Prevost XLII Skin Delamination Repair

[travelite]

My thoughts exactly CC_Guy. It's virtually a clean break on the panel side. This would lead me to believe that an incompatible glue was selected, or the surface preparation was defective, or the process setup times weren't followed, as opposed to an inadequate shear or tension strength of the adhesive itself. Sounds like this issue could be remedied.

I don't think thermal expansion of the stainless panels is much of an issue. A quick check shows expansion at 0.0000096 in/in deg F. Assuming the panels are around 100" long. That would be about 0.01" of expansion for every 10 deg F increase in temp. A 100 deg F temperature swing only results in 0.1" expansion. You can reason along these same lines and conclude that bus chassis flex isn't the issue either.

I calculate that each panel should weigh less than 100lbs which puts very little shear stress on the adhesive. Here's some specs on Loctite 5590 which give a shear yield stress of 290 psi.

Hi Arctic Bird, It doesn't take long for rust to form when salt road spray is flowing behind your panels. I looked at a coach that was parked at the beach and the internal basement beams were a mess. There was a panel leak that allowed corrosive water to flow into the basement.