The classic GMC motorhome body is made up of aluminum and fiberglass-like material called SMC (Sheet Moulded Compound). The front and rear “caps” of the motorhome and the sides below the “waist” and made of SMC. SMC, like fiberglass, is somewhat brittle and when tires come apart, like they occasionally do on motorhomes, the SMC cracks and breaks when it is hit by the disintegrating tire. “Barbie” had some damage from a tire failure when we bought it – Uncle Dave had the right-rear tire come apart and make a hole in the propane door and the fender just in front of it. Since then we have had two more instances of tire failures – one on the same wheel as Uncle Dave’s and another on the middle wheel on the driver’s side. The driver’s side one did more damage there.

This post is going to cover the repair of the propane door. I intend to take some more photos of the fender just in front of the propane door when I begin that repair next week. I worked a little with fiberglass when I was a starving student in Omaha and had to repair a badly rusted VW bus but I really didn’t know much about it. I read all I could from the various GMCnet sources, I watched a few youtube videos and went to Finishmaster, our local auto-body supplier for some advice. They sell the Evercoat line of products for SMC and, after 3 trips, one for each phase of the repair, I have a nicely repaired propane door. Total material costs so far are about $210 for the supplies which should be enough to fix all the holes in the SMC – I hope.

	This is the way the propane door and the fender just in front of it looked when we bought the coach. The tire had come apart on Uncle Dave and done this damage.
	Closeup of the damage.
	Once I had the door off I found that there was more damage than previously visible. The rear corner and latch was almost completely broken off. Things I saw on youtube suggested using a grinder and opening up serious cracks and breaks so I did. I used some scraps of Formica-type material as backing, bent them using a heat gun and then glued them into place using the epoxy resin for the SMC.
	This is a view of the back side of the repairs showing the plastic backing that was epoxied into place and shaped using heat. The curve was made to match the fender-repair piece (next phase of the repair) that Fay Curtis supplies.
	A closer-up photo of the back of the repair.
	Support for the “crack” at the rear of the door. It also was epoxied into place.
	This is after the first “layup” of epoxy resin and glass fabric was put over the “crack” at the rear of the door and supported by the Formica backing. I think that this was 2 or 3 layers of thick glass matting and resin.
	This is after the first “layup” of epoxy resin and glass fabric was put over the big hole and sanded off. This was after 2 – 4 layers of thick glass matting and resin.
	This is the second layup on the crack at the rear of the door. The objective here is to bring the area up to near the finished level
	This is the second layup on the missing section. Also trying to bring this up to the finished level – another 2 to 3 layers, more in one spot.
	This is the SMC resin that I have seen recommended on the internet and by my local supplier. The little white tube is the hardener – a very small percentage is used in the mix.
	There were a couple of small cracks developing around the vent louvers so I decided by reinforce the frame around them in the back. In the front, I opened up two cracks with a sander so I could use some filler on them.
	This is the next coat as recommended by the Evercoat company and by my local supplier. It can be used as an adhesive or filler. It sets up fast even in (Arizona) cool weather but does a great job of filling. It took two or three thin layers to get the low spots filled.
	This is the door after the filler was applied the last time.
	This is the door after sanding the filler for the final time.
	I used a Forstner bit to re-open the holes for the latches. I ordered a set of stainless steel latches from Applied GMC.
	I bought a can of beige SEM primer and gave the “finished” door a light coat and was shocked to see lots of little pin holes and minor defects show up that I could not see before. Another visit to the supplier resulted in the purchase of this glaze that fills those minor defects. I was told that this was the normal process – it takes a coat of primer to see what you have missed.
	Here is a closeup so you can read the label.
	Here is the final product, ready for reinstallation.
	This is the fender repair piece that Fay Curtis makes. I used it as a guide to match the curve for the missing piece. The next phase of the project is to install that fender repair piece.

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A long time ago (during the permanent bed conversion) I installed a Shurflo Whisper King water pump and have mostly been very happy with how quiet it is. The problem is that no matter how quiet it is, it is still audible when it runs. It makes us want to keep the water pump switch in the “off” position (very annoying) because it “burps” every 10 or 15 minutes. It doesn’t seem like much but some of us are sensitive to any noise when it is otherwise nice and quiet and it bothers us.

I figured it was happening because of a small leak in the built-in check valve in the pump. It turns out that a surge tank is listed as one of the solutions to this problem by Shurflo. They also recommend using a surge tank to prolong the life of the pump – so it doesn’t constantly start and stop. I found a nice sized (about 8.5″ diameter and about a foot long) at Home Depot’s web site (a Flotec FP 7105-8).

The photos below show a mock-up of how I planned to measure the pressure in the house water system (22 pounds with the Whisper King even though it claims 30 pounds in the documentation – I guess that could be because of a power issue, so I plan to check) and then to substitute the surge tank for the gauge. I held the tank in place against the back wall by adding a brace in front of it and connecting it to either side of the bed supports. The tank is held well out of the way of the rolling drawer that slides under there too – the horizontal line in the insulation  below the installed tank in the last photo is where the rolling drawer rests.

We plan to use the coach in the next month. I will report on if and how this helps solve our “noise problems“.

Update 1/20/2014: We used the coach for a weekend trip – 3 nights – and the surge tank has fixed the problem of the water pump “burping”. We can now leave the water pump turned on when we are in the coach and there is no water pump noise except when the pump runs to refill the surge tank when we use more than around a gallon of water. When the pump runs it does so for about 30 seconds and then stops. Since it is a Whisper-King it is very quiet when it does run so, almost like home. Worth doing.

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When I refurbished the interior living area in the summer of 2010 I did it in a hurry. The hurry was because of a self-imposed deadline for beginning a 7000+ mile trip to the East Coast and back again. Even though both doors had areas where the plastic laminate was not stuck to the aluminum frame I patched what I could with some new contact cement and skinned over the dark laminate with a real maple wood veneer also using contact cement. When we left on August 1st we headed east and everything looked great for quite a while but, once we hit the humidity of the East the wood veneer expanded and buckled. I have been trying to get around to it since returning from that trip. Now is the time.

The doors are made from an aluminum frame, skinned on either side with a Formica-type plastic laminate, and filled with a few blocks of particle board in strategic spots and expanded corrugated cardboard in the rest of the interior space. My plan was to remove either the veneer or the entire exterior of the doors depending on what worked. I had purchased enough new laminate (WilsonArt makes a natural maple plastic laminate that is a good match for real natural maple coated in polyurethane) to re-cover both doors so, when we returned from our last trip I removed the doors from the GMC and got started.

It turned out that the exterior laminate on both doors was loose enough to get off using a large paint scraper type of putty knife and a hammer (see the photo) with some gentle tapping. In one case the corrugated filler was completely loose and in the other it was stuck to the interior skin so I didn’t have to remove it. In that same case the interior skin was also loose enough to require re-gluing so I had to completely disassemble the door.

I cleaned the aluminum frame with a sander, added plywood pieces to the interior of the door where reinforcement was needed (towel racks on the bathroom door and a full length mirror in the closet) and reassembled everything using DAP non-flammable contact cement (I think it is better than the original one) everywhere. My only error was that when I reassembled the door that was completely disassembled I put it together with a slight twist to it. It still closes but that was not too bright.

Here are some photos that might be helpful: 

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