Sidewall Crack Repair Paint

Gang:
I recently noticed a 6 inch crack in the sidewall at the top rear corner of my bedroom slide, going upwards toward the roof. I looked online for guidance, and first of all drilled a 1/8 inch hole at the upper end of the crack to keep it from spreading. I covered the crack with white duct tape temporarily to keep out moisture until I could make a repair. I determined that the crack was caused by uneven vertical adjustment of the bedroom slide (1-1/2 inch difference between the top and bottom of the slide to wall when the top of the slide was just touching the top seal). I spent a day re-aligning the bedroom slide and got it right, along with adjusting the slide hydraulic ram nuts to adjust the full in and full out slide points.

I bought a marine/household polyester fiberglass repair kit at a hardware store. I used a stiff wire wheel on my drill to remove paint and shape the edges of the crack into a valley as suggested in the repair kit instructions. I cut 2 pieces of the fiberglass mat into the shape I needed, mixed the resin and hardener, put resin on the crack area, and put the resin-soaked pieces of fiberglass mat into place. I worked all of the bubbles out of the repair area and left it to dry. A day later and the repair doesn't look too bad for my first foray into fiberglass repair.

Next I need to sand the area, and prep it for paint, as the fiberglass repair is not UV resistant. The big question is: "What paint to use?" I looked at the hardware store, and found Krylon Fusion for Plastic in a Gloss White that seems close. I am thinking I can always sand it back off if it looks bad.

Any advice???

Take it in and have someone look at the frame, you most likely have a broken weld or frame.

Bill, Hoefler may be correct. Was the crack their before or after HL repaired the frame? Are you sure that some wall framing is not broken? It's kinda hard for me to believe a slide caused that problem.....but maybe.

Our 2008 Bighorn had that same issue...it was not from the frame...we had breaks in the welds in the aluminum sidewalls. This was caused in part by the omission of some wood, used for attachment and screw retention in the base plate of the wall that sits on the upper deck steel frame...ours was exacerbated very early in ownership because we had a suspension problem with our Kodiak C4500 which was beating the RV to death.

Heartland worked on the frame in that area in June of 2013 while doing the hitch area pinbox frame flex repair. I was told they removed my entire bedroom slide to do the repair. They might have even misadjusted the slide - I don't know.

I DO know that the slide was tipping in towards the top 1 - 1/2 inch more than the bottom of the slide, and the hydraulic ram was pulling the bottom of the slide seals in tight. I can only imagine what was happening with the top of the slide pulling into the seal 1-1/2 inch BEYOND flush. I am hoping this is the cause of the crack, as I can't pay for any more major repairs.

I found on this site search that automotive touch up paint (like dupli-color) in "Ford Oxford White" is a good color match. I have not decided to be in any hurry to do this - I will just cover it with white duct tape for now.

BTW, I drilled the end of the crack and did no more before making a 60 mile trip into the Sierra Foothills back roads to TT Lake of the Springs Preserve, between Marysville and Grass Valley. The crack did not change a bit from the trip, so I am wondering about the frame crack theory.