I'm looking at a similar job on my '89 Excella, and spent this morning cobbling together a plan. Figured I'd share on this thread and ask some questions in hopes it'll help your project, too, Marshall.
As a newbie, I'm gonna use the propane cover as my 'guinea pig' before I move on to doing the rest of the trailer. There're two colors, a darker and a lighter blue. It's hard to see, but there are silver stripes between the blue stripes, too.
Here's my plan thus far:
1) Pull off samples of the old vinyl and tape them to a piece of paper so I have a 'reference board' to take to the hardware store and for posterity.
2) Remove the old stripes using a drill and a magic eraser wheel:
Amazon.com: AES Industries 4" Smart Eraser Pad with Drill Adaptor Arbor: Home Improvement
3) Remove the clearcoat using Citristrip
4) Polish the aluminum (steps detailed in other posts and on YouTube)
5) Paint the fat blue stripe by hand using quality blue masking tape, a suitable Rust-oleum color, and a brush and/or small roller. (I'm painting this stripe because the wider vinyl material is expensive, and because I also want to paint the negative space in the 'Excella' logo plate. I'm planning to use brush-on paint because less masking would be involved.)
6) Use vinyl pinstriping material for the other stripes.
This place has free color samples and can produce any size of stripe, in 1/8" increments. (Useful because this stripe pattern involves stripes in the following widths: 1/8, 7/8, and 1.)
7) Use a Dremel, toothbrush, maybe some Citristrip, etc. to clean up negative space in the logo plate. Paint it using a brush, and then use an orbital sander and fine-grit paper to reveal the flat letter faces.
Some questions:
a) Should I prime, or otherwise prep the surface (Acetone?), before painting the fat blue stripe?
b) Am I likely to get a good edge using blue painter's tape? Any tricks?
c) Should I lacquer or otherwise topcoat the cast aluminum logo place once it's complete?
d) Any other feedback on this plan?
Linear Mode
