Painting project

[mbulriss]

Wow, I'll second that 'Atta Boy'! Way to go Don. I don't have the
patience to be a good painter.

Mike Bulriss
1991 WB40 "Texas Minivan"
San Antoni, TX



--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, David Brady wrote:
>
> Looks like a million bucks Don, way to go.
>
> David Brady
> '02 LXi, Smokey
> NC
>
> Don Bradner wrote:
> >
> > Our ongoing lengthy project list since we acquired Blue Thunder in
> > January includes replacement of old operational equipment such as
> > batteries, shocks, tires, and alternators; physical changes to agree
> > with our wants, such as washer/dryer, bookcase/desk/office chair, and
> > bay slideout trays; and cosmetic items.
> >
> > The latter is/was primarily paint. Several years in the Arizona sun
> > had baked much of the clear coat off on both sides and the back. The
> > front cap is fine, but has likely been repainted at some point. I did
> > the worst single spot (blue on the back cap) before we left for a
> > month of travels in early May, and the rest has been my most
> > time-consuming project since we got back.
> >
> > I'm pretty much a neophyte when it comes to spray-painting, so this
> > has been a learning experience with a lot of picking the brains at
the
> > local Dupont shop, where most of the guys have body-shop experience.
> > The bulk of the labor, of course, is in surface prep and masking.
> >
> > I looked through the pictures I have on hand to find a couple that
> > were illustrative of the problem and tried to take similar "after"
> > pictures. The first one, http://tinyurl.com/2w53e2
> > <http://tinyurl.com/2w53e2> was taken in February in Casa Grande. It
> > is part of a telephoto shot, so there's quite a bit of
> > fore-shortening, and the lighting was very flat which reduced
> > contrast, but you can see the missing clear coat pretty well.
> >
> > Since the blue heats up more, it is much more affected than the
> > stripes; in fact the side stripes below the bend are fine and were
> > left alone. The area below the stripes (what do you call that piece,
> > anyway? Looks designed to direct water flow from the roof outward)
was
> > a particular problem. It is a compound curve, making sanding with a
> > block difficult. It was missing clear coat in oval patterns, with the
> > areas over ribs still holding the coat. Trying to feather the edges
> > didn't work well, as clearcoat kept peeling away, so it was
> > essentially necessary to sand it all.
> >
> > The upper part of the gold and red stripes weren't as bad looking,
but
> > still had bad peeling. This picture: http://tinyurl.com/2w6ukx
> > <http://tinyurl.com/2w6ukx> was taken in Phoenix by the inspector we
> > hired pre-purchase.
> >
> > Here are the after links for roughly the same two views:
> > http://tinyurl.com/2kjvqo <http://tinyurl.com/2kjvqo>
> > http://tinyurl.com/2jv2lf <http://tinyurl.com/2jv2lf>
> >
> > I'm pretty happy with the results, although I did get a small,
> > unpredicted, rain shower about an hour after I finished the other
side
> > late last week, and there are some pock marks in the paint on three
> > panels. You can't really tell from the ground, so I'm waiting
until it
> > is cured a bit more to see what a bit of 1500-grit sanding and
> > polishing does.
> >
> > Don Bradner
> > 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
> > Eureka, CA
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
>
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>