Hi,

I have been a lurker on here for a while absorbing knowledge over time, but this is one topic I have not been able to find a clear consensus on and could really use some input from those in the know. I am not a pro painter, but I have sprayed enough of my own projects to feel confident enough to prep and shoot once I have a plan in place, even though it is a large undertaking. If I were painting bare metal or repainting I would know what to do, but I am clueless on the best approach for this.

I recently bought a 15 year old Class A motor home (34 foot long). It is white gelcoated fiberglass, with single color metallic paint on the skirt (the lower 1/4th, where the storage compartment areas are) and rear cap. Back when these were made making the boring white fiberglass body flashy with vinyl decals were all the rage and after all the time mine have been eaten alive by the sun. Not just the decals either. One side of the motorhome the sun has killed the painted portion (skirt) and the clear coat is peeling off.

I'm in the process of removing all the decals and was initially going to try to blend the "ghosting" created from the now exposed fresh gelcoat with the old gelcoat and clean it up. The skirt area needs to be repainted without question. But after seeing just how nasty these decals become after several years and the immense labor involved in removing them I don't like the idea of putting decals back on. Plus, gelcoat just doesn't look as nice as paint.

My thinking is starting to lean towards full body paint (roof excluded), which is pretty much standard on all motorhomes within the last several years. The problem is I am not sure what the best paint system is and the best prep method.

For starters, the paint scheme will be 80% white, 20% beige (non-metallic). Nothing fancy, but instead of having a straight line separation between the skirt color and the main body color I was going to put some curve into it to break it up a little more akin to the newer type of motorhome paint schemes.

The gelcoat is in good shape. The currently painted area (skirt) has faded paint where it looks like two different colors in spots along clear failure. The big thing is I have never worked on fiberglass/gelcoat and have no idea the best paint system or prep. There are lots of moldings, there are some nooks and inside corners. I wasn't sure if sanding was in order, or if perhaps soda blasting might be a more efficient way of prepping?

The other curveball is the mix of base materials... 80% of it fiberglass (sides, front cab/cap and most of rear cap), 15% is metal (the storage compartment doors and part of the rear cap), 5% plastic (the doors have plastic laminate which still look like new because they were painted white). Everything is straight and clean though with the exceptions of some tiny (.100" give or take .050" by .001-.002" wide) hair line cracks you can see (cannot feel) in the fiberglass when you are about 12" away that exist at the edge of some of the decals. My assuming is the heat being absorbed by the decals transferred to the glass, and if so they are probably under the decals those appear by also.

Aside from the prep strategy, the next hangup is the paint system. I'm not looking for show quality or trying to replicate an experienced shop... a rattle can would be an immediate upgrade on the faded and peeling skirt. The entire motorhome is not even worth the price it would cost to have a quality full body job done by a shop and I have the time and equipment (just not confident in a strategy yet). At the same time, if I'm going to put the time and labor in and the money into the materials I am going for something that is going to hold up for a while with basic care, even if you can tell it wasn't shot by quality shop. After painted it will be maintained and kept under a cover when stored, it doesn't need to withstand direct UV/heat 365 for the next 15 years.

From my initial research it seems to come down to Imron (and alternatives) or traditional SS or BC. I'm not sure what is the best between cost of material (again, cheap motorhome so not looking for top shelf, but best performance in a value sense) and application ease (this probably around 350 sqft of coverage).

Many of the RVs seem to use Imron. If what I'm seeing on other rigs is Imron is would be fine for me... what I often see on some full paint rigs using standard colors doesn't look like a deep multi clear coated BC system, it almost looks shallow, kind of like SS or a fresh vinyl graphic but with the sheen of paint. It is hard to describe, but the high end ones look to be clearly using BC with the number of colors, metallics and the scheme.

I guess the big question is if you were going to do full body paint on RV like I described, and you were being budget concious to keep the paint in perspective with the value of the RV, and you were doing it by yourself... what paint system would you opt for, and how you would you tackle the prep to make it ready to take paint?

Thanks in advance for the answers. I know this is probably a lot to address in a single reply, so even just a recommendation on one particular aspect would go a long way right now.

