The decision to
paint Lita was an easy one. The number of fractures and dings in her original
fiberglass and subsequent repairs made it inevitable. Also it looked like the PO had already repainted the upper shell at one point. The bigger decision was what to
paint her with. I thought long and hard about this. Do I get a professional spray job done? Do I spray it myself? Do I roll and tip? And what kind of
paint?
Bottom line was I wasn't prepared to spend the $$ on a professional paint job for a 47 year old trailer that I did not need to be in showroom condition. I just wanted it clean and fresh and all her scars covered
Spraying it myself was an option but although I have sprayed paint in the past I just didn't trust my skill level for a big project and didn't have the equipment or space available to spray.
That left rolling/tipping. Decision made. Now what to paint her with?
I've used Interlux Brightside in the past (on my Vancouver 27 topsides when I used to have a hole in the water I threw money into
) and was happy with it but I was looking for a paint that gives me an option for custom tinting as I wanted to stay with something close to the original olive green bottom but maybe a bit brighter. Petit's version had a few more color options but still not what I was looking for. Here in western Canada we have Cloverdale Paint and they have a tintable urethane based marine enamel that some have used and apparently has good wearablity so I thought I might give that a go. Worst case scenario it doesn't last, I sand it down and paint with something else.
I wanted to see how it would look before I leapt into
painting the entire trailer so decided I would start with my gravel guard. I had it already primed and the new stainless hardware from
Camping Treasures installed.
Topside color was chosen to be Signal White and I did a few different coats with rolling (with a foam roller) , rolling and tipping with a bristle brush, rolling and tipping with a foam brush and finally rolling and over rolling with a dry foam roller. Okay that's a lot of coats on the gravel guard). .
So what was the upshot? Just rolling it was fine and over rolling with a dry roller was good too. It spread out well and although it wasn't as flat as a spray finish it looked good... When I added in the tipping it just didn't look right. Maybe that's just me and the way I tipped it but I think just rolling it turned out better.
With the fresh new paint and new hardware and trim. I give the gravel guard a big thumbs up.
The Cloverdale marine enamel is certainly less expensive than the Interlux although as I said that's not why I chose it. Seems to go on fine and from all reports I've dug up holds up well. So I'll give it a go. I'm holding off
painting until the
fall because I'm hoping to get out on the road this summer and also I still have some bodywork to do on the bottom half.
Here's hoping the island opens up soon!! Fingers crossed!!