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shiva-shantz · 04-24-2018, 07:28 AM

Hello everyone. I have spent many hours recently trying to follow through on a few of the recommended roof sealing and painting recommendations offered by members of this forum to re-paint my 1978 Argosy. I wanted to re-seal and coat the roof and then repaint the rest of the camper. My issue is that most people are discussing sealing an airstream and not the Argosy. And my second issue is that every product recommended here seems very difficult to find online or it costs hundreds to purchase. I can find the caulks/sealants but can’t get a good handle on the best way to completely seal the roof before moving onto the body painting. All I’ve got so far is 10 scraped and bloody knuckles from prepping and cleaning he roof and one nasty sunburn. I’ve gotten most of the silicone off, most of the butyl too. There is another EXTREMELY hard substance up there that I don’t know what it is that I’ve just resorted to breaking loose edges off. Can anyone clearly share some approaches to sealing, roof coating, and body paint that was moderately priced and stood the test of time? Any paint store I talk with all recommend something different as well. I totally enjoy doing projects but when you don’t know much about certain things it can be really confusing. ( I can’t find hydro seal, Imron, and several others I don’t recall he names now) and has anyone used Quad Max Osi? How about Dyco 20/20? The local trailer store recommended those.

rugjenkins · 04-24-2018, 08:09 AM

I have an argosy too. Argosys and airstreams are sealed the same way. Sikaflex 221 in gray is great and found on amazon. I use it everything. Gutterseal is good too, I use it on the seams.
If your recoating the roof, get a grinder with a wire wheel. I also used a chisel but be careful not to gouge the aluminum. Hytech solutions has a good roof coating- any roof coating is going to cost around $100 or more. As for paint, I have used Ace hardware or rustoleum "aluminum and galvanized metal primer first. For a top coat, I used "rust atop alkyl enamel" with a hardener. Found anywhere. I sprayed with a Harbor freight spray gun. I painted my pop up this way and also my belly wraps on my argosy. I also plan on painting the argosy with this method also. Ace can tint the paint to any color. Word of warning, this paint takes a long time to cure completely. A good solid month. Alkyl enamel is what the auto industry use to paint car with prior to the 70's. you can also use any automotive paint. The key is to sand the aluminum first for the primer. Hope this helps. You can check out several argosy threads under the airstream knowledgebase section. Many have and are painting their argosys. It's a great place to see what others are going and to ask questions.

Airtandem · 04-24-2018, 08:18 AM

had my A$ roof coated with BusKote. This is the same product used on school buses. It covers and seas the rivets and seams. The roof was washed with TSP and rinsed well than primed and coated. Paint brush and roller was used to cover. I purchased mine thru Amazon. I got instructions thru Amazon web site

shiva-shantz · 04-26-2018, 08:15 AM

Thank you both for offering some fairly simple direction. I will look into these and thank goodness for AMazon! I have my paint sprayer from harbor freight and am having a painting party with a few friends in another 2 weeks. I’ve also got my dad bringing his air compressor over since it’s bigger than mine. I enjoy doing things like this and it’s so cool to be upgrading the outside of this camper. I just love this camper and addressing the outside is overdue. Thanks for straightforward advise!