Old teardrop: paint or polish. Advice sought.

[burlesot]

Hey guys. Just spent a whole day learning a out how much work it would be to polish my 1947 tourette teardrop trailer. Ended up using two packs of 320and 400 grit sand paper, a container of rubbing compound and a bottle of pontoon aluminum cleaner...that was to only polish the hatch!

In the end I don't think it looks as nice as I hoped. I was going for that restored Airstream look.

So, I'm looking for some advice. It seems like it would be cheaper and possibly easier to paint.

I've completely upgraded the inside so I'm not hung up on being authentic. I'm much more interested in making it look good with the least effort. I don't want to sound lazy. I'm happy to put in the energy, I'm just concerned about cost.

Another note. The skin is in pretty good shape. There are a few imperfections, particularly along the bottom edges. These are especially hard to polish. One other note. The teardrop had been painted once before, I was trying to remove some of the paint off it today.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

If painting is recommended, any tips are especially appreciated.

Todd

[RandyG]

To polish really nice, you should go higher grit. 600 - 1000 grit. Do you have a compressor and a DA? If not, painting would be my choice.

[48Rob]

Clean it up and paint it a nice shiny light gray color, it will look much like weathered aluminum, but clean.

Polished finishes are very, very nice, but also very very expensive, time and materials and tools, to do.

Rob
PS. Did I mention that they scratch very easily, and you will need to re-polish every year...

We went from this;



To this;



Next one I ever do will be painted!

[burlesot]

I don't own an air compressor and air gun. It sounds like painting is the way to go. A nice shiny gray sounds good.

I've read a lot on how to paint. It's clean and ready to paint. I'm thinking of putting it in the garage to do this.

Any other tips on painting raw aluminum?

Do I need a primer even if I use exterior paint for aluminum?

Gray or white? What do you think?

Thanks

[doug hodder]

I'm about to paint my standy right now. It's raw aluminum. You need to either scuff it, or etch it. Then prime it, then shoot paint. Good paint isn't cheap...lots of people will tell you what they use for paint, so you be the judge. Anything from rolling it with latex to acrylic urethane 2 stage automotive paint. I treat them like it's a car and paint accordingly, not like it's a house, others opinions will certainly vary. Another option is to call a Maaco or inexpensive production auto paint franchise to see what they would charge. Doug

[burlesot]

48Rob,
That is a beautiful trailer you've restored!

I plan to call a few local auto body shops tomorrow and find out what they might charge. I don't want to invest in the air compressor, etc. Just don't use one enough.

I will continue to investigate a bit more.

Really appreciate the feed back.

Sincerely,
Todd

[burlesot]

I plan on calling several local auto body shops tomorrow. Because it's not a 'car' it seems like they have a hard time estimating. I can't haul it around to each shop, but I'll bring some photos and hope that will help them with an estimate. I'm sure it will be 'more' than doing it myself.

I'd love to hear from a few of you about what you've done. As was said in an earlier post, there's a different method for each person; I've read of folks using latex, using auto paint, spraying it with a professional gun from harbor freight, etc. and much more. I welcome feedback.

My wife is pulling for a professional paint job, but I am a little leery of spending so much money on the job. I feel like I could probably do a good job with the right paint and proper tools, right?

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Sincerely,
Todd

[burlesot]

Okay, so I've read a lot about painting trailers in tonight. I was impressed with this link http://www.freewebs.com/kc8jwa/painttechniques.htm that goes over some techniques for painting travel trailers.

I also found this http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/majicreg%3B-town--country-aluminum-paint-1-gal which is an aluminum paint from the Tractor Supply Company.

I've been thinking. This is camping right? It's not like I am making this teardrop to display in auto shows. I know some do, but I'm going to camp in it. It sounds like I could paint my teardrop well with a gallon of good paint; lightly sanding in between coats.

What do you think?

[mary and bob]

We had to strip 3 coats of paint plus that old zinc chromate primer off the outside of our 46 Modernistic, then 2 coats of paint off the inside. Thought we would never get done stripping paint. Had to set a goal of just a small area every day, and be happy if that was accomplished. What the chemical stripper didn't take off, I removed with a air die grinder with those 2" scotch discs. Took off the swirl marks with 1000 or 1200 grit wet paper. I polish with Mothers mag wheel polish, again a section at a time. No way we were going to paint after all that work stripping off the old paint. Polishing is all done by hand, no power tools.

[burlesot]

I ended up painting it silver hammered finish. Not perfect but far better than it was.

T

[PKCSPT]

I would have painted it too but I do love the bright shiny look./

[burlesot]

Thanks!