Need advice on sealing my vans high top

[Billy]

Want to seal my fiberglass high top with a white rubberized coating. Needs to adhere to fiberglass, metal, glass and plastic. Any advice on a good prouduct to use would be appreciated.

 

[BC Guy]

Is it leaking? You don't normally need to seal fiberglass.

 

[SternWake]

I painted the fiberglass with marine yacht enamel after properly prepping it.

Never worked with any elastomeric coating. I'd fear the adhesion unless it was perhaps a white version of truckbed liner.

Getting anything to bond well to glass is not so easy, without scratching it for more mechanical tooth.

Where fiberglas meets metal, there will be a flex spot which will eventually crack no matter what. How long 'eventually' is, with elastomeric type coatings, is unknown to me.

Paint over caulk, about 4 months.

 

[Billy]

Is it leaking?  You don't normally need to seal fiberglass.

Thank you for responding. The van is a 1988 E250. The fiberglass lost it gel coat and has stress cracks. its not leaking. The problem areas are the sliding side windows. The window tracks have drain holes but the sides of the high top are slanted in slightly and water is getting in somehow at the tracks. The two front windows are plastic. Instead of sealing every crack and crevIce with a caulk gun and a tube of sealant I'm  wanting to coat everything with one flexable product and make everything white to reflect the sun and stop all possible leaks. All future advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

I used Rustoleum Leak Seal to fix an aluminum boat. I got if free from an older gentleman who used it in salt water. Electrolysis caused the boat to have 100's of pin size holes that leaked and to make matters worse, it got off it's mooring in a storm and had an inch wide gash about six inches long near the stern. I flattened out the gash and rivited a new piece of aluminum on it. Then coated the bottom with the leak seal.

I took my time prepping the surface and honestly, i've never really been so impressed with a product. Owned the boat for four seasons after that, dragged it onto shore 100's of times and the stuff never wore off and it never leaked again. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again and id be comfortable using it on different surfaces, like fiberglass.

 

[Almost There]

The fiberglass lost it gel coat and has stress cracks. its not leaking. The problem areas are the sliding side windows. The window tracks have drain holes but the sides of the high top are slanted in slightly and water is getting in somehow at the tracks. The two front windows are plastic.

Since the problem areas are the windows, the most effective way to stop the leaks is to remove and reinstall the windows themselves.

I had one window that was leaking badly in the hightop when I bought the van. I considered doing a R&R myself but it would take a tall ladder that I shouldn't be on and 2 people (1 inside and 1 out) to do the job. I headed to an RV shop and they removed the window, cleaned off all the old sealant around the frame, ran new butyl tape around the window and reinstalled it within about an hour and a half. The original quote was for a $100. here in Ontario where everything costs more. Final price was $50.00. YMMV depending on where you are.

The slanting in isn't likely the problem but it's difficult to see that because all one sees is water getting in somehow, someway and it's easy to blame the slant and the drain holes.

As to the cracking on the gelcoat....head on over to fiberglassrv.com and ask them. They're the experts at all things fiberglass. I also found a whole bunch of Youtube videos and manufacturers of various products to restore cracked gelcoat by googling 'fiberglass gelcoat crack repair'