New coating on exterior walls?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
E

Elly Dalmaijer

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Posts
362
Our must loved 1993 Itasca Sunrise is starting to show its age. Its skin is getting dull and the turquoise and pink patterns are outdated.
What kind of places would remove the old decals then put a new coat  on the exterior?  Maybe a nice shiny gel coat? Any idea of the possible cost? Is the cost calculated by foot/length?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Elly
 
Sounds like you might be looking for a new paint job. Not inexpensive, but the results can be quite spectacular. For example, see the paint job that was done on Jeff and Sue Cousins' coach here.

Gelcoat is usually applied in the mold during manufacture of fiberglass products (such as the side wall of an RV), rather than post manufacturing. I've seen (and had) small areas of gelcoat repaired and replaced on fiberglass boats, and it's quite expensive. I'm not sure if or how they could apply it to an entire RV after manufacture. More info here.
 
A full body paint job would be the best solution, but you are probably talking $7000-$11,000, depending on how fancy you go.

New decals can be had at places such as these:
http://www.858graphics.com/vehicle-wraps/rv-decals.html
www.rvstripes.com

As Tom explained, you can't just layer on new gelcoat.

Here  are some places that would re-paint the body to your specs:

Custom Paint & Auto Body in Red Bay, AL.
Owner Bruce Deaton (256-356-5695)

Precision Painting - Bremen, IN  Did all Travel Supreme factory work. Some Newmar too

Mike's Custom Painting in Bremen IN - Did Jeff Cousins Tradewinds - gorgeous job!

Bob's Body Shop in Marion, NC.  They do all the work for Tom Johnson in Marion.
 
Thanks Tom and Gary. You two are an inexhaustible source of RV knowledge.

My next question would be: could a good auto body shop repaint a (27ft) motor home?

And one more: would one company take off the stripes, then another paint it and then the first company put on new stripes??

Elly
 
I haven't used an auto body shop in many years, so I don't know if they could or would tackle an RV. There are a number of small RV body shops scattered around, but a whole RV might be a challenge even for them. You could try calling some RV dealers and asking who they use &/or who they might recommend. That's how I found a good guy to work on our coach last time around. Some dealerships will have their own paint shop, but I suspect they'd be expensive.

Gary also gave you some contacts.

I'd expect a body/paint shop to be able to remove and re-apply decals.
 
Also look for truck paint shops or boat yards.  Both suffer from the same aging factors and need repainting.  They would have indoor space large enough to work on a RV.  Painting opens up a lot of color change options, or just put clearcoat over the whole thing.  Either would put the shine back.  It will not be cheap and probably would exceed the current value of the RV.  If you remove the stripes, replace them with painted stripes.  Just like a car, any painted surface will need to polished and waxed to maintain it's shine.  I rub, polish, and wax every year or so and that gives a reasonable shine so Mother Nature can take it away, again. 
 
Great suggestions Bob. Now why didn't I think of that  :(
 
Great info all around. Those RV shops you mentioned are all in the US and since we live in Canada it would be a bit of a logistical challenge to get it done there. However we do have plenty of truck repair places in and around Edmonton and that sure is worth looking into.

I look at our cars which remain shiny without any elbow grease on our part: manual car wash, once in a while a wax spray and they look great. Now that's something we like to be able to do with the motorhome.

Elly
 
[quote author=Elly Dalmaijer]I look at our cars which remain shiny without any elbow grease on our part: manual car wash, once in a while a wax spray and they look great. Now that's something we like to be able to do with the motorhome.[/quote]

A full body paint job would certainly help you achieve that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,139 (members: 18, guests: 1,121)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,972
Posts
1,388,441
Members
137,721
Latest member
Dmac3003
Back
Top Bottom