Repainting the Endcap of our RV

Well it didn’t take me long to get in trouble. Our RV is a 2007 model and thus is now 16 years old. Over the last year or so the clearcoat has begun to flake off in several places with the end-cap being the worst. What started out as little checks in the paint has resulted in some spots with lots of clearcoat peeling off as can be seen below.

Last year in Arizona I reached out to many paint shops across the USA to see what needed to be done. The consensus for fixing this problem wasto sand all the areas that are bad down to the primer or fiberglass.The cheapest bid I found was for $23,000. That is nearly half the current value of the RV.

Since there was absolutely no way I was going to pay that much money for cosmetics it left me little choice but to attempt to do it myself. The only problem was,the only painting experience I had was with houses not cars, trucks or RV’s. But hey, it is never too late to learn another trade, right?

First I had to figure out how to remove the stick- on logos and stickers on the RV. I decided to start with the end-cap first. After scouring the internet I bought an Eraser Wheel from Amazon. After a short while I had my first sticker off.

After removing the stick-ons and stickers next would be sanding. Again after reading forums on the internet and watching hours of You Tube videos I began sanding the clearcoat off with 80 grit sandpaper

To sand the entire end cap I had to remove all the lights and things attached. This also required researching because There were delicate plastic silver rings around each tail light that would surely break if not removed carefully.

After using a paint can opener and a plastic putty knife I was able to gingerly remove each of the four plastic rings without breaking one of them. The rest of the lights were easy to remove. Now I was able continue sanding.

The gas cap removal was a bit tricky too. I sure hope when I am finished I will be able Humpty Dumpty back together again!