Ducky has sustained some fiberglass damage to several bay doors and a fender. The PO had an estimate from Bubba's auto shop in 2013 of about $2,700 but never had the work done. It is possible that my trip home after the purchase may have added a dollar or two to that list; just sayin'. :-[
Since it involves several panels, I toyed with the idea of having the decals replaced with paint in the process. Most of them are in good shape, except some have fiberglass damage and repair will expand that damage.
Last night, I was going through the LARGE collection of receipts that I inherited and discovered something that no one had ever told me: Foretravel of Texas removed the decals and painted them on in May, 2008. The cost was over $7,500. All this time, I had assumed/thought they were the original decals. The seller, a wholesale dealer - not the OP, never mentioned that there were no decals on Ducky.
I know some of you are going to say I was stupid not to know. I will limit my defense to pointing out that this is my first ever RV. I had only seen a few Foretravels prior to my purchase. And the seller did not reveal it (I assume he did not know; he certainly knew very little about Foretravels). In feeling the edge of the "decals" they had a definite ridge, which I assumed to be the edge of the decal. Apparently the paint process leaves a thick layer (probably several layers) of paint.
As proud as I am to have this already done (and paid for), it will obviously add to the cost of the fiberglass repair. Fortunately not as much as a level one paint job.
There is one downside, even to my FOT paint job. I have enclosed pictures of the two air opening covers at the back. The first one is the driver side and looks like a near-perfect paint job.
The second one is the passenger side, and I only have one conclusion. It must have been bring your daughter to work day, and the painter let her mask and paint the passenger side. The difference in the two air vents is striking, and an embarrassment to an otherwise great job.
Thanks for listening; I feel better now. :)
Trent
Trent.
So understandable. Trees, poles, etc. gain added mobility when in the proximity of an expensive motor coach. Right of passage. Welcome to the "club".
I would think (not being a body shop guy or painter) that the edges of the paint have actually come off and maybe the original gel or base white area was not cleaned as well as other side before spraying.
Johnh
John,
You might be right. When I blow up the original image, it actually looks like some white paint was painted sloppily over the area. But that does not make sense.
I will look at the panel tomorrow under a high power magnifier.
Trent
I suppose we all add "character" marks to our coaches. I know we've added a couple of them. Thankfully, they are both relatively small!
Trent
John is correct, that is a result of poor prep before the stripes were painted. I have seen this more than once in my 40+ years in the auto collision trade.
Our coach has graphics that are painted. I think the PO (previous owner) had the vinyl replaced with paint at FOT along with some body repair. It took me a long time to realize that our coach had a combination of paint and gel coat on the outside rather than paint and vinyl.
We had some self inflicted wounds repaired at Xtreme P&G. The repairs to the paint were fast and looked good.
There are a few places, especially on the front, where there are chips in the paint or the edges of the graphics are a bit ragged. They are repairable. I consider them minor enough to ignore for now.
J.D.,
I have read several descriptions of cleaning up the gel coat surface, but I do not recall an article about cleaning the painted graphics.
Is there a product that will clean and polish both at the same time? I am assuming after a few years, the paint is as cured as it is going to get. Is it safe to ignore the edge when cleaning and buffing?
I appreciate any tips you or SOKS can provide for cleaning and polishing my Foretravel.
Thanks,
Trent
Trent
If you buff the painted stripes just try to spin the polisher so you are spinning from painted to non painted, this will help avoid possible additional damage to an area that may have poor adhesion. Also the painted area is higher than the nonpainted so this will help avoid catching a paint edge.
Trent, I'll defer to people with more experience and expertise for advice on cleaning the gel coat and painted graphics.
I what told by Rance that the paint is a catalyzed product. It is impervious to most solvents. I used acetone to clean the gasket on the entry door. I was concerned about harming the paint. Rance said that acetone will not harm the paint.
Xtreme P&G touched up some graphics after repairing some of our self inflicted wounds. I don't recall that they recommended any special precautions regarding the "fresh" paint.
Okay, now I AM impressed!
Thanks,
Trent
I have used a power buffer and polish and see no adverse affects on the painted graphics but the gel coat looks a whole lot better.
Rich
I use a 3M one step marine product #05906 "I think" compound and wax, and a 3M Super Buff pad # 05705 at 1400RPM. It does a nice job without to much effort, you just have to work about a 2'square area at a time. Shines the decals up too, I just try to keep the wheel turning away from the decal edges to avoid forcing wax under them. But as they are getting old every detailing causes a few more loose edges, the 3 stripes around the bottom have already been removed along with one of the swishes on the front. sooner than later it will be a ghost.
In that case we've acquired "character" on both sides. I've not been able to take out the rub marks on the decals on the drivers side yet where a tree branch left some "character." I'm hoping the 3M products Bruce referenced will work better than the Mother's product I used last.
When we had ours done in Apache Junction, R&M Graphics on our 88 the used up 4 of the 3M discs for 2 horizontial stripes on one side @$35 each in 6hrs. :-[
So he changed process on them, using a 2500psi water pressure sprayer that striped them about 6-8" in 5 minutes, followed up with 3M extra cut got the remainder of coach done in about 10hrs including all detailing and prep for new stripes ;D
Vinyl Off works really good to remove vinyl graphics. Brush on, let set, remove vinyl with a plastic scraper or a DULL razor blade scraper. Fast and not much work. Takes the glue off also.