Painting Roof

[peteco]

The silver roof on my 2006 Roadtrek 210 is showing pinhead size bubbles. There is also some clear coat deterioration. A local fiberglass place quoted $1800 to repaint the roof. Booster: I see you repainted your roof a while ago. Do you, or anyone else have any suggestions?

[Bruceper]

You could save some money by doing some of the prep work yourself such as sanding.

And always try to get two or three quotes. Any bodyshop can paint fibreglass.

[mkguitar]

if it's just "paint", get quotes which include prep, paint and clearcoat.

MOST owners who try to prep a surface create more work for the shop...perhaps using a contaminated abrasive which requires the whole thing be redone.

when dealing with a body shop.. remember the paint costs $100, you are paying for the expertise ( not the "time").

Most shops just do panel replacement and are not great on "out of the box" repairs.
try shops which do restorations.

2¢
mike

[booster]

We had similar bubbling, although on a very small area, plus a cracking bulge of delamination. A boat or Corvette shop are usually the best places, as they understand how to fix the issues so they don't come back. Be sure to ask what brand of paint they are going to use, and what version of it, so you can check the quality. The paint for a roof might get to $100 for for the prime, base, and clear, but if it is good stuff it will be considerably more. There is often a $75-150 color match charge also, especially with metallics (silvers are tough to match), even if you have the color number.

We had quotes of about $2K-3K to repair and paint the roof with top line PPG paint, and to fix some gelcoat cracking in the drop floor.

[peteco]

It was a shop that did mainly boats but they also did Busch Gardens amusement park fiberglass statue repair. They said they use a quality paint and strip it back to the fiberglass, repair as needed and then prime, paint and clear coat. The guy wasn't too concerned about the small bubbling and thought I could go a several more years before it needed to be addressed if I kept it waxed. It still concerns me though.

[mkguitar]

That speaks volumes-

1.) the Guy didn;t try to get you and you wallet right into play

2.) that he thinks you are ok with wax for a while.

I think I like this guy.


I waxed my roof a couple of weeks ago...and my manual suggests once a year- I'm at twice a year ( to now)...makes it easier to clean the dirt and bugs off.

I ain't fun but I found it pretty easy with a padded extension ladder against the side of the van...one side then the other.

I have only had the van for 11 months- but consider that the previous owner also lived in AZ...so it's had lots of sun exposure.

I use Nu Finish, because it can be applied in warm weather- conventional waxes need a cool surface in the shade.
at work ( guitars) I use any conventional name brand paste wax...wax on, wax off.

Mike