Questions to all you paint specialists:
At the time of the purchase the last owner pointed out to me that there is an issue with the paint, many vertical cracks close to each other (perhaps an inch long) on the black vertical stripes. The silver ground does not seem to have these. One has to be within three feet to see them.
They do not bother me particularly, but now that I have started my quest to upgrade my coach and to bring it to a very good state repainting the coach is on the future projects list.
After a life of engineering my aesthetical sensibilities have probably suffered, and I would be quite content to have the whole coach painted uniformly in the silver base. On the other hand, if adding the stripes would only add a small fraction of the cost (say an extra 20%) I could be talked into it.
In school many years ago I had to repeat grade 12 of 13 because I failed Latin spectacularly in the final exam.
Today all I remember of Latin are some quotes and sayings, among them:
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Looking forward learning something about painting a coach and hearing some opinions.
Regards
Klaus
I'm not an expert in painting but I'll give you my opinion from what I know. and what I know or think I know is that dark paint will tend to do that. I think it really will depend on the paint too as well and how much time it spends out in the ultraviolet radiation we call the Sun. My guess is you can have it repaired without repainting the whole coach but it probably wouldn't look as good but if you're only talking about one color and replacing that color with new it shouldn't be an issue as far as I know. If you post some close-up photos in high resolution of your issue I would be happy to show my painter here in Mexico and ask him what he thinks. He's always looking for business to grow his business and at this point I don't think you'd find anybody that wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend him. I think though that when you talking about spot jobs you probably would still have to have the coach completely clear-coated again based on a conversation that I had recently with another member and their experience with getting partial jobs done without that.
Read this and it will answer most if not all questions
Puerto Penasco ..Rocky Point (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=32961.msg297043#msg297043)
the cracking happens from the heat and a bat batch of Fiberglass sheets.. common problem for a few years.. They can sand it down and repaint (as seen in topic I posted above). Does it fix it permanently? No. Will it come back? More than likely.
Can it look good for a while? yes and on and on. My colors are close to yours. I brought my own paint and clear. They painted half my coach and all colors were touched. Do they need to clear the whole coach again? No. They can patch it. Is it perfect? No but for the price I can not complain. Only thing I would have had them do (If I had more time) was sand between colors and stripes. The new paint has the small ridge where added.. Not a big deal but not foretravel perfect either but for what I paid Haaa it was worth triple that.
I'm not a painter but have spent enough money having it done and asking questions regrettably after the fact to know you have to know what your doing to spot paint clear coat. Where the new stops and the old begins is very difficult to blend. True it can be done and it's called "burning it in".
[split discussion into its own topic]
Once the damage has happened it's goes deep. Even when replacing the gel coat it will eventually return. Some may say otherwise. But IMO I 100% agree, it will return.
Scott
I took a close up picture yesterday, and this was the angle it looks worse from.
Still hoping somebody ventures a cost estimate for painting the whole coach in sliver base color and how much cheaper that is without the strips.
Regards
Klaus
Klaus, you will be in NAC at the end of the month. Take your coach to Xtreme Paint and Graphics. Xtreme Paint & Graphics Home (http://www.xtremegraphics.net/services/motorhomepaintoptions/) They will give you a qualified answer to what can be done, how effective it will be and what it might cost. They have done a lot of these repairs and repaints and probably the best answer you are going to get.
Klaus,
From you photo, it looks exactly like our decals did before I removed them. Can you seen any cracking other than in the paint? Could be it's just the paint cracking and not the gelcoat below.
Pierce
That looks to be failing and not Checking. seems it had crack out fro heat and dryness.. Will need removed before painting or adding new vinyl stripes. Doesnt look easy to get off
On my '99 a neighbor started a fire next to my coach which caused damage to the black painted areas. This resulted in an insurance claim and total repaint. When I had Xtreme repaint it I did away with all of the black since Greg said the checking was a common problem with dark colors especially black and could eventually reoccur.
The checking was unbelievable and was only on the side where the hot embers and smoke hit the coach.
Your picture looks different than what mine did. Mine appears to be small cracks from bubbles that cracked and split due to outgassing.
I would call Greg at Xtreme and discuss having it repainted. He could give you an idea of cost but the labor involved would be almost the same I would think.