With winter approaching, it was important to get as much removed from the camper as possible to give us enough time in the spring to rebuild.
We started by removing the sun-baked decals from the exterior. We used a 3M stripe-off wheel, which is like a spinning eraser that buffs the vinyl off in tiny shreds. One lesson we learned is that too much pressure will make burn marks in your fiberglass. Thankfully minor sanding removes the few surface blemishes we created.
One of the things that fascinates me about the RV industry are the ubiquitous “swoopy-swoosh” patterns covering the majority, across countless manufacturing facilitates. I’m curious who started them, and why they remain unchallenged by most. I’m sure they were intended to break up the boxiness by imparting an aerodynamic visual. For the most part, I think simple is the way to go, and also not ignoring the boxiness but working with, even appreciating it’s shape. Striping our camper of it’s decals was an immediate improvement for us.
We’ll have to continue with light sanding in the spring to remove the glossy ghost marks left from the decals and to prepare the surface for the new paint design we plan to apply. A proper finish on fiberglass should be a gelcoat, but we don’t have the proper spray equipment or a protected space to do that ourselves, and it’s entirely out of the budget to have it done for us. After reading dozens of opinions and consulting paint and coating professionals, we arrived at a commercial paint from Sherwin-Williams of all places. It’s a low-lustre satin/flat water-based marine coating which may require touchups on occasion, but given limited alternatives, that seems acceptable. We’ll be waiting for consistently warm weather to accomplish the paint.
