# Class A Gas Motorhome Repair in Tustin, California > A gas Class A rides on a front engine Ford F53 or Workhorse chassis with a fiberglass front cap bonded over a steel and aluminium cage. OCRV Center repairs cap cracks, windshield corner splits, sidewall delamination, roof joints and collision damage on these coaches in shop, with collision work posted at $1,000 to $150,000 across 5 to 800 hours. Source: https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/class-a-gas-motorhome-repair/ Business: OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Tustin, California. Ballpark range: $1,000 to $150,000. Posted rates at https://ocrv.biz/prices/ ## What makes a gas Class A different from a diesel coach? The engine is up front, under a doghouse between the driver and passenger seats, and the chassis is a Ford F53 or a Workhorse rail with leaf springs rather than air bags. That single difference changes the whole repair picture. A gas coach transmits more road input into the house, sits lower at the front, and puts its heat and vibration into the cockpit rather than into the rear cap. The house is built as a cage: steel or aluminium tube framing, laminated sidewalls bonded to it, and one piece fiberglass caps front and rear. The cap is what people hit and what people notice, and it is also the single most awkward part of the coach to repair correctly, because it is bonded and fastened to structure you cannot see from outside. Front engine layout also means the doghouse intrudes on the cockpit. On a frontal impact the console, the dash, the steering column and the doghouse structure all move together, and a repair that only addresses the outer cap leaves a dash that never lines up again. ## Where does the front cap actually crack? Four places, over and over, on coach after coach. **The upper windshield corners**: The corner radius above the glass is the thinnest section of the cap and the point where the cage puts the most load into it. A crack starting at the corner and running up toward the roof cap is a structural signal, not a cosmetic one. **The header above the glass**: On a two piece windshield the centre post carries load. A hairline across the header usually means the post mount or the bonding behind it has worked loose. **The lower valance and skirt**: Driveway aprons and parking blocks take this out constantly. It is usually simple gelcoat and laminate work unless the mount brackets are bent. **The cap to sidewall seam**: Where the fiberglass cap meets the laminated sidewall there is a sealed joint. When that seal fails, water tracks down inside the front corner and the first symptom is a stain over the entry door, not a leak at the windshield. Cap repair runs **$750 to $12,000** across 4 to 60 hours. When the cap is beyond a repair, replacement runs **$4,500 to $25,000** across 30 to 120 hours. Both bands are posted on the [prices page](/prices/). ## One piece or two piece windshield: does it change the job? It changes it a lot. A two piece windshield uses a centre post and two smaller lites, so a stone chip on one side means replacing one lite. A one piece is a single enormous curved pane bonded into the cap, and replacing it means the cap has to be clean, true and correctly sealed or the new glass leaks or stress cracks within a season. RV windshield replacement is posted at **$2,500 to $7,500** across 6 to 18 hours. On a collision file the glass is almost never the whole job: if the cap moved, the aperture is out of shape, and the glass goes in last after the structure is right. Fitting glass to a distorted aperture is the fastest way to crack a brand new windshield. Window and frame reseal work on the house windows, Hehr and Kinro among them, sits at $250 to $3,500 across 1 to 14 hours and is worth doing at the same visit if the coach is already open. ## What about tail swing damage on the rear? Gas Class A coaches have a long rear overhang behind the drive axle. Turn tight out of a fuel island and the rear corner sweeps a metre further than the driver expects. The result is a scraped or split rear cap corner, and often a bent ladder or a crushed rear cap radius. Because the rear cap is bonded, a corner hit frequently releases the bond well beyond the visible damage. The repair sequence is to sound the panel, mark where the bond has let go, cut back to sound material, rebuild the laminate, then fair and refinish. Skipping the sounding step is why owners see the same crack reappear one season later. The rear also carries the ladder mounts, the spare tire carrier on some builds, and the hitch receiver. All of them load into the rear cage, so a hard rear impact is worth a structural look even when the fiberglass damage seems minor. See [frame and structural repair](/services/frame-structural-repair/). ## Why does the sidewall go soft on these coaches? Laminated sidewalls are a sandwich: outer fiberglass or filon, a foam or block core, the frame, and an interior panel, all bonded under pressure at the factory. Water that gets past a window frame, a clearance light or an awning rail soaks into the core and breaks the bond. The skin then bulges or feels spongy, and once it starts it spreads. Delamination repair is posted at **$1,500 to $20,000** across 10 to 100 hours because the range of the problem is enormous. A single bubble under a window can be injected and clamped. A whole side that has been wet for years means the skin comes off and the laminate is rebuilt. The estimator sounds the wall panel by panel to tell you which one you have before the file is written. ## How this job runs 1. **Walk and sound the coach**: The estimator walks the exterior and taps the caps and sidewalls to find where bonding has released beyond the visible damage, then photographs everything found. 2. **Write the file**: Damage is written against the posted body and paint rate of $210 an hour, with materials calculated automatically and any special order parts identified up front. 3. **Stage parts, then tear down**: Caps, glass and trim are ordered and received before the coach is opened, so it is not sitting in a bay waiting on a shipment. 4. **Structure, then skin, then paint**: Cage and framing are corrected first, the laminate and cap are rebuilt second, and refinish happens only once the aperture and panel gaps are correct. ## Questions ### Is a crack above my windshield urgent? Treat it as urgent. A crack running from a windshield corner toward the roof cap generally means the cap is flexing against the cage, and continued driving lengthens it. It is also a water path straight into the front corner framing. Bring it in for a look before the next trip rather than after. ### Can you repair a gas Class A after a rollover or a heavy side hit? Yes. Heavy structural work on a coach cage is in scope, including welding and framing, and the posted frame and structural band runs $750 to $20,000 across 5 to 80 hours. On a hit that severe the carrier is usually involved, and the file is written with photographs of the cage before anything is closed up. ### Do you paint the whole coach or just the panel? Whichever gives the better result. On an older gas coach with gel coat and decals, a panel repair plus decal replacement often looks better than a partial repaint. Where the finish is painted, a color matched blend into adjacent panels is standard. Full paint refinish is posted at $5,000 to $35,000 across 40 to 250 hours. ## Related - [RVs and Motorhomes](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/) - [Class A Diesel Pusher Motorhomes](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/class-a-diesel-pusher-repair/) - [Class C Motorhomes](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/class-c-motorhome-repair/) - [Luxury Class A Motorhomes](https://ocrv.biz/vehicles/rvs-motorhomes/luxury-class-a-motorhome-repair/) - [Fiberglass Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/fiberglass-repair/) - [Collision Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/collision-repair/) - [Frame and Structural Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/frame-structural-repair/) - [Prices and Posted Rates](https://ocrv.biz/prices/)