Wall Panel lamination Failure
When we finally completed the broken body mount repairs, we went back to finish the northern circle route tour of British Columbia that had been interrupted when both mounts failed. Although we didn't get as far north into the Yukon as we wanted, we did manage to complete the trip without any failures. At least that's what we thought.
On the way back south, we stopped at Prince George in central B.C. to get some new windshield wipers from the Volvo truck dealer there. We parked broadside to the sun and went inside to get the wipers. By the time we got back to the truck, the bright sunshine had been baking away on the side of it for about half an hour. In that short time it had heated the outer layer of fibreglass enough to cause a huge blister to form in the middle of the drivers side wall. Great, another failure, and one that's not easily fixed.
The 3' wide by 7' tall blister on our wall panel. The reflection of the power line really makes it stand out.
Another Nightmare
Once again we emailed the builder our photos of the failure, and gave them the dreadful news. A few days later they emailed us back to say they could fix it, but we would have to bring the truck back to their shop for them to do the work. So at the end of October we made the 3900 kilometre drive to the builder. We had been told the repair would take two days, with another two days needed to repaint the wall. Since we couldn't stay in our truck while the work was being done, we checked ourselves into a local hotel.
Well, after nearly a month of sitting in the hotel room, being told every two days by their useless engineer that the truck would be finished in just a couple more days, we finally got our truck back.
When we saw what they had done we couldn't believe our eyes. It was, without exaggeration, the worst looking piece of garbage we had ever laid eyes on. The wall repair and bodywork seemed okay, but the paint job looked like it had been done by a blind person in a dirt storm. Yes, it was really that bad. Not only was there black splotches and other debris under the clear coat, but the metallic colour was so uneven it looked like two different colours had been sprayed on. When it rolled into the parking lot and the sun hit the wall broadside, I almost threw up. And for this we waited around three weeks longer than what they said it would take to do the job.
Of course the owner of the business was suspiciously absent, and wouldn't be around for a few days. So after voicing our displeasure to those that would still talk to us, we left and made a mad dash for the Canadian border. We had to beat a storm that was predicted to dump eighteen inches of snow in North Dakota, which would block our way home. There really wasn't any reason to hang about and try and get it fixed, since our past experience with this company taught us it would be a waste of time. The owner would most likely describe the terrible outcome of the job as "minor chicken shit"… his favourite phrase.
Not only do you see the blister, but also the bad paint job from the builder. The dark areas at the bottom right of the blister, and to the right of the tiny window are are from an uneven metallic paint distribution.
Another Nightmare, Part 2
Several months passed. The truck has been sitting in storage, and it's now the end of February. We decided to get the truck out of storage, do some clean up and a bit more organizing. We pulled the truck out of it's parking stall, turned it broadside to the sun, and guess what happened in the next ten minutes. Yup, the sun caused the wall to blister up once again. Not as large as the last one, but in the same spot, and very noticeable.
So despite our month of pain at the body builders, the wall wasn't repaired properly at all. Once again we contact the builder, and this time get a response saying that they've seen this happen before. We'd have to bring the truck back down.
It's interesting that they would say they’d seen this happen before. They told us when we took the truck to them the first time, that they'd have to consult the wall panel maker because they've never seen or fixed a wall de-lamination before. So here, once again, they tell us another big lie. We were starting to believe that the only real skill the builder did have, was lying. Needless to say, we did not take the truck back to them. We'd fix the damn thing ourselves.
Oh, and it didn’t take a month. Four hours to do the gluing, two days off and on for the body shop to prepare the wall for paint, and then one day for finished paint. So why, I wonder, did we have to wait for a month at the builder’s?
