repairing nose cone on a pinnacle. ABS or fiberglass

[CraigBU]

Recently had the misfortune of a ladder truck backing into the nose cone of our Pinnacle 38FLWS. Resulting damage consists of a tennis ball sized hole and an 18 inch crack on the front right corner of the nose cone. Fortunately the damage is on the corner where there are no decals and this pinnacle does not have painted graphics. The damage really could not be in an easier place to repair. My questions are:
1 Is the nose cone made of ABS or fiberglass?
2 Should I use a polyester or epoxy resin for the repair?
3 Will Jayco sell paint or do I need to guess what type of paint and have a competent paint supply house try to match the color?

[Learjet]

I would get a new nose cap! not hard to change and not your fault it happen.

[CraigBU]

There are several reasons for not replacing the nose cap.
1 The 38FLWS is no longer made and I doubt a nosecap is available
2 I do not wish to compromise the integrity of an established bond
3 The repair looks very simple to do. I can do it myself in three days and have complete control of quality or I can wait for 3 months with unknown quality of labor at the dealer.

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by CraigBU

There are several reasons for not replacing the nose cap.
1 The 38FLWS is no longer made and I doubt a nosecap is available
2 I do not wish to compromise the integrity of an established bond
3 The repair looks very simple to do. I can do it myself in three days and have complete control of quality or I can wait for 3 months with unknown quality of labor at the dealer.

I think that you're logic for wanting to fix the cap on there without disturbing it, is solid.

You mentioned in your first post that it was not in a decal area. We had a Montana that had a dime sized chip fixed as part of a pre-delivery inspection. That chip was about 12" away from any decal, and they still had to replace the decal on that side before it was all said and done. They had to feather that out quite a ways to get it to match.

Fortunately for us, our dealer actually took it to a local shop that specialized in fiberglass repair. He did an absolutely fabulous job fixing it.

I don't know what your skill set is, but I would think that it takes a lot of experience and skill, to properly fix fiberglass caps. I would probably put some duct tape across it at this point, and wait to find a shop that can do it.

Good luck in getting it repaired, whichever way you go!!

[Happy wife / happy life]

This is just my two cents on this repair. I sold Chevrolet parts to body shops for about 35 years. A tennis ball size hole with a 18 inch crack is not a minor repair. Fiberglass repair takes a specific skill set. I would look for a local corvette club forum , look for local body shop recommendation. I have found corvette owners can be a picky bunch of folks. It may be worth your time to have a pro give you an estimate. If this is covered by insurance I would definitely have a pro repair it. Best of luck to you on this repair!

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by Happy wife / happy life

...If this is covered by insurance I would definitely have a pro repair it. Best of luck to you on this repair!

This is an excellent point. I would let insurance pay for it, and handle it, if it was covered...

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by cadman_ks

This is an excellent point. I would let insurance pay for it, and handle it, if it was covered...

If someone hit you it would be covered by his insurance

[mhh]

I think a lot of you are missing the point of this thread. He wants to fix it himself.Aksing about materials is all he is doing.

[Radar57]

The nose and rear cap are both made from fiberglass.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by mhh

I think a lot of you are missing the point of this thread. He wants to fix it himself.Aksing about materials is all he is doing.

I could see if he didn't have insurance and the person drove off he might want to fix it himself but he knows who hit him. If I went to an oil change place and they leave the oil pan plug out I wouldn't ask how to rebuild the engine when they would replace it

[Jagiven]

Most likely your dealer would outsource this repair. I had a spiderweb crack on a sidewall, the dealer sent it out to a boat repair shop. Absolutely gone, you cannot see any signs of the repair. Our TT is not painted and you just do not see any signs of the repair. The boat shop had it fixed within a couple days.

I would speak with a few boat repair shops and see what they have to say before committing to doing it yourself. I have done some fiberglass work, and it is very messy, and takes a lot longer than you would expect. Also being a vertical repair adds a lot of complexity to the repair.

1) I would suspect it is made of fiberglass. Shipping a roll of plastic that size would be challenging as it is oversized and expensive. The way to tell. Get on ladder and look at a piece of damaged material closely look at it. ABS will not have fibers in it. Fiberglass, as you can guess will show fibers. I suspect they used chopped glass.

2) Resin, take a sample and sand it. If it smells like the inside of a new boat, it is polyester. You can use epoxy over polyester, as long as you prep the area. Epoxy once 100% cured does not have an odor.

3) Paint, You can call Jayco with your vin number and ask. Your probably best off taking a paint chip and having it color matched. I know our big Napa by me has a full custom paint shop and will do a color match.

If you choose to do the work yourself, please post images and progress reports.

Happy Camping

[kirkelli]

Originally Posted by cadman_ks

This is an excellent point. I would let insurance pay for it, and handle it, if it was covered...

We once got rear ended and the insurance from the other party had me take my vehicle to a repair shop for repair estimates. The damage was very minor to the bumper only on my Jeep. The repair shops estimated $3200 to repair. I sent the estimates to the insurance Co they sent me $3200. At the end of the day, i purchased a nice aftermarket bumper for $900 and installed it myself. Just saying, could be a similar situation with the OP???? If i were in his shoes, i'd be doing the exact same he wants to do.

