When the Cat's away, the mouse shall... Paint?

Dusty took full advantage of the kids and my weekend away to get a little crazy... aka, paint his crazy wife's camp trailer. Monday he hauled it to his buddy's shop in Nampa to start the arduous process. I had prepped all of the windows before I left town which meant removing the window, wire brushing the frames, using steel wool on the glass and giving them an overall good scrubbing then masking off all of the glass.

