Clearcoat?! lifting on Accent strips....

[SilverToy]

Hi all -

Having a bit of an issue with the clearcoat (I think!?) lifting/ peeling off the body accent stripes - and only in 3 areas, not the whole length. Also, this is all happening only on the black portion, not at all on the red. What gives??????

Have a '92 34' Classic Limited.

Areas are the door, immediately rear of the door, and about 2 feet forward of the curbside rear storage locker.

Since this is limited in terms of overall trailer accent stripe locations, and only on the black portion, the questions are as follows....

1) Is this 'clearcoat' added after the stripes are added to the trailer?
2) Is it added on top of the 'factory' clearcoat?
3+4) Why only the black? Why only in 3 areas?

And lastly, how do I approach fixing/repairing this as it is starting to look like a really bad skin condition, and nobody likes that stuff! Yuck.

Now I realize this is rather trivial as compared to several of the more ambitious projects on here, but still, we all have our issues right??

Thanks in advance for all thoughts and ideas. BTW, I am handy but not "Mr. fix-it-all with a pen knife", so detailed instructions VERY welcome.

Thanks to all!

Axel

[bake315]

Hi Axel,

Sounds like you have the same ailment a lot of us have. The clearcoat is indeed added after the trailer has been striped - or it was at least in my case - I know this because I've been in the process of removing mine. The red stripe performs best because it is indeed paint rather than a decal - and has been hardest of all to remove. My black stripe, and the silver one above it haven't fared too well.

Anyway, there have been many approaches to remedying this. Some folks just re-stripe over the old with more vinyl striping, some strip it all off and re-stripe with either paint or vinyl striping, and yet still others decide they like it with no stripes at all and opt not to replace.

Me, I'm in camp #2.

Many have reported having great success just applying new stripe over existing stripe that is failing. This would seem the quickest, cheapest and easiest approach, and can still yield great results.

[SilverToy]

Dave -

Thanks for the reply. Thought that is might be type of 'Pinstripe' that was added. Never have seen any Pinstripe material that wide though.

Actually, went out again and looked at the coach and there is also peeling of what looks to be clearcoat on the propane bottle cover. Do you also have this problem?

Where is it that you got the stripe to replace yours with? Did you also replace the red and grey one, or are they all one 'piece'? Are they "AirStream" items? Cost?

You mentioned that you had trouble with removing them. How did you go about getting them off? Just pull them? Heat?

Does it leave a ghost like the red numbers?

Thanks again for you continued help and your encouragement! Nice to know that there are really helpful people out there.

Ciao

Axel

[bake315]

Yep, that would be clearcoat on the propane bottle cover, too. Actually, it's just about everywhere (including all the exterior lights, rubber trim - you name it. My cover appears to have been painted recently, and therefore had no clearcoat on it as far as I could tell.

A company called Vomela actually manufactured the striping on my coach - there was a small amount on a roll in it when purchased (even had an Airstream part number inside the cardboard tube), however when I contacted them (Vomela) they weren't much help and directed me to Airstream.

I found a place online called Stripeman.com that has a very good selection of stripe styles and colors. Ordered a sample book from them for $3 so that I can best match up the choices, and they come in widths up to 6" I believe.

I started removing the striping using a $10 heat gun from Harbor Freight. When it died after about 20 minutes of use (typical), I moved to a combination of Aircraft Stripper (to remove clearcoat on stripes, as well as the stripes themselves) and an adhesive remover put out by Crown (dark gray can with orange letters - can get it at Lowe's) to soften the remaining goo. When the goo was good and soft, I made a scraping wedge out of a piece of 1x4 wood, about 5" long which proved effective at removing the goo in big glops. Finally, I used a piece of fleece cut from a remnant bought at a fabric store, soaked with Xylene which cleaned up the remaining residue nicely. Definitely recommend doing this in a well ventilated area (like outside with a nice breeze) and using appropriate chemical resistant gloves. It's kind of a messy job, but it works. The red painted stripe took multiple applications of stripper to get it to release from the aluminum - tough stuff! All the glop that falls to the concrete was allowed to dry, then I was able to sweep it up and into the trash. All of this left a residue free surface to do with whatever I choose, which in my case will be re-striping. Right now though, it has no stripes at all. No "ghosting" either. Though it looks pretty cool without stripes, I'm going to go ahead and restore them to keep with the style of the time.