Don't know if this belongs here or in the Technical Forum but anyway:
My 85 Regal needs a paint job bad. Problem is that on my retirement income, I can't afford one of these $10M plus deals. What about taking the existing paint off and leaving it with the aluminum finish aka Airstream? Does anybody have any ideas? Do you have to use the plastic bead blasting to remove old paint? I live near Knoxville, Tn. Talked to the local Buddy Gregg dealer and he turned his nose up at it. Guess he could tell this was a real budget deal.

I'd recommend an aircraft stripper, rather than ever using any kind of blasting. Sadly, the best product, Turco, has been taken off the market due to environmental regulations.

Check at the airport for recommendations. Also, consider a local Vo-Tech to see if they have an automotive collision repair course; in many cases, you can get a decent paint job for the price of the paint.

Hi I to want to get my 1975 Barth class C painted so far here in Seattle I have had no luck. A friend of mine from rv.net is taking his large MH to mexico. He is changing colors and using several new colors. I think he has0 ft.MH and they quoted him $5,000 so mine is much smaller and I only want the bottom painted so it should be much less maybe $1,000 and a trip to mexico Hummmmmmmmmm not bad.

My Barth was repainted about 12 years ago. I was not the owner then, but did know the owner. As I recall, he had to find different people to do different jobs.

The paint was stripped using crushed walnut shells or something like that. The guy that stripped the paint was not the same guy that painted it.

A guy that paints bread trucks/ potato chip trucks did the painting.

Since the door is not aluminum, it was treated in an entirely different fashion.

To same money, the owner did certain preparations himself. He tracked down the Barth colors and purchased the paint and give the paint to the painter.

So, it was a multi-step event

I hope that helps.

I converted a bus back in the early 90's and repainted it myself. To strip the old paint off I went to the hardware store and found the cheapest paint stripper I could find. I then sprayed this on heavy with a paint gun. The final stage was to remove the old paint with a presure washer. In two days I had it down to the aluminum.

Lots of Barths had polyurethane paint. It can be resistant to many strippers, particularly these days. Be sure that the stripper used works on it.

Once the coach is stripped, attention should be paid to any and all corrosion, particularly above the windshield and rear window. Corrosion should be treated and properly primed. It I ever do mine, I will scrub it with Scotchbrite, etch with Isoprep, treat with Alodine, and prime with strontium chromate epoxy primer before painting.

If I stripped in down to the aluminum, could I leave it as bare aluminum? Can you shine it with some kind of aluminum polish? Or would it be better to strip it down to bare aluminum and then have it clear coated? I've seen ads for putting new clear coating on base coat/clear coat motor homes. I know shining it would be sort of laborious but at least my labor is free.

Jim
Stripping a Barth would be a big job in itself. I don't think you would need to do anything to the bare aluminum. It would likely oxidize and dull down a bit, but that's about all.
I had a 71 Land Rover that I crunched the right front quarter on a tree and just banged it back in shape again with a hammer and sanded it a bit to take off the rest of the paint. Since the truck was painted a silver/ grey the unpainted fender never looked much different than the rest of the truck. Sold it about 10 years later and the bare section still looked the same!
Don't know if Barth aluminum is the same as Land Rover Birmabright though.
Don

quote:

Originally posted by humbojb:
If I stripped in down to the aluminum, could I leave it as bare aluminum? Can you shine it with some kind of aluminum polish?

I found a very friendly paint stripper and have started the process of stripping and polishing the Barth. BUT--after removing the paint in one section, I discovered streaks in the bare aluminum. It will polish out but with SEVERE effort. Me thinks that prior to painting in the factory, Barth sprayed an etching solution on the aluminum to make the primer stick better. What do all you polish experts, especially you Lee, think? I'm thinking that painting the thing is a better solution if I'm right about the etching solution.
Jim {No sore muscles yet)

Don't know about Barth but Greyhound Bus did spray with an etching solution before painting.

Hi Jim,

Without seeing it or knowing more about your process, I can only offer a couple of guesses....

To a virtual certainty, the aluminum was chemically etched/cleaned prior to painting - any reputable manufacturer would not paint over a mill-run finish. Etching creates billions of nooks & crannies, substantially increasing the amount of surface area available for paint adhesion. For a high luster, bare metal polished finish, the surface needs to have all these microscopic hills & valleys leveled off by "folding-in" and reforming the surface mechanically....but first ya gotta get the aluminum oxide outta there......

Remember, painting aluminum slows the oxidation process, it doesn't eliminate
it...blisters & bubbles under paint are worst-case examples. Even though it was painted for many years, oxidation at some level has been taking place and needs to be removed as part of the polishing process.....

quote:

It will polish out but with SEVERE effort.

....Not at all surprizing. The inital polishing efforts are tasked with pulling up and removing years of hardened aluminum oxides. If you're still getting black smut on your rags & pads (and in your nose & ears), you're still removing by-products of oxidation and there's still more of it waiting to be removed

By way of comparison, my 24' unit was never painted...for 25+ years, it had oxidized to a pleasing uniform but dull finish. The initial polishing effort involved about 200 manhours.
(FIVE, 40 hour weeks!)...and that was with all the proper equipment & tools I had from aircraft polishing activities.....

I'm a devotee of the Nuvite system....they have the right grade for the right application...Labor can be minimized by following their recommendations, which can be viewed at: www.perfectpolish.com
(hint: You want 100% wool polishing bonnets)

Now, in contradiction to the above, the exterior door skin on my unit has a series of faint white streaks that remain constant & parallel...They were a manufacturing anomoly and NO amount of polishing will ever remove them....I doubt if that's your problem, but it's possible.

quote:

I'm thinking that painting the thing is a better solution....

Over the years, I've pontificated on the polishing process many times on this site....NEVER have I recommended it as an alternative finish to a good paint job...
Polishing aluminum is kinda like marrying Paris Hilton - flashy looks, but from a logical point, it doesn't make any sense, and the maintenance & upkeep will kill ya.....