Now, i dont know what material the cap is made of but i can tell you i have successfully fabricated projects using ABS and used fiberglass to reinforce. So i do know that you can use fiberglass over ABS with bo issues. I would sand the painted area around the damage, place a backing material behind the damaged hole than fiber glass away.. Hell, if you wanted to get crafty, cover the repair with one of your favorite decals. Just do the repair with fiberglass and call it a day.. Hopefully a happy one

[CraigBU]

Thanks to everyone for their input and highlighting some logical considerations. The rest of the story is:
1 The insurance is paying $6000 for the repair.
2 I have built two composite airplanes. The first was eglass and the second
was carbon fiber. I am competent to do structural repairs (albeit rusty) but I
am not competent to do the last 10% of finish contouring and painting.
3 The 5th wheel sits in a climate controlled shop with all of the necessary tools
for the repair.
4 I endorse the idea of drawing upon the corvette repair pool of expertise for overseeing my repairs and performing the final sanding, contouring and finish sanding

My plan is to do the bulk of the work myself and use whatever$ it takes to coerce a qualified fiberglass expert to come on site to do the finish work. With $6K in the budget, I think I can make this happen.

I appreciate the answers to the question of ABS vs fiberglass because this will affect what materials are used for the repair. I know it would be much easier to take it to a dealer but we bought this Pinnacle to use, not to sit in a shop. In difficult times, there are no easy answers. I am going to try and make an educated decision and perform a quality repair and keep the machine in service.

[Bill Johnson]

Originally Posted by CraigBU

Thanks to everyone for their input and highlighting some logical considerations. The rest of the story is:
1 The insurance is paying $6000 for the repair.
2 I have built two composite airplanes. The first was eglass and the second
was carbon fiber. I am competent to do structural repairs (albeit rusty) but I
am not competent to do the last 10% of finish contouring and painting.
3 The 5th wheel sits in a climate controlled shop with all of the necessary tools
for the repair.
4 I endorse the idea of drawing upon the corvette repair pool of expertise for overseeing my repairs and performing the final sanding, contouring and finish sanding

My plan is to do the bulk of the work myself and use whatever$ it takes to coerce a qualified fiberglass expert to come on site to do the finish work. With $6K in the budget, I think I can make this happen.

I appreciate the answers to the question of ABS vs fiberglass because this will affect what materials are used for the repair. I know it would be much easier to take it to a dealer but we bought this Pinnacle to use, not to sit in a shop. In difficult times, there are no easy answers. I am going to try and make an educated decision and perform a quality repair and keep the machine in service.

Sounds great now it makes good sense. Good luck you can handle it

[Learjet]

Sounds good on your skills...but you could tell the material from looking at the hole?

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by CraigBU

Thanks to everyone for their input and highlighting some logical considerations. The rest of the story is:
1 The insurance is paying $6000 for the repair.
2 I have built two composite airplanes. The first was eglass and the second
was carbon fiber. I am competent to do structural repairs (albeit rusty) but I
am not competent to do the last 10% of finish contouring and painting.
3 The 5th wheel sits in a climate controlled shop with all of the necessary tools
for the repair.
4 I endorse the idea of drawing upon the corvette repair pool of expertise for overseeing my repairs and performing the final sanding, contouring and finish sanding

My plan is to do the bulk of the work myself and use whatever$ it takes to coerce a qualified fiberglass expert to come on site to do the finish work. With $6K in the budget, I think I can make this happen.

...

Sounds like a very solid plan.

You're comment above about finishing the last 10%, is spot on. That's where 99.5% of the appearance comes from. Fiberglass, which I'm assuming the cap is made out of, is not easy to finish after the fact. At the factory, the "finish" is put in the mold first, and the fiberglass sprayed on top. Repairing it means that you have to somehow build that "finish" back up on the outside, and make it all look good.

Good luck on your journey!!

[Hollander Mutthaulers]

Originally Posted by CraigBU

There are several reasons for not replacing the nose cap.
1 The 38FLWS is no longer made and I doubt a nosecap is available
2 I do not wish to compromise the integrity of an established bond
3 The repair looks very simple to do. I can do it myself in three days and have complete control of quality or I can wait for 3 months with unknown quality of labor at the dealer.

You've got a good plan, good skills, and some cash. Hope it goes really well for you! I think your reasons for doing it yourself are right on and all the thought you have put into this project will result in a great repair.
Best wishes!

[Stever71]

If you can make the repair somewhat half decent you can eliminate any color match issues by getting your cap vinyl wrapped like they do with cars.
Then order a new decal or have one made.
Or if possible have a larger decal made to hide the repair

[Della]

Maybe you could call a dealer and ask what it is made of? Maybe call 3 and see if you get the same answer twice. I had a branch fall into the nose of my 2003 Grayhawk class C a few years ago. Made a small hole, in the middle of the "pandemic". Let insurance "handle" it, and dropped at RV repair shop. That was the beginning of a bad experience, as the insurance estimate was about $5k, and the rv shop ripped me royally. Given the age of my rv, and knowing what I know now, I would definitely try the repair myself. It doesn't have to be perfect for me, and while the outside looks good from the shop repair, they didn't complete the job and failed to seal the window back, which of course we didn't know until we were caught in a long steady rain on a trip. We finished the repair ourselves, halfway across the country from home, and by the time we got back, the rv shop refused to refund any money, since they couldn't see what had happened, and then proceeded to shovel $h!t at me. I wouldn't walk in that shop if I broke down at the entrance to their parking lot.

Do it yourself, there's a ton of self help videos, and you have the control. Good Luck!

[cadman_ks]

Originally Posted by CraigBU

There are several reasons for not replacing the nose cap.
1 The 38FLWS is no longer made and I doubt a nosecap is available
...

I didn't see it anywhere in any of the posts. What year is your 38FLWS?

I just looked on the Jayco website, and they list the 2020 front caps as being made out of fiberglass. I'm sure that's out there on the interweb somewhere what the cap is made out of.

You also said that you had a hole the size of a tennis ball. Stick you fingers in there, CAREFULLY!, and if the back is smooth, it's probably ABS. If it's rough, it's fiberglass. I'm sure that they use some layup mats, but the majority of that is going to be sprayed, I would think. Spraying is the most economical way to do fiberglass in a production environment...