GMC 230 Renovation Paint Job

This is almost how we purchased the coach, It looks a lot better at this distance then up close. The replacement of the missing glass in back of the front wheel has been started in this picture.

This is a close-up of the process for replacing the missing glass, a block of urethane foam has been glued in place and is being shaped to the proper contours and will be glassed over.

More body work as the furnace vents are removed, the new furnace will be installed on the other side.

More body work was done up here where the bolts were totally ripped out of the front quarter panel.

The sanding has begun; it will all be sanded down almost to bere glass and aluminum. When aluminum is bared it is sprayed with an acid primer to ensure adhesion of new paint. At the back of this photo you can just see where the old utilities door has been filled in. All windows but the cockpit ones and all other fittings have been removed including AC and vents.

The roof is also sanded down to almost bare metal and one of the plumbing vents has been filled in leaving only one plumbing vent.

After finding that painting outside was going to be impractical due to the small gnats and other bugs I built a paint booth in the shop using plastic sheeting. This included building the trolley you see her over the motor home that would allow rolling from front to back to paint the top without trying to move ladders up and down the side or walking on the freshly painted roof.

Here is another view of the trolley

This is the trolley in use to paint the roof

This is a front view of the coach in the makeshift paint booth with fans to exhaust the overspray and fumes from the area. A rolled up plastic sheet drops down to the top of the fans and cardboard panels seal off the area beside the fans so that air is pulled from back to front through the painting area.

This is after the first coat of primer has been sprayed on. It is an epoxy coat that serves as a barrier coat between the old pain and the new paint to protect against incompatibilities from the old paint system and the new paint systems. The paint shop recommended this to be sure I had no future problems. This surface was then scuffed with a scotch pad. The coach is being painted in sections, the top first followed by the front then the back panel then one side followed by the other. Later the bolt on accessories will be painted.

This is the sanding primer, it is followed by a sealer primer, then two coats of base coat, then two coats of each of the two graphics colors and that is then followed by two clear coats. The challenge was that the paint shop recommended that the sealer, base coat and clear coat be applied in the same day. I also had trouble finding days with appropriate temperatures since the base coat required 50 degrees. It was easy to reach that temperature with the wood stove in the shop but when the vent fans came on the temperature drooped rapidly.

Masking for the final base coat clear coat.

This is the final product less a few small parts that still need to be painted and added to the coach.

Another view of the final product

This view shows a little of the color which is not very clear in the previous photos. It is supposed to be similar to the University of Oregon Duck colors for tailgating but these colors are a little classier.

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