I have a eureka moment!

I have been eyeing the rolled up interior panels in the back of my garage for quite some time.  I did a bit of practice stripping on a few small panels in the spring and was not looking forward to doing the big long panels.  My Overlander came with 4 different colors of latex paint plus the zolatone. 

 Assuming each paint color coat took two coats (and I think the pepto bismal pink was actually 3)  you're talking 8 layers of paint PLUS zolatone.   Since in my tests I was only taking off 2 layers per application.... well the math doesn't lie, I was looking 3-4 applications of paint remover for each panel. Yech.

People who know me, know I like to experiment (legal stuff only LOL!).  And I needed a better way to strip these larger panels.

So my requirements were a safe environmentally-friendly stripper and as few coats as possible.    The safe aspect took on new significance recently...... as I managed to burn myself pretty badly spraying poison ivy with Roundup.

 I was spraying the Roundup when I got stung by a bee.  I tend to have an allergic reaction to bees (hives) so I was more concerned with icing the bite and getting benadryl on board,.   By the time I realized my arm was burning it was too late. I was wearing long sleeves too.. Grrrr


This was after 2 weeks of healing even! 

Whoops,  re-focus, .... sorry

Now I had already done the side by side comparison of as many different brands of paint stripper as I could find.  Aircraft stripper and Citrastrip came out on top as suspected. 

Suprisingly, I thought the Citrastrip did as well, if not better, than the Aircraft stripper, but the darn stuff is expensive, $20 for a half gallon and I needed at least one and a half containers to do a panel with one coat!!!!     Add that to repainting and my cost was going to approach reskinning with new, especially if I want to factor in my time.

I decided to strip one panel and see how it went.

Well as I was stripping the first big panel I noticed that the plastic putty knife did a great job for the first foot or so and then rapidly dulled and got beat up every time I hit a rivet hole.  That's when the light bulb went on folks!  Some time back I blogged about these handy fellas, plastic razor blades.  At Amazon, they are like $9 for 100!

They worked AWESOME!!!!!!    FAN FREAKIN TASTIC!!!!  Oops, there I go with the exclamation points overuse again.   I promise to stop.   Pinky swear.

This is ONE pass with a razor.  Okay 4 passes in a row LOL    but all eight layers AND zolotone are virtually gone.  This is epic!


The process after I refined it a little (of course I did):

Paint a fairly thick layer of Citrastrip over the whole panel.  Leave at least 4 hours (overnight was fine but I didn't find it worked any better and it was worse if it dried out).

Scrape a small one foot by one foot section using the plastic razor blade. 

While the residue is still soft keep scraping until nothing else comes up

Using a cloth and some mineral spirits (or a little extra citrastrip),  clean off any remaining paint in that one foot square section  - really important to do this before the area dries out.

Move on!


I did this whole panel - the picture only shows half of it - in just over an hour.  Then I pressure washed it and came back at it with a green 3m scrubby and some extra Citrastrip to get all the edges and areas I had missed.
 






Just a few hints,

Its essential to have the panels out and flat.  There's a correct angle to holding the blade (more like 60 degrees than 45) to get the best effect.  I suspect that doing this while the panels are still on the trailer might work, but pressure is key to removing the most layers in one pass.

Try to use a plastic razor blade holder,  otherwise sooner or later you'll slip and gouge the metal.   Yep did that!  They sell one with the blades at amazon, unfortunately I couldn't find mine and spent a couple of  hours looking for it  ...after  I scratched the metal of course :(!    It took me longer to find the darn thang than to strip the panel!

Leave the edges and rivet holes for when the blade is dull because it will wreck the razor's edge pretty fast which defeats the whole purpose!  I generally got a 2ft by 2ft section clean before I had to flip the blade (there are two good sharp edges per blade- pay attention to the orientation, its not like a metal blade)  I probably used half a dozen blades on this panel but that's way cheaper than another layer of stripper! 


One small problem...

