I picked up a 2011 Zinger 19RDS last year for a steal.....mostly because it had a few bubbles in the sheet of filon material that is wrapped over the front of the trailer....it was starting to delaminate. Even though I had gone through it and resealed everything, it seemed like every month that went buy, the bubbles, wrinkles and warping on the front got worse. It finally got bad enough where I decided to do something.
I took the molding off on both sides, the bottom side where it joined the chip/rock guard, and top where it joined the metal roof. After that was all off and cleaned up, the front pretty much just came right off. It was actually in better shape than I thought....I think most of the moisture must have got in around a marking light at one time. (Every time I mess with this thing I'm amazed at how cheap it's built!)
So once I had the sheet of filon off, I got two powder coated 4x8 sheets of .020 aluminum sheets from a local metal supply house. I overlapped them 10", and joined them with some 3M VHB structural double sided tape, and 3M 5200 marine adhesive....and let it dry a few days.
I then started the tedious process of adjusting, fitting, and adjusting some more, until I got the aluminum sheet centered up and aligned just right. Next I started screwing down all of the trim, and sealing everything back up.
The finishing touch was to put a piece of .040" aluminum diamond plate on the front to replace the ugly white metal chip guard what was on it.
All finished....what do you think? When it was all said and done, it cost me around $200. Now I just need to put some graphics back on the front.
DIY: Replaced the delaminated front Filon on my trailer!
Linear Mode
