Primed and ready

[My3buicks]

Been sanding up a storm the last few days, have it primed with etching primer, filler primer, and regular primer and then lightly sanded.  She's ready for paint!!!!  So Wednesday will bring the new paint (similar color to original) them the new stripes and new custom made original looking coleman decals.  After that, it's only installing some new outside hardware, new lights, some last minute interior details, a good clean-up, then maiden voyage Memorial Day weekend.  It kinda looks like ugly Betty right now compaired to how nice it was.

[My3buicks]

painted, now the stripes, decals, trim, lights etc - I AM GOING TO MAKE IT ! ! ! (I keep telling myself that) - taking it to West Virginia over the Memorial Day weekend.

[curryp]

Looks good - lots of work!!  Where are you going in West Virginia? I went to college in Morgantown and would love to go camping there. I have hotel reservations for alumni weekend at WVU this fall. But towing the camper from NY to WV for two days compared to the cheap hotel rates in Waynesburg, PA doesn't seem practical to me.

[My3buicks]

going to a private campground near Proctor - My family is from Waynesburg - nice quiet town.

[My3buicks]

got the stripes done today - all I have to do to the exterior now is put the new lights on when they come (hopefully SOON)  Can't get over what a difference.  I do need to order another Coleman decal as I srewed the one pictured up : (     It went on crooked and I couldn' lift it off, I ended up destroying the underline for the word
Coleman.

[curryp]

Great job! Do you do bodywork as a profession? Have a great trip and Go Mountaineers!

[tlhdoc]

Wow, you did a great job.  How is the inside?

[My3buicks]

Great job! Do you do bodywork as a profession? Have a great trip and Go Mountaineers!

no, do not do this as a profession, but after 28 years in the old car hobby and detailing old cars you pick up a little.

The inside is beautiful, in another thread on the Vintage Camper section (1978) I am outlinging the entire restoration.  The inside was very nice, but I put in a new hardwood look floor, new curtains, new single pedistool table, new countertops, etc.  It's canvas is new NOS from Coleman also.  I will have about $2000 in it when completed including purchase price(will have a list of all upgrades in the above mentioned thread), but for all intent and purposes, it is new again.

[tlhdoc]

Well I have already towed 1690 miles this year.  I am camping the next 6 weekends in a row all 3 hours or less from home.  Then I have 3 week long trips, one is 600 miles round trip and the other two I don't know.  One is closer and one is further.  Then I have 4 or 5 fall trips.  So I picked a lot of towing.

[ScouterMom]

wow - nice job!

is your camper a fiberglass body? or aluminum?

I will probably want to paint my '73 starcraft  - the paint is mostly worn off the roof anyway.  it is all aluminum body, and the roof is that pebbly-textured stuff.  It also has a number of dings in it, but no actual 'holes' - whether from hail or people stacking stuff on it, I'm not sure. (I bought it in March)

What would you suggest for painting that?  

My boyfriend's son-in-law has offered to airbrush a picture on it for me, and I need to get a good base coat on it first.  I'm not in a hurry - but do want to take advantage of his offer - he is quite a good artist and has done many specialty cars, race cars, etc.

laura

[My3buicks]

wow - nice job!

is your camper a fiberglass body? or aluminum?

I will probably want to paint my '73 starcraft  - the paint is mostly worn off the roof anyway.  it is all aluminum body, and the roof is that pebbly-textured stuff.  It also has a number of dings in it, but no actual 'holes' - whether from hail or people stacking stuff on it, I'm not sure. (I bought it in March)

What would you suggest for painting that?  

My boyfriend's son-in-law has offered to airbrush a picture on it for me, and I need to get a good base coat on it first.  I'm not in a hurry - but do want to take advantage of his offer - he is quite a good artist and has done many specialty cars, race cars, etc.

laura

Mine is aluminum upper and sheet metal lower - the paint actually applied nicer to the upper aluminum section.
After sanding use a good quality "etching" pimer (found at auto part stores) it bonds with the metal better than regular primer.  i used Rust-oleum PROFESSIONAL high performance enamel that I got at Lowes - the color I used is Almond as it is almost a dead match for the original.( matke sure you paint on a no wind day to get your best results)  The stripes came fom ebay and are actully originally meant for a pontoon boat.  I have not applied it yet, but for the roof I got a gallon of Kool Seal Premium White Elastomeric Roof Coating.

[My3buicks]

It's done!!!!!!

[AustinBoston]

Cool!

Is it as green as it looks in the picture, or is it picking up the green from the grass?  To me, it looks like the grass is giving a green cast to the paint.

Austin

[My3buicks]

Cool!

Is it as green as it looks in the picture, or is it picking up the green from the grass?  To me, it looks like the grass is giving a green cast to the paint.

Austin

It is almond - almost an exact match to the original color - in fact I didn't paint the panel on the screen door and it is almost dead on.

[My3buicks]

Cool!

Is it as green as it looks in the picture, or is it picking up the green from the grass?  To me, it looks like the grass is giving a green cast to the paint.

Austin

here is another shot that shows the color a little better