dbsoundman
Senior Member
OK, I've done some reading, but I'm curious what the current thoughts are for tracking down and fixing roof leaks.
Basically, when I get a good steady rain or snow melt, I get leaks that appear below the windows, but only where there's a seam in the roof. I think this is partially because my bus is front engine, so it always tilts to the front, and all of the roof panels overlap going toward the rear of the bus. Visually from the ground the seams look fine, but evidently they're not, because I've sealed just about every other d*mn thing and still haven't found the issue. Most recently, I sealed along the top of my rain gutters. The fact that the leaks only occur where there are roof seams was my "lightbulb moment" today.
All that being said, there are two potential areas of concern with these roof seams: the actual seam between the two pieces of sheet metal, and alllllll of the rivets holding the two panels together. I'm inclined to think that sealing the seams between the sheet metal will do it, but I've been wrong...too many times at this point.
In one thread EastCoastCB said that he planned to tape off each seam about 3/16" on each side, run a bead of Dynatron 550, and peel off the tape. I've found that Dynatron is nice because while it is VERY sticky, it also gives you a lot of working time, so I'm inclined to go that route, though I may go for the Dynatron 570 if I can find it (white instead of gray). I don't think I'm interested in going the Tropicool route, plus I need to fix this sooner rather than later and it's cold here, so doing any work will be tricky - pray for 40 degrees and sunny!
Any other recommendations based on your experiences would be super helpful!
Basically, when I get a good steady rain or snow melt, I get leaks that appear below the windows, but only where there's a seam in the roof. I think this is partially because my bus is front engine, so it always tilts to the front, and all of the roof panels overlap going toward the rear of the bus. Visually from the ground the seams look fine, but evidently they're not, because I've sealed just about every other d*mn thing and still haven't found the issue. Most recently, I sealed along the top of my rain gutters. The fact that the leaks only occur where there are roof seams was my "lightbulb moment" today.
All that being said, there are two potential areas of concern with these roof seams: the actual seam between the two pieces of sheet metal, and alllllll of the rivets holding the two panels together. I'm inclined to think that sealing the seams between the sheet metal will do it, but I've been wrong...too many times at this point.
In one thread EastCoastCB said that he planned to tape off each seam about 3/16" on each side, run a bead of Dynatron 550, and peel off the tape. I've found that Dynatron is nice because while it is VERY sticky, it also gives you a lot of working time, so I'm inclined to go that route, though I may go for the Dynatron 570 if I can find it (white instead of gray). I don't think I'm interested in going the Tropicool route, plus I need to fix this sooner rather than later and it's cold here, so doing any work will be tricky - pray for 40 degrees and sunny!
Any other recommendations based on your experiences would be super helpful!
