How Long: Sand, Prep, Paint

[ChrisDunbar]

I've done a lot of reading on painting trailers. I've got a 13 footer that was painted by the PO. Not too keen on the colour and definitely not keen on the brush marks or the lack of prep-work in the first paint job.

I'm planning on taking time off work and doing it all in one go using Interlux. Curious how many man hours you would estimate to do it all? I'm guessing sanding will take me two days. Reasonable?

[Kai in Seattle]

Yes. 2 days for initial sanding could be enough. Double that in your mind, though, so if it does take longer you don't get discouraged.


Paul repaired and repainted our 73 brown amerigo but he did it in sections working around repairs weather, tarping, etc. If you could just forge ahead all day long, two days might be about right. Brush marks! Awful!


Paul used a foam roller with white marine enamel. There's a method called "roll and tip" where you roll and then go over it carefully and lightly with a brush to pop all the bubbles etc., but Paul simply rolled it, hard at first, rolling and rolling until all the bubbles were popped and gone. The marine primer he kept thin and sanded after it dried.


The marine enamel flattened itself; he worked each area until it was as smooth as he could get it. He kept it fairly thin and sanded it again when it was dry, with super fine grit and rolled it a 2nd time, again, working it in well and finishing each stroke to feather into the painted aireas.

It was a lot of work, but we had such a mess to cover, including new patches, fairing, priming, and that brown.


Wishing you good luck. Many tips on FGRV about painting...you can go into the search (type in what you want to find at the bottom of the search pop-up, not the top).


Wishing you happy an successful painting! It was one of the most fulfilling things we did when rehabbing "Peanut." (one shell, two nuts)


BEST
Kai in Seattle
Paul

[stevebaz]

Sanding your trailer could take 2 days if you were scuff and shoot but you have a bad repaint to deal with. That usually means the bad paint has to go. Have a talk with a local Soda Blaster before you end up spending a month of weekends trying to strip off the bad paint so you can then spend a couple of vacation days sanding for final paint. Painting over a crap paint job will just end up having another crap paint job in a couple of years. Unfortunately with the thin fiberglass shells you cant just take a coarse wheel and go to town and come back and sand it smooth again. Wait until you strip off the old paint and find out why they covered up the original surface. Best of luck with your project. I hope it is a really crappy paint job that just blows of with a high pressure water jet. Look into citrus strippers and cover that with plastic film to do its work and then blow it off with a high pressure water jet. Use all safety precautions.

[ChrisDunbar]

Originally Posted by stevebaz

Look into citrus strippers and cover that with plastic film to do its work and then blow it off with a high pressure water jet. Use all safety precautions.

Google brought up some great results where people used Aqua Strip on paint applied over gel coat. Paint comes off and original gel coat stays. I'm not totally sure what's under there. I know that some of the gel coat still exists.

When I removed the windows I saw whoever painted it definitely didn't sand or paint under the window at least. The new paint only goes to the edge of the window frame and the gel coat is still visible under the window frame.

[ChrisDunbar]

Originally Posted by Kai in Seattle

Yes. 2 days for initial sanding could be enough. Double that in your mind, though, so if it does take longer you don't get discouraged.


Paul repaired and repainted our 73 brown amerigo but he did it in sections working around repairs weather, tarping, etc. If you could just forge ahead all day long, two days might be about right. Brush marks! Awful!


Paul used a foam roller with white marine enamel. There's a method called "roll and tip" where you roll and then go over it carefully and lightly with a brush to pop all the bubbles etc., but Paul simply rolled it, hard at first, rolling and rolling until all the bubbles were popped and gone. The marine primer he kept thin and sanded after it dried.


The marine enamel flattened itself; he worked each area until it was as smooth as he could get it. He kept it fairly thin and sanded it again when it was dry, with super fine grit and rolled it a 2nd time, again, working it in well and finishing each stroke to feather into the painted aireas.

I'll be doing most of the work in the shop at work so weather won't get in the way.

From what I've read the lighter colours can be rolled depending on the paint, rollers, skill, etc. but darker colours will need to be rolled and tipped. Not sure what colours we will use but likely a light top and dark bottom. Still toying with ideas. Looking into using AwlGrip for colour choices or attempting to mix Brightside.

I like the AwlGrip colours but not too keen on using a two-part paint with less "repairability"