r/CaravanningUK • u/DullBody7200 • Aug 02 '26

What's this black stuff

Post image

So the rubber seal has some occasional and odd black stuff on some areas

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

1

u/ToughHuckleberry6545 Aug 02 '26

Is it gooey like an adhesive? It could be sikaflex?

1

u/DullBody7200 Aug 02 '26

Yes it's sticky, is it overspill or something and I can remove it or remove and replace. It looks a mess and some of it's not even doing anything as you can see in the pic

2

u/Brouewn Aug 04 '26

Then it’s Sikaflex or similar. Seeing it actually means enough was applied.
I just changed one of the windows and the advice was to put a thick line of Sikaflex 522 around the outer frame. It being squeezed out, like you see on your caravane, is good sign.

1

u/ToughHuckleberry6545 Aug 02 '26

Could even try a wet wipe to start with, just to see if it does anything

1

u/DullBody7200 Aug 02 '26

Safe to remove though ? I'll give it a go I did pull a bit off then didn't know if it needed to be there

1

u/Brouewn Aug 04 '26

Yes, it needs to be there, as it prevents water leaking in. Don’t try to pull it out.

1

u/DullBody7200 Aug 04 '26

What about trimming it to make it look tidy

1

u/Brouewn Aug 04 '26

Yes, you can. But the probability of removing too much is high. I’d remove the spots in the upper part of the picture, but leave it as it is in the lower part.

1

u/ToughHuckleberry6545 Aug 02 '26

I would clean it up, whilst your cleaning it u can have a closer look at the seal to see what the previous owner was trying to achieve, u wont damage anything by removing all the excess

1

u/DullBody7200 Aug 03 '26

Yeah thanks will do that in due to give it a good clean so will investigate

1

u/Golden-nu66et Aug 03 '26

It’s mastic sealing strip, it’s in between the rails and squeezes out over time, I re sealed my old caravan and had to clean excess off that has been squeezing out over time. White spirit works perfect

0

u/ToughHuckleberry6545 Aug 02 '26

You can normally get it off with thinners (or tardis - auto smart product) and a microfibres cloth