was on the way out, sodden and starting to rot.
Of course, at the time I had no idea why there were so many leaks until the first heavy rain came along. I watched as the interior window frames start to fill up with rainwater, spilling over the sill and running down the wall. Going outside, I could see bulges in the vinyl at the bottom of the window frames so I cut a slit in the vinyl and a load of dirty black water poured out. The wrap company had wrapped over all the window drains! As you can see in the pics, I removed the wrap from the frames and that cured the problem. I did have to clean out the years of built-up silt in the drains but once that was done, no more leaking windows.
Of course the upper rear rail ends also needed re-caulking, but 90% of my leak problems were addressed by simply removing the wrap around the windows.
So if you're getting a wrap, keep an eye on the installer!
Yesterday, I was showing a friend a pic of the coach on my phone and hit the "Lens" option by mistake. Imagine my surprise when Google found one similar ..it was a pic of the coach by the company that did the work, Gator Wraps of California.
Here's what it looked like back then:
and what it looks like now:
When I first picked up the coach, the interior walls were warped from long-time leaking and the rear bedroom cabinets and lower locker/walls were swollen and powdery - even the floor of the battery box was on the way out, sodden and starting to rot.
Of course, at the time I had no idea why there were so many leaks until the first heavy rain came along. I watched as the interior window frames start to fill up with rainwater, spilling over the sill and running down the wall. Going outside, I could see bulges in the vinyl at the bottom of the window frames so I cut a slit in the vinyl and a load of dirty black water poured out. The wrap company had wrapped over all the window drains! As you can see in the pics, I removed the wrap from the frames and that cured the problem. I did have to clean out the years of built-up silt in the drains but once that was done, no more leaking windows.
Of course the upper rear rail ends also needed re-caulking, but 90% of my leak problems were addressed by simply removing the wrap around the windows.
So if you're getting a wrap, keep an eye on the installer!
