 |
According
to Chuck Cayo, the Classic Avion has two places that are notorious
for leaks. One place is the ZipDee awning brackets. These
brackets are located near the roof line at each end of the
awning. The brackets lock the awning in place when it is in
the "stored" position. I found two rivets were drilled
out to allow the awning bracket to fit snugly against the
aluminum skin. The rivet holes were not sealed. I removed
the bracket (There are three stainless steel screws holding
the bracket to the trailer) I cleaned both surfaces and used
Parabond sealer to seal the rivet and the screw holes. Then
I spread Parabond sealer on the back of the bracket and reassembled
the bracket to the trailer. |
| Two major trouble
spots. Zip Dee Awning Brackets and the rail that supports the
stone guard. |
| I also filled
the screw holes in the bracket with Parabond sealer before
installing
the screws.After the bracket was screwed tightly to the trailer,
I spread a bead of Parabond sealer around the entire border
of the bracket. While you are at it you might as well reseal
the rear bracket as well. Removing and resealing the awning
brackets took about 45 minutes. It is an easy job and well
worth the effort. The awning will have to be extended position
to remove the brackets.
|
| Another place water is inclined
to leak into an Avon is the rail that supports the front window
stone guard. This is an aluminum strip that acts as one half
of the stone guard hinge. Grab the aluminum hinge that is riveted
to the skin of the trailer and try to move it. If it moves,
water may be leaking though the rivet holes that hold the aluminum
hinge to the trailer. Cayo's recommendation was, "do not
remove the original rivets." He suggested the best way
to address this problem is to tighten the hinge by using pop
rivets between the existing rivets, then seal the entire perimeter
of the strip with Parabond sealer. Don't forget to seal the
new pop rivet heads. |
| Sealing
the roof. |
| |
To finish my hunt
for places where water might leak into my Avion, I decided to
reseal all the roof seams. I found a marvelous product named
Eternabond. Eternabond comes in 50 foot rolls and is a very
sticky, 4" wide tape that can be applied right over exiting
sealers (except silicone) as long as the edge of the Eternabond
extends past the edge of the existing sealer. It can even be
applied when the surface is wet and in cold weather. Not that
that is a problem in Florida. It works just as advertised. Eternabond's
normal color is white. |
Installation Photos courtesy of John Wolfe. |
 |
| In my view white
would not look good on the roof of a silver trailer. I called
the factory and found that Eternabond is available in 4"
wide tape that can be covered with a silver UV protectorate
coating. This is a great sealer and should last many years.
The whole job cost less then $80.00 and took me about 2 hours
to apply. |
 |
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| Learn more about Eternabond on
their web site. www.eternabond.com |
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