Interior Design – Painting

Oh one more thing. The fresh paint makes all the trim look old.
I removed things like the plastic air conditioner cover and light housings that had yellowed with age.
I cleaned them with paint thinner then primed and painted them, with white rattle-can paint.
That made a huge difference. It gave the rig a clean new appearance.
I also used adhesive vinyl contact paper to redo the countertops.
Sure it’s too fragile to cut on with knives but it’s held up surprisingly well and looks WAY better.
I pulled the sink to put it on, and trimmed the outer edges with a razor knife.
The floor is that snap-together “engineered hardwood” stuff.

Youngm3571 wrote:
Might also consider “off gassing” factor. Might take quite a while for the smell to go away in such a confined space.

It’s no different than painting a room in your house.
I had no issues with that.

You get to choose your colors too. The main reason we painted our old camper was that we HATED the dark icky wood paneling.

I thought it was a bad idea and would look cheap and crummy too. But when my wife transformed the thing from a depressing ‘70s basement rec room looking dungeon to a “glamper” looking, light and fresh place with a lot of our personal favorite teal shades, it was amazing. A lot of people have admired it.

We got a new Northern Lite, and we aren’t gonna paint that. But if it’s anything that isn’t super new and fresh, go for it. It’ll be better than you think.

About how much effort it is, it’s a lot. The edges and corners are the tedious part of painting anything, and the whole camper interior is edges and corners. It’s nothing like rolling paint across a big empty bedroom wall.
But it’s totally worth it.

Might also consider “off gassing” factor. Might take quite a while for the smell to go away in such a confined space.

Yeah, I'm a semi-retired professional, so I made my suggestions from that point of view. But it's definitely not something as simple as painting a room in an S&B

When I was looking for a truck camper a couple of years ago, I looked at many many campers, of those campers there was a fair share that were advertised as remodeled. Basically they painted the interior. The reasons for the remodel im sure was varied, but none of them (as in absolutely NONE) were as nice or clean looking as the original finishings. I came to the conclusion that repainting was a whole heck of lot of work to do it right. I would rethink the idea of painting etc. and try to make your jail cell more livable in ways that don't require a complete paint job. I am sure it can be done, and as mentioned above they were talking professional interior painters, if you insist on painting Id go in with idea that painting even a truck camper is more than slapping some paint on the walls. You asked for ideas, concerns in painting the interior of your truck camper, I say don't do it.

TEST your primer before you commit.

Do a little patch, then come back in the morning and see if you can scratch it off with your thumbnail. If not, see if you can scratch it off with a butter knife. You should not be able to, without damaging the surface underneath. If you have several kinds of primer around, do a test patch of each.

Personally, I have never seen Zinsser 1-2-3 primer successfully stick to anything other than drywall and maybe bare wood.

Killz is good. It comes in oil-based or water-based. Gripper is also good. Also Z-prime.

Once you find a primer that works on your surface, do a test patch of primer plus paint. Let it sit for a few weeks before you do more painting. Sometimes the areas you want to paint turn out to have a surface coating, or glue or something underneath, that offgasses and causes paint to bubble up. If that's going to happen, you want to know before you paint a large area! BT;DT.

It only looks cheap if you do a poor job.
My wife is an ex-pro painter and did our old Vacationeer, it looks awesome and way better than original.

Our walls are vinyl covered luan plywood, cabinets I assume lacquer, maybe polyu.
(shiny clear stuff)
Ive had really good luck with Zinsser 1-2-3 primer. Stuff bonds to everything.
Jasco makes a good water base TSP substitute for grime/degreasing/degloss. Used without over wetting should be good over nonsandable surfaces (vinyl)also.
Painting is easy-its the prep..clean sand prime.

Jim is trolling again.
What other finish than lacquered wood, laminate or vinyl wallpaper you have in your TC ?

Photomike wrote:

jimh425 wrote:

Photomike wrote:

jimh425 wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:
This is water-based, cheap sealer, design for saving money while painting new drywall. When you apply it over lacquer or vinyl it will peel off at alarming rate.

What kind of RV has lacquer or vinyl walls?

Many have vinyl walls as the wall board that was used was covered in vinyl.

How about naming one? I've never seen one.

The Northern Lite I had used a vinyl covering on the wall board material. It was a thin board with a wrap around the board to give it the texture pattern. Several of the Bigfoot's that I have seen used the same wall board. Also many trailers use the same board.

Thanks.