Well I finally decieded on a design and got the camper painted. I went with the design on a 60s one, I think it was a lonliner. It was a quick paint outside but I am happy with it. It beats the faded green and yellow. The blue color enamel on the sides is the same color as my truck is. you can see it at
http://groups.msn.com/PhotosAlbumgroup2/wi...rat.msnw?Page=3

looks great.. you did a great job on the redo

Great job willy. Looks like you are gonna be camping in style now. My brother has a camper something like yours and he wants to paint it as it is getting faded and weathered looking. Did you use automotive paint or something else?

looks good i like it

Thanks for the complements. I looked at all kinds of paint. I am familiar with auto painting ,I have painted at least 5 vehicles. But it was so easy to paint, someone who has never painted could do it. What I did was to search the internet on painting aluminum since that was what was on the sides. I found some good articles on painting aluminum house siding. There was two trains of thought on painting. One was latex acrylic and the other direction was oil based paint. I went with Acrylic latex paint since I read on aluminum the oil base does not expand well and can crack and peel. I got 1 gallon of the best kiltz primer at walmart that works on metal. I then put on one coat of semi gloss white and then laid the semi gloss blue down. They color matched the blue paint with the blue paint on my truck. I have a air compessor but I used my electric air sprayer from wagoner. It really went on great,as good as a air compressor.
To keep it from gumming up what I do with latex paint I get the paint jug that goes on the sprayer almost full of paint. Then I put in just a litte bit of water. It doesn't take much water,maybe 1/4 of a inch in my sprayer jug. Don't try to make it runny like auto paint or it will run. Until you get the hang of it you may want to add maybe a ounce or two at first. Because you can always add more water but you can't take it out. Then I put it on the sprayer and shake the sprayer good to mix it. The main thing is prep. You have to get all the faded paint residue off. I used a scotchbrite pad and hand sanded it all. It took about 2 hours to do that. So the paint cost was about 50 bucks total. If you need a estimate on how much paint you will need I used 1 gallon of primer on the entire camper and had maybe a pint or two left. I went ahead and got 1 gallon of white and blue each. The cost cost of a gallon was only a couple of dollars more than ajust buying a quart. My camper is 17 feet long where the "building" is and add another 3 feet for the tounge for a total of 20 feet.
The article I found that was good was http://www.allaroundthehouse.com/lib.pqr.p3.htm

That is a fantastic job, Willy! I am impressed. I have one of those Wagner sprayers and have never used it. I bought it to paint some wooden fence with and then chickened out and put it back in the box! I was afraid of the latex gumming up. I may get brave now and try your water trick! Great work!

Captain Pickle I found out about adding water because of it gumming up. I was painting a fence and it constantly jammed. I had to dissasemble it and clean it with water. I then thought if I added a little water maybe it would work better. I thought I had to find something to thin it so water was my choice. It took some trial and error but eventually I got the hang of it. It just takes practice. My advice is to start with a little water and then add until it seems right. too much will work but it becomes thin and runny. Try it in a area that is not noticed. If it gums up it will sputter all over the place. You will get the hang of it and get to where you can tell right before it starts sputtering. I usually clean with water the rod that viberates and siphoning parts when I refil the jug. Takes only a couple of minutes but save a lot of trouble down the road.

That looks GREAT !
I wish I was able to do things like that....Keep up the good work.

Happy Camper

I just love the snoopy dog house! Watch out for the Red Baron.

Ken

Your camper looks great. Its amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do to change the look of something. When we got our camper, Danny painted new stripes and put flooring in it, looks great.

Have a Blessed Day.

Rhudy