After I cleaned the panel really well I noticed that they wiped it with something (Aluma prep?)  in prep for painting I'm guessing.  Is there a way to remove this?  I don't want to polish but I might consider leaving the aluminum bare in a few areas if I can get rid of this... HELP! 

GRADUATION!

Time to catch up on this blog!

First of all I am so very proud of my daughter who recently graduated from UVM with BS in Biology and a minor in Chemistry!  I am even prouder of the fact that she has already found a job working as a Biological Aide for the US Fish and Wildlife Service!!!!!

Sorry about the exclamation points. Won’t happen again!

    Oops.

Here she is on graduation day, in front of my sisters Tradewind . 

Gheesh sis, would have looked better if you had finished polishing more than the door!!!!    LOL.

It was a beautiful day, hot but not unbearable.  We had homemade fried chicken and onion rings (there were healthier options too, well a few anyway!) in my sisters backyard.   Perfection..... 

Final step to the serial number plate!

The last step of the process is to add the words "International Land Yacht" in a darker blue.   I've been terrified to do this because if I mess up I will have to do this plate over and that is not an option.  I'd rather sell the trailer (just kidding). 

This is how the serial plate originally looked.  

It differs from the reproductions at VTS in that the "International Land Yacht"  are not silver.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

First, I took a photocopy of the plate so I'd have a visual record.   

Then because none of the fonts in Microsoft word even came close I searched Identifont.com until I found one that was very similar.   The spacing and shape wasn't correct so I copied it into Paint shop and stretched and shrank it like a gumby until it matched the original!   I compared them by taping the original photocopy of the plate on my very fancy lightbox (the window !)       Please don't ask me the name of the lettering because I have a short term memory problem ... I blame the diet coke!

I scanned the image into our printer.....      

 

I really wanted to keep using the green automotive tape (I gotta buy stock in that company!), so I taped a couple of pieces on to a transparency (so I could remove it easily)  and printed the font directly on the tape.


Yeah I made that sound easy didn't I... well the secrets out, my trash can is full of botched copies!   I'm just lucky the green tape didn't ball up and clog the printer.  I would have had a hard time explaining that given that the printer is brand new!

 Here they are attached to the plate.  And my handy dandy razor
blade got a brand new blade!

 See which letters I'm avoiding again!

 All taped up and ready for painting...I'm hyperventilating already!!!!   One shot at this.....

I used the Duplicolor Dark Ford Blue.   I really like this paint, it goes on smooth.  Makes Rustolem a bad name.

Well, Serendipity is my stripper name (no mom, not really LOL) and VOILA!!!!!!

 Success!!   The process itself was a success anyway,  the lettering is a little darker than I expected but acceptable.  They've photographed darker than they are in person.      A few coats of clearcoat and I can check this off my list!   

I showed it proudly to my husband and he said "So what's different?"   Sigh...... is there a secret virus that I can infect him with so he comes down with a severe case of aluminitus?????

What's next?   The license plate holder and light!  Stay tuned!

A little more progress...

Today I started the serial number plate. I used the same green tape on the larger letters. I coated the smaller ones and the man on the bicycle with Vaseline with a very small paintbrush. I used a tiny eyeglass screwdriver to scrape off the paint when it was dry. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Now I have to wait a few days for it to cure before I add "International Overlander Landyacht". The close up shows the precision you can get with the automotive green tape!

Long time coming...

A year ago I was buying my Overlander!  Happy Anniversary Moonraker!   Now I'd be happier if I had a little more to show for it but... it is what it is.   There has been no progress, it's a little like watching grass grow.  Scratch that, it's A LOT like watching grass grow!  She still languishes in Colin's parking lot.  Every once and a while my BIL takes pity on me and if he's driving by will send me a picture of her.   So sad.  Pity party over.

 In an effort to console myself,  I started work on my nameplates, something I've been promising to work on since,  well.... forever.
 

I had already stripped most of the paint off the nameplates,but even Citristrip couldn't budge some of it. 

Out came the dremel with a wire brush.  WEAR GLOVES!!!!!  Little pieces of the wire brush come flying off and embed them selves under your skin (Ask me how I know!)   Ouch Ouch.

