Monthly Archives: February 2017

RV Renovators – Days 21- 22 – High Expectations

Achieving good results from a paint job requires meticulous preparation. This is especially true when the panel you’re painting is flat and more than a 100 square feet of area. When the finish is applied, the smallest preparation flaws will show.

More sanding with guide coat

After another morning of sanding, I moved the coach after lunch on Tuesday. I drove it to the dump station first – it had been only eight days but I thought I should dump the tanks since I was moving.

I set up the coach next to the paint booth. The painter, Steve had previously worked at a custom car shop. He excels at applying multi-colored paint schemes and is very picky about the surface preparation. He filled the corners of the edge moldings. Then he decided to use polyester resin to fill the entire joints where the edge moldings meets the sidewall. He told me there were small gaps in places and when the finish is applied the small gaps will show. They’re sealed underneath so no moisture would get through, but the paint wouldn’t look smooth over the gaps.

Polyester resin on the corner

Moldings filled with polyester resin and primed

This took more time to sand the resin and create a crisp edge along the moldings.

New site next to the paint booth

I looked at a couple of coaches that Steve recently painted. One, a Sportcoach, had been repaired and painted on the entire rear cap and some of the rear quarter. The areas Steve painted looked better than the factory paint. The areas where the color scheme changed color had slight ridge lines in the factory paint that I could feel with my fingers. The newly painted sections were totally smooth. The other coach was a Winnebago Tour and the factory paint had a slight orange peel look in places. The areas Steve painted were smooth as glass.

I have high expectations for the final finish on our new living room slide skin. Wednesday morning went by with more sanding and surface cleaning. The cleaning and degreasing took a lot of time. In the afternoon Steve started masking but was pulled off the job to handle an emergency repair that took about an hour. When he returned, Armando came with him to help.

They applied masking tape to the backside of the moldings which extended sticky side up about an inch beyond the edge of the molding. Then I pulled the living room slide in. The slide will stay in until the paint work is done. It’s a good thing to have a floor plan that’s usable with the slide in. The masking tape along the edge of the molding gave them a way to mask right up to the edge without overlapping any of the molding.

They used paper over the windows and around the slide. They also put paper on the roof, A/C covers and satellite dome. The front and rear of the coach were covered with plastic sheets.

Masked and ready for paint

The last thing Steve did was checking the color match of the Diamant paint. Meanwhile another worker started stripping the front lower panel. I’m having that refinished while were at it. It had large stone chips that were beginning to peel in areas.

Today we’ll finally start getting painted. The forecast looks good – we should reach 80 degrees today and tomorrow with zero percent chance of rain. Rain is likely to come over the weekend.

RV Renovators – Day 20 – Gelcoat

A big repair job like the one we’re going through on our coach requires patience. The guys performing the work have to patiently work through several steps to get the body work right. The owner of the coach (me) needs to remain patient as the work is done – pushing to rush the job is not a good plan. I want it done right – I can see they are very detailed in what they’re doing and I’m giving them space and time to get it done.

I mentioned before that the body guys – Izzy and his assistant Armando – speak English as a second language. Izzy speaks pretty good English, Armando not so much. Technical terminology gets lost in translation though.

Last week I described the process to ‘glass and prime the seams. Izzy called it primer. When they applied a catalyst over the “primer” I was surprised. I’m not up on the latest techniques, but I never heard of a two-part catalyzed primer before. Yesterday Levi Germaine was checking the work and discussing the next steps with the guys. I asked him a few questions. It turns out the material Izzy was calling primer was actually gelcoat resin. This made sense. They use gelcoat to seal the seams and flatten the surface before the final finish is applied.

Gelcoat provides a high quality , smooth finish. However, it’s harder to sand than a traditional primer coat. Levi told me they only use a primer for small repairs – large fiberglass repairs are always sealed with gelcoat.

Yesterday they finished installing the edge moldings and put the windows back in. I set up the suspended bed for Ozark the cat with suction cups on the large living room window.

Ozark the cat’s window bed

At this point the painter, Steve, is taking over the job. He looked the surface over and said it wasn’t flat and smooth enough. He sprayed it with black guide paint. This morning he’s block sanding the surface by hand.

Windows are in and more sanding to be done

At some point I’ll have to move the coach. Steve doesn’t want to paint it in the paint booth. He would rather paint it outside in natural light to better match the original finish.

Yesterday the clouds remained all day – I thought it might even rain at one point. But it stayed dry out and the temperature reached the upper-60s. We should be in the 70s today and will hit 80 degrees by Thursday.

I’m trying to remain patient, but I wonder how much longer I’ll be here at the RV Renovators shop.

