Winnebago Repair For Lake Forest Owners

Heat distortion risk when sectioning a welded aluminum cage

Cutting a damaged section out of a Winnebago sidewall means cutting welded aluminum tube, and aluminum moves under welding heat far more than the steel most body technicians grew up on. Weld a splice in without fixturing the opening and the panel comes back a quarter inch out of plane, which shows in every reflection once the coach is painted. We fixture the opening, sequence short welds with cooling intervals, and check the plane with a straightedge between passes rather than at the end.

Raised roof bond line cracking on Travato, Solis and Revel

The composite high roof is bonded to the cut edge of a factory steel van roof, and steel and composite expand at very different rates through a Southern California summer. The bond line develops a fine crack that runs along one side, usually starting near a roof fan opening where the panel is already interrupted. Filling and painting the crack hides it for a season. Repairing it means grinding the joint out, rebuilding it with a flexible structural adhesive and a glass tape bridge, then refinishing the whole roof edge so the repair is not a stripe.

Cabover corner crazing on View and Navion

The cabover on a Sprinter based Winnebago hangs over the cab with very little support at the outer corners, and every speed bump loads those corners in bending. What shows up is a spiderweb of fine cracks in the gelcoat at the lower outboard radius, often on the driver side first because that is where the entry step lands on a crowned road. Gelcoat repair alone comes back. The laminate behind the corner needs additional glass built into the radius so the corner stops flexing past the coating.

Clear over decal graphics on Adventurer, Forza and Horizon

Higher trim Winnebago coaches bury the graphic layer under clear, which looks superb and makes spot repair almost impossible. There is no way to feather into a clear coated decal without cutting the decal edge, so a scrape that would be a two panel repair on a gelcoat coach becomes a full side reproduction here. We tell owners this at estimate time rather than after teardown, because it changes the number enough that an adjuster needs to see it in writing before the vehicle is disassembled.