Painting Project 94 Gulfstream Scenic Cruiser

[stevecoco]

I have purchased a 94 GS scenic Cruiser, 34 ft and am in the process of refurbishing it. This is my retirement project. I've redone the interior - floors, furniture, appliances (pretty much all except walls - to do) - and gone through the running gear. Now I need to paint the exterior. I can't afford to turn it over to a shop and decided I would do it myself. I would appreciate any help / advice anyone can give me regarding paint, equipment, and process. I will end up doing this outside next to my house which is driving me to look very seriously at HVLP Turbine spray systems. I am totally open to inputs including "I've lost my elderly mind". Thanks.

I will be happy to share anything I've learned doing the inside and mechanics.

[ahicks]

I did the bottom half of one in my driveway this past spring. Turned out REALLY well. Make sure you have nothing down wind when shooting. This stuff stays wet for a while in the air and will stick to anything it touches within 100 ft. of where you're working. I wouldn't even try shooting in anything over 5 mph or so.

I used a gallon of acrylic enamel (suggest a solid color paint, no metallic!), and fast retarder to avoid runs in the cooler weather (45 degrees or so). I also added some stuff to prevent fish eyes. Cost of paint materials was about 250.00

Equipment consisted of a small 1.5 hp compressor and a gravity feed HVLP gun run at 40 psi. The compressor struggled to keep up with it, but it did manage.

I divided the areas to be painted into 4 areas for shooting purposes. First 2 took a day apiece, second 2 were done in a day because I had a better idea of what I was doing.

I removed a large compartment door to practice on, and ended up sanding the paint back off of that twice before getting the process down to something predictable, that I could repeat when I got outside. I actually think that was the hardest part of the job, other than maybe prepping the surfaces to the point I could spray with no dust showing through.

Do you have any experience with spray painting? Though not a pro by any shape of the imagination, I did have the advantage of having several pretty good size projects in back of me prior to starting into this one. Without that, suggest you find a paint dealer that will give you a hand setting the gun up, explain mixing ratios, etc. We're lucky enough to have a small mom and pop store within easy driving distance. They've been invaluable when I get into trouble with paint issues....

[Superslif]

Since your retired...time is on your side....I have painted many cars in the past before and would say all the work is in the prep. So a MH is going to be "A lot" of prep.

AHICKS picture of his coach looks very nice with the striping added. I would watch how close to the house you paint. You may want to get a large plastic dropcloth and attach it to that side of the house just in case any wind takes the over-spray that way. I can't believe he only painted it with a 1.5 gallon compressor. I would look for something large either at a garage sale, Craigslist or at a discount tool store like Harbor Freight. Or borrow one. I have sold a number of small compressors on Craiglist. They sell fast...It's nice to have a nice sized compressor afterwards to fill tires.

For the most part I painted cars with lacquer. It's a longer process, but if you got dust particles in-between coats you could wet sand them within 30 minutes and move onto another coat. But doing a large surface MH could be a long job and I don't know how the penetration of the solvent used would react with the fiberglass.

[ahicks]

I should note that compressor I use is an old belt driven 2 stage one I've had for years. I would bet it's putting out air flow more similar to a 2.5 or 3 hp "oil less" that they sell now. Still, for a project like this, you don't need to be held back because of the need of something really big. It's overkill...

Lacquer would have worked fine on the aluminum and fiberglass here, but I was going for something a little simpler, less fussy in the much less than ideal conditions I was shooting in. This stuff will wet sand and polish out, but it's MUCH easier to apply it to a clean surface so you don't have to mess with it. Done properly, this stuff goes on leaving a "wet look" very similar to the clear coat used in the base coat/clear coat process - but it's done in a simpler single step process. Note that's a reflection of the mail box on the 2 large storage doors, not mismatched paint.

Oh, and though I'd like to take credit for it, that striping is original. So I actually painted just the lower blue section, not the entire lower half. Thanks.