Sticky situation

Hi all.

My Dorma roof is missing the curtain rails. The wooden battens they are screwed onto would themselves need fixing to the roof. Anyone done this? Did you use glue or fibreglass? What sort of glue would I need?

I imagine daughter Skutterbob may be a little heavy-handed when pulling the curtains when she is in her bunk, so I may have to attach it with some supporting stainless screws from the outside.

Cheers

 

The above, or something like TigerSeal or Sikaflex. They stick like hell, but remain a bit flexible. I stuck the battens onto my Devon roof with TigerSeal.

 

As above, Sikaflex is excellent - Its all that holds most GRP high tops on camper conversion, so should be able to cope with even the heaviest curtain drawing action without the need for screws.

 

Sikaflex is great stuff. I had to remove a patch panel that I'd stuck on underneath yesterday. I had to chop it off with a hammer and chisel...

 

I have snapped tools trying to lever metal off Sikaflex (aluminium hatch surround on a boat..) Wood on the other hand gives up first.

 

Cheers everyone - I will look up your suggestions.

 

make sure you get a sikaflex that dries completely, the (512) one i used on my roof vent remained 'moist' and loads of cack has stuck to it

 

And wear gloves as the stuff sticks to everything like sh1t to a blanket.

 

I used standard Araldite epoxy to glue a new wood strip to ours. Drilled a lot of blind holes in the glue side of the wood for the Araldite to squeeze into and get a bit more of a grip. I then reinforced at the ends with some P40 fibreglass filler. Used several short cut-to-fit pieces of wood between the new strip and the van roof (with the pop-top up) to clamp it all tight and straight overnight. Plenty strong enough so far.

The lower curtain rail wooden strip seems to form quite a bit of the roof stiffening at the window edge: I suspect it pops off when people are struggling to fit new window seals...

 

Did you leave the wood untreated before glueing?

 

Yes, I wanted to find some hardwood but in the end just went for softwood. Slightly narrower than the original and square section. I pre-drilled holes for the rail screws to avoid it splitting.

 

Got some Sikaflex and had a go. The lower rail attached quite easily and looks like a good bond. The upper one I had fun with as I needed to pack out the batten in places as that part of the roof is far from flat.

 

Curtains up!