Collision & Structural
RV Fiberglass Repair and Delamination Work near Placentia
Fiberglass repair covers gelcoat cracking, stress spider webs, punctures, soft spots and full sidewall delamination where the outer skin has separated from the substrate. Repairs run about $750 to $12,000 depending on panel size and whether the core is wet. Placentia owners bring coaches to the Yorba Linda shop, roughly ten minutes east on Yorba Linda Blvd, where the booth and cure space are.
What causes RV sidewall delamination?
Delamination starts with water, not with adhesive age. A failed seal at an awning rail, a window flange, a marker light or a slide-out flange lets water into the wall sandwich, the luan swells and loses fiber strength, and the fiberglass skin then has nothing to hold onto.
The classic tell is a bubble or a wave that reads clearly when you sight down the sidewall in raking sunlight. Press it and the skin moves independently of the wall. That flex is the bond line already gone, and it spreads outward from the wet zone with every heat cycle.
Southern California heat accelerates it. A dark graphics panel on a west facing sidewall can exceed 160 degrees on a summer afternoon, which softens the adhesive and drives moisture vapor through the laminate. That is why a leak that started at a roof seam often surfaces as a bubble several feet lower.
Can delamination be injected or does the panel need replacing?
Injection works when the substrate is still sound and dry and the separated area is modest, roughly under a few square feet. Resin is introduced through small ports, the panel is vacuum clamped flat, and the bond is restored without cutting the skin. Wet, crumbling luan cannot be saved this way.
We probe and moisture meter the area before quoting. If the meter reads wet or a probe sinks into soft luan, injecting resin only glues the skin to material that has already failed, and the bubble returns within a season. In that case the skin comes off and the core is replaced.
Reskinning is the larger repair: the fiberglass is cut back to sound bond, wet luan and compressed foam are removed, new substrate is laminated in, and a new filon or gelcoat panel is bonded with structural adhesive under clamp pressure until fully cured.
How do you repair cracked gelcoat and fiberglass caps?
Cracks are ground out to a V, filled with matched resin and chopped strand or cloth depending on load, then faired, primed and refinished. The important part is diagnosing why it cracked, because a stress crack that is only cosmetically filled reappears in the same line.
Stress cracking radiating from a window corner, a slide corner or a ladder mount points at flex or a fastener carrying load it should not. We reinforce or re-support the area from behind before any cosmetic work, otherwise the repair telegraphs through the new paint within months.
Front and rear caps are molded shells with varying thickness, and a repair that is stiffer than the surrounding laminate simply relocates the crack. Layup schedules are matched to the original thickness so the panel keeps flexing as a unit rather than hinging at the patch edge.
What is included
- Moisture meter and probe survey of the affected panel and surrounding wall
- Resin injection with vacuum clamping for sound, dry delamination
- Skin removal, wet core replacement and structural re-lamination
- Crack grinding, matched layup and fairing on caps and panels
- Gelcoat and filon panel bonding under controlled clamp pressure
- Color matched refinishing with blend into adjacent panels
- Source leak repair at the seam, flange or fastener that let water in
Questions we get asked
How much does RV delamination repair cost?
Will the repair be visible after paint?
Do I need to fix the leak before the fiberglass?
Can you match a discontinued gelcoat color for a Placentia customer?
We Can Help! Contact Us Today.
Bring it to the shop and we will assess the damage, document it properly for your insurer, and tell you exactly what the repair involves. Serving Placentia and the surrounding area from our 35,000 square foot facility.
All work performed in-shop. We stand behind our work.