RV Renovaters – Days 18-19

No work was performed on the coach over the weekend. I discovered more work was done Friday afternoon than I reported in my last post. One of the basement doors was damaged, presumably by the one of the hoofs of the deer that slammed into the side of the coach.

I didn’t notice it right away as it’s partially hidden with the living room slide deployed, but they fixed the ding and it’s ready for paint.

Ding in basement door fixed

I spent most of Saturday morning reading. At noon I rode the Spyder down to Jason’s Deli on Baseline Road a few miles from here. I had one of my favorite sandwiches for lunch – the muffuletta made with ham, salami, provolone and olive spread.

After lunch I visited Howard Graff at his place. I hung out and fondled his gun collection. We’ll have to hit the gun range one of these days. Other than that, I didn’t do much on Saturday. With Donna away I just hung out with Ozark the cat and read a book.

Sunday morning I rode the Spyder down Main Street to the Quick Trip. Quick Trip is a privately held company with headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They have stores in eleven states which are gas stations with convenience stores. The also prepare food to go on site. I wanted to try their breakfast pizza that our friend Joel Myaer told us about.

The breakfast pizza is a thin pizza crust topped with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage bits, bacon bits and cheese. It was good but a personal size pizza was enough for two meals. With Donna away I’m not following a very healthy diet.

I planned to go to a Superbowl party at Mike and Kim Childs house. Around noon I thought I should try our satellite and see if it was possible get reception. I hadn’t even tried it because I was sure we would still be blocked by the building next to us and the canopy over our roof. To my amazement, it found the signal and I had reception. I went online and opened a chat with Dish Network support and changed my location from San Diego to Mesa and got local Phoenix broadcasts.

With that done, I tuned in the Superbowl pregame show. I decided to pass on the Superbowl party. I knew I would want to have a few beers during the game and I also tend to get a little animated at times during football games. If I went to the party I would have taken an Uber ride – it’s over 10 miles each way and I wouldn’t want to be on the road on the Spyder after the game. I thought it was best if I just hung out in the coach where I could yell at the TV without making a fool of myself.

The first half looked like an Atlanta blow out. The second half was an epic comeback by New England and the game went to overtime. What an entertaining Superbowl.

The weather was nice all weekend with the temperature reaching the upper-70s. Donna sent me a photo of sunset behind the band at an outdoor bar in Vieques. I think she’s enjoying the warmer weather and better scenery there.

Sunset behind the band

Today we have high, thin clouds and the temperature should reach the 70s again. Izzy and Armando are finishing up the edge trim. They need to seal all of the trim, then block sand a few areas before they put the windows in. I think Steve will start painting tomorrow.

 

RV Renovators – Day 17 – Primed

The progress on our repair slowed yesterday. I thought they would apply primer and get the edge moldings installed. I was only partially right. In the morning they masked the new panels on the living room slide. The masking job looked strange to me – I didn’t understand the pattern.

I was told they only wanted to apply primer to the areas where they fiberglassed the seams and sanded the surface. The rest of the panel is pre-primed and still had the protective plastic film on it.

Masked and ready for primer

Armando applied a coat of white primer over the ‘glassed and sealed seam areas, feathering the primer over a larger area.

Armando applying primer

Jim Haxby, a fellow Alpine Coach owner that lives here in Mesa, Arizona stopped by to see how things were going. While he was here we watched Armando apply a thin green coat over the primer. It looked watery and had runs in several places. I wondered what was up with it.

A while later I saw the painter, Steve, and asked him what the runny green coat was all about. He told me it was a catalyst that hardens the primer coat. It’s water soluble and after it reacts with the paint for about an hour they hose it down with water and it washes off.

Thin green catalyst over the primer

I reheated a plate of leftover pad Thai for lunch, then my phone rang. It was my friend Dave Hobden. He and his wife, Stilla, have an Alpine Coach and have just purchased a home here in Mesa to use as a base while they continue to travel. He stopped in at RV Renovators and we had a brief visit and talked about the work being done.

About an hour later Dave phoned again. He was going to drive his truck down to Casa Grande with his cargo trailer. He wanted to pick up his Harley and some odds and ends that he had stored there in a cargo container at his brother’s house. He asked if I wanted to come along and help him. I had nothing else to do, so I went along.

Before I left, I looked for Izzy, but he was on his lunch break and was probably off site. I wanted to tell him I would be away from the coach for a few hours. I locked the coach and left with Dave. I wasn’t comfortable leaving for the afternoon with the coach unlocked. Not that I don’t trust the crew here, but during business hours anyone can walk in to the place and I’d hate to lose valuables like laptops and what not.

It took us about an hour to reach Dave’s brother’s place. He lives outside of town an acreage. Their mother and step-dad also live on the property. I met them and Dave’s brother, Steve. We loaded the trailer and strapped the Harley down. We were nearly finished when my phone rang. It was Danielle at RV Renovators. She told me they needed to get inside the coach to reinstall the windows. It was 3pm and I told her I was an hour away.

