Lazy Daze Owners' Group

OH NO! I bought a Lazy Daze with water damage

November 29, 2014, 02:38:36 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 149759

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Hi folks. I'm new here. I recently bought an 86 Lazy Daze which appeared to be in very good condition. I had planned to live in it, but the first night was freezing. The heater works beautifully, but I didn't know how to work it that night. The next day, almost by accident, I landed an apartment. So, I'm planning to sell this baby. As I was taking pics to make an ebay listing for it, I stumbled on a big problem I hadn't noticed when I bought it. There is a leak into the bed area above the cab and some unfortunate poking revealed that the wood below the wallpaper is kaput. I doubt I could sell it in this condition even with all of its great selling points. I'm not currently in the position to have it repaired professionally, so I went to Youtube to learn how to proceed. I'm more stymied than I was to begin with. One idea I had was to tear out all the rotten wood, down to the aluminum shell, then mask off the whole place diligently and spray in foam insulation to fill in the missing chunk. I realize that this might be unacceptable to some potential buyers. I was hoping to hear what some of you recommend. Thanks in advance for any helpful advice you have to offer.
Thanks, Andy

Re: OH NO! I bought a Lazy Daze with water damage

Reply #2 – November 30, 2014, 05:08:37 pm

Yahoo Message Number: 149774

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Andy

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news From too much past experience, you have a real problem that will most likely take a lot of time and money to fix, possibly much more than what even a nice 1984 coach is worth.  Once the rot pops through the walls, the major damage is done The cab-over is cantilevered off frame members extending horizontally from the body of the coach. Yours are very likely gone. Without good support, the cabover will sink, sometimes to the point where the front doors cannot open It's very difficult to regain the structural strength of the rotted frames once they are gone, without major repairs. To properly repair requires removing a lot of sheet metal and/or fabricating a steel frame to support the cab-over, on top of the cab. The degree of damage, and the repairs needed, will not become apparent until the mattress is removed and all rotted interior paneling removed. The area will be loaded with mold, so take precautions.
Unless you have good wood working skills, a lots of free time and a place to fix it, dump it as is, you will most likely be money ahead.
Even if you fix it yourself, it will not be cheap. These projects can become money pits.
You might want to have an RV shop look at it to verify this.

Too bad you had not read through our many previous suggestions on how to buy a used rig. You would have seen our suggestions to have it professionally inspected and to particularly to inspect the cab-over area for leaks. The pre-1991 models, with the real front window, all leak eventually, unless resealed before the problem occurs. The early models regularly suffer from leaky front caps too, which rots the same area.

Larry