RMP may not be a good idea after all(kinda long)
Several years ago when the Red Max Pro postings were at a peak in these forums, I opted to do our then 21 or 22 year old RV. Here in California we occasionally have sunshine and it can give your rig a sunburn. Ours was especially bad in spots. The first owner parked it against the west side of his home with a block wall next to it. The shine was completely gone above the shadowline of the wall. For some unknown reason the front end faired far worse than any other part of the rig and it was facing north and mostly shaded.
I washed it with soap and water then scrubbed it with Bar Keepers Friend and then washed again with plain water. Each phase was hand washed and rinsed with our most precious commodity, “fresh water”. Then in the evening and early morning I applied several coats of RMP is light thin coats in order to prevent the undesired effect of runs and bubbles.
OMG, it looked fabulous. During a ten week trip we were proud of our really shiny and new looking rig. Got lots of comments and basked in the glory of having a well maintained rig.
Last year we were at a local beach(any low cost oceanfront and cheap campsite is considered local here) and the DW mentioned what I already knew, some of the RMP was flaking off. I had kept it clean but the only storage we can afford near here is like $350 or $400 a month so it was outside in the sun. I have rotated backing in to our spot and pulling straight in. Still there it was the effect of sunburn on our once shiny RMP coated motorhome.
I have tried a lot of things to remove the remaining RMP and all of then require lots and lots of what old retired guys used up years ago “Elbow Grease”. I finally opted for a jitterbug pneumatic sander with 1500 grit wet and dry sandpaper. I haven’t used it on all the surfaces but I have used it quite a bit. Because it would be impossible (for me anyway) to remove all the RMP and covering it with wax only compounds the problems and makes the rig look like you used several methods of shining up your rig, I have reapplied RMP where needed after removing the first three or four coats I had applied.
I will say that there is one really nice thing about using RMP, no more hard to remove black streaks. Just use good car soap and wash away the black streaks. Now dry it and you find another problem. White streaks.
So for those of you in the Southwest and the Pacific Southwest or as we hate to call it, the desert, don’t use it if you are going to store outside. We are sorta on the edge of selling, were mug-rumps, you know, someone who is on the fence, mug on one side rum on the other. We love our rig and it has a lot of features that were unheard of in entry level rigs 25 years ago and yet we(really you can read that as I) are tired of maintaining ort repairing something almost everyday we are driving it. So if I get my way and we sell it soon, I now have one other thing to tell prospective buyers that might end the sale or reduce the price even further.
Oh, the joys of RVing.
I washed it with soap and water then scrubbed it with Bar Keepers Friend and then washed again with plain water. Each phase was hand washed and rinsed with our most precious commodity, “fresh water”. Then in the evening and early morning I applied several coats of RMP is light thin coats in order to prevent the undesired effect of runs and bubbles.
OMG, it looked fabulous. During a ten week trip we were proud of our really shiny and new looking rig. Got lots of comments and basked in the glory of having a well maintained rig.
Last year we were at a local beach(any low cost oceanfront and cheap campsite is considered local here) and the DW mentioned what I already knew, some of the RMP was flaking off. I had kept it clean but the only storage we can afford near here is like $350 or $400 a month so it was outside in the sun. I have rotated backing in to our spot and pulling straight in. Still there it was the effect of sunburn on our once shiny RMP coated motorhome.
I have tried a lot of things to remove the remaining RMP and all of then require lots and lots of what old retired guys used up years ago “Elbow Grease”. I finally opted for a jitterbug pneumatic sander with 1500 grit wet and dry sandpaper. I haven’t used it on all the surfaces but I have used it quite a bit. Because it would be impossible (for me anyway) to remove all the RMP and covering it with wax only compounds the problems and makes the rig look like you used several methods of shining up your rig, I have reapplied RMP where needed after removing the first three or four coats I had applied.
I will say that there is one really nice thing about using RMP, no more hard to remove black streaks. Just use good car soap and wash away the black streaks. Now dry it and you find another problem. White streaks.
So for those of you in the Southwest and the Pacific Southwest or as we hate to call it, the desert, don’t use it if you are going to store outside. We are sorta on the edge of selling, were mug-rumps, you know, someone who is on the fence, mug on one side rum on the other. We love our rig and it has a lot of features that were unheard of in entry level rigs 25 years ago and yet we(really you can read that as I) are tired of maintaining ort repairing something almost everyday we are driving it. So if I get my way and we sell it soon, I now have one other thing to tell prospective buyers that might end the sale or reduce the price even further.
Oh, the joys of RVing.
