Fiberglass
RV Fiberglass and Delamination Repair for Hacienda Heights Owners, Handled In One Building
RV fiberglass repair covers the composite shell: molded caps, laminated sidewalls, skirts and skins. Most of what arrives here is not a broken panel. It is a bond that has failed inside a laminated wall, which is why the first question on any fiberglass job is whether the substrate behind the skin is dry.
An RV sidewall is not a panel. It is six layers pressed into one: a gel coat or painted outer surface, a fiberglass reinforced sheet forty five to ninety thousandths of an inch thick, a bed of structural adhesive, a sheet of luan plywood, a core of block foam set between aluminum tube or wood studs, and an interior decorative panel. The wall gets its stiffness from the bond between those layers, not from any single one of them. The fiberglass on its own is floppy. The luan on its own is weak. Bonded, they behave like a beam.
That is why delamination is the highest stakes item on this program. Delamination is adhesive failure between the layers, driven almost always by water intrusion or by heat cycling, and it reads as a bubble or a long shallow wave that only becomes visible when light rakes across the wall at a low angle. A bubble is not a cosmetic defect. It is a section of wall that has lost most of its bending stiffness, and it does not stop where it is.
The practical consequence is a very wide price band, and the thing that decides where a coach lands inside it is one measurement: is the luan behind the skin dry. A bounded dry void under twelve square feet can be injected with structural resin and pulled flat under a vacuum bag for $2,500 to $6,000. The same wall with wet luan from the roof line to the floor and a corroded stud is a skin off rebuild or a panel replacement, and that is $12,000 and up. We do not quote either one from a photograph, because a photograph shows the bubble and says nothing about the substrate. The collision teardown estimate at one hour of body rate reads the substrate and is credited against an authorized repair.
Every job on this list happens at our Yorba Linda facility. Hacienda Heights owners are 18.4 miles out, 24 to 38 minutes on SR-60 west to Fullerton Rd. Fiberglass work is bay work and cannot be anything else: structural resin and laminating adhesive have temperature dependent cure schedules, and a coach with a vacuum bag over one entire side has to stay indoors and undisturbed for the full window. The OCRV Center building in Yorba Linda runs 35,000 square feet under roof, which is what makes it possible to keep a forty foot coach bagged for days rather than chasing a repair across a parking lot in sections.
At a glance
$750 to $20,000 plus
4 to 100 plus hours of labor across this program
Pick the work
What we do under Fiberglass
Every page below carries its own price band, hour band and parts lead time. Numbers are published rather than quoted on the phone, because a phone number is a guess.
Published numbers
Price and hour bands for Fiberglass
| Service | Price band | Labor | Turnaround | Estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delamination Repair | $1,500 to $20,000 plus | 10 to 100 plus hours | Structural | Collision teardown estimate, 1 hour at $210 |
| Crack, Hole and Impact Repair | $750 to $12,000 plus | 4 to 60 plus hours | Moderate body | Collision teardown estimate, 1 hour at $210 |
| Fiberglass Panel Replacement | $1,500 to $15,000 | 10 to 70 hours | Structural | Collision teardown estimate, 1 hour at $210 |
| Fiberglass Restoration and Refinishing | $900 to $9,500 | 6 to 45 hours | Moderate body | RV systems estimate, $150 |
| Front Cap Fiberglass Repair | $750 to $12,000 plus | 4 to 60 plus hours | Moderate body | Collision teardown estimate, 1 hour at $210 |
| Rear Cap Fiberglass Repair | $750 to $12,000 plus | 4 to 60 plus hours | Moderate body | Collision teardown estimate, 1 hour at $210 |
| Soft Spot and Water Damage Repair | $750 to $18,000 plus | 5 to 80 plus hours | Structural | Collision teardown estimate, 1 hour at $210 |
Bands marked plus are open ended because the scope genuinely varies that far. Every estimate tier listed is credited against an authorized repair. See estimate policy and posted labor rates.
The rest of the list
Other Fiberglass line items and where they are covered
These are line items from the master service list that do not carry their own page, because a page with nothing distinct to say about it is thin content. Each one is linked to the page that actually covers the work.