The drive back took longer than an hour due to traffic. It was past 4:30pm by the time I got back. Armando was still here, but he was cleaning up and ready to call it a day. He said not to worry about it, they can do the windows first thing Monday morning. They only got one edge molding installed on the front edge of the slide out. They still need to install the upper and rear edge moldings before it’s ready for paint.

This is why I need to be onsite as much as possible. I’m guessing Armando must have been pulled off of this job at some point in the afternoon. I can’t believe it took all afternoon to remove the masking tape and paper, wash off the catalyst and install one molding.

Install two moldings and windows and we’ll be ready for paint

Donna phoned me while we were driving back from Casa Grande. She made it to Vieques and said her room was nicer than expected – although the internet photos looked good. Usually everything looks better on the internet than it does in reality. She has a small patio outside her room right on the beach!

We had high, thin clouds yesterday and the temperature reached the mid-70s. The weekend forecast calls for sunny, blue skies and upper 70s. No work will happen on the coach over the weekend. I’ll find something to do today. Tomorrow I’m going to a Superbowl party at Mike and Kim Childs house.

RV Renovaters – Day 16 – Smooth

I wrote in yesterday’s post how smooth the fiberglass lay up over the seams was. I also wrote that I thought we’d be ready for primer. I was wrong.

Izzy explained to me that although it felt very smooth when I ran my fingers over the seam, there were still high and low areas. These aren’t detectable by running you fingers over the seam – but you would detect them visually once the finish was applied. There were surely some pinholes as well that would show up when it’s painted.

So, Armando coated the seams with a two-part lightweight filler. He sanded them flat with a long narrow air operated sander. It was about a foot long and a couple of inches wide. Paint and body guys call this tool an air file.

First filler stage

After he sanded the filler he applied a spray paint called Guide Coat. This sprays a very thin coat of black paint over the filler. Then he hit the filler with the air file again. The black spray was removed from the high spots first and remained in the low spots. This way he could decide if he needed another layer of filler or if he could sand the area flat.

Guide Coat

He spent about six hours applying filler and sanding the surface.

A high spot where he sanded through the filler

When he was satisfied with the surface, he applied a glaze coat. This sealed the filler and closed out any pinholes that may still be there. The filler and glaze are two-part products with a catalyst. This allows them to cure and be sandable in about 30 minutes.

Glaze applied

Armando was spreading the glaze coat when Donna and I headed out at 3pm. We rode the Spyder over to the Graff’s house to pick up a package Donna had delivered there. Then we went to Lucky Lou’s to catch up with the usual suspects.

Jodi, Mike Hall, Donna, Ray, Kim, Leendert and Mike Childs

Donna wanted to visit with them before she leaves for her trip to Vieques.

It was another nice day weather wise with the temperature in the mid-70s. But, once the sun sets it cools off quickly. We decided to get take-out from the Thai Kitchen next door to Lucky Lou’s rather than dine-in and have a cold ride home after dinner.

When we got home I saw that the glaze had been sanded smooth. Now we’re ready for primer – I’ll see how that goes today. The final finish paint will take four or five days. There are four colors to apply plus clear coat and complex masking to recreate the original paint scheme.

This morning Donna woke me up at dark-thirty – it was 4am. I walked her out to the gate and unlocked it so she could meet her Uber driver. Her flight was scheduled at 6am and the Uber driver picked her up at about 4:30am. She should be in Vieques around 4pm local time. I locked the gate and went back to bed!

 

RV Renovaters – Day 15 – Lost Folder

You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? As the seams on our fiberglass composite walls were completed yesterday, I took a series of 10 pictures to document the process. I put the photos into a folder on my smartphone, then accidentally deleted the folder! That’s right, ten thousand words worth of photos gone.

I looked at recovery apps last night, but in the end, I just had accept the fact that they’re gone. So, I’ll try to describe the process as best as I can. This was probably the most interesting part of the job. I had some misconceptions early on in the process of repairing the slide wall regarding how they were planning to do the work. I put this down to me talking to too many people here – many of whom only really knew a small part of the process. Also, communication was difficult with some workers as English is not their native language and technical descriptions can be lost in translation.

All of the screws and aluminum angle holding the panels tight as the adhesive dried were removed. After that, Armando used a pneumatic sanding disc along the length of all of the seams. He sanded through the fiberglass down to the plywood backing about a half an inch on either side of the seam.

After cleaning the seams again, he used a thick slurry made of milled (chopped) fiberglass and resin to fill the gaps in the seams. Then he cut strips of fiberglass mat – this is different than cloth. It wasn’t woven like cloth, the mat has the individual fibers in a random orientation. The strips were about an inch wide.

