paint restoration

[prpcof]

I have a 2000 Tropical 37 foot trying to polish refinish the exterior ok with the white gell coat and decals but having a bad time with the coat on the bottom. How do I get This posted

Help?

[paz]

The best thing I have found to restore fiberglass gel coat is Meguiar's Fiberglass Restoration Kit. It is available online, or from a marine supply shop if you happen to live near water.

The kit has an oxidation remover to get rid of the chalkiness, a polish to bring up the shine, and a wax for protection.

I used this kit on my fiberglass roof, and it took a surprisingly small amount of elbow grease.

If the bottom of your motorhome is painted, then you will possibly need to start with a polishing compound before waxing. I'm sure Meguiar's has something for badly-oxidized paint as well as for fiberglass, so it may pay to check out their "How To" section.

[prpcof]

Used both meguiars and 3m. White gel coat came out ok bottom green pritty bad. Shines then when it drys blotchy with diferent shaes of color .

Help!

[Nick-B]

Meguires and 3M both have a WIDE variety of products to help with different levels of finish restoration. You don't say which you've used or how you have applied them (hand or power) so it is difficult to suggest a course of action.

That said, it sounds like you have some serious paint degradation on the lower section. Again, without knowing and seeing what you are dealing with I would guess you might need to use an aggressive paint compound with a power circular buffer to cut down to good paint. The danger is that it is easy to actually buff down thru the paint with this setup if you are not experienced using it.

A safer way but will take a bit more time would be with a dual-action orbital polisher (NOT the cheap $30 kind but something quality like the Porter Cable model with foam pads) and a medium cut compound (e.g. Meguires Fine Cut Compound). Unless the paint is completely oxidized, this will get back the shine without the danger of removing the paint.

Read thru these detailing forums (particularly the "Machine Polishing" one) for more suggestions and peoples experiences with various products:

EDIT: SORRY, SORRY, SORRY! I posted a link to a Detailing forum that I frequented MANY times in the past. Well, now that web site is infected with a virus/malware. I hope nobody had a chance to click the link before I removed it. Autopia-dot-org is the culprit. DO NOT visit that site.

If you got hit with the bogus anti-virus "Security" software, it can be removed by booting to Safe Mode (on Windows) and running MalwareBytes.
Again, my apologies!

[prpcof]

Took it to a local rv dealer I trust original lower side paint was blue and poorly painted with the green paint. Paint is pourous and polishing will show discoloration and dull marks. Gave me a spray on that shines up the paint but is tempory. He says when I'm ready repaint lower sides.

Thanks all

Dave