 I was careful to keep it off the actual letters because I didn't want to spend a lifetime polishing them!

 Before

 and after.  You'll notice I have started to polish the letters up here, but that required rounding up the usual suspects.

 The suspects!!!!!!!
I grabbed every metal polish in the house to do a little comparison test.  The top one is called Top Brite.  The one on the left has recently become a star on Youtube as the polish of choice for Rob Baker (of The Vap fame - see http://thevap.com/)

 Polishing is dirty work!  I got out my trusty dremel and chucked in a felt tip.  The truck box polish is a liquid and has a little grit in it, the other three are a pink creamy consistency.  I used Windex and paper towels to clean up the black crud.  Worked well enough.  I was going to try to catch the differences in each polish but it was like trying to take pictures of a Yeti.  Just didn't show up on film!

I must concur with Rob though, the truck box polish worked the best.  It was however, also the messiest, the dremel flung spots of it in wild abandon all over me, the table, the floor...  Note to self, this is a good time to wear black!

 Here's the felt tip I used, I also tried a felt wheel but it kept coming off the mount, I didn't like it as much as this one   It's model number 422  It's as elusive as snow in NH this winter ....  sorry, not found in the usual box stores.   I am lucky to have a local hardware store that is superb, this is one of those stores that if THEY don't have it, YOU don't need it.  And
**** Gasp**** the employees are so knowledgeable that I often play "What the $%^& is this part??"  with them and they rarely disappoint!  Pure candy for someone like me.  They greet me with "Watcha got today?"   I'm quite sure I've been the hot topic in the break room more than once! LOL    I 'm wandering off the subject again huh?

 

 Next up, I used automotive green tape to mask off the letters and a sharp razor blade to trim.  I like this green tape way more than the usual blue painting tape. IMHO it makes a much cleaner edge.   I used a plastic orange razor blades to "score the edges"  before using the exacto blade.  I picked some of the plastic razor blades on Amazon after a forum member recommended them and find my self constantly reaching for them.   A belated thanks to DKB SATX!

Notice what letter I am avoiding?????  Straight lines are easy with a razor blade, curves, not so much.

A new group of suspects!  Time to pick paint.  From right to left

 Sail Blue
Brillant blue
Royal blue
Indigo
Navy

Why so many?  Well, my serial number plate (which is next up)  actually incorporates 2 different blues a bright and a dark, so I wanted to make sure I had enough contrast.  For these nameplates,  I just had to make a decision between the first three.  I liked the sail blue but felt it was a little bright, ultimately I opted for the one in the middle, the royal blue.

First I primed with bare metal primer followed by two coats of Royal Blue.   To get the smoothest coat you lay on a thin coat followed by a flood coat.  I won't say I'm the queen of spray painting but there is a permanent divot in my right forefinger!

  I waited a couple hours and stripped the green tape off and Voila!

*cue copious sobbing*      I LOATHED it!  

The blue was too dark,  the spray paint had an orange peel texture that was blech and in certain areas the gray primer showed on the edges of the letters.  I know it looks okay in the picture.  I should have taken a close up,  but quite frankly, I was having a hissy fit thinking of re-taping all those letters!  I got back on the Airforums because I could have sworn I read that Royal Blue was the closest to the factory color and ... double darn.... nope it was FORD blue.  

Okay...... Okay, I can do this.  Waaaahhhhhh
Citristrip to the rescue.

I think I've been here before, no REALLY , pretty sure.

To make a long story short I redid everything using Duplicolor Ford Blue.  Actually the paint was FAR superior. I used the Duplicolor clear etching primer first and then three coats of color, two thin and one flood coat.  It went on much smoother and thinner than the Rustoleum.  Phew.


The skies opened up, the angels sang and my life was right again.

For a comparison the one on top is Rustoleum Royal Blue and Ford Blue is on the bottom.



Next up -  the serial number plate.  It's going to pose some additional problems with the two tone blue finish so all this practice might be a good thing!  At least that's what I'm going to tell myself. 

