Help- foam around roof latch is cracked and broken- how do I fix this?

[The Homestead Honey]

A couple of years ago I replaced the ABS roof of my 1999 Coleman Fleetwood Sante Fe with the toll-on Grizzly Grip bed liner. It worked great, except for one thing. I wasn’t sure about how to do the latches area. I read a recommendation to cut around them leaving then attached to the old abs and covering it. I left all the latches open while rolling on the grizzly grip. The problem happened when I finally latched them. The stress of the tight latches pulled little cracks around them. I used a heavy duty adhesive and all was ok.

Then I messed up…. While putting the pup away I realized I needed to crank back up a few rotations to push the canvas in better.. and I forgot one latch (the worse one) and it cracked the entire foam roof out around the latch. I can get the latch on, but obviously I cannot tighten and water will get in. HOW DO I FIX THIS?? Any help is appreciated.

The first three photos are the major crack. The other are at varying stages…I love my little popup and have a trip coming up soon.

 

[Sjm9911]

I havent had to repair a crack like that, but i have an idea. Glue it up the best you can. Then get an oversized peice of metal, it needs to be taller then the crack, sandwich the roof in it. Drill holes in the higher part over where the crack is. Then reatach the lock. So you are adding a backer plate inside the roof, and a plate on the outside. Sandwich the roof, with those 2 peices of flat metal. Bolt glue and waterproff them. That should work.

 

[tomson]

A couple of years ago I replaced the ABS roof of my 1999 Coleman Fleetwood Sante Fe with the toll-on Grizzly Grip bed liner. It worked great, except for one thing. I wasn’t sure about how to do the latches area. I read a recommendation to cut around them leaving then attached to the old abs and covering it. I left all the latches open while rolling on the grizzly grip. The problem happened when I finally latched them. The stress of the tight latches pulled little cracks around them. I used a heavy duty adhesive and all was ok.

Then I messed up…. While putting the pup away I realized I needed to crank back up a few rotations to push the canvas in better.. and I forgot one latch (the worse one) and it cracked the entire foam roof out around the latch. I can get the latch on, but obviously I cannot tighten and water will get in. HOW DO I FIX THIS?? Any help is appreciated.

The first three photos are the major crack. The other are at varying stages…I love my little popup and have a trip coming up soon.

drill rivets out put a metal plate on inside put bolts through rivet holes and tighten nuts on inside. you will have to dill through where rivet was and all the way through top.

 

[The Homestead Honey]

I havent had to repair a crack like that, but i have an idea. Glue it up the best you can. Then get an oversized peice of metal, it needs to be taller then the crack, sandwich the roof in it. Drill holes in the higher part over where the crack is. Then reatach the lock. So you are adding a backer plate inside the roof, and a plate on the outside. Sandwich the roof, with those 2 peices of flat metal. Bolt glue and waterproff them. That should work.

How would you put the seal around it?

 

[Sjm9911]

Put the plates above the seal, glue what you have back together. Then the plates will hold and reinforce the latch. Kinda like they do for the roof racks.

 

[Poppy McPopster]

If it were me, I think I would use a sheet of ABS plastic to fix it. I had stress cracks around one of my latches. I cut out a piece of ABS (around 1/8 inch thick) to fit over the damage/crack. I melted ABS plastic with MEK in a mason jar and used it to bond the new plastic to the old plastic. You are likely familiar with this technique, it is explained in detail on the portal. It did not look perfect, but the result was a very strong bond, perhaps stronger than the original. The plastics will actually fuse together. You would want to be sure that there is a good deal of overlap beyond the damaged area so that the new plastic bonds to the original top surrounding the damage. If you are careful and if the new plastic sheet is cut carefully, it will still look nice, you will just see a plastic patch.

 

[The Homestead Honey]

Dri

drill rivets out put a metal plate on inside put bolts through rivet holes and tighten nuts on inside. you will have to dill through where rivet was and all the way through

If it were me, I think I would use a sheet of ABS plastic to fix it. I had stress cracks around one of my latches. I cut out a piece of ABS (around 1/8 inch thick) to fit over the damage/crack. I melted ABS plastic with MEK in a mason jar and used it to bond the new plastic to the old plastic. You are likely familiar with this technique, it is explained in detail on the portal. It did not look perfect, but the result was a very strong bond, perhaps stronger than the original. The plastics will actually fuse together. You would want to be sure that there is a good deal of overlap beyond the damaged area so that the new plastic bonds to the original top surrounding the damage. If you are careful and if the new plastic sheet is cut carefully, it will still look nice, you will just see a plastic patch.

I am not very technical. I cannot see what you are saying.

 

[Sjm9911]

None of that will work as the foam core is cracked. There is nothing to bolt or glue too thier. You need to enlarge the area to strengthen it. So your bolts hit something that is supportive.

 

[The Homestead Honey]

I wish there were photos of someone fixing this same thing before.

 

[Sjm9911]

Not that I have sceen. Like I said, if you have roof racks look at those, thats the idea.