'98 Excella Clearcoat Question

[CACTUS]

Clear Is Peeling Off My 28 Ft 98 I Have Read All The Info On Stripping And Polishing, But Have Never Heard From Anyone Who Stripped The Clear And Just Left It, Or Perhaps Just Waxed It. Also Will The Skin On A 98 Model Polish Up Like An Old One If I Bump My Head And Decide
To Polish, At Age 61 Now Are There Enough Years Left For Me To Polish? I Hate The Look Of The Peeling Clear.

[InsideOut]

Okay...here's the deal. You can strip the clearcoat and just leave the trailer to oxidize. However, it will most likely not do so evenly. Where the clearcoat has already failed, the aluminum has already begun to oxidize and where it hasn't failed it's still protected. So when you strip the remaining clearcoat, the newly exposed aluminum will have some catching up to do.

Prior to our polishing, our clearcoat had begun to fail over the years and the result was a very splotchy appearance - see my photo gallery. Yours most likely wouldn't be as bad as the delta between the beginning of clearcaot failure and the removal of the remaining clearcoat isn't as great as on our vintage, but it wouldn't be 'even' either. Eventually, the oxidation would even out more and your trailer will turn a dull grey. The climate and storage conditions where you keep your trailer will determine how quickly the oxidation progresses. Also if one side is exposed more to weather than another, it could effect the splotchiness...more exposure = more oxidation.

Actually, the aluminum skins on the newer trailers (like your '98) have a milled finish that doesn't polish up to a mirror shine anyways without removing the milled texture itself, which would be a tremendous amount of work. Then after that, you would be faced with the chore of maintaining the shine...or expense of a new application of clearcoat.

The final decision, of course, is only one you can make.

Shari

[wingfoot321]

Originally Posted by CACTUS

Clear Is Peeling Off My 28 Ft 98 I Have Read All The Info On Stripping And Polishing, But Have Never Heard From Anyone Who Stripped The Clear And Just Left It, Or Perhaps Just Waxed It. Also Will The Skin On A 98 Model Polish Up Like An Old One If I Bump My Head And Decide
To Polish, At Age 61 Now Are There Enough Years Left For Me To Polish? I Hate The Look Of The Peeling Clear.

Cactus, Sorry to hear of your problem. If I understand correctly, you have the new finish by Alcoa as opposed to the old process where the spray was applied at the factory. Six years is not very good for a clearcoat finish. Do you store outside? I have generally figured the finish should last ten years or so.

I would call P&S in Ohio or there is a shop in Alabama that does finishes. They should be able to give you some options. (1) do you walbernize the good panels right away and try to retard the problem (2) do they strip a panel or two such as the front or rear end caps and respray (3) some people are epoxy painting the top white. ????????
I have assumed it is one of the top panels that takes the direct rays from the sun?

[ALANSD]

how badly is it peeling? If not too large an area it can be re-clearcoated, and then seal the whole rig with a good hard sealant, hand applied (or buffer). Might have to wait on the newly sprayed sections before using a sealant on them though. The stripped areas if you just seal them, they will hold up for some time as well. My lower sections are stripped and sealed, no clearcoat as they were previously painted grey.
I had some small spots on my older AS that did not increase in size after I sealed them with 'Liquid Glass' polymer.
They were on the roof area, which gets the brunt of the sun abuse. The rest of the rig seems to hold up well with occasional reapplication of the sealant.

[wayner1239]

Originally Posted by ALANSD

I had some small spots on my older AS that did not increase in size after I sealed them with 'Liquid Glass' polymer.
They were on the roof area, which gets the brunt of the sun abuse. The rest of the rig seems to hold up well with occasional reapplication of the sealant.

ALANSD,
Is Liquid Glass polymer a brand product? Where did you find it? I messed up and used a clear lacquer to seal areas around the top of my unit. It looked great for about 1 year and then started turning "grayish". It looks terrible now.

Wayne
92 Sovereign