Motor Home Project: Repainting the Air Conditioner Covers
Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, Jan. 13, 2012
When we were in Summerdale, AL back in October and November, Paul repainted the radii at the edges of our roof due to peeling clear coat. Unfortunately, we had the same problem with our air conditioner covers. Like the roof edges, the clear coat was probably not applied heavily enough or wet enough, so the clear coat on the top surfaces of the air conditioner covers also began to peel after several years of exposure to the weather.
The covers were originally painted a tan color that blended with several Tiffin paint colors rather than a color that was an exact match for our motor home. Paul thought the covers would look better if they were painted to match our coach, so when he bought paint for the edges of the roof, he bought extra to be able to repaint the AC covers as well.
The process for repainting was similar to that for the roof edges. However, since the tops of the AC covers where the paint was peeling was relatively flat, Paul was able to use his Porter Cable palm sander to remove the peeling clear coat more quickly.
After sanding with 220 grit on the palm sander, he sanded the top with 400 grit sandpaper, then scuffed the side surfaces with a 3M abrasive pad to provide good adhesion for the paint. The next photo shows the front cover with the sanding completed.
Rather than take the cover down to the ground for painting and risk damaging the new paint taking the cover back up, Paul removed the screws that held the cover in place, draped a plastic drop cloth over the internal workings of the air conditioner, and sat the cover back into place on top of the drop cloth.
Since the AC covers are textured, some of the sanding went through the paint at the high points of the texture all the way to the base plastic. Therefore, Paul bought a spray can of primer for plastic to use before applying the color.
After the primer dried, Paul applied the base coat of color using a Preval sprayer as he did for the roof edges. The Preval sprayer is capable of spraying many different types of paint, including the catalyzed urethane paints used for most modern automotive finishes.
The next photo shows the finished base coat on the front cover.
The base coat dries to a satin finish, and the shine comes from the clear coat, so the next step was to apply two coats of clear. The photo below shows the finished cover for the front air conditioner after the clear coat had dried and Paul had removed the plastic drop cloth.
The weather forecast was calling for several cooler days, so Paul will finish the rear cover sometime in the future whe the weather warms up. Stay tuned for more from Bushnell, FL.
WOW, it looks brand. I still don't trust Alan on the roof of the MH:(
Posted by: Marilyn | January 18, 2012 at 07:09 PM
Looks very nice!! :-)
Our air conditioner cover actually blew off when we were returning from Texas a couple years ago.
Posted by: Mike & Gerri | January 18, 2012 at 08:41 PM
WOW...another great job! Maybe when you two stop traveling, Paul could go to work of Tiffin in the paint shop!
Posted by: Marsha | January 18, 2012 at 10:46 PM
Awesome looking paint job!
Posted by: Jeff & Barbie | January 19, 2012 at 10:37 AM