Auto Paint or Vinyl? That is the question!

[MooseFamily]

Hey there,

Here is a picture of my trailer.


We are sick to death of buffing out the aluminum skin on my teardrop.
So, we were thinking about applying this design to it.
(White is shinny aluminum)


The only thing is we don't know what method (painting/vinyl decaling)would be most effective and yet easy on us price-wise.

What do you guys suggest we do?

[Classic Finn]

Sweet Looking Tear.. Well, this is only my idea and opinion but...

My tear has no real garage up here in the Land of Reindeer, n Moose. The weather changes rapidly, long winters, short but sweet summers.

I couldnt find aluminum wide enough so I went with fibreglass and then 10mm of foam and covered it with marine vinyl.. So far its been 3 years, with proper vinyl care and cleaning.

Still holding up nicely. Also In a few weeks Im going to our friends in Eastern Finland and we are applying a nice vinyl taping onto the sides. It will be professionally done. He,s done cars, trucks and other vehicles and the taping has a good 5 year gurantee. which most dont have. The sides will be completely taped. With other vinyl decor.. Im looking forward to it.

I,ll post pics for you and others as soon as its complete. Dont know if this helps but its what we are going with.

Wishing you and your family all our best.

[planovet]

I think the vinyl decal would be the easiest way to go. May not be the cheapest though and you run the risk of it fading over time.

Painting, if you did it yourself, might be cheaper but you would have a lot of prep work to do and hope it doesn't chip off someday.

Just my opinion...

[dh]

The sign shop down here does full auto body wraps, could this be an option?

[kennyrayandersen]

The sign shop down here does full auto body wraps, could this be an option?

You could wrap the whole thing in vinyl, but as Mark pointed out it might not be the cheapest; plus, I’m thinking when you do have trouble with it you can’t just paint over it – you have to remove it… That doesn’t sound too easy. I’m thinking any time you get tire of the paint, or pain scheme for that matter, you can just paint over it. I’d think vinyl would fade too, unless you keep the tear covered, but maybe they got some magic stuff now that doesn’t fade. I think the Al looks good natural myself.

[48Rob]

What happens when the shiny aluminum parts need to be buffed again?

Buffing around small decals is difficult, it may or may not be easier with your pattern?
Perhaps a full coverage layout would better serve your needs/desires.
The portion that was to be polished aluminum could instead be shiny vinyl.

Rob

[parnold]

check out this site for a source for vinyl.

http://www.signwarehouse.com

I buy my vinyl supplies from them, and you will probably be surprised at how inexpensive the vinyl is. The pattern you have shown can be easily cut by hand and applied directly over the aluminum. A mist of water with a little soap in it will make the application easier, and also make it easier to get rid of bubbles etc.

Automotive paint won't stick well to aluminum, you would need to use an etch or epoxy primer first, so you're really painting twice.

If you protect your tear with a cover of some type, 5 year or 7 year vinyl will last forever.

Oh, and yes it would be a pain to remove, but not really much more work than stripping paint.

[mikeschn]

I would talk to Gidget and Hiker Chick about their paint job on their trailer...



Mike...

[vrodjason]

Go with a full vinyl wrap! As others have stated, the expense isn't too great compared to a decent auto paint job. Plus the wraps are easily removed! The local place here can do any thing you dream up design wise. Really cool stuff.

[MooseFamily]

I looked into the vinyl wrap option.

Here is their ALARMING quote:
Looks like the vinyl to do what you are looking for is around $2600.
If you were to have the lighting bolt in white or a different color and didn't have the clear vinyl involved the cost would be around $1975.



The "Budget" auto paint shop (Think Maaco type shop)
offered to do it all for only $300.00...
But the same local shop has over 30 complaints with the BBB!


Add on that when I dropped that shops actual name to the other paint shops in town they all involuntarily laughed.

So, I am taking it to get a quote at a local Paint and Body shop with Good references.
If I do the lay out and do the sanding and masking they will go lower in price.
Plus, I can have it painted in a deep ruby metallic Red color...

"OOOOO AHHHH!"

[vrodjason]

You can't buy quality supplies for $300! I have paint in my garage that I'm going to have sprayed on my old truck that cost more than $300. That's just the paint! A good paint/body shop will take the TIME to do it right and that will cost you more than materials.

[MooseFamily]

here is what a photo and some red sharpy produces!



Har har har...

Now imagin it with silver tinted WINDOWS...

[parnold]

At full list price, House of Kolor Cinder Red Shimron, House of kolor epoxy primer, and House of Kolor Ultra Flow Klear (their best) $249.19.

Sherwin Williams also makes a real nice Spicy Merlot Pearl and it's cheaper than House of Kolor.

It won't take much paint to do what the design is, not like a car at all, no doorjams, no underhood, no trunk. Two quarts will probably be too much, but I figured for two quarts anyway. One quart of epoxy prime with hardener (two quarts sprayable), and one quart of clear with hardener and reducer is about 1.5 quarts sprayable. The House of Kolor red is 55.00 a quart, so if you use only one, it's just under $200.00 at full list price.

[MooseFamily]

Ok I haggled out a deal with a custom paint shop that specializes in "show car" AND "DRAGSTER CAR" paint jobs! ,Normally it would run me $1000. However, It will run me $600.00 if I do all the prep work myself. And, we can choose any paint type and any effect type we can imagine with a 7 year gaurintee. We are going with "Hellfire Red High Matallic" with heavy rainbow micro pears mixed into the clear coat!



SMOOOOKEN!


laying out the pattern!

[MooseFamily]

Finally!
After a grulling 10 hours, on the paint shop's parking lot, in the 100 degree sun! My 3 days of prep-work is done.

All the sanding was hand done with 1000 grit sand paper.
The lightning bolt's shine was hand polished with "intimidator" aluminum polish.