An Ongoing Blog Entry on our Adventures of DIY Painting our 1977 Argosy Motorhome, “Moose.”
Just a quick reminder: Everything you see on this page, we paid full price We only recommend products that worked for us.
9/16/2017
Getting YEARS of pollution off of Moose with Krud Kutter. Although this looks like a daunting task, with the three of us, it took about two hours of scrubbing and washing. Worked perfectly!
9/17/2017
Taping to prepare to prime before painting the stripe in the middle and down below. We are going for an “instant gratification” here and hoping that a pop of color will improve our mood.
We painted our Argosy Travel Trailer with Rustoleum’s Topside paint. This time, we decided to change it up a bit and use Rustoleum’s Farm and Tractor paint from Tractor Supply in “Ford Blue.”
Sneak Peak of the “Grabber Blue!”
9/18/2017
All primered and ready for the Blue Stripe! Moose looks pitiful with the paper off, the super white primer, the ugly rust colored wheels and the original color yellowed paint. Oh and the plastic around the damage window doesn’t help either!
We thinned one quart of Ford Blue Farm Equipment paint with 1/2 cup of Mineral Spirits. Personally, we think this was just a tad too thin.
If you chose to use this paint, we recommend you play around with it: full strength, thinned with 1/4 cup, thinned with 1/2 cup of Mineral Spirits.
We put one coat on and could still see some primer underneath. After waiting 24 hours for the first coat to dry, we decided to paint the second coat – without sanding – which is a bit shocking! When using a foam roller, there is little to none orange peel.
Two Coats, No Sanding & Shiny!
9/19/2017
9/23/2017
After another coat (3rd but who’s counting?!), I am starting to like the blue more and more. Also, our new camp outdoor carpet arrived (Thank you Amazon!) which helps tremendously! We decided to buy a gallon of the Tractor Paint so that we could do one more coat…. at full strength to try to get a darker blue color. After the 4th coat, it is what it is. I’m not painting it anymore coats of blue!
With a husband that was in the Marine Corps, it was no surprise when he asked for the white and blue colors to go with our matching red chairs! I’m trying to not be completely obsessed and obnoxious with the Red, White and Blue theme. The large flag will not be traveling with us. We had not re-hung it from Hurricane Irma so I staged it against “Moose.”
Can I just say that although the color might not be the navy blue of my dreams, I am soooo loving this paint!!!! With a foam roller, it goes on so smooth and effortless! Virtually zero orange peel!! We only sanded once where the drips from my heavy hand occurred.
Here’s a close-up:
This close up was after 2 coats, slightly thinned. You can see some white primer sneaking through but look at that shine and no orange peel!!
And water just beads off….
Mike
Sandy
