Forum Discussion

Dog_Trainer's avatar
Dog_Trainer
Explorer
Mar 22, 2014

Stripe, Paint or leave Bare

I have decided to upgrade the outside of the MH a bit. The decals are old and fading. I did replace the front decals about 6 years ago but starting to fade again. I am thinking of 3 choices
1. strip the old off and polish up the gelcoat do not put stripes on it.
2. strip the old stripes off and have new ones made.
3. strip the old off tape off the area and paint new stripes on.
I did a brief search but did not find a thread discussing all 3. I thought I would throw this out here and see what y'all think. I have a friend that painted for Chrysler for 30 years I was thinking of asking him to help me repaint them on. Loosely translated meaning I will do the grunt work and he the painting. any suggestions
  • There is striping material then there is striping material. Using the best quality material that you can find may be the most cost effective. Find a place that does boats.

    Painting, along with a clearcoat ontop, will be the most durable. Also the most expensive.
  • When we got our new 5er, the DW and I both liked the idea of limited graphics. We would be ok with the front and back caps but wanted the sides white. couldn't do that. If I was confronted with this option I know which way I would go.
  • Go naked. We peeled off the decals, power buffed with a #2 compound, painted the bottom grey by hand, waxed, polished etc. Cheap. The motorhome is only worth 10,000 bucks so didn't want to spend too much money. Getting the decals off was way fun.

    Here is the before.



    And the after.

  • I don't like messy graphics. Looking at your rig, you had minimal graphics, I think I would strip them off and paint the same general minimal stripes back on, then clear coat.
  • Nekkid is my vote. I don't have stripes, swirls, and swoops on my house and I don't really care for them on my rig. To me, all that busy-work is a "look at me" attitude.
  • I would paint them on. I have done it on my last 2 MHs and it worked great, no more fading. I just sprayed on acrylic enamel. The masking is worse than the painting.
  • When I do ours I will paint where the original stripes are. Vinyl just doesn't last long.
    On another note what did you have to do to uprate your 5.9 to 300hp?
  • RV Graphics
    Ten years ago we were spending the winter months at Outdoor Resorts - Cathedral City CA .
    During that time there are several RV shows nearby .
    I happened upon a vendor at one of those shows who installed fancy vinyl RV graphics on tow vehicles , trailers , and electric golf carts .
    I ordered a design from a catalogue they had .
    A few days later they arrived and the shop installed them in an afternoon .
    Still got 'em .
    No peeling , no fading , and they look like the fancy smancy graphics on the DP motorhomes .
    I removed all of the factory "Komfort " decals .
    You can buy the vinyl graphics online an install them yourself .
    links:
    http://graphicsrv.com/
    and:
    http://accentstripes.com/Custom_RV_Graphics_Kits.html
    and:
    http://www.rvstripes.com/

    I am happy with mine .