Painting my 93 Dutchmen

[jbilling]

I have been a member of this forum for a while now and I have benefited from the good advice and solutions that are shared. Each time I looked at my 1993 class A I was discouraged at the faded paint and cracked peeling decals. I began to research possibly repainting it myself. There was an immediate cloud of negotiate comments on each forum I looked at. Finally on a little known forum for tiny trailers and home built teardrop campers I found sound advise from people who had actually did what I was thinking of. About 2 months ago I bought an airless paint sprayer from Harbor Freight for my grandson to help him with a commercial job he was painting. I watched him paint metal doors for a church and lacquer some heavy wood doors for inside the church. I was very impressed with his skill with the machine and the resulted he achieved. That's when I decided to go for it and the work began. I spent over 80 hours removing the old decals, sanding scrapes and scratches and rebuilding the front door.

[jbilling]

Aruba5er and Western, yes I will do 2 full length stripes in dark blue over turquoise. As for the Harbor Freight airless unit, it worked great and is still working. I have several more projects for it. The secret to airless sprayer, Harbor Freight or Graco or whatever is as always prep and cleanup. I am not a big reader of instructions but on complex items I follow the directions to the letter. My grandson (a professional house painter) was impressed with the unit. Before starting the job I ordered an assortment of spray tips for the different paints and primers. The tip that ships with the unit was way to big #515 it would go through a gallon of paint Fast!!!

[westend]

Nice work! Getting a good bond is the most difficult part of this job and it appears you did the necessary steps to get it.

FWIW, I do a lot of painting for a living. I have all the gear and have painted a few vehicles, both with an airless and with air driven paints. An airless will give good results if tip selection and experience is at hand. I used Sherwin Williams paint products on my aluminum sided trailer and the paint job results were very good.

One suggestion I would offer is to lay on an accent stripe/stripes or a hand-painted pin-stripe. It adds a certain touch of class to the job. I used spray cans and masked off the body to accomplish it.

BTW, that spray booth is over the top. There are not that many guys that would go to the trouble of building that. Hats off for the big efforts of doing that!

[aruba5er]

Nice job. Now are you going to put any graphics or "trim" on it. And did the harbor freight sprayer last long enough or are you on your 2nd or 3rd one?

[jfkmk]

Very nice, Jeff!

Although I've never tackled painting a vehicle, I too am of the opinion that armed with the proper information, I can do most projects I set my mind to. It also gives you a certain amount of pride in what you've accomplished. In my case, I think the biggest obstacle would be a 40' spray booth in my backyard!

[jbilling]

Dutchmen sport, no I took it down. It gets windy here in Farmington and I could see it becoming a 40' kite. Ha Ha.

[DutchmenSport]

Nice job there. I've always had the opinion that if someone else can do it, I can too. I "can" do it, but some things I'm limited on because of time, space, or the cost of the tools to do the work. But mostly, why pay someone else when I can do it myself and save all those labor costs.

I think the reason some folks give so much "static", especially when it comes to painting, is because they've never tried to do anything themselves. They would rather pay someone than get their own hands dirty or spend the time.

In the end, you have a personal investment into the finished product you can be proud of. You know the value of your work and you appreciate it and that makes using it even more special.

I think you and your son did a nice job there! Looks very good.

So, just curious? Did you leave the temporary paint house up and convert it into a greenhouse?

[jbilling]

Here is another picture. My advice to anyone who wants to improve their RV is to become informed but not paralyzed. These units are built by people like ourselves, not by some higher being. We can get great results by spending the time and elbow grease needed to succeed. Thanks to all on this and many other forums who gave me ideas, encouragement, and the right attitude to get er done. Jeff

[jbilling]

The end result was a very nice looking motorhome that I would be proud to drive. Altogether I spent $950 which includes the 40x14x12 paint booth, the paint, supplies, new rubber moldings andcnew fiberglass inside and outside door facings.

[jbilling]

I am working on it. The previous post finally has a picture of the m/H before. In this post is one of my grandson painting. The painting is being done on my Harbor Freight airless sprayer in a 40' paint booth built in my back yard. The day we were painting we had winds as high as 30 mph. Inside with our heaters it was fine. We used Sherwin Williams bonding primer and Sherwin Williams 100 series acrylic latex gloss paint.

[ScottG]

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I think it's a rule here that you have to provide pics of any paint job. Could be wrong. :B