kimberwarden
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17' 64 Oasis
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Post by kimberwarden on Sept 8, 2015 13:04:27 GMT -8
My trailer is/will be primarily white, with a colored design on it. I'm thinking I can just order it in polar white to avoid having to paint the white part. Is that the right thing to do? When I add the colored design, do I need to sand and prime first? Or can I just prime? I know I'm not alone in hating to sand.  Kimber |
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nccamper
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1962 Forester- 1956 Shasta
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Post by nccamper on Sept 8, 2015 13:20:09 GMT -8
I ordered Polar White skin from Hemet Valley RV and I can tell you that paint is on there forever. To make my stripe on the Shasta polished metal, it was a lot of work getting the polar white off.
To paint over the white, Steve at Hemet Valley said to just scuff it up. It seemed to work for me.
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Hamlet
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Post by Hamlet on Sept 8, 2015 14:16:22 GMT -8
We were told that the Polar WHite acted as the primer. We didn't do the painting ourselves, but we had the bottom AND the Z-stripe painted. Both turned out great. And after more than 5 years, the paint is still holding up great. All of it.
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Tuneafish
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1957 Rainbow, 1955 Starfire
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Post by Tuneafish on Sept 8, 2015 20:54:28 GMT -8
We recently re-skinned our trailer with HVRV Polar white. You should only consider that a primer coat. It is VERY easy to scratch. In fact I can hardly get through a day of ham restoration without adding a new scratch (much to the chagrin of my partner in crime!). It also had a few scratches from shipping. We're schedule for our final paint job next week- similar paint scheme to the original (see meme pict for original- solid color on bottom, white on top). Here's hope'n the final paint is more scratch resistant (or at least me-resistant!).
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txoil
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1960 Shasta Deluxe 19
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Post by txoil on Sept 14, 2015 4:39:58 GMT -8
The coating on new aluminum exterior metal is and should be considered a PRIMER coating, for the protection of the metal until it is installed and can be topcoated. You should scuff with a ScotchBrite pad lightly and shoot a layer of primer/sealer in order to create a barrier so your paint system does not react with the factory coating. (if indeed you will be using an automotive paint system)
As Tune-A-Fish stated, the factory coating scratches very easily and is not UV stabilized so I would not expect it to last a long time against sun and weathering.
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nccamper
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1962 Forester- 1956 Shasta
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Post by nccamper on Sept 14, 2015 7:54:59 GMT -8
I think Hemet Valley skin is primed then painted Polar White. Am I wrong on this?
With that said, I used it as a base coat on our last camper. We scuffed it as mentioned above before priming it and painting.
Ultimately, all paint is only as good as the bottom coat. So if people are having bad experience with the polar White (I didn't) I wouldn't use it as my base coat.
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