Painting skin in section

I did hotrodjim. I had a few reasons though. I only had to pull the skirts for repairs, only had a couple panels to paint, and do not have a garage, my Yellowstone is out in the elements. The thought of painting and getting hit with a rain storm, was scary. It worked fine. I still hung them, I could see paint welling up if I just painted them on their backs.

UODC0012 by Tom Myers, on Flickr


That said, I would have preferred painting them while on the trailer. I am new, others are experts in this area, so may be able to comment whether you should be concerned about a cloud of paint... my paint gun kept the pattern pretty narrow, not much of a cloud.

I went with a Direct to Metal (DTM) paint. Acrylic, seems super durable. But never got the settings on the paint gun right to get that nice auto glass finish, or maybe it is just the paint. I continued to cut the paint with water as directed, but still came out a bit grainy. Otherwise, happy with the results.

I haven't used sealers, but BE VERY CAREFUL with auto primer. I was using Rusto Automobile primer in rattle cans and decided to use quarts from Autozone instead. It was labeled exactly the same but didn't work! The Rustoleum top layer peeled right off. It truly was the worst paint job we ever sprayed and had to be completely stripped, re-primered and top coated. If you go with automotive paint from the auto paint stores, they can give you lots more info, and better paint, too.