My goodness - if I write this long of a post about 2 little nameplates what's going to happen when I get to the really hard stuff! 

Guess where I was yesterday?

This post is coming a week late because I have been out of power for 6 days due to a FREAK October snowstorm that cancelled Halloween!!!


Headed up to Vermont last Friday night to stay at my sister's.  The plan was for my brother in law and I to wake up early on Saturday (to avoid traffic)  and deliver Moonraker to Colin Hyde's Trailer Restorations for the beginning of her restoration. 

The ferry ride over...

Colin recently moved to a new shop and he definitely has upgraded his digs!  His front door is particularly impressive!!! 


Nice and shiny!  Wonder if that was polished by his secret recipe? LOL


Not only does he have heaters..... he has a parts room, a wood working shop and a shower!!!  Living the life of luxury!








Some pictures of the shop!

To the right are Colin's two gantrys that he uses to lift of the trailer body.  Nice setup.

 

His parking lot has some nice Airstreams!  I'm kicking myself because I didn't get any pictures of Colin's '57 Sovereign...    no wait ....that would be "'57 SOVEREIGN OF THE ROAD"  emphasis added of course. :)!

Seriously, sweet sweet trailer.

Tub woes and a few successes...

Today was a typical "airstreamin'" day.   Some ups, some downs but when the successes outnumber the failures I count it as a plus! 

First off  I have a new acronym for the bathtub;

SBT   - Stupid blasted tub          

or maybe this is just a chance to use one of my favorite acronyms of late:

AFLO - Another flipping learning opportunity   

That tub drain won't budge,  we gave it our best shot, but short of cutting a hole in the floor and lifting it out it's not surrendering ....  SBT and AFLO..... there ... I feel better!    I REALLY didn't want to damage the tub so I guess I'm leaving it for Colin Hyde to deal with!     I wanted to give it a good swift kick but you all will be happy to know I restrained myself.  Grrrrr   Its not really a big deal as I'm planning on having it professionally painted (aqua of course!) so it would have ended up at Colin's anyway.   

On to other tasks.... I removed the decals on the windows and the back of the trailer.   

I used this.  My sis had it and said it worked and it definitely did!  I used the regular blue rubber gloves...BAD idea... It dissolved the gloves and then proceeded to dissolve the plastic scraper too!   I'm pretty sure it took a bit of my skin and a few brain cells too.... nasty.

Unfortunately because the previous owner hadn't limited himself to the windows there's ghosting on the aluminum.  I'm hoping it will polish out but we'll see.

See the one in the center?  Guess what it covered?  Yep,  a big old dent ..... *sigh*

The airstream nameplates had to come off to be restored.  Restoring on the trailer was not an option, they were BURIED in various  sealants, The PO obviously believed  in the saying that "more is better".   As I had the interior out I figured it would be as easy as using a chisel, shearing off the buck rivets from the back and popping the nameplates off.      Well, popping was not the right terminology, it was more along the lines of " I'd have better luck prying the xbox controller out of my sons hands on the day Portal 2 released".

PS if you are too old to understand the context ...it was REALLY REALLY REALLY hard!   I think some dark magic was involved....

Before picture

   

Guess what was lurking behind the nameplate????  Dirt , mud, pine needles, bugs.... you name it!  No wonder the PO couldn't get it sealed.

I did clean it up with a spray of water from the hose and decided to use some more of the adhesive remover.  It was resisting so I used the scrubby side of a kitchen sponge and for cripe's sake ....

AFLO (see above)

 It scratched the aluminum  *sigh sigh sigh*

Hard to see in this picture but trust me it's there.  Hopefully it will polish out but geesh ...Is there anything you can use to remove crud that WON'T scratch aluminum????????

On a happy note the adhesive remover did a nice job on the first 2 numbers (at which point I realized I was scratching the aluminum.

Time to prime my sisters trailer..... http://1960airstreamtradewind.blogspot.com




More on restoring the nameplates soon I promise!!!