Hi! 2003 Solaris in PA (help needed!)

[sasharudi]

Reading some of these posts and you guys are an awesome wealth of knowledge
We rented a Jayco last year to try out the camping experience and we loved the experience, but were not crazy about the camper. We've been looking on and off since then and kept coming up with Sunlines that we liked. We came across our 2003 Solaris T2553, in what appeared to be excellent condition for a very fair price. We had even gone to camping shows and didn't see anything we liked better unless we paid $24,000 and up!
We were excited to bring it home, it had lots of interest but we were the first to it, beat the others, it's truly visually a beautiful camper with a nice layout, and to the naked eye, it was in excellent condition.
Guess this is my fault because it looks so nice, and I fell in love, but I had noticed a slight mold smell toward the back, either the bathroom or bedroom. There was nothing visually wrong with it though, so I chalked it up to my imagination.
Well, when we got it home, we decided to cut the carpet out of the storage area under the bed since the prior owner was storing sewer lines under there, not in a bag, or tote, or anything. I thought that might be our smell. It might have contributed, but that wasn't it We have a sizable leak, my gut is telling me that it's that back seam along the roof, could be wrong, but that fits what we are seeing.
We've taken the bed out, but now we are trying to figure out how to remove the cabinets without damaging them. Does anyone know how the cabinets are attached? We've never done anything like this and do not want to damage them. Also, any tricks to keeping wallboard intact when trying to remove it? I love this camper and want to fix the leak with keeping as much of the integrity of the camper as possible.The floor is a lost cause, but I love the wallboard, would bet we can no longer get that and want to preserve as much as possible. The cabinets must come out to fix the floor and some of the wallboard.
Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated! Want to make this our lovely little home away from home Nice meeting you all and look forward to hearing from you!
Diane

[Gene]

Hi Diane, Welcome to the forum. Congrats on your new Sunline but sorry to hear you have a problem from the start.

Originally Posted by sasharudi

... Does anyone know how the cabinets are attached? ...

The quick answer is that Sunlines, like many others, is built from the inside out. The walls are assembled first and then the cabinets are attached with screws driven from the outside. After they are done the skin is put on covering the screws.

Many people have had good luck using a thin cutting tool between the wall and the edge of the cabinet.

If JohnB comes along here, he may have some better info and something in his great stash of pictures.

[sasharudi]

Thanks , we are looking into taking the back of the camper down, hoping to save the wall board since there's not really an obvious problem inside, maybe we can spray any mold growing on that with mold killer and save it. The seal around the back is in rough shape so hoping this will help us re seal it afterwards and see more of the damage. Do you know the best thing to seal the seams?

[jim44646]

Yes that top seam is a weak spot. Like Gene said built from inside out. Back outside corners have corner bead with vinyl strip running down center. Remove vinyl strip to expose a bunch of screws. Remove all screws and carefully remove corner beads, remove window. Remove the staples along bottom underside. After that there's a few staples at seams of siding but you can slide each aluminum panel off exposing the rear skeleton for repair with out removing cabinets and interior walls

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