I think by this stage of the game, most readers are wanting to see some "pretty" results. It's like, "alright already - how long are these daily posts going to show ugly surfaces? When will this little beauty actually display some of her gorgeousness, like in Galley and Greatroom?"
For this I have two comments.
1- Soon.
2- You ain't seen nothing yet.
For one thing, the finish sanding has begun and as anybody who has done that correctly can tell you, there's a reason why a paint shops don't invite you back into their work areas and let you see the progress while they scratch up your beautiful car, and it ain't for insurance reasons like they say.
I mean - I hope. I think. It's logical... Right?
So I think this back wall is ready for paint.
And that's probably the prettiest picture you're gonna see for awhile!
While sanding that back wall I noticed something. Simply using a sander and paper wasn't doing the best job on the areas of paint that were peeling and lifting (or ridged as in a run or against a trim piece). The peeling and lifting don't seem to be the result of poor adhesion (improper previous painting prep - say that fast three times), but rather the result of brittleness where the metal has been re-shaped - by the impact of staples or by the folding over of the edge with a hammer, etc.
Here are some clear examples.
And note that DOESN'T occur where there is original paint like this color band that wasn't re-sprayed in the past.
It just seems to be happening on the bright white sections.
Lil' Queeny was originally painted an off-white (probably colonial white) and the color band was gold. Sometime in the past she was re-sprayed (including the front gold Vee-band) with a bright white. And they are two different paints. I believe the bright white is an automotive grade oil-based product and that's what makes it brittle (one of it's properties).
I think I'll be making a "paint and primer" post over in "Finishes & Finishing" one of these next days, detailing the myriad information I've been kind of garnering on the subject here lately - it's really kind of overwhelming.
But at least for now, my mind is still planted firmly in surface prep. I have always believed the most important steps for a quality paint job are in the preparation.
So I found I needed to address the "peeling and lifting" before the first rough sanding (I found the first rough sanding of the metal before installation was more like an initial pre-rough sanding. It's kind of amazing just how many places were missed - what with my face clear down by the floor and the out-of-body experience THAT can cause). I went low tech. Out came the pocket knife (it's a handy size and needs a new edge anyway), and I crawled all over Lil' Queeny looking for candidate locations.
Here are some post-scraping shots.
I did that in many places all over the camper, some small, some larger, most around the bend areas. These were mostly on the roof/side-wall metal, a few on the underside of the bunk and lower front wall surface, very few on the diamond-pattern portions like the Vee-nose front wall and that back-wall, but there were a few and also some "scrape" spots in the form of adhering paint in a ridge where it had butted against a trim piece or something. These were all scraped back to where it felt tight and secure. It's now ready for real sanding.
And by this time, I had also been going though things on the shelves to continue getting my head around next steps. One of those was how to best mask for painting, so as to protect finished interior surfaces. I got the idea to use interior window-trim frames. I think I'll mask them, temporarily install them, and final seal with masking tape where these meet the edges of the rough openings. That would take care of most openings, and I might use cardboard in the same way for much of the others.
So I got the windows down and removed all the old steel screens from the interior trim-frames.
Eventually we'll replace with new modern style screening. One of the first things we bought back when I thought all I needed to do was reseal windows. :R
Here's the full stack.
And their associated windows.
And one last picture so I can get to the right calendar date - here are the originally added, after-market corner jack brackets that were instrumental in destroying Lil' Queeny's corners. Note how after lags failed to grab in the splintered wood framing, a PO tried to glue these back on with HUUUGE beads of silicon.
I scraped these and set them aside in my metal scrap storage for some future purpose. I doubt seriously they will EVER find their way back to Lil' Queeny for ANY use - but you never can tell!
