Community Forums

KathyandMark · 03-28-2018, 09:39 PM

Hi friends,
We love our little BT Cruiser. It's a 2005, and in great shape, BUT, the front cap has several layers of a floor wax compound put on it called supershine. Over the years the supershine it has been peeling off. It looks terrible, discolored and flaky. We got a ballpark quote from a RV repair company, saying they could fix it by sanding it down and paint it, then clear coating it. That process would cost $2,800.00 This seems really high to us. Adding the BT Cruiser Decal on it, (which they replicate with digital 3 D imaging) would be an additional $450.00. This sounds extreme to me. There has got to be a better way. Does anyone have any ideas? I posted about the fading cap before, and someone mentioned that we actually could do this ourselves. $3,200.00 seems extreme!
Thank you in advance.
Kathy and Mark

Isaac-1 · 03-28-2018, 11:07 PM

I agree sounds high, you might try to get quotes from independent paint and body shops.

Off Road · 03-28-2018, 11:30 PM

Talk to a boat repair shop or look into doing it yourself. Fiberglass is not hard to work with. Seems like the biggest challenge is getting off the old floor wax, is there a chemical remover?

KathyandMark · 03-29-2018, 07:47 AM

Thank you, Isaac-1, we will check out other local independent body shops to get a quote. THanks again!

KathyandMark · 03-29-2018, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Off Road

Talk to a boat repair shop or look into doing it yourself. Fiberglass is not hard to work with. Seems like the biggest challenge is getting off the old floor wax, is there a chemical remover?

Off Road, another good option, might be to do it ourself. We will check that out. I really don't think it will be difficult getting the floor wax off. im not sure if we would have to sand the fiberglass down at all. And as for boat repair shops, that's another option. There are boat shops everywhere here in Central Florida. Thank you!

grindstone01 · 03-29-2018, 05:50 PM

Might be worth checking out Shine On, Shine On-RV & Boat Fiberglass Finish Restorer. No Buffing!. This kit comes with a stripper, cleaner, and clear coat. It was used in the boating world and worked good on our FW.

KathyandMark · 03-30-2018, 06:23 AM

Thank you for this option! We will leave look into “ Shine on”. It would be fantastic if we could do it ourselves!

Rockwood27 · 03-30-2018, 10:52 AM

If this is truly a floor wax type product then you can use ammonia to strip it off. You can go to Home Depot and buy Zep liquid floor wax and reapply. Search Zep on this site for lots of info.

Gary RVRoamer · 03-30-2018, 12:03 PM

It is going to be expensive to have somebody else strip the gunk off, sand and re-paint the front cap. Have you inquired about getting a fender re-painted on your car lately? I would expect something in the $2000 arena, so maybe $2800 isn't too out of line. Working on the cap on the Cruiser is not exactly simple - the shop needs a scaffold and such. On the other hand, most any body shop can do it if they are willing to take the trouble - there is nothing really unique about fiberglass caps and re-painting fiberglass & vinyl body parts is a common thing these days.

If it's just waxy gunk, a wax stripper ought to do it, e.g. ammonia solution or a floor wax remover product. No re-painting needed unless there is other damage, fading, etc.

Are you sure the peeling isn't clear coat paint rather than some wax product? If so, sanding and re-painting is the only way.

AKITCHELL · 03-30-2018, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KathyandMark

Hi friends,
We love our little BT Cruiser. It's a 2005, and in great shape, BUT, the front cap has several layers of a floor wax compound put on it called supershine. Over the years the supershine it has been peeling off. It looks terrible, discolored and flaky. We got a ballpark quote from a RV repair company, saying they could fix it by sanding it down and paint it, then clear coating it. That process would cost $2,800.00 This seems really high to us. Adding the BT Cruiser Decal on it, (which they replicate with digital 3 D imaging) would be an additional $450.00. This sounds extreme to me. There has got to be a better way. Does anyone have any ideas? I posted about the fading cap before, and someone mentioned that we actually could do this ourselves. $3,200.00 seems extreme!
Thank you in advance.
Kathy and Mark

Vinyl wrap? You could get whatever logo you wanted printed on the wrap , if you werent doing the whole rv, then you will see a slight line, where the wrap ends.

StevL · 03-30-2018, 02:53 PM

Not sure if this helps but it helped us.

On our last coach we did a little end cap damage, touched a guard rail with the swing out. I received two quotes, one was at 1,800. the second was just over 2,000. I was talking with a friend who has worked at a Lexus dealership for years, he suggested I speak to the guy that does their on the lot touch ups.....why not.

End result: I supplied him with the paint codes and clear coat code. He re-enforced the fiberglass in about a 6x12 inch area, prepped, applied the color, clear coated and handed me a invoice for $375. I paid for the paint separately.....had about $425 in the repair, never could tell it happened.

All the work was done in 24 hours after I dropped it off at the dealership.

Steve

keymastr · 03-30-2018, 07:25 PM

You might have good luck with the floor wax stripper. That is the problem with the "Zep" like products. The boating industry first started using them a couple decades ago and soon discovered there was no free lunch. The labor you saved not having to wax for a few years was all piled on the back end when it needed stripped off. Pretty labor intensive and may leave you in worse shape than it started.

A vinyl wrap may indeed be the best solution as it could most likely go right over the existing surface. And if you are only doing the cap it would not be that much money.

KathyandMark · 03-30-2018, 11:13 PM

Rock wood, That’s another good idea. Thank you very much!

KathyandMark · 03-30-2018, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevL

Not sure if this helps but it helped us.

On our last coach we did a little end cap damage, touched a guard rail with the swing out. I received two quotes, one was at 1,800. the second was just over 2,000. I was talking with a friend who has worked at a Lexus dealership for years, he suggested I speak to the guy that does their on the lot touch ups.....why not.

End result: I supplied him with the paint codes and clear coat code. He re-enforced the fiberglass in about a 6x12 inch area, prepped, applied the color, clear coated and handed me a invoice for $375. I paid for the paint separately.....had about $425 in the repair, never could tell it happened.

All the work was done in 24 hours after I dropped it off at the dealership.

Steve

StevL, thank you. We were actually thinking about doing just that at a local dealer, who we had talked to a while back. They said they were able to do it. We’re talking it over &figure out the best route to go. Thank you again.