Attached is a pic of my radiator grill. The paint on my coach is in pretty good shape except for this grill and the one on the other side for the AC unit. For some reason, paint just does not stay on these surfaces which appear to be aluminum. We had the same problem with our '03. Has anyone refinished their grills and if so what primer and paint did you use? They look like they are easy to remove with just pop rivets holding them in place.
Thanks in advance.
George
George, I drilled out this rivets and put in the spring clips so I could use nylon bolts. Easy to remove for next time. I think you need to lightly sand the finish before paint holds.
By the way if you want to come up to visit we are free except the July long weekend.would be nice to see you guys. On around July 19 Don and Tys are here and that is ok also we have room for 2coaches with hookups.
JohnH
George, see if you can find a company that does powder coating. It will last longer.
Company I used to work for (and the DW) is Crystal Finishing Company here in Weston, WI.
We have aluminum deck "skins" over our regular deck boards. These skins have been on now for 13 years.
We walk on them, g-kids play on them, weather beats the hell out of them up here in Wisconsin and they still look like new.
I was wondering about powder coating also but a little concerned about color match. Are our coaches a basic white?
My grills seem to be more white than the gelcoat. But, I'll try for a better match.
George
Mine are the same way, not sure if someone has already painted them once or not. If they can mix colors I may pull a small door or something and see how close they can come to that???
I had my mirrors painted in Mexico and they said aluminum takes a special primer and paint especially for aluminum. I agree on powder coating. AND.......I've seen those grills coated in black .......VERY sharp!
Timely comment. I'm painting mine black right now. Saw one in Oregon and like the look. All the grills on our last coach (95 GV) were polished aluminum.
jor
^^^^^Pics^^^^^
I did like others, replaced the rivets with spring nuts and stainless Allen head bolts. I just painted mine with a rattle can till I can get somewhere long enough to powder coat all 3 for them
Bruce, you may want to re consider the powder coat, I was going to have a Trailor powder coated and the man doing it recommended that I not do that. He said equipment that is used outside will start flacking off after a couple of years
Just saying
Chris
Here's some of the polished aluminum ones.
jor
You can use the powder as your base. They powder coated will or should etch it before he puts the powder on. Use it as the base .. sand it to get the paint to hold and it will not come off next round. Prep is the most important part
Our '93 U280 has the aluminum (unpainted) grills in the nose, and over the side radiator/CAC. The engine hatch grill, however, is painted white. Now I'm wondering if the engine grill is actually aluminum under the paint. I like the look of the aluminum grills - adds a nice bit of bling to our old coach. If I discover the engine grill is also aluminum, I might remove the paint and shine it up!
Different Strokes Fer Different Folks!
Our grills are also starting to flake off in places.they are polished aluminum but I think I'll paint them black, when I get around to it.
Yea, I always liked that look. This one was interesting in that the engine hatch grill was in two pieces which were hinged with locks. I think it might have been one of those sounds like a good idea at the time.
jor
Zinc chromate used to be primer of choice but there may be better solution. That being said the boeing fuselages that I see rolling thru town are still the hideous green zinc chromate.
When we prepped airplane parts for paint they went through a process line to do a Chemical conversion coating that left the aluminum a golden color, then zinc chromate primes was used before a top coat was applied.
About 6 yrs ago I bought some grill metal from FOT to make a grill for my AC project. It came in long shiny anodized aluminum strips. Can't remember how long it was about 10 or 12 feet. Carried it home by loading it through the engine compartment with the bed raised. After it was assembled it looked rather well with out painting, so I never did. It's on the left side of the coach and no one seems to have noticed that the passenger side has a painted grill and the drivers side unpainted. Fairly certain the painted one is powder coated.
Xtreme powder coats them as the recommended solution. I had mine done on our 2000 U320 about five years ago after the original finish began flaking. No issues to date and the color match is perfect.
That is good to know, I have a Xtreme close by, did you have to take something in for them to match the color?
Contact FOT and give them your build number and they will have the correct paint for it.
Xtreme had the coach in for other items at the time so it was already there to match, however, with as much experience as they have with Foretravels, I would imagine they would know exactly which shade to lay down. Try calling Greg at Xtreme.. they are very helpful. If you plan on making the trip to Nac for any Xtreme service, they are probably booked up until the end of the year. There is usually a four to six month lead time for an appointment.
Here's what the black grilles look like on the 270. Prepped with 220, 320 and 400 and replaced all the fasteners with stainless. Rattle can. Came out pretty good. Matches the roof stuff I painted black last year.
jor
I got my grills back today from Skagit Powder Coating (Mt. Vernon, WA). They media blasted and powder coated my engine radiator grill and AC radiator grill ($300). They only had two colors of white to choose from and I selected whiter of the two. I thought I would reattach the grills using pop rivets, but a washer was needed on the back side of the rivet and that proved to be difficult to place... impossible for me. So I used u-nuts (also called spring nuts) which I found at the Anacortes Fastenal (see attached). I used #10 stainless self-tapping screws. Big improvement.
Thanks for following up. those are great looking ^.^d
Those came out great, George. I used the same fasteners and clips.
jor
George.
What do you have attached to your CAC. An aftermarket cooler for something or OE. Our 95 doesn't have it. ( at least not there).
George can confirm, but looks like the fuel cooler. In the return line from engine back to fuel tank. A very good idea. I did that on our 1993 U240 as well. Made a cover for it for wintertime driving so it would not over-cool the fuel.
To see if it would help, after driving on a hot day with under 1/2 a tank of fuel, put your hand on the tank. Shouldn't even need an IR gauge to see if it is over-hot.
I checked with John Haygarth who owns a "sister coach" to ours. It is a fuel cooler.
George