Painting a '79 Exterior

[breanajc]

Hello Friends,
My husband, parents, and I are redoing our 79 Sunline and we are gearing up to tackle painting the outside. Can anyone recommend how to do this and what paint you would recommend? Thanks!

[FiveORacing]

There's a bunch of video's on youtube of guys who have done it from budget to show quality. Bunch of different ways to go about it too. Do you have a picture of the trailer and what your goals are? I have an old race trailer I'm gonna paint with foam rollers and Rustoleum this summer.

[breanajc]

I have pictures of our camper on my profile, but I attached a photo of what we're going for in the end.

[Skip]

Polished aluminum is a ton of work to get that bright and hard to keep that way. You can shoot a coat of clear over it but it will darken over that bright aluminum. You can keep an airplane that way if you keep it in a hanger and rub on it every weekend. I am going to paint my 79 1750 but I have a spray booth to do it in. If you want to do it right you can get a stripper specifically for aluminum but DO NOT get it on plastics. Wear some gloves and use Scotchbright green pads. Don`t use steel wool or stainless steel wool. Strip it down and WASH IT GOOD. Then you get a gallon or so of Alodine etching liquid and rub it down with that. It will etch the aluminum and give it a slight gold color and promote the paint adhesion. You can build a cheap plastic spray booth outside from scrap wood and plastic sheeting just make sure it is big enough for you to be able to stand back at least 4 ft from the sides of it. For that I would spray the entire camper with a base coat of white and let it dry at least 24 hours then tape it off and spray your accent color. You can use either a basecoat/clearcoat or a single stage enamel it depends on what you are looking for you will have to reduce whatever you use . DON`T get anxious and try to put it all on in one or two coats just a light misting of each coat with about 20 mins flash time between coats will prevent runs. Make sure it is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN and if you think you may have some oil even from our hands on it use some fish eye preventer. 95% of a good paint job is in the prep work.

[breanajc]

Wow, thank you so much for this info!! I think we are going to forgo the shiny silver stripe and just do the white and blue. But your other information will come in handy. My dad used to paint cars to he will have the know how to do most of it, but none of us knew what kind of paint or prep to do for it. Thanks again!

[Skip]

ALODINE 1201 from Aircraft Spruce