MountainAire - Back from the Dead

[bruceisla]

Originally Posted by Dav L

Was making good progress today.
Weather was perfect. 75 degrees, no wind. I decided to gamble and spray more areas beyond the "spray booth" as little was falling from the trees. This could take out two days from the paint job.

Got all Red Stripes masked,
Completed rest of masking, cleaning, paint prepping.
Sprayed the largest color.
Sprayed some of the second largest color.
All jambs are painted so the generator can be slid back and front cover closed to paint some more of the second largest color.

Then the single rain cloud in the sky moved in and flooded everything :(
Weather report still says nice weather...

I haven't looked to see if it damaged any of the paint.

1/2 hr later and all is clear. But everything is now wet.

Probably added another day to the project. It was coming out good till then.
Those that spray RVs in a full booth are spoiled

Yup .... had 8 days in a row of 7 - 9 mph wind before I caught a morning (2 hours) with 3 mph.

[Dav L]

With the rear cap painted, time to reinstall the taillights.
First, I cleaned and polished them using a standard compounding wheel and light polishing compound. Here is a pic of the Before and After.
Only took about 5 minutes to clean.

One has a small hole that the previous owner has put a dab of silicone. Not bad enough for me to replace the light, especially since it's been difficult to find the exact one. I also noticed once the lights were out that Newmar modifies the lights a bit as some of the backside tabs were cut off.

Taillights look nice installed.

I also purchased new rear clearance lights (very top of cap). Got some stainless screws from Home Depot today. Will install them tomorrow. I can plug in the lights by crawling into my access hatch in the rear cap.

[bruceisla]

Meguiars G17804 Keep Clear Headlight Coating - 4 oz

actually works.

[Dav L]

Originally Posted by bruceisla

Meguiars G17804 Keep Clear Headlight Coating - 4 oz

actually works.

I was going to clear coat the headlights when I sprayed the RV panels for UV protection.
I assume that's what the Meguiars is as well. Thanx for the reminder I need to clean and mask them!

Just like yesterday, Weather.com says on hour of passing thunderstorms to hurt progress. The next two days says it will be clear. So, I'll wait until this afternoon to blow the standing water off the roof and repaper / remask / clean. I will also have to lightly sand the last coats and shoot more color as it will then have been beyond the 24 hours and the paint will be too set for clear.

[Dav L]

Originally Posted by bruceisla

Yup .... had 8 days in a row of 7 - 9 mph wind before I caught a morning (2 hours) with 3 mph.

Hi bruceisla, did you do some painting too?

[Dav L]

Stopped raining, none in the forecast for a few days.
Blew off the standing water and on quick inspection, no damage to the prior color coats.
Just need to wait for the masking paper to dry out, then remask and fix. Do some light color sanding and continue onward!

Good time to read forums

In the meantime, I'll put some stuff back together. Wish I had gotten the clear on the nose done as I could then mount my new projector lights (which is where this paint job got kicked off).

[bruceisla]

Originally Posted by Dav L

Hi bruceisla, did you do some painting too?

Yup. I baggage door and the nose. 3 colors + 2-stage clear. 3 coats base and 3 coats clear. Sherwin Williams (which was original vendor). 1 color (gold) had to be custom mixed since the original formula was no longer valid.

Shockingly, paint is no longer $20/gal.

[kevin1959]

WOW !!! I'm thinkin your Bounder must have been quite a rig also !!!! Very impressive. I'm late for an appointment, I couldn't stop reading this !!!

[bruceisla]

Originally Posted by Dav L

I assume that's what the Meguiars is as well. Thanx for the reminder I need to clean and mask them!

Probably ... I didn't check the specs. It's a 1 part and so easy to use I went with it so I can do touchup if necessary. I have a full-width genset nose so, with the genset slide extended, I can walk behind each side. Headlights come out in 10 minutes each.

[Dav L]

The rain let up and I dried the RV around noon. Remasked, sanded, and started color coats again. I took off most of the masking and didn't like how I faded one color into another...so remasked again, and tomorrow AM will respray some of the stripes for more complete fade and transition. Overall, the paint is coming out decent.

I have some red stripe to touch up and then clear hopefully by tomorrow night.

Weather looks good so far!

[Dav L]

Had a good day today weatherwise.

Put all the color coats on, including fixing the blend.
Some of the red small stripes had to be fixed as the tape lifted it in some places. Must not have been completely cured. Fixed it with a pin stripe brush and in some places, re-airbrushed them.

Towards the end of the day, started putting on the clearcoat!
The cottonwood floating around was really ticking me off going into my nice fresh clearcoat.

But, ran out of clear and daylight.
So, will have get another gallon tomorrow and finish. Might have to do a little debugging (literally) before putting on the last coats of clear.

The nose is now complete and looks good. Time to put the headlights back in!

Here are some pictures pre-clear.

[bruceisla]

Lookin' good !!

[Santa_Claus]

How much would one expect to pay for such a badly damaged rig? I would imagine the value of the parts to a salvage yard would drive the price up. I'm constantly amazing people with the big projects I take on single handedly... I've got NOTHING on you! Enjoying following your progress.

[Dav L]

I just put the new coil on the old A/C compressor and the bad news is that the compressor is seized. So, on to find lots of A/C parts...