paint or gel coat??

[Brian Dale]

[1972 compact jr] input needed is this a trailer that has been painted multiple times or does anyone know if a "primer" was used under gelcoat? I bought the trailer with the dark blue as you see in the photo(too dark to be the pastel colors originally used) but when I began sanding there was a tan color under the blue -see picture
And then under the tan was a bold and beautiful red. Any chance my jr was originally a red? I've seen a couple hunter II trailers that were red, but as far as I knew the jr's were all pastel pink,blue, green and yellow from the factory. I'd appreciate everyone's input

[John in Michigan]

A couple of years ago I saw a Hunter camper with the original gelcoat, and guess what? It was a darkish red similar to your photos. So you might try stripping off the paint using a gelcoat-friendly stripper. Some people paint over gelcoat because they want a different color, while others paint over gelcoat to hide fiberglass repairs.

[Brian Dale]

Thank you for replying, that's good to know, as I'd rather restore the gelcoat vs painting. Do you happen to remember if it was a compact II or compact jr? I'll look into a stripper compatible with gelcoat. Happy 4th

[John in Michigan]

Brian I didn't notice which model. I saw it at a Tin Can Tourists rally, and it was the only molded fiberglass camper there. The rest were canned ham and Airstream style campers.

[Donna D.]

The Hunter definitely came with a red gelcoat, at least on the bottom: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...res-40016.html

[John in Michigan]

The Hunter that I saw at the TCT rally was red gel coat all over, not two tone. It was a deep, dark, aged red.

[ARVZ]

Gelcoat is basically colored polyester resin you catalyze and apply just like the structural layers. There is no need to use a primer; it's all the same stuff.


If you want to add structural layers over existing gelcoat or fiberglass, just sand/grind down through the UV-damaged layer or just remove the high-gloss imparted by the mold surface so you have a chemically clean, rough, fairly flat surface to apply more fiberglass resin and cloth to. You don't have to take all the gelcoat off to get a good bond.

[roadsterswap]

Try looking inside the camper under the seat area or behind a cabinet. You may be able to identify over spray or the original gel coat. Also try looking in the wheel wells and under the body there are large panels under the floor that I doubt anyone would repaint when they are repainting since you would not be able to see it. They may have covered it with undercoating that you could strip back.

[k corbin]

It is interesting to see and understand how molded fiberglass shells are made. So below is a video tour of the process.



when a molded fiberglass trailer is made inside the mold first thing that goes onto the sides of the mold is a release agent. That is not part of the finished surface. The next thing done to the mold is to coat it with the gel coat material. That is sprayed on in a thin layer. After that the "chop" which is resin mixed with chopped up strands of fiberglass threads is sprayed into the mold. Then it is left in the mold to cure before taking the parts out of the mold. So the gel coat amd the fiberglass structure are bonded together layers.



Go to 12:00 minutes on this video to see Gel coat being applied inside of a boat mold. Same process is used for the molded fiberglass trailers. Note the very bright red and green colors on the inside of the molds, that is the release agent that was applied to the mold so that the shell can easily come out of the mold after curing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfzvbrhH-94

This video shows the "chop" being applied over the gel coat layer. It gets sprayed on with a special gun that cuts and mixes the fiberglass strands into the resin. Then another worker follows behind with a roller to compress and even out the sprayed on layer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UmB1_rsxo

[Brian Dale]

Interesting indeed! Thanks KC for posting the video. How's the Campster coming along? I've really enjoyed following along as you documented the progress. And thank you to all the others for taking the time to reply