Adhesive to bond to not so good RV wood?

[Sooner]

1984 RV, found some soft/dark 2x2's around a floor piece i have to replace but not rotten. Rebuilding that part but have to mate to/attach to a couple spots to this kinda wood. Want to screw it and glue it where i can. Due to location of soft spot, outer tin and cabinets can't be removed, stuck with having to do it this way.

Any construction adhesive out there that may stick to sketchy wood & metal? I have a tin under belly skin that the 2x2's in the sketchy areas could glue to as well. Can of worms has become bucket of worms lol. Good part is I have nice solid structure to attach to in 90 % of the area.

Thanks

[KegRiver]

And it's totally water proof. I use nothing else these days.

[Grizzly Adams]

Any construction adhesive out there that may stick to sketchy wood & metal?


Yeah, but very sketchily. Better fix it properly. Rotten rvs and campers are tough to make good again

Grizz

[curtz]

PL is strong adhesive

[dewalt18]

Don't waste your time, buy a couple tubes of PL400 and never look back.

Probably won't even need the screws!

[Sask Bearman]

Originally Posted by dewalt18

Don't waste your time, buy a couple tubes of PL400 and never look back.

Probably won't even need the screws!

I swear buy that stuff too.

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by dewalt18

Don't waste your time, buy a couple tubes of PL400 and never look back.

Probably won't even need the screws!

PL400 is great stuff but too thick to effectively penetrate damaged wood.

Gorilla Glue is polyurethane liquid so it will flow into small voids and it expands forcing the adhesive further into small voids.

PL400 has an advantage where flexibility is required since polyurethane can become quite rigid. PL400 also has an advantage on sound wood since it has a higher shear strength.

On weak woods polyurethane has the advantage since it will migrate into the wood structure, not just bond to the surface.

[Jays toyz]

Git rot, I believe it's called. A must have for Bayliner owners . Has a syringe to inject it into 'sorta wood' probably just polyurethane glue anyway.

[Kim473]

PL 400 will glue everything and anything.

[Freedom55]

I don't know how much space you have but could you sister on another piece(s) with long bolts or screws then glue to that? Had to do that one time to some rafter ends at the cabin in the woods.

Free

[Sooner]

Thanks all, I knew PL400 does wonders, and now there is other stuff i can use too.

I have solid wood to mate to in most places. Just sketchy where the most moisture was and of course, that's where I can't remove Tin or cabinets to get at without destroying stuff. Screw, bolt and Glue the carp out of the floor structure, then fill in the hole with plywood. Then re sheet the whole floor and update the 33 yr old flooring/carpet with some nice peel and stick stuff.

Stepped on wet carpet last Sept long and thought gee thats soft there and why is it wet? From the looks of it, been slowly leaking at the top awning mount for a long time, finally soaked the plywood enough that it seeped into the carpet. Now I know why the previous owner moved the mount at the bottom, pulled out of the rotten wood. Top is still solidly secured thankfully.

Nothing like a little project

[morinj]

PL will do the job your looking to accomplish, however to join metal to your sheets you may wanna consider contact cement, not a pro but I've seen it do wonders to all sorts of different stuff, from foam board to melamine!

[Peter Gill]

If the wood is a bit soft or has any decay, you might want to saturate it with a "wood petrifier" Can't recall the brand but Home Hardware carries it. It stops the rot from spreading and turns the soft parts rock hard.
PL or Sikaflex for glue. Just my opinion but I don't like polyurethane glues like gorilla for applications like this since they dry very hard and crack under flexing. Sikaflex bonds just as well and will flex with the movement of the wood.
Seal any exposed outer joints with a butyl like DAP, not silicon, then maybe cover with Eternabond tape.

[Wildcat93]

Apply it with west system first then use sta-put adhesive

[KegRiver]

I have heard a bit about wood hardners over the years but know very little about it. SO I did some research.

Which turned up this pdf which I found very interesting.

http://www.ewoodcare.com/Epoxy%20Penetration%20Test.pdf

Products tested;

Liquid Wood
RotFix
Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer
Minwax Wood Hardener
PC RotTerminator

Do Epoxies Really Penetrate and Consolidate Rotten Wood?

Introduction

The myth of epoxy consolidation has long been understood as a good way of dealing with rotten window sills, beam ends and log home logs. Consolidation of several inches of rotten wood involves two requirements. One, the product must be able to penetrate
through all of the rotten wood and into the first few cell layers of good wood. Secondly, all of the rotten wood should become at leas
t as solid as the original wood. Several manufacturers make these claims, yet many times these repairs fall out or become loose
after a few months or years because of inadequate penetration and virtually no consolidation below the surface.

More importantly, the decay fungi that is causing the
wood to rot goes unchecked and its growth is often accelerated since moisture is trapped in the wood.

Procedure

Five of the most commonly available liquid Epoxies were purchased for this test.
They are
1.) Liquid Wood, by Abatron.
2.) RotFix by System Three Resins.
3.) Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer by Smith aka Rot
Doctor
4.) Minwax Wood Hardener by
Minwax and
5.) PC Rot Terminator by PC Products.

One ounce of each product was mixed per manufacturers instructions or used as is, if no mixing was required.
Temperature and humidity were controlled to 68 degrees F. and
70% Relative Humidity.
Exactly one ounce of each product was poured out onto a separate stack of newsprint and was left untouched for 72 hours.

Observations

After 72 hours, each product was dry to the touch.

Since an epoxy used for Rot Repair is supposed to penetrate and consolidate wood fiber, then the epoxy should soak through
several sheets of newsprint and more importantly, “glue” them togeth
er.

See chart for specific product results. The charts did not copy properly, so to see them you have to look at the PDF

Conclusions

None of the epoxies tested showed adhesion of more than 10 sheets of newsprint or about 1/16”. Therefore the myth of epoxy consolidation is busted.
The Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer appears to have penetrated the
deepest but only 2 sheets of newsprint were stuck together. This leads one to believe that epoxy molecules do not have the ability to
penetrate cell walls of wood. Furthermore, the solvent content may penetrate but the epoxy gets filtered out in the first cell layer of the wood.
Therefore, claims of deep penetrating epoxies and solvents that carry epoxy resin deep into the wood are false.

The only exception may be when there are cracks
in the wood and the epoxy may flow down
into those cracks and cure.

The real problem with rot damaged wood is that there is a living fungus that is the cause
of the problem. Rot damaged wood is a symptom of the problem and treating the symptoms is akin to putting a band-aid over
cancer. Liquid Epoxies are beneficial as part of a repair, but in and of themselves do not cure the problem and may even make it worse
since the moisture and fungus can become trapped in the wood and will continue to grow and spread until a more serious problem manifests itself.
A combination of borate based wood preservatives to kill the fungus and keep it from returning is the best method of rot repair. Then and only then can epoxies be expected to repair the damage

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Peter Gill

If the wood is a bit soft or has any decay, you might want to saturate it with a "wood petrifier"

I have done the same when faced with RV field repairs in the past... Can't remember the brand either!

Don't know if I would consider it a long-term fix, especially looking at Keg's post.