Can I remove Vinyl interior skin??

[racoco]

Hey everyone -- Some "renovation" questions...

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.

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by racoco

Hey everyone -- Some "renovation" questions...

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

[soldiermedic]

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.

Steve

[Lotek]

Hey Racoco,

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.

Good luck!

[Wabbiteer]

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.

[InsideOut]

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

[soldiermedic]

Originally Posted by InsideOut

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.

Steve

[DreamWeaver]

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

[soldiermedic]

Originally Posted by DreamWeaver

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.

Anyone else painted the interior vinyl?

Steve

[malconium]

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.

Malcolm

[InsideOut]

Originally Posted by soldiermedic

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.

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

[TomW]

Originally Posted by InsideOut

... 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.

Tom

[InsideOut]

Yep, that's the one...looks great, huh?! I would definately do that if I had a vinyl-clad interior on one of my trailers.

Shari

[SmokelessJoe]

I painted my Argosy in much the same way Malconium painted his trailer.

Details as to products used on my main thread, post #181

http://www.airforums.com/forum...-18448-13.html



Sergei

[racoco]

Wow - got busy for a day or so and couldn't get back here. Thanks everybody for the information.

I had my heart set on pulling the vinyl out, but not so sure that is a good idea now. I wasn't so worried about a mirror finish inside, but the durability would be a problem.

Might have to look into the paint route. Thanks again.

[jerbear315]

I am a complete newbie to airstreams and the forum. We just bought a 66' Caravel last Saturday. It is completely original, but not maintained. The cushions are crumbling-that is how I am pretty sure it is all original. He put a peep hole by the door and a cigarette lighter too-gag. Anyway, I am not crazy about the fiberglass caps on the end and vinyl either. We were told that there is no metal interior skin underneath-only frame. I really would prefer to renovate instead of restore (yes, I understand the return value issue...) and have wood or metal walls. Tell me what you all have found under them fiberglass end caps and vinyl-is it metal framing or sheet metal walls?
We are afraid to make a move yet. We are researching like mad!
Jerri in Tx.

[Beaker63]

jerbear315,
I took out the rear end cap to push out a dented roof. Nothing behid the cap but yellow, itchy fiberglass insulation. There was no framing above the side wall. This did make it easy to run new (both AC and DC) electrical wiring. The end cap came out pretty easily but not so easy to replace.
Tim

[RichHog]

A friend has a 69 Overlander and he stripped back some of the interior panels to the bare aluminum in the dinette front and overhead. It was a lot of work but the metal looks brand new.

[malconium]

The plastic end caps typically do not have any additional sheet metal under them. The vinyl skins though are on top of aluminum sheet metal. While it is possible to strip the vinyl off of the aluminum the type of aluminum underneath is not ideal for polishing and shining up. I understand it is also a lot of work. Many of us in the forum have successfully painted the vinyl skins and the end caps. The key is to thoroughly clean the surfaces first. Some people have suggested a light sanding of the vinyl to get a better surface for bonding. What I did for mine after cleaning was to use a couple of coats of Kilz primer followed by a couple of coats of Behr interior semi-gloss latex paint. It seems to be holding up just fine. Lately I have had very good results on other projects with the Behr brand Premium Plus Ultra paint that Home Depot sells that has built in primer. If I were doing the painting again I would go straight for that paint without the initial primer.

Malcolm

[jerbear315]

Thanks for all the great advice and confirming my suspicions!