I can't answer that question, but I'm officially leaving the RV fixer-upper realm. We graduated from a pop-up camper (rotted-out POS that I gutted and restored) to a 2005 Gulfstream travel trailer (rotted-out POS that I gutted and restored), and now to a "used" 2015 Starcraft Launch Ultra Lite.

Looking forward to following your progress.

Wrencher
Dam dude that was a long read lol
Pictures would go a long way

First off 34' x lets say 9 for sake of argument 306 sq feet x 2 = 612 sq ft add ends lets say 12 x 9 =108 x 2 = 216 sq ft thats 828 sq feet total per coat I can almost guaranty you can figure two coats of each and I would say three would be more appropriate and correct so that's 2,484 sq feet of material for 3 full coats of each material to do whole thing in one solid color now we need to know how many sq feet a Gallon of primer will do and how many a gallon of Base coat will do and the same for the Clear then you can figure out how many gallons of each your gonna need. $$$$
I suggest using a local jobber to buy paint supplies from that way if you need more there near by but Southern Polly Urethane makes some nice stuff at competitive prices. yes this is gonna get expensive especially with Imron write it all down on a piece of paper with how many gallons of each and ALL the prices all tallied and figured and add in another $500 just for things like sand paper and odds and ends write it all down on a piece of paper and stick it in your pocket.

First off get all remaining decals off the fiber glass have you tried a heat gun? A torpedo heater might work better for you but be careful not to get either one too close to the fiber glass also the people who put these Stickers on have a great remover for them I forget what its called but its similar to GOOF OFF but way stronger probably need a gallon at least and it shouldn't hurt any thing Gel coated fiberglass included I would imagine but don't take my word for it ask them and read the tech sheets for it, any one that does plastic graphics will have the stuff or can get it or tell you where to get it.

After getting all the stickers off I would clean and polish ALL the panels with McGuires 105 heavy cut cleaner get a gallon jug of the stuff from your paint supplier/Jobber and a bunch of 8 inch Wool pads in hand with a variable speed buffer and go for it! you may need some scaffolding for this project I bought an e'lcheapo roll around one from Harbor freight just move planks up and down to how hi you wanna be and the wheels lock look online for it on there web sight it will be an invaluable tool for this project.

When your done getting all the oxidation off with a buffer I betcha your gonna be impressed with it, it goes fairly quickly and will remove a lot of oxidation then stand back and look at it. Then pull out that piece of paper I told you to put in your pocket about how much all the paint stuff is gonna cost and get back with me about what you wanna do. lol

Either way all the oxidation has to come off you can sand it off OR BUFF it off.
Its your choice BUT I betcha you leave it alone after buffing it and leave it under covered parking!

Good Buffer $200
5-10 wool pads $100
gallon of Heavy cut cleaner $65-$100
gallon of sticker remover $75
Harbor freight scaffolding $100? $150???

You don't wanna know how expensive Imron is

I am hoping the upper sides are just gel coat if so after heavy cut cleaner you will be impressed I am sure but you can just sand it and clear coat the Gel coat I am almost 100% sure but let one our paint experts chime in on that I may be 100% wrong and you do need to prime and paint then clear but lets hope I'm rite and gel coat can be cleared after a light sanding, I know I clear coated my old ski boat after doing this process and the Clear stuck to the Gel coat just fine.
The lower sides with the peeling clear coat is different animal but still the same it is gonna need to be repainted in order to do that your gonna need to sand it out smooth feather the edges of the peeling clear or other damage then prime it then sand it all out smooth then repeat as necessary till it is strait and smooth then base coat with the color of your choice and then spray your clear coat. just repainting the lower portion is gonna be a horror story from he!! for ya as is doing it out side or a in a dusty barn with bad lighting not something I would wanna do to much dirt and too many square feet of side.

