Painting project

[Don Bradner]

No, it is Nason 2K Full-Than Urethane (another Dupont product). No clear coat.

On 7/16/2007 at 4:46 PM Leroy Eckert wrote:

>Looks like a nice job Don. Is that Imron paint?
>Leroy Eckert
>1990 WB-40"Smoke N Mirrors"
>Niceville, FL
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Don Bradner
> To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 4:05 PM
> Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Painting project
>
>
> Our ongoing lengthy project list since we acquired Blue Thunder in
>January includes replacement of old operational equipment such as
>batteries, shocks, tires, and alternators; physical changes to agree with
>our wants, such as washer/dryer, bookcase/desk/office chair, and bay
>slideout trays; and cosmetic items.
>
> The latter is/was primarily paint. Several years in the Arizona sun had
>baked much of the clear coat off on both sides and the back. The front cap
>is fine, but has likely been repainted at some point. I did the worst
>single spot (blue on the back cap) before we left for a month of travels
>in early May, and the rest has been my most time-consuming project since
>we got back.
>
> I'm pretty much a neophyte when it comes to spray-painting, so this has
>been a learning experience with a lot of picking the brains at the local
>Dupont shop, where most of the guys have body-shop experience. The bulk of
>the labor, of course, is in surface prep and masking.
>
> I looked through the pictures I have on hand to find a couple that were
>illustrative of the problem and tried to take similar "after" pictures.
>The first one, http://tinyurl.com/2w53e2 was taken in February in Casa
>Grande. It is part of a telephoto shot, so there's quite a bit of
>fore-shortening, and the lighting was very flat which reduced contrast,
>but you can see the missing clear coat pretty well.
>
> Since the blue heats up more, it is much more affected than the stripes;
>in fact the side stripes below the bend are fine and were left alone. The
>area below the stripes (what do you call that piece, anyway? Looks
>designed to direct water flow from the roof outward) was a particular
>problem. It is a compound curve, making sanding with a block difficult. It
>was missing clear coat in oval patterns, with the areas over ribs still
>holding the coat. Trying to feather the edges didn't work well, as
>clearcoat kept peeling away, so it was essentially necessary to sand it
>all.
>
> The upper part of the gold and red stripes weren't as bad looking, but
>still had bad peeling. This picture: http://tinyurl.com/2w6ukx was taken
>in Phoenix by the inspector we hired pre-purchase.
>
> Here are the after links for roughly the same two views:
> http://tinyurl.com/2kjvqo
> http://tinyurl.com/2jv2lf
>
> I'm pretty happy with the results, although I did get a small,
>unpredicted, rain shower about an hour after I finished the other side
>late last week, and there are some pock marks in the paint on three
>panels. You can't really tell from the ground, so I'm waiting until it is
>cured a bit more to see what a bit of 1500-grit sanding and polishing does.
>
> Don Bradner
> 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
> Eureka, CA
>
>
>
>
>
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