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I'm struggling to remove my front awning rails and just wondered if anyone has every tried using a sealant remover, ie. "sealant eater" or something similiar. Tried wire which keeps snapping, broken my plastic scraper and have to work extremely carefully with the metal scraper but it takes ages and i'm not getting that far. Obviously i dont want to bend the awning rails either so was just wondering if the sealant eater would make it easier.  Has anyone tried anything like this?

On the plus side I have discovered where the water was coming into my van, as when i removed the middle front section (extremely easy to get that bit off!) a lot of water came out from under it.....

hi look through here,lots of info.

http://www.caravandamprepairs.co.uk

http://www.1carpc.co.uk/wcdr/front-body-to-roof---rail-reseal.-plus-lower-front-awning-rails---reseal.htm

A tip from our local caravan dealer was to use those wooden spatulas that you can use with non-stick frying pans, and 'sharpen' the edge.  It worked a treat for me for removing sealant around the old rooflight, and when we recently removed a window.  Keep cleaning it, and keep the edge 'sharp' - you'll do less damage with it then a metal tool.

It's not a quick job, though - and can still take ages.  Clean up the area afterwards with white spirit and then again with methylated spirit to make sure every last bit of the old sealant is removed before you apply any new.

I wouldn't use silicone - it's too difficult to make a decent seal - just make a really good bed of Sikaflex which stays softer and won't split like silicone can under movement.

Thanks everyone, looks like i'll be popping down the shop to get some wooden spatula's. I'm going to reseal it with mastic and either sikaflex or tigerseal, depending on which one i have left. I'm really impressed with the sikaflex so it will be interesting to see how good the tigerseal is.