Paint fading on top of coach

[gmarsha2]

Our 12 year old coach is starting to show signs of the paint fading on the top edge where it is exposed to the elements. I tried doing a light sand a couple of years ago and replaced with a clear coat However that has been only a stop gap do doing something more substantial. Has any one tried tackling this issue and what where your solutions and costs?

Thanks

[bokobird]

Originally Posted by gmarsha2

Our 12 year old coach is starting to show signs of the paint fading on the top edge where it is exposed to the elements. I tried doing a light sand a couple of years ago and replaced with a clear coat However that has been only a stop gap do doing something more substantial. Has any one tried tackling this issue and what where your solutions and costs?

Thanks

I had a local shop estimate what it would cost to redo my complete edge all the way around, including the area above the driving section as that is wearing down too. They were going to do it right, meaning, taking out the silicon, completely repainting everything along the edge, etc., It'd look new and I've had other work done by them so I know it would have been done very professionally. Unfortunately they want upwards of $7k for that work and I decided to pass for now.

[Dutch Star Don]

On my 2005 Diplomat, known for clear coat going bad along the roof line, I had it repainted. Most of the roof line used the darker colors of my scheme. On the Diplomat, it had three colors. All three rolled over the roof in various areas. I selected the lightest color of the three (tan) and had them paint both sides and the caps all one color from the rain rail up. It came out very nice. This was about 6 years ago and cost $3500.00.

My 2014 Dutch Star, with pretty much the majority of the roof edge being black, developed some paint issues on the driver's side rear. I contacted Newmar and they wanted me to trans the coach from California to Indiana in the dead of winter, at their leisure to repair. I declined.

I took it to the same paint shop who did my Monaco. I had them repaint the entire roof line in white, one of the colors of my color scheme. It cost me $5000.00 and Newmar paid $1500.00, their cost if they had just repaired the bad spot.

I will tell you that I tried several fixes on my Diplomat and eventually they all failed and things got worse. Repainting was the best choice and I felt good about how the coach looked when it was all done.

You can see in this photo how I had the Dutch Star repainted. By making it all white along the roof line, there was less of a chance of dark paint going bad and it also reduced the heat in the coach, especially the AV cabinet in the front cap. It also made the coach look longer.

Newmar's Masterpiece paint jobs were only offered on the Mountainaire and up in 2014. My Dutch Star had a nice base coat, color scheme and paint quality, but the clear coat was TERRIBLE. I think enough people finally complained and they started offering the better paint job in 2017 on the Dutch Stars. The poor clear coat work on mine is my BIGGEST aggravation. You can never make it look nice. We may buy one more coach before we finish RVing, but Newmar's paint will have to be exceptional before I ever buy another Newmar.

[tom chelbana]

We have found that 303 protector works great on the whole coach which we do twice a year and takes less then 1 1/2 hours. On the radius between side walls and roof we do that on our Essex 4 times a year. On both our London Aire and our Essex have been treated with 303 for 15 years with no clear coat damage and it's outside 365.

[HavingABlast]

Originally Posted by tom chelbana

We have found that 303 protector works great on the whole coach which we do twice a year and takes less then 1 1/2 hours. On the radius between side walls and roof we do that on our Essex 4 times a year. On both our London Aire and our Essex have been treated with 303 for 15 years with no clear coat damage and it's outside 365.

Tom,

Are you saying that you 303 the full body, or just the roof? Do you use a wax product between 303 applications?

Jerry

[Dutch Star Don]

Tom.....keep in mind, both coaches you're talking about get the better paint job and more clear. Do you know why older Country Coach motor homes still look so nice? They have a tremendous amount of clear coat on them.

I wax my motor home body at least 3-4 times a year and the roof line twice a year. Just can't fix bad paint. The repair work by the body shop on mine, makes the Newmar paint work look like it was done by a 10 year old. You can see the depth of clear on the repainted roof.