Our Past RV's

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Excellent work.
Several people have asked on here about having their motor homes painted. The cost is always too high and I have suggested doing it themselves, if they are physically able. I was not a painter by trade but I self taught myself enough to paint several show winning Classic cars, a couple of airplanes, a motor home, and a couple of boats.
I see nothing on your profile to suggest that you were a painter by trade so I have to assume that you just bought the equipment and paint and did it. If that is the case, please explain the pitfalls/rewards of doing it yourself as well as the financial advantages.

Thanks guys for your compliments. I appreciate it.

rgatijnet, I like you am self taught because I had a need at the time and couldn't afford to have someone else do the paint body work on my personal vehicles. Mechanically, I felt very confident from an early age and was/is how I make my living.

To be honest, aside from cost was the fact that many of the paint jobs that I saw being done were "rush" jobs that shops just wanted in and our. The quality of work that I wanted done by using the proper supplies was definitely something I couldn't afford so I learned to do it myself. I figured that the only way I was going to be happy with the quality of the job done was to do it myself. And as my wife puts it, if I am still not happy there is noone else to blame but myself.:)

I to have built some street rods and customs and have been fortunate to have several of them published/featured in magazines such as Street Rodder, Popular Hot Rodding and Sand Sports.

In all I have been very blessed with the skills and abilities that I have acquired and fine tuned. When my wife and I were dating she knew I was heavy into racing, cars, trucks, motorcycles and pretty much any thing with an engine. I told her one of my pet peeves was seeing a similar vehicle in a parking lot. I told her I wanted our stuff to stand out from the crowd.

As far as pitfalls with painting it is having a place to do the work. It is very dirty work and I hate doing it in my yard but don't really have a choice. It also seems like with paint supplies the cost keeps rising faster and faster making it to where the home hobbiest is almost priced out of doing it. It is still worth it in the long run cost wise but the size of the project makes it hard to find a place to perform the work.

Mike.