How To Fix Air Conditioner Shroud
I have a 1979 31' International that I basically use as a "park" model. This winter there was 3' of wet heavy snow on the roof and I decided to pull as much of it as I could with a plastic shovel. Unfortunately I hit the brittle shroud and took out this chunk. I had hoped to find one solid piece to epoxy back in this spring when the snow melted. Unfortunately the largest intact piece I found was about the size of a quarter. I really don't want to spend the money on a new one and it doesn't look like the old one would be too easy to get off since someone siliconed all the bolts into the shroud: Is there some sort of bondo/plastic resin that could be used to repair such a hole in place?
Answer:
Our shrouds are exact replacements, since we have the original molds from Airstream. However, our shrouds are made with fiberglass, not plastic. They mount the same way as the originals. Replace the bolts as necessary, which you will have to do regardless. Just did a similar repair last week! A tree branch shattered the rear corner(with a little help from me). I used laminating resin and fiber glass cloth on the inside and bondo to finish the surface on the outside. I replaced the hardware with stainless. A peculiarity I noticed was that the front mounting holes appeared to have pulled the shroud downward, that is, the shroud apprears to have about an inch clearance above the air conditioner, based on the two interior rear baffles and the height of the sides. Your pics. also show a bowl like depression just like mine. I put a pair of standoffs between the unit and the shroud to make up the difference. I think it's better, but I don't know why it wasn't done that way to begin with?