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svcattales · 02-17-2019, 06:57 PM

Our coach is 11 years old and there is some clear coat blistering in areas that get the most direct rays of the sun. Except for a few spots the paint is in good condition. After watching hours of YouTube videos I decided to tackle the problem myself. I filed a sharp edge on a popsicle stick and used it as a scraper to scrape the edges of the blisters to ensure I got rid of the clear coat that was starting to lift up. Next I feather sanded the edges of the blisters with 800 grit wet sandpaper until I couldn't feel any edge with my fingers. I couldn't get the edges smooth without sanding through the base coat of paint so I sanded down to primer coat around the edges. Now I needed to repaint the base coat so I got the paint part numbers from the Coach House factory. When I asked where I could find the paint, they offered to fill a Preval sprayer (Home Depot, about 8 bucks) with the paint so I could spray the rather large patches. I sanded the patches again with 1000 grit wet paper and sanded the entire hood and patches above the windshield. I sprayed the blister patches with the base coat paint starting with a light coat followed immediately with 2 heavier coats. After 10-15 minutes of drying the base coat I sprayed 3 coats of 2K clear coat over the entire engine hood and the area above the windshield with the other blisters. I was pleasantly surprised with the overall results. It passes the 10ft test, but patches are visible at 3ft. I'm hoping that additional layers of clear coat will preserve some of the older clear coat underneath. Time will tell. At least I don't need to pull into a new campground with a bad case of acne on my hood anymore.

barmcd · 02-17-2019, 07:21 PM

Looks good.

svcattales · 02-19-2019, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barmcd

Looks good.

Thanks! Hopefully, this will help others with the same issue.

marjoa · 02-20-2019, 07:16 AM

That's very cool (and lucky I might add) that you were able to get that paint from the Coach House factory. I tried to get paint, paint numbers, samples etc, etc, from Winnebago and it was nope can't do it. Nope can't ship it either.

I've read many posts here of the same kinds of results with other coach manufacturers. The best solution for most has been, to take an aged piece of the vehicle, like a door, a panel, etc, etc...to a paint shop and let them match the color as best as possible.

Your job came out very nice. A yeah, the 10' rule is plenty good, especially for a vehicle that is 11 years old.

rvethereyet · 02-23-2019, 09:27 PM

Looks good. You will know shortly if it will hold up. Let us know how long it holds up.

svcattales · 02-24-2019, 05:28 AM

If I were to do this job again, I would do it a little differently. The engine hood isn't that big and the 6 ounces of paint in the Preval sprayer seemed to go pretty far. I think I could do the whole hood with two Preval jars of paint and then I could have sanded off all the clear coat and started from scratch. Also, matching the paint would be easier since it would be the whole panel with clearly defined borders. I would also explore other sources of paint in a larger spray can. Preval spay pattern is very narrow and hard to get an even coat. With a fan type spray pattern it would be easier to do a large area.

Thanks for the compliments. Greg