Our '76 Sovereign has the lovely vinyl clad skin inside. Has anyone removed this and bared the aluminum? How did you do it? Was it overly difficult? Was there a lot of adhesive cleanup?
And both interior endcaps are fiberglass; and cracked. Has anyone ever replaced these? With new fiberglass or new aluminum?
Our '76 Sovereign has the lovely vinyl clad skin inside. Has anyone removed this and bared the aluminum? How did you do it? Was it overly difficult? Was there a lot of adhesive cleanup?
And both interior endcaps are fiberglass; and cracked. Has anyone ever replaced these? With new fiberglass or new aluminum?
Thanks for your help.
That vinyl stuff is stuck and stuck good! I have read of several people that have attempted to remove it and have given up and either put in new sheet metal or covered it with something else. I am not saying it can't be done, but it is going to be difficult and you will probably hit the law of diminishing returns. The end caps can be repaired, and I have seen people replace them with wood or metal sheets. They are curved so you have to make patterns and cut the sheets to the proper pie shape to fit the curve.
Aaron
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....so many Airstreams....so little time...
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Removing the vinyl does take time, but looks nice. Barry from the polishing guru told me they use Kleenstrip for aircrafts, and let the vinyl bubble up. They then remove it, and use MEK to remove the adhesive.
Aaron is right about diminishing returns, but it beats shelling out $200.00 for each new sheet of aluminum.
I had a cracked endcap on my old Caravel. I managed to remove it (it fits through the door) and repair it from the back with fiberglass. It was flawless after reinstallation.
I've only read about the results of stripping inner liner coatings, the interior sheet isn't an alloy that behaves well denuded - it will polish or accept a brunished finish but is not a mirror shine and/or not very tolerant of wear and tear.
If your vinyl is intact and you just don't like the look of it, you can Zolatone over it. I have seen a couple of trailers that had this done & they very nice...and IMO a lot nicer than just a latex paint. Zolatone also helps hide any patches or imperfections in the vinyl.
Shari
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Vintage Airstream Club - Past President 2007/2008
WBCCI #1824 - DenCO Unit Past President (2005)
AIR #30 - Join Date: 2-25-2002
If your vinyl is intact and you just don't like the look of it, you can Zolatone over it. I have seen a couple of trailers that had this done & they very nice...and IMO a lot nicer than just a latex paint. Zolatone also helps hide any patches or imperfections in the vinyl.
Shari
Shari,
Know where I can see pics of this at? I am facing removal of the vinyl, or painting it, but I just get worried that painting over the vinyl will crack off or something.
With the right primer and topcoat you can successfully paint it. I used an aerospace epoxy primer and a high end interior latex topcoat. Both were sprayed with an HVLP turbine unit. The key is to prep the surface correctly.
With the right primer and topcoat you can successfully paint it. I used an aerospace epoxy primer and a high end interior latex topcoat. Both were sprayed with an HVLP turbine unit. The key is to prep the surface correctly.
If you want more details...let me know.
Good Luck
Steve
Pictures, and more information would be good for several of us. I plan to clean the vinyl with superclean (Big purple jug) first, and then it would be primed/painted. I would think an epoxy primer first, but I would be wary of a latex top coat.
There have been a lot of things said here in the forums about various types of paint for the inner skins. I had concluded from what I have read that the vinyl could be painted just fine with a high-adhesive primer like Kilz or BINs selac based primer and a good quality interior latex house paint. That is exactly what I have done. While I do not yet have direct experience with the overall longevity of the job others have indicated that it holds up just fine.
I have a 1973 31 foot model that has everything out of it. I put two coats of BIN shelac based primer on and 3 coats of quality interior latex. It would have only taken two but the first coat was some that I had left over from a previous project and it turned out to be a bit too much darker than the final coat so it took two to cover it. I picked a soft silver grey for the final coats. I used Bear interior sheen latex enamel from Home Depot (about $23 per gallon as I recall) in a color called Sterling. I think that a slightly shinier sheen might be better but it still looks great.
I did my final prep of the surface before priming with Krud Kutter. I had also scrubbed my skins earlier while I had them out using a small floor buffer. I used a 6" sponge roller for almost everything and did a little bit of cutting in with a brush. Interestingly there is very little cuttin in required because there are so few square corners. The cutting in was mostly around the window latches.
In round numbers it takes about 2 hours per coat for one person and a 6" roller. I would think that a larger roller would make it go faster but you would still need something smaller for some areas. I also found that 1 gallon of primer and 1 gallon of finish paint is suffient for two coats of each with some left over. The paint did equally well covering the vinyl on the aluminum as is did covering the end caps.
I found that turning on 1 or 2 of my fantastic fans in the low position with some of the windows open provided plenty of ventilation. The shellac primer is a bit stinky to be sure but the ventilation made it easily endurable.
The attached photos show the before and the view after the two coats of primer were in place. I still need to take some photos with the soft grey.
I would think that if you do some searching in the forums you will find other peoples opinions on the longer term durability issue. I have to wait and see.
Know where I can see pics of this at? I am facing removal of the vinyl, or painting it, but I just get worried that painting over the vinyl will crack off or something.
Steve
Unfortuantely, I don't have any pictures of the ones I've ssen. I do know that the one I was so impressed with, is a close friend of forum member MWOverlander64 you may want to contact him (Mark) for additional information or contact info on the trailer's owner. As far as I know, the trailer owner is not a forum member or I would direct you straight to them. I do know they were very happy with the result and it looks great! I've seen it several times over the last two years...I wouldn't endorse doing it if I didn't think it was a viable solution.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do ~
Shari
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Vintage Airstream Club - Past President 2007/2008
WBCCI #1824 - DenCO Unit Past President (2005)
AIR #30 - Join Date: 2-25-2002
... I do know that the one I was so impressed with, is a
Shari,
Are you thinking about Ron's '69 (I think) Overlander? If so I agree - He did a great job with the Zolatone. I too was very impressed.
Of note, he bought a genuine, Zolatone spray gun to do the job. Past posts have outlined alternate ways of applying the stuff, but Ron seemed to think that part of the secret was having the right tools.
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