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SURMOD
1930 Hudson Super 8
Rebuilding the Roof
All 4 corners on the roof had been leaking and it was necessary to remove the edge strips to have a look under them to see what the problem was.
The vinyl roof top was in excellent condition and it was very tight. So I left the straight sections fastened down for now to help maintain its shape.
Most of the edge strips were held in place with Escutcheon Pins but there were some wood screws on some of the ends. However a lot of the edge strips were not being held down tight anymore.
All 4 wood corners had rotted away and so they needed to be carefully cut out and replaced. I removed a few of the escutcheon pins on the straight strips at the end but left the rest fastened to insure that the vinyl top remained tight and undisturbed.
This picture shows the rotten section on one of the corners cut out and the fastening bolts would be cut away as they were no longer of any value.
Then a "L" shaped piece of 1/4" plywood was fastened under the frame members to add stability and a base for the new corner piece.
I epoxied in a shaped piece of teak to replace the rotten section.
All the holes created by the numerous escutcheon pins had to be filled with wood doweling epoxied into the holes because most of them would be used again since the edge strips had to go back in the same place.
This picture shows the number of holes that had to be plugged down one side of the top.
After all the holes were plugged, I cut them off flush and added two coats of thickened epoxy to create a level and smooth surface, but I forgot to take a picture of that process.
Then I stretched out the burlap underlay and stapled it to the epoxy filled wood strip with stainless steel staples.
The next step was to stretch out the vinyl top and staple it in place, as shown in the picture on the left.
Then I coated the edge of it with marine adhesive sealant, about the with of the metal edge strip that is off to the right in the picture on the right.
There are 112 #4 stainless steel wood screws holding the corner strips down.
As an added precaution I coated over the edge strips with liquid Flex Seal.
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