Paint Prep

A whole post about paint prep?  

Really?  

Yes.  Really.  

Prepping for paint is enough work to warrant its own post.

It seems like we've been doing paint prep since the

day we bought our trailer.  We've used stripper on the walls 

so many times I've almost lost count.  

I can think of at least four times:

• after we gutted the trailer, before we took the walls out
• before we put the walls back in the trailer
• and again
• endcaps (2-3 times) after they were installed in the trailer

During frustrating times with the restoration 

we've tried to encourage each other by teasing. 

"It could be worse.  We could be stripping paint."

note:  This only works when the other person is not actually stripping paint.

After the inside skins were stripped and installed they 

had to be sanded.  I used 150 grit and a palm sander. 

Sometime not long after we installed the skins we started thinking about ordering our paint.  We first tried the paint supply place that was right next door to the warehouse we rented at the beginning of our restoration.  They had a set of Zolatone samples.  We also looked online for a place to buy paint.  We called a couple more chain stores in town.  Finally, we settled on the local paint supply store.  They had the best price.  Before Brian made the order he called Zolatone to get specific part numbers.  Zolatone is in the middle of changing their epoxy primer.  The old primer isn't available.  The new stuff isn't available yet either.  They suggested we use any expoxy primer. (Okay, if you say so.)  We ordered the paint and expected it to arrive in 10 days.

Next, we wiped down the walls.  Four times.  It might sound a little excessive but our rinse water was
extremely dirty; aditionally, I was afraid stripper residue might interfere with paint adhesion.  We use a TSP cleaner and then followed with a rinse, twice.

Our paint came in.  Sigh.  We still (after a month of searching Craigslist) didn't have a conventional paint gun with the appropriate size tip.  We ordered one.  It was supposed to be a rainy weekend anyway.  We decided to work on the floor instead.

Our paint gun arrived.  

Time to tape.  

This, like every other part of the paint prep, 

took longer than we expected.   

Finally!  Ready for paint!