Just me but I would Buff the upper sides as I explained repaint lower section and reapply a new Plastic Graphics in a style that you like get a different style with different colors and apply to upper side like it was originally BUT keep the graphics treated with the special stuff your supposed to put on them every year or so, People leave them out in the elements and never take care of them they maybe put wax on it once the whole time they own it and that's it and then the decals goes to pot don't be afraid of a good Graphics kit take care of them and they do last a long time, keep wax on your exposed Gel coat and keep the thing under covered parking!

good luck
Dennis

Dennis,

Thank you for the very detailed reply. Things have changed now that all decals have been removed, I probably should have waited until I get further along and I had a better idea myself of the situation. I was not aware of the cost of Imron and others had talked casually about it as an option so I thought the costs were close, not a premium. Imron is out, so I'm looking at BC/CC or single stage and what has the best value in terms of cost/performance. I'm looking for more utility/economy as opposed to show car in terms of visual result, but having paint that will hold up for 10 years would be nice. It will be two-tone and the primary color will be white, and about 1/3 of it will be a light tan / khaki color. I cannot use any dark colors because it will cause thermal cracking just like the decals did, and after the pain of removing those crappy decals I will never put decals back. Plus, a basic set of replacement decals is $1,500 or more if they can be found. For an alternate light color scheme it would be over $3k.

The heat gun was effective for the decals that still appears pretty fresh that hadn't been faded or cracked. The faded and baked on decals required an eraser wheel. All decals are removed.

The gelcoat was generally in good shape so I would have been able to get away with fine sanding out the fresh gelcoat under the decals to blend it and buffing the whole thing out and just repainting the bottom 1/4 of the rig where the factory paint had faded. That would have saved me a lot of painting. Except one thing... after removing the faded decals that were dark in color it revealed a thermal cracking everywhere the decals were. I am going to add pics in a second.

The good news is it only under certain decals, but some of them were a couple feet by 6-12", so even if I polish the gelcoat out and it looks good and uniform I will still have these spider cracks everywhere those decals were. You can't really notice it from 15 feet, but I figure why go through all of the trouble polishing it just to leave those nasty cracks when I can put that time into prep/sanding and shoot it.

The only alternative I see to a complete paint job is to try to fill the cracks with a color match white gelcoat. I think it could possibly come out good enough for my purposes, but I don't know for sure. I'm thinking about doing a test repair on a small section of them and see how it comes out, but for some reason I feel like repairing them and shooting with a high fill primer and painting the whole thing.

Pictures are coming and opinions will be welcome!

I have attached pics below so you can get an idea of what I am dealing with. The pic shows the whole rig with the decals removed. Everything not white is paint, included the swooshy area towards the back, that is single stage paint.

There are also a pics showing the thermal cracking of the gelcoat that occurred where some of the darker decals were present. Lastly, I have included a pic of what they grey single stage paint in the back looks like because the dark color of it causes thermal cracking in the gelcoat also.








I figure that trying to a color match gelcoat repair on the cracks will be a lot of work to look decent enough to make it worth the effort, which is why I'm leaning towards just full paint on the whole thing. Plus, that grey paint has to be removed, those cracks filled that area painted over so I was thinking I might as well do the whole thing. Plus, there are many other spots that have that thermal cracking, but they are just a couple here and there usually next to the decals.

The paint scheme is going to be all white except the lower 1/3 which will be light tan. It won't be straight across the storage bays, I was going to break up the look with it a swooshy design, which I post on here, but it is very simple to do and mask.

So two big questions are....

1) If you were repainting this how would tackle the cracks. Would you grind them out and resin fill them, or just sand it smooth and primer, or...? Would you primer the whole thing and seal, or just primer the cracks/repairs and shoot?

2) Would you use Single Stage, BC/CC, or Single Stage the white and shoot tan BC and clear over it all? Oh, and what paint system do you think has the best value in terms of longevity vs price.

I was tempted to single stage the whole thing white, scuff, mask, shoot tan and bury in clear. Since the rig is so large it would give me plenty of time to prepare for the second color and get setup and not feel rushed.

The downside is that is a lot of scuffing to do to make the single stage ready to have have BC and CC over it and to make sure it is all done well enough to prevent delamination and such from every nook and cranny.

Instead I am thinking the best approach is to just use BC/CC and take it one section at a time since there are some dividing lines on where there is molding and such. So I could just work on one side at a time and do all the paint without that extra prep on top of the Single Stage.

So how would you guys tackle this if you were wanting a white/light tan paint job that you wanted to be holding up well after several years but were also trying to keep the costs down since it is not an expensive rig. That is kind of the ultimate goal on this.

