Painting the Interior

Surface preparation has always been my mantra....anything to really clean and lightly ruff up the surface. TSP back in the old days.

Is the veneer actual wood, or is it that stick-on wood-look stuff?

You will definitely need to give it a light sanding. Or you could try a liquid deglosser, although I have never found one that was very effective. Much easier, though, if you find a good one.

You will also need an extra sticky primer, like Kilz-2 or Gripper.

My most important tip: Do sample patches. Lightly sand, degloss in a eparate area if you are trying that. Then do a patch each of a few different primers.

Leave them overnight, then come back in the morning and try to scratch them off. Try your fingernail first. If you can't scratch the primer off with your nail, try scratching gently with something metal. Don't gouge the wood :-). But you want to choose the primer that will really stay on there. If you use something that scratches off easily you will be very disappointed in a year!

My experience is that cabinets are often wood veneer which is just a thin layer of wood. Prep and paint accordingly. In my rig I found that some rounded corners were actually a plastic material that looked like wood - that might require a different approach.

If its paper or vinyl sanding may only cause it to fuzz. Jasco makes a liquid TSP no rinse product I've had good luck with, thou I rinse off. Doesn't so much degloss but does well to degrease.
Zinsser Bulls Eye 123 water base primer sticks to almost anything.
Most water base products require a few days or longer to survive scratch test-longer it sets the more it cures.
I haven't painted camper but its not unique to what could be painted.
Sounds like work...

My wife was a processional painter long ago, and she wanted to paint the interior of my old dark wood drab camper... I was skeptical but turned her loose to do as she pleased.
She gave literally all of it a scrub and good primer and did aqua tone colors, a light teal base with an aqua metallic trim that looks amazing and has held up well for several years so far.
Don’t be afraid of a little color. The transformation of mine is incredible, everyone loves it.
She did the full “glamper” treatment with matching curtains and upholstery and bedding.
Go for it. Campers, especially older ones, come so drab and ugly.

Make sure you prime it.......

Of course, primer first after using a sanding block or Scotchbrite on it to scuff. Hah, after 46 years as a painting contractor I still hear " to give it tooth." Then a couple coats of paint. I will say that Home Depot carries Rustoleoum brand of faux finish to give it a...wood look haha. I've done several residential cabinets with the stuff and it looks great. I have some to use on my camper cabinets but haven't done it yet. When I get the time I'll do it without any reservations. The old oak veneer is looking , well, old. "Without reservations", like you need a reservation to paint cabinets.

SO on your Bigfoot, the cabinets are real wood while the skeleton is veneer. I painted everything white. The cabinets were relatively easy, being real wood. But the veneer was a pain. Sanded 2x then went over with steel wool to get that "paper" super smooth. Coat of primer in between each sanding. It was extremely time consuming but the amount of priming and sanding has allowed the paint to really adhere. Been living in there full time for a year and a half and not a single chip.

whazoo wrote:
Of course, primer first after using a sanding block or Scotchbrite on it to scuff. Hah, after 46 years as a painting contractor I still hear " to give it tooth." Then a couple coats of paint. I will say that Home Depot carries Rustoleoum brand of faux finish to give it a...wood look haha. I've done several residential cabinets with the stuff and it looks great. I have some to use on my camper cabinets but haven't done it yet. When I get the time I'll do it without any reservations. The old oak veneer is looking , well, old. "Without reservations", like you need a reservation to paint cabinets.

Hahahaha, my ex did that to a built in book cabinet in one of our houses...it looked pretty good.

RamblinAnne wrote:
SO on your Bigfoot, the cabinets are real wood while the skeleton is veneer. I painted everything white. The cabinets were relatively easy, being real wood. But the veneer was a pain. Sanded 2x then went over with steel wool to get that "paper" super smooth. Coat of primer in between each sanding. It was extremely time consuming but the amount of priming and sanding has allowed the paint to really adhere. Been living in there full time for a year and a half and not a single chip.

Thanks for the tip! That was exactly what I was concerned about, that paper veneer. It drives me nuts when companies use this type of product, it makes it practically throw away once it has been scratched as there is nothing you can do unless you just paint over it all.

Do you have any pics of the interior you could share? That would be really helpful to get an idea of what the finished product would look like for the Mrs.

You can use this Photo sharing tool to post to RV.net if you didn't know about it before:

http://photoposting.is-great.net/?i=3