Refurbishment Of Caravan Part 3, 2011
Posted
by ProDev Administrator
at 5:31pm, Monday 25th July, 2016
We now have the caravan back from the blasters & it is looking good. We discovered that the blaster had hit one of the panels, so it proves our point of not painting before you sand-blast, unless you really have to, as it is an easy fix at this point. While it was up on stands we were able to see that it was obvious the water tank will probably need replacing at some stage.
The door is now pulled apart & rebuilt to better than new as the original outer skin was made with three left over pieces. Our one is made in one piece so it shouldn’t twist over time like the original.
We now set about the task of final sanding the entire caravan for paint. The repaired areas were blocked with 220 grit with our dustless sander to help straighten the panels. Then the rest was sanded with 320grit with our dual action dustless sanders .Finally all the nooks & grannies’ were hand sanded with scotch bite pads.
The unit was then blown down & cleaned with wax & grease before being put into the spray-booth & masked ready for paint. The bare aluminium needs to be cleaned with degreaser until the cleaning wipes stay clean as any black on the wipes show that it is not ready. Generally you need to clean a minimum of six times.
This done we are now ready to seal any final bits that we have missed when resealing all the mouldings. We also apply all the 3m roofing tape just before we paint so it stays nice & clean as this doesn’t need sanding. If you lay this to early the edges get all dirty & the final result is not as good.
We use only Dupont paint that is part of the fleet-care system. Dupont are a research & development company which is always striving to give us the best possible product with the latest innovative technology. The product we use is a commercial grade 2pack polyurethane which is very flexible & is used to paint approximately 85% of all brand new trucks world wide. The only difference is our paint is manufactured specifically for Australia & NZ with added UV ray protectors, as our sun is 4 to 5 years stronger than anywhere else in the world.
All the paint materials were supplied by Resene Automotive & Light Industrial coatings who are the importers of all our dupont products.
They back us with the Fleet-care “ LIFE-TIME PERFORMANCE WARRANTY”, & there technical support is second to none.
We lay down a 2pack Epoxy primer first. The whole unit is then wiped with a special tack rag once the epoxy has tacked off. We are now ready for the top coat which is applied at a constant 23degrees. The correct film build is got with two coats. This is very important as to much paint will void any warranty that we give .( The old saying, the more paint the better, is not the case with paints of today).We never bake these units at 60 degrees either, as the aluminium moves at a different rate to any filler used & creates bubbles & cracks in the paint. 35 degrees is the maximum that we would bake at.
We then masked off the section that was to be painted orange/red. This area was flatted of with our dual action dustless sander, to eliminate any peel effect from the previous colour , before cleaning & top coating. A couple of minor defects were cut & polished before unmasking.
All the final little bits were then refitted .
Mark from Kerry’s upholstery was called in to measure & make the new front panel cover which finishers the extremely smart look.
Darren & Bevan from Glassworks Ltd arrived to refit the front & rear windows & replace a side window glass. This left only the lights to fit which are only a temporary fit as new LED lights are to be fitted.
The unit has now left for it’s next stop to have a new axle fitted by Trail-com the Trojan supplier, before heading of to leisure-line to have the interior resurrected. Come & view the finished product , next to the Marty’s Panel & Paint Ltd stand in the leisure- line innovative area at the Hamilton Expo.
Costings vary from unit to unit depending on our much panel damage each unit has.
This unit was at the worst end of the scale but now looks better than new.
The door is now pulled apart & rebuilt to better than new as the original outer skin was made with three left over pieces. Our one is made in one piece so it shouldn’t twist over time like the original.
We now set about the task of final sanding the entire caravan for paint. The repaired areas were blocked with 220 grit with our dustless sander to help straighten the panels. Then the rest was sanded with 320grit with our dual action dustless sanders .Finally all the nooks & grannies’ were hand sanded with scotch bite pads.
The unit was then blown down & cleaned with wax & grease before being put into the spray-booth & masked ready for paint. The bare aluminium needs to be cleaned with degreaser until the cleaning wipes stay clean as any black on the wipes show that it is not ready. Generally you need to clean a minimum of six times.
This done we are now ready to seal any final bits that we have missed when resealing all the mouldings. We also apply all the 3m roofing tape just before we paint so it stays nice & clean as this doesn’t need sanding. If you lay this to early the edges get all dirty & the final result is not as good.
We use only Dupont paint that is part of the fleet-care system. Dupont are a research & development company which is always striving to give us the best possible product with the latest innovative technology. The product we use is a commercial grade 2pack polyurethane which is very flexible & is used to paint approximately 85% of all brand new trucks world wide. The only difference is our paint is manufactured specifically for Australia & NZ with added UV ray protectors, as our sun is 4 to 5 years stronger than anywhere else in the world.
All the paint materials were supplied by Resene Automotive & Light Industrial coatings who are the importers of all our dupont products.
They back us with the Fleet-care “ LIFE-TIME PERFORMANCE WARRANTY”, & there technical support is second to none.
We lay down a 2pack Epoxy primer first. The whole unit is then wiped with a special tack rag once the epoxy has tacked off. We are now ready for the top coat which is applied at a constant 23degrees. The correct film build is got with two coats. This is very important as to much paint will void any warranty that we give .( The old saying, the more paint the better, is not the case with paints of today).We never bake these units at 60 degrees either, as the aluminium moves at a different rate to any filler used & creates bubbles & cracks in the paint. 35 degrees is the maximum that we would bake at.
We then masked off the section that was to be painted orange/red. This area was flatted of with our dual action dustless sander, to eliminate any peel effect from the previous colour , before cleaning & top coating. A couple of minor defects were cut & polished before unmasking.
All the final little bits were then refitted .
Mark from Kerry’s upholstery was called in to measure & make the new front panel cover which finishers the extremely smart look.
Darren & Bevan from Glassworks Ltd arrived to refit the front & rear windows & replace a side window glass. This left only the lights to fit which are only a temporary fit as new LED lights are to be fitted.
The unit has now left for it’s next stop to have a new axle fitted by Trail-com the Trojan supplier, before heading of to leisure-line to have the interior resurrected. Come & view the finished product , next to the Marty’s Panel & Paint Ltd stand in the leisure- line innovative area at the Hamilton Expo.
Costings vary from unit to unit depending on our much panel damage each unit has.
This unit was at the worst end of the scale but now looks better than new.
