Sunline Fan's Sunny #6 Restoration Thread

[Sunline Fan]

That sure is the truth, John. Put the dehumidifier in yesterday, since it wasn't raining. Pulled about a gallon or a little more out in 8 hours or so. Definitely feels drier in there now. I'll probably run it in there again, when we aren't having so much rain.

Bleached the roof this weekend with JohnB's procedure! I was using old bleach, so there's still some mold left, but it looks significantly better than it did. I put some protectant on it now too.

Also played around with the radio. I bought one of those cassette to aux jack tapes, but it wouldn't play unless I held the play button down. If I locked it in play, it would keep changing directions. Turns out this is a known problem with these tapes. Using the following procedure, I removed the auto reverse part of the tape: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Fixing...e+Flipping+of+a+Cassette-to-Aux+Adaptor/37730

That still didn't fix it, it auto reversed as much as always. I started playing with the tape player and found one of the rubber wheels on the bottom was not spinning freely when locked in play. The other side did spin free. Grabbed some pliers and made a little adjustment to the bar it hit on, so it did spin free. Tape then successfully played for about a half hour uninterrupted! Now I can stream period-correct 90s music in there if I feel like it.

 

[JohnGB]

What brand cassette adapter did you get? The prices seems to be all over the map.

Need one in the F350

 

[Sunline Fan]

What brand cassette adapter did you get? The prices seems to be all over the map.

Need one in the F350

RCA. It was just under $10 shipped.

 

[Sunline Fan]

In my opinion, there are two key pieces to a Sunline restoration- the rock guard and the entry doors. There are the two places that tend to look the worst on a weathered trailer. I'm not a fan of doing vinyl striping on the door again because it tears and peels off so easily on textured FRP, so I opted for a much more permanent solution. Luckily those with '99 and up Sunlines don't deal with these struggles, since those have smooth fiberglass doors.

While the rock guard is done enough for now (until I remake the decal), the doors were not completed to my liking. I originally sprayed the doors white, and then sprayed the door stripes. The original paint I had matched was basecoat, with the intent to clearcoat everything when done. I clearcoated them, but it didn't have the right gloss to it still. Not to mention, I hadn't masked off and painted the small inlay stripes over the gold, so the job wasn't done.

After working with the single stage acrylic on the '79, I knew that was the right stuff for this job. I just got it in cans this time, because with spraying before, the bubble tops on the door plastic remained white. I figured with the texture, any brush marks should be nearly invisible, and I was right. Painting all of it went pretty well and straight forward, the only thing with masking on this plastic is that paint seeps under very easily, so lots of hand touch up was required after.

I didn't keep track, but I'd say it took 4-6 hours to complete both door stripes, and that was with the skins already painted white and a nice basecoat of the same color underneath each one already.

I'm pretty pleased with the results. My only complaint is how faded the old stripes look in comparison (worst with the gold), but this would have been the case if I added NOS or reproduction striping too. The color match will probably be better when the trailer walls aren't covered in dirt from lack of washing. It's pretty dusty from when I mow.

Of course the stripes look like different widths to the trailer walls, but that's the nature of the bent aluminum vs. relatively smooth doors. It looked like this when new too.

 

[JohnGB]

It looks real good Jon! Painful in the amount of time to do it, but the end results came out good.

Thanks for sharing.

How did they ever gets decals to stick to that bumpy surface from Sunline or where they originally painted too?

 

[vcrt]

Looks great Jon!
That's how I did our 92 T-2470 since it had the pebble grain FRP.
Rich

 

[Sunline Fan]

It looks real good Jon! Painful in the amount of time to do it, but the end results came out good.

Thanks for sharing.

How did they ever gets decals to stick to that bumpy surface from Sunline or where they originally painted too?

Thanks John! Yes, Sunline put the same stripe decals on the doors that they did everywhere else. The vinyl worked a lot like tape- it stuck on maybe 75% of the surface when new. It looked great for a few years, longer if the trailer was washed gently and cared for. If the door was exposed to a lot of sun, if it was pressure washed, or if the striping was especially lousy that year, it would peel away. Dirt almost always collected behind it, as could water, which would separate and crack the stripe over time. They usually started peeling or at least cracking from the top edges first.

On one of the doors my dad redid for me years ago, he routed the FRP smooth for the area where the stripes went, so they stuck on smooth. That was new, thicker FRP though, I don't think the same could be done to this factory FRP that's thinner.

Looks great Jon!
That's how I did our 92 T-2470 since it had the pebble grain FRP.
Rich

Thanks Rich! You know the pain well!

 

[johnnybgood-SUN]

Looks very nice Jon.
So you say you brushed them on?
I know I was amazed when I brushed the door of my T-1700. Can’t even see the brush marks.

 

[Sunline Fan]

Looks very nice Jon.
So you say you brushed them on?
I know I was amazed when I brushed the door of my T-1700. Can’t even see the brush marks.

I did! I did most of the stripes with about a 1/2” wide brush, then did the small stripes and touch ups with like an 1/8” brush.