Steve has begun the tedious process of prepping the motorhome for painting. We already scrubbed it thoroughly and sanded any loose paint. The edges proved to be a bit of a pain to paint against so we taped it all and will use a roller. Steve removed all the old sealant on the edges of lights, windows, vents and the corners of the body already and yesterday he re-sealed everything with paintable acrylic sealant.
On Sunday we did some experiments with our paint to see what gave the best finish and covered up that lovely orange...watered down 10%, foam roller, regular roller, brush etc. (poor hood looks weird now) And then we went to bed. Well it rained a little during the night and upon getting up we discovered that the whole lot had bubbled! Really badly! We were very disappointed. But we checked it again in the afternoon and it's not only dried out, it's bonded to the surface again. Yay! But lesson learned....paint on a dry morning and let it cure all day before rain or dew fall at night.
The weather forecast has changed and is now calling for rain today so we'll see about painting today.
What paint are we using? We thought about Tremclad after watching so many youtube videos about painting your car with it. But in the end opted for Envirogard by General Paint. It's tough, durable, abrasion resistant, bonds well to different surfaces and expensive! $68 a gallon I think. We got it for cheaper using our wholesale account though so about $43 I think. Oh the best part is it's water based so easy clean-up.
We're using a 3"roller to apply the paint due to the wavy aluminum siding. So far so good. I am going to finish a coat onto everything orange today so it can cure for a while before I put on the main coat to cover everything, that way the orange will be under 2 layers of paint. The roller gives a slightly hammered/stippled look instead of a shiny surface but it looks good and certainly better than it looked before. As the paint is so thick it can be mixed with 10% water and that seems to give a slightly glossier finish but either way looks good. You'll see!
Someone called from Nova Scotia at about 4:30 this morning and while I didn't answer it, I'm still awake. Getting a bit tired though so might try for an hour. I'm still trying to NOT get what everyone else has had recently, I am too busy to be sick!
We had a dream, like so many others before us, to live a simple and sustainable life on our own organic farm... so we drove from Vancouver Island, British Columbia to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, and we've been here nearly 6 years. We love life, learning, and sharing with others. Follow our adventures as we build a vibrant small family farm and work towards self-sufficiency using a combination of traditional methods, permaculture and original ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment