Dealing With Damage To The Body Of Your RV
Owning an RV that you regularly drive means having to do some maintenance and repairs. The body of the RV can be damaged as you are driving it or when it is parked in a camping spot or storage at home, but fixing the damage is often a little different than repair other vehicles.
RV Construction
Older RVs often have an aluminum outer shell that can be dented or torn easily. The aluminum is light and does an excellent job of protecting the interior of the RV, but repairing it requires some knowledge of sheet metal work and often some special tools.
Newer RVs often use fiberglass for outer body construction, so RV body repair on these units gets even more complicated. In both situations, taking your RV to an auto body shop or an RV body repair shop for an estimate and repairs is going to give you the best outcome.
Both materials will often require special tools to repair correctly, so if you consider taking the RV to a body shop, call ahead, and ask if they can deal with a large vehicle and if they have experience with motorhomes and campers. Many RV dealers will be able to make the repairs, so if you are on the road and something happens, look for an RV dealer nearby. If they can't make the repairs, they will tell someone to call in the area who can.
Making Repairs
If your RV is clad in sheet metal, the damaged panels can be removed from the outside and replaced pretty quickly. If there is damage under the sheet metal, the tech working on the vehicle will be able to access it once the sheet metal is removed. Because most of the older RVs use this design, it is very commonly found in shops, and most RV repairs shops are very good at dealing with the damage.
For RVs with an outer fiberglass shell, the damage becomes a little more challenging to repair. The damaged area needs to be cut out, and a new panel needs to be put in place most of the time. Fiberglass cloth and resin are used to patch the seams, and then the surface is ground smooth.
Some of these units are painted, but often the coating on the outside of the RV is a fiberglass gel coating that needs to be applied over the repair. The process can be challenging and is best left to a body shop that works with fiberglass every day. In some cases, that is an RV repair shop, but it could be an auto body shop with bays large enough to hold a full-size RV while repairs are being made.