Roof Raise and sheet metal treatment questions.

[thetp23]

Hi, this is my first post. I have been having some trouble coming up with some answers so maybe I can get some help on here.

I am mid roof raise on a 2001 international 3000. I have most of the steel tubing welded in and RV windows framed out. My questions are...

#1: What product should I use to treat my sheet metal with. I have 18g cold rolled. I plan on painting the bus, but that's way down on the priority list. What should I use to prevent rust and also allow me to paint in the future?

#2: The square tubing I used to frame the windows are placed behind the hat channels. They are not flush with the outside so the sheetmetal won't sit perfectly with where the windows go. If I add angle iron on these, it will most likely mess a lot of measurements up and I would probably have to start the window framing over. That would cost a lot. Do I need to worry the tubing for the windows not being flush with the outside of the hat channels? I feel like it shouldn't be a big deal.

#3: How necessary is it to put rivets on the top of the sheet metal? I have a drip guard with a single row of rivets that have been so difficult to get out, despite having an air hammer/chisel, angle grinder. I was thinking I could put the top of the sheet metal behind the drip guard and tack weld it in a few places, and just rivet the sides and bottom. Is this a bad idea for some reason?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!!!

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by thetp23

Hi, this is my first post. I have been having some trouble coming up with some answers so maybe I can get some help on here.

I am mid roof raise on a 2001 international 3000. I have most of the steel tubing welded in and RV windows framed out. My questions are...

#1: What product should I use to treat my sheet metal with. I have 18g cold rolled. I plan on painting the bus, but that's way down on the priority list. What should I use to prevent rust and also allow me to paint in the future?

#2: The square tubing I used to frame the windows are placed behind the hat channels. They are not flush with the outside so the sheetmetal won't sit perfectly with where the windows go. If I add angle iron on these, it will most likely mess a lot of measurements up and I would probably have to start the window framing over. That would cost a lot. Do I need to worry the tubing for the windows not being flush with the outside of the hat channels? I feel like it shouldn't be a big deal.

#3: How necessary is it to put rivets on the top of the sheet metal? I have a drip guard with a single row of rivets that have been so difficult to get out, despite having an air hammer/chisel, angle grinder. I was thinking I could put the top of the sheet metal behind the drip guard and tack weld it in a few places, and just rivet the sides and bottom. Is this a bad idea for some reason?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!!!

#1) I used Oshpo
#2) need to see a picture to understand better
#3) I raised my roof 18”, tucking the sheet metal under the drip rail. At the ribs I used an air chisel just to slightly make the separation a bit wider and pushed up very firmly the sheet metal up into and under the drip edge. On the inside of the bus I cut down a 2x4 and press fit it on the top inside part of the window to help keep the sheet metal flat and secure. Then I seam sealed it entirely on the outside, under the drip edge. No rivets or screws on the top, just on the sides, on the ribs.

[HamSkoolie]

I'm not able to address anything except the rivets in the drip rail.

You can drill them out or you can do what I did.
I took a flat air hammer chisel with a small notch in the center. I then ground it down with my angle grinder, no bench grinder at the time. I shaped the edge to be flat on the bottom an a bit shallow on top so that it could get under the rivet. After a few rivets I developed a method of a short pop with the chisel at a slightly higher angle then bringing it to a low angle so it only hammered at the rivet head not into the metal of the drip rail, and then a longer pull to cut the rivet.
I'm planning to cut the drip rail off above all deleted windows and push the new sheet metal up under the piece coming down from the roof.
Then it's just a matter of drillilng a couple of holes using the roof metal as a guide for where to drill and popping in some clecos. starting from the center top and bottom to avoid creating a wave in the sheet,
And sealing with PL-3X polyurethane adhesive/sealant

[thetp23]

Red arrow shows how tubing is welded to back of hat channel. Teal arrow shows where I was planning on welding angle iron to to attach sheet metal too, yellow arrow show where window will go. Framing sits about 1/16" behind where the sheet metal attaches to hat channels.

[Rochey6957]

on your window frame openings. Just cut some little shims from your scrap 18ga. tack them or sika flex them as shims to flush to front of ribs. Or dont youll be fine either way. You can weld your angle iron outside the window frame and rivet the skin to that. probably not necessary though because when the window does in you can glue the sheet metal to the 1x1 window framing and then glue your window to the exterior.

you can ospho raw steel or hit it with the rustoleum rusty metal primer. As soon as my sheet metal arrived I rolled primer out on both sides of the full sheets before i cut and fit anything. was much easier to lay them out in the yard and paint them flat.

check out my instagram/facebook---- @5speedhouse.
Build thread is here under the same name. ------ https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f11/p...use-17028.html
Also pics on imgur.-----https://imgur.com/user/der5273

[HamSkoolie]

You can also take some sheet the thickness of the hat channel and weld that to the tubing that surrounds the window then rivet through that. The advantage being that it should be cheaper, and lighter, than angle iron plus give you a wider margin of error if you cut it wider than the angle would be.
Just stitch weld it to the tubing (1" weld bead every 4 or 5 inches).

[LargeMargeInBaja]

https://youtu.be/0T9yrQR8nl8
.
Trevor built his steel boat with screw-off panels to check for -- and potentially repair -- corrosion.
The pertinent information starts at 06:50 in the interview.