I've been doing a lot of work for the last 10 days prepping the RV paint and I am just about done, but I hit one snag and I wasn't sure what direction to go.

Normally I wouldn't even ask this question and assume I need to strip the trim in question, but there is a ton of it to strip, some of it has an odd shape which will be very tedious, but more importantly the factory painted base/clear over some of it and after 15 years it was still holding tight as day 1 and looking as good so it leads me to believe that it might be ok... enough to come and ask for a second opinion.

I was doing a wipe down using acetone before scuffing the parts with a red pad that weren't feasible to hit with the DA. I was wiping the trim and it started to feel sticky. I was thinking some adhesive residue was left behind from my decals or something but soon realized the paint was coming off on my rag. No where else on the rig had there been any paint except base/clear and possibly single stage, none it wasn't affected by acetone except these pieces. These aluminum trim parts though, for whatever reason are a different paint. It looked like a white plastic finish but they are actually white painted aluminum I've found out. I'm almost wondering if these trim pieces came straight from the manufacture of the trim itself shot with an exterior house paint or something, because these are the type of trim pieces I could see being used an a house as easily as this motorhome. It didn't seem to lift and peel like latex, but my thought was it probably wasn't automotive paint.

The crazy part is that the white paint on those parts were perfect everywhere... it wasn't peeling or scratched and it still looked really good, to the point I thought it was a gloss plastic finish or auto paint. I rubbed a small section with acetone and was able to rub it to bare scratched aluminum.

Again, I wouldn't even bother to ask and would have just stripped if it were a small piece, or easy enough to strip, but there is a a lot of it and the fact that base/clear that was shot over portions of it that were holding up so well they might as well been shot on primer. I mean aggressive sanding of the base/clear that was painted over this paint didn't phase it or anything.

I planned on sealing with epoxy but I wasn't sure if the solvent would soften up the paint and give me a problem, or if this trim paint would just harden back up after it flashed off and grip like has been for all this time. I'm dreading the idea of sanding or stripping it all, there is so much of it, but if it is the right thing to do that is what I need to do.

What do you think?

well this is one of those situations where you have to ask yourself are you willing to risk it?
you obviously know why you should not paint over it so I wont get into that. are you sure the pieces that have the base/clear painted on them werent stripped and painted?

If you are worried about lifting just mask off a small area and shoot it as a test. This is the first thing you should have done before posting. Make believe this is your job, it is crunch time and there is nobody to ask for help.

The manufacturer did not use exterior house paint on the trim. It was most likely powder coated or another industrial finishing process.
As an example: Sign material, including sheet aluminum comes prefinished in many colors and can be painted over without failure. Lacquer thinner will dull it, just as with does to any powder coated frame I've had and I've painted over those too.

the first thing I would do is stop using the acetone for wipe down, get some wax and grease remover. try some of your reducer for your epoxy, color or clear on the paint and see if it comes of easily like it did with the acetone. acetone is much hotter than urethane reducer.
Jay D.

Ok, I will test an area with some reducer and see what happens. I wasn't sure what I was type of finish I was dealing with because I have never encountered something on anything on my cars, bikes, etc that had the paint soften like that with a solvent and wasn't sure if there was cause for concern. I will use the dewax/degreaser on those areas to clean it. The reason I was using acetone is there was some lap sealant around the edges of the windows and trim pieces I had to trim that left a residue film behind that only the acetone would clean up and it butted up with that trim which is how I encountered it.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm the last leg of the prep finally and have every exposed surface finally cleaned, sanded and scuffed and all the minor repairs finished. Very sore but anxious to get the paint laid down on this once all the materials show up. I will update with photos once its done.

I've got to place an order for the clear tomorrow. I'm going with ********** clear since it seems to be a good value which was the key factor since I need so much material, but also don't want to buy bottom shelf since there is so much sweat equity into this now. I'm still not sure if the Universal or Production clear is the best, been going back and forth on this in my head all weekend. I was recommended the production clear in terms of cost and ease of application even though I'm doing it in sections. After doing the math though the UV is not much more expensive per sprayable gallon. I'm not sure if the film thickness would be the same or better with the UV per sprayable gallon... meaning if you shot the a gallon of each on the same surface area the UV would be as thick or thicker. If so it would probably be the better choice since the added flex in it would be an advantage I believe and it is a light color base. I'll have to talk it over with **********.