Fiberglass, composite and exterior body work
- Aluminum and fiberglass skin replacement and repair
- Custom fiberglass mold fabrication and repair
- Custom body kits and fabrication
- Headlight and taillight housing repair
- Body panel replacement and fabrication
- Exterior panel dent and blemish removal
- Dent and scratch repair
- Hail damage repair and restoration
- Fender and bumper alignment
- Bumper replacement and fabrication
- Grille repair and replacement
- Specialty chrome and metal polishing
- Custom roof installation and repair
- RV door repair and replacement
- Mirror and trim repair and replacement
Custom composite fabrication and metalwork
- Custom fiberglass and metal fabrication
- Custom RV body fabrication for specialty builds
- Custom RV side skirt fabrication
- Custom metal shaping and body contouring
- Advanced welding and metalwork
- Frame strengthening and reinforcement
- Custom grille and guard fabrication
- Custom bumper fabrication and installation
- Door and hatch fabrication and installation
Vintage and Airstream exterior restoration
- Exterior body dent repair and panel refinishing
- Underbelly shielding and weatherproofing solutions
- Historic trailer structural repairs and reinforcements
- Aluminum skin panel replacement and replication
- Custom aluminum fabrication for exterior panels
- Airstream belly pan replacement and upgrades
- Custom aluminum sheet repair and fabrication
- Original aluminum skin restoration and polishing
- Airstream polishing and mirror finish restoration
- Custom roof cap and skylight replacement
- Classic Airstream roof vent replacement and sealing
- Vintage chassis repair and structural upgrades
- Vintage trailer window replacement and sealing
- Authentic hardware and fixtures sourcing for exteriors
- Classic trailer paint restoration and enhancement
- Restoration of vintage trailer decals and striping
Not this, that
Adjacent programs
Related work that belongs on a different page. Sending you to the right one first is faster than writing an estimate for the wrong one.
Body Work
Non structural exterior body work on RVs and towables: panels, dents, doors, glass, steps and surface corrosion.
Paint and Finish
Booth refinish, color matching, protective coatings, graphics and finish correction on RVs, trailers, vans and commercial vehicles.
Roof Work
Membrane, decking, vents, skylights and reseal work on rubber, TPO, fiberglass and aluminum roofs.
Questions
Fiberglass questions we answer at the counter
What is delamination on an RV and why does it matter more than it looks?
A laminated sidewall gets its stiffness from the bond between six layers, not from any one of them. Delamination is that bond letting go, usually from water intrusion or heat cycling, and it reads as a bubble or a wave visible only when light rakes across the wall. The bubble is cosmetic. What is behind it is a section of wall that has lost most of its bending stiffness.
Is a bubble in my sidewall injectable, or am I buying a new wall?
Six conditions decide it: the substrate reads dry, the void is bounded and reachable from ports, the luan is intact rather than swollen, the skin is not crazed over the high point, the area is under roughly twelve square feet, and nobody has injected it before. All six true means injection under a vacuum bag. Any one false means the skin comes off or the panel gets replaced.
How do you tell fiberglass damage from a bond failure behind the skin?
Light and sound. A raking light pass at a low angle exposes a wave that overhead shop lighting hides, and a tap test separates bonded laminate, which returns a sharp report, from a void, which returns a hollow one. Then a moisture grid reads the substrate against a dry baseline on the same coach. Broken fiberglass is visible. A failed bond is not, which is why nothing here gets quoted from a photograph.
Do you handle gel coat gloss work on this program or is that the paint side?
Gloss restoration on sound gel coat is a finish operation and it is quoted at /rv-paint-shop/gel-coat-restoration. This program owns the laminate underneath: crazing that has to be ground out, gel coat worn through to the mat, porous laminate that has to be sealed, and print through that has to be blocked flat. The substrate work here is what decides whether a finish above it lasts.
How does the priced estimate work on fiberglass and delamination jobs?
Most of this program uses the collision teardown estimate at one hour of body rate, $210, because the scope depends on moisture readings and a tap test rather than on what is visible. Surface restoration uses the $150 systems estimate. Either tier is credited against an authorized repair. Nothing here is quoted over the phone, because the substrate is the whole question and the phone cannot read it.
Do you take fiberglass work on coaches driven in from Hacienda Heights?
Regularly. Hacienda Heights is 18.4 miles from the shop, 24 to 38 minutes on SR-60 west to Fullerton Rd. All of it happens at our Yorba Linda facility, because structural resin and laminating adhesive cure on a temperature schedule and a coach under a vacuum bag has to sit indoors and undisturbed for the full window.
Bring your fiberglass problem to the shop
We are 18.4 miles from Hacienda Heights, 24 to 38 minutes via SR-60 west to Fullerton Rd, then south to La Palma Ave. Every job is performed at the Yorba Linda facility.