He saturated the strips with resin and then placed them over the seams. He used three plies of the fiberglass mat. Then the final layer was applied. This was individual strands of fiberglass – it was like the mat but shredded and loose. He saturated handfuls of fiberglass with resin then pressed it over the strips of mat. He used a special steel roller about a half inch in diameter to flatten the fiberglass/resin and ensure that no air bubbles were present.

This sealed the seams and made the sheets of fiberglass composite into one continuous piece. No filler or bondo was used – it’s all fiberglass. After the resin cured, he used a DA sander to smooth the seams. They’re so flat and smooth, I can’t feel the seam when I run my fingers over it.

Seams filled and ‘glassed

Finished seam smooth as glass

This is excellent workmanship and I’m very happy with the results so far.

Next they’ll have to install and seal the edge moldings and then we should be ready for primer and the paint shop.

We couldn’t ask for better weather here in Mesa, Arizona. Yesterday we had clear skies and the thermometer hit the mid-70s. It looks like we’ll continue to be in the 70s with a few clouds in the coming week, then it’ll warm up!

Donna will finish packing for her trip today and we’ll go out for dinner this evening. Tomorrow morning she has a 6am flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico then a commuter flight to Vieques. She’s leaving her laptop behind so she won’t be tempted to work while she recharges on the beach.

That means I won’t have my in-house proofreader and editor to review my posts for the next week. Or my personal chef. Yes, I’m going to miss my wife.

RV Renovators – Day 15

The work started slowly on Tuesday morning. I think they wanted full sun on the living room slide-out wall before they removed the clamps and added the last two panels.

One of the guys routered out the window openings for the living room window and the front half of the galley window. While they were working on this, another worker named Steve knocked on the door. Steve is the painter who will put the finish on the wall.

He found paint codes for the colors but didn’t have any information on the actual paint system used. He asked me if I knew what it was – he was looking for a brand name like Sikkens or Dupont.

I knew the original supplier was Industrial Finishes in Eugene, Oregon but I didn’t know for sure what they used. They were the supplier for Western RV and Monaco and maybe others as well. I called Industrial Finishes and they were very helpful. They told me the paint was custom-blended two-stage base coat/clear coat called Diamant from BASF. They also told me the old paint codes are useless – they’re obsolete and don’t reference to a formula. He said the painter should call them and they would provide the formulas needed. I relayed this information to Steve.

In the afternoon, they put the two rear panels in place. This was a repeat of the work performed the day before, but it went a little quicker because the panels were smaller and easier to handle.

Rear panels in place

Last night, I heard something crashing down to the ground. I took a flashlight and went out to investigate. The smaller upper board applying pressure against the panel had fallen down. I used a ladder and put it back in place. Sometime in the night it fell off again, but I think the adhesive was set up well enough by then.

They draped a padded blanket over the living room window to give us a little insulation overnight – there’s plastic sheeting on the inside. The outside temperature was 39 degrees when we got up this morning and it was 59 in the coach.

I fired up an electric heater in the living room and the heat pump in the bedroom. My front heat pump won’t run – I think I need to install a hard start capacitor, but I won’t get to that until we leave RV Renovators. I can’t work on my coach while we’re here due to their insurance regulations.

Oscillating electric heater

The temperature reached 75 degrees yesterday with calm winds. We expect more of the same today. Donna went down to the FedEx office to work at one of their work stations and escape the noise of the shop. She’s had 8 articles due over the past two weeks and finally got caught up on her work.

Living at the workshop hasn’t been the ideal set-up – but we’re adaptable. At least we have nice weather instead the cold, windy, rainy conditions we had the first week here. I mentioned in a previous post that Donna is ready to get away from it all and take a break from work.

She’s leaving for what she’s calling a personal health and wellness retreat early Friday morning and flying to a Puerto Rican island called Vieques (map). She traveled there about 20 years ago and wants to re-visit the quiet beaches. She’ll be gone for a week recharging her batteries.

Meanwhile, I’ll hang out here to ensure the work gets completed without any hitches. I’ve heard many a horror story of work coming to a standstill when the coach is left unoccupied. I can understand how it happens – I managed a car dealership service department many years ago. There’s always some kind of fire drill and workers can get pulled off a job if there’s something seemingly more urgent that needs to be done – I don’t want that to happen.

Today they’ll grind the seams and fill them, then lay up fiberglass over the seams. After this sets up, the next step will be to sand the seams flat. At that point, the wall will be one continuous fiberglass composite sheet and we’ll be ready for paint. The paint job will take a week – there are four colors involved and a lot of complex masking to get the pattern right.

If all goes as planned, we’ll be out of here at the end of next week when Donna returns from Vieques.