Confused.. Clear Coat Pealing

[Dickandvicki]

I have several large areas on the top of my '91 Excella where the clear coat has flacked/pealed off. I have been reading through all these threads and it sounds like a really big problem. I had hoped that I could find someone to just take off the old clear coat and spray on some new clear coat..

Is this really such a big problem to fix? I love my AS and want her pretty again..

[John&Vicki]

It's not a big problem at all. The clear coat is easy to remove - here's a good thread: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f441...ml#post1456931 - there are many others.

The plot does thicken if you want a highly polished finish though. Very, very time consuming to do it yourself. Lots of threads about that also.

Poppy

[wahoonc]

You have three options;

• Ignore it and enjoy the APB (Airstream Pattern Baldness)
• Pay to have it stripped and new clear coat sprayed on ($$$$)
• Strip it and polish (time consuming to maintain)

I went with option one, eventually I will strip it and use something like Nevr-Dull to give it a polish.

Aaron

[Dickandvicki]

Thank you for your replies. This isn't something that I want to tackle myself. I live in Oklahoma and called a local AS restorer. They told me that they don't do this type of work any more (EPA Restrictions) and recommended a well known company out of Ohio Called P&S. I gave them a call and he indicated that it would cost between $5,500 and $7,500.. Yikes!

I have also heard of a man that has done exterior work on SOB's. Actually saw a vintage Scotty that he painted and it look beautiful. I thought I would talk to him and see if he could help me out.

Love your term Airstream Pattern Baldness!

[r carl]

I would try and talk to a few body shops in your area. They know how to spray clear coat. You would need to find one that could accommodate your camper. You just never know......

[n2916s]

Automotive clear coat will not work. The aluminum expands and contracts far more than steel.

The product that is applied by P&S and other Airstream specialists is Plasticoat. Unfortunately, stripping and replasticoating is labor intensive and pricey. A good refinishing will last 5 to 7 years depending on climate and locale.

I used Citristrip to remove the failed Plasticoat on both end caps and above the drip line and then polished with Meguiars aluminum polish. Looks fine for now.

Sooner or later I will pony up the big bucks to have it done properly.

Mike

[Bill M.]

Check with P&S trailer. One of their representatives at the Florida state rally said that it is relatively inexpensive to have them strip the clear coat and re apply. He also said it gets very expensive if it is allowed to go long enough to need to polish. His recommendation was to strip and recoat every 10 years.

[r carl]

Originally Posted by n2916s

Automotive clear coat will not work. The aluminum expands and contracts far more than steel.

The product that is applied by P&S and other Airstream specialists is Plasticoat. Unfortunately, stripping and replasticoating is labor intensive and pricey. A good refinishing will last 5 to 7 years depending on climate and locale.

I used Citristrip to remove the failed Plasticoat on both end caps and above the drip line and then polished with Meguiars aluminum polish. Looks fine for now.

Sooner or later I will pony up the big bucks to have it done properly.

Mike

You must use the correct clear coat, not the one for base coat-clear coat.

[Dickandvicki]

I'll take pictures and send to P&S, but after talking to them it sounds like they are out of my price range at least for now. Thanks for all the information. At least now I have an idea of what needs to be done.. Geeze, I thought this would be fairly simple and not quite so expensive...

[J. Morgan]

I don't know for sure about the clear, but as a person who has painted a lot of aluminum with color, I don't think the problem is so much with an automotive clear coat so much as it is with the inability to sand the soon to be clear coated bare aluminum.

Paint needs " tooth" to stick like it should.

I could make an automotive clear stick, but but I don't know what it would look like.. This is something I would need to do a bit of research on.

That said, depending on your time frame, I have a 65 foot booth in Little Rock...

[Howard L.]

Check out Nyalic. Go to the web site and actually call them. They have 2 Airstreams renovated and sprayed with Nyalic in Australia. I use the product as a touch up repair on newer Airstreams--Alcoa baked on clear coat (most posts located in thread, "corrosion problems with new Airstreams"). The product is a polymer resin. Works on bare AL in the marine environment, Or as a clearcoat over painted steel, etc. Unaffected by salt, UV, will not breakdown like plastic oat, acrylics or lacquers.

[Keith and Sue in PG]

Originally Posted by Howard L.

Check out Nyalic. Go to the web site and actually call them. They have 2 Airstreams renovated and sprayed with Nyalic in Australia. I use the product as a touch up repair on newer Airstreams--Alcoa baked on clear coat (most posts located in thread, "corrosion problems with new Airstreams"). The product is a polymer resin. Works on bare AL in the marine environment, Or as a clearcoat over painted steel, etc. Unaffected by salt, UV, will not breakdown like plastic oat, acrylics or lacquers.

Howard

I went to the website for Nyalic and see that they have a few versions of the product. I am wondering if you used the aerosol product for the touch up repairs on the airstreams?

Keith

[Dwight]

If the clear coat is only on the top areas....usually the end caps are the worse....then you can just do the end caps or just recoat from the beltline up and save a ton of money.

[Pat Conway]

On our '88 the vinyl center stripe was peeling off and very unsightly, in addition to the clear coat peeling off (it had been refinished from the belt line up in 2002). I made the mistake of dropping the trailer off at an RV repair facility that thought they could do the work, kept it for five months and scarred it up badly. They had no clue what they were doing. I must blame myself also for not doing my homework here too. Anyway, I took it to P&S and had to spring for the full polishing and re plasticoating. This included extra hours of polishing to buff out the scarring. Am convinced you really have to know what you are doing and have the facility to do the work. Am about to pick it up in a few days. From the pics they did a beautiful job. I only wish I had taken it to them in the beginning, No substitute for 30 years experience. Hope this helps in your decision, Pat

[Howard L.]

Originally Posted by Keith and Sue in PG

Howard

I went to the website for Nyalic and see that they have a few versions of the product. I am wondering if you used the aerosol product for the touch up repairs on the airstreams?

Keith

Yes, on the tail light castings and also on the skin where I had buffed off Filiform, repainted with a matching silver paint, then re sprayed the Nyalic over that area.

On smaller areas like the entry handle or door hinge, I brush painted the product with a small 1/2 inch artist brush. (Use a small artist touch up brush for resealing of corrosion X treated small corrosion repairs.) (for these small repairs, don't buy the expensive quart liquid, spray a little from the aerosol into its lid for small brush touch up.)

This work was on the newer trailers--Alcoa baked on clear coat from the factory. Nyalic, being a polymer resin, is flexible, so it works on bare AL, painted surfaces, etc. My experience with the product goes back 6 years and it's application on corroded aluminum outriggers on a salt water fishing boat. Those outriggers still fish the Gulf of Mexico and look like they did the day of repair.

If you were to do the entire trailer, you would of course, use the liquid via a professional automotive spray set up. If that's your plan, I would talk to the company, as they have the two Airstreams completely restored with Nyalic.

Skin repair below--Filiform moving up from end cap edge was removed, closely matching silver paint sprayed to cover repair, then Nyalic clear sprayed over that:

[wxbuoy]

Originally Posted by Pat Conway

Anyway, I took it to P&S and had to spring for the full polishing and re plasticoating. This included extra hours of polishing to buff out the scarring. Am convinced you really have to know what you are doing and have the facility to do the work. Am about to pick it up in a few days. From the pics they did a beautiful job. I only wish I had taken it to them in the beginning, No substitute for 30 years experience. Hope this helps in your decision, Pat

Post some pics please!!

[Dickandvicki]

Thanks all.. Howard your repair looks great..

[Dickandvicki]

Yes, Pat please post pic's..

[cwf]

This is very timely reminder... Thanks Howard... and others..