Painting the Layton!

[JimVol]

Howdy from Tennessee!!

I'm in the early stages of starting the exterior restoration on my 95 Layton Travel Trailer. I am doing my research now and I think that I am going to do a Rustoleum  roll on job similar to what a lot of Hot Rodders are doing now. 

I think that the basics of what I am going to do are this.
1) Choose color-  Mine will be Gloss White, lite Gray on the bottom, with a blue stripe.
2) purchase 1-2 gallons of paint and 1-2 gallons of mineral spirits (or more)  for the Travel trailer
3) Purchase high density foam rollers (4 inch) and some foam touch up brushes
4) Have new Layton vinyl logos made to replace the ones I am about to sand off.
5) Wash, no Scrub the travel trailer and make sure that all dirt and lose paint is GONE.
6) Pray for decent weather

Now, doing the deed, and my question to Y'all

The Hot Rodders (modern ones that run actual hot rods, not show queens, i.e. 80-90's Camaro's, Mustangs, Honda's (yeah I know))  use a 50:50 mix of paint and mineral spirits to get a good finish on their cars. 

Now comparing a brand new travel trailer's finish to a car's finish is no comparison,  they are different animals so I am not after the same results as a car finish.  I simply want my trailer to look better, more like I care about it.

The Hot Rodders technique includes sanding in between coats and taking 7-10 thin coats to put on a decent finish with little to no brush marks or lines.

Do I even need to mix the rustoleum for my purposes?  Should I mix it a little thicker, say like 75% paint, 25% mineral spirits?

I will try to get some before pics up in a day or two, I am excited about this, I just hope, at the end of this project, my Trailer will look much better and less like a run down trailer.

Thanks!

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

The object behind the roller method is to get the paint to layer smoothly so that you get nearly the same shine (reflective glaze) produced by normal automotive paint minus the high $ of the automotive paint.   It is the thiness (dilution) of the coating that allows the surface glaze to be built up to produce the mirror like reflection.  So it simply comes down to, what do "you" want?

Dave

[JimVol]

This past weekend I replaced the broken roof vent lid over my "bedroom" in the back of the trailer.  It's amazing what hail can do to a 16 year old roof vent lid.  So far that is all I have done, lately that is. 

I took some pictures of the Layton for all to see.  I have to figure out how to post pics then I am going to put them up here.  Woo, getting excited!

OK, figured out that I can't reply to the post, I can only "quick reply"  but I can edit the reply after.  Strange.

Anyhoo,  here are a few pics that illustrates my issue.



Here is where it is worn down to the aluminum. 



I hope that those take. 

Thanks!

Jeremiah