I figure I should clarify since my first post and last before this are contradictory... the swoosh on the rear in single stage paint. The storage areas and the rear cap (not shown) are weird... on one of the bins you can tell it is BC because the clear is delaming and peeling off one of the doors and the rear cap. The other doors may have been BC and had the clear all totally come off, but it seems like those were SS. The colors look different so it makes me think perhaps it had body work done at one point and that is why there is a mix SS and BC on this thing.

Not that any of this matters, but figure I would clear it up.

As soon as I'm confident on the strategy to go with, which right now I'm leaning towards all BC and working in sections (one side at time). I feel like shooting it all white in SS and then doing the tan two tone in Base and clearing it all would be the best way to do it if it weren't for all the scuffing I would need to do to make the SS ready for B and C. Does strictly BC s sound like the best idea in terms of efficiency and getting job that will last?

Then of course, how would you guys handle the prep, especially with those thermal cracks if this was yours...
sand, primer everything, seal, shoot
or just primer the cracks, and would you even bother with sealing?

And last but not least... any recommendation on the base and clear to use with a good blend between longevity and price?

Thanks!

Wow those cracks go through the Gel coat and into the resin and may be deeper.
You can sand it out all you want the cracks are not going away sorry. Any thing you put over will show the cracks. Short of sanding it all out into the glass and laying up a couple layers of glass then roll some Gel coat on and sand it smooth its still not gonna look good.
I Don't know what else you can do but replace the panel?
Gel coat is applied in the mold first and glass is applied over that.

I would Buff it out best you can with Heavy cut cleaner as I explained before and and just use it as is. Paint or more Gel coat will just crack and show through, Those cracks go into the glass I know you don't wanna here that but it's true.

A few years ago, I had an RV that had a Minor Generator fire I was looking at changing 2-3 panels them selves on an RV I was getting the panels out of LA. From a Camper supply that specialized in supplying Body shops for RVs that had been wrecked burned or damaged in shipping.
As I remember for $700-$900 I was replacing half of a whole side, the stuff is only held on by short wood screws and some Aluminum trim and some caulking plus what ever accessories that may be sticking through. Take the trim off and remove panels lay old panel on top of new panels cut to shape and put the new one back on. Just don't get too excited by the flimsy 1''x 1'' wood frame and lack of insulation lack of steel under the panels nothing to those things. I had some problems with a window as I remember but nothing major.

Talk to some other fiberglass guys they will tell ya those cracks are not going away, not when there that bad and your not gonna be able to hide them under paint sorry just too far gone.

The way I found the supplier was going through my insurance adjuster he knew a guy who knew a guy sorta deal but sure enough they got me hooked up so I could get brand new panels cheap. I made some money on that deal in the end.

Well, honestly I don't know much about these big motorhomes but fiberlgas is fiberglas. You do indeed have what is called "thermal fatigue stress cracking" which as you have said was brought on by the dark decals which acted like magnifying glass for the sun in those areas and worse yet "sealed " the heat to the surface from day one of manufacturing. Now that the decals have been removed you are prone to "osmotic blistering" which simply means moisture and water can get down into those cracks and start lifting the gel coat. Ordinarily stress cracks occur from movement. On kit cars they are anywhere there is movement. These go all the way down (as Doright correctly pointed out) into the underlying resin/mat and are very problematic. They are usually V'd out with a Dremel tool and a drill hole stop is shot in the end of each crack. The V is filled out with epoxy or fiberlgas resin and finely chopped up mat and filled out.
This thermal stress cracking is a different animal though.... It's a distortion in the surface gel that is starting from the outside and going in. Just blowing up your pics. I don't think these are exceptionally deep. Local boat guys have had pretty good luck with some products from this company.... http://www.magicezy.com/
Personally, I don't like it when companys use terms like "magic" in their product description but they do seem to have some products that can stabilize these cracks. If you can't get them stable that way you are looking at replacement or a lot of extra time/ money to get a decent stable surface. Stress cracks can be the "worst" of those "ghosts" that can come up through your paint so you've got to take them seriously or your other processes are just going to be wasting your money.

Side wall panels
http://classarvrepairs.com/RepairsReconstruction.html

http://www.cranecomposites.com/industri ... ewall.html

Hey, Doright, those are pretty cool sites. It's amazing what's available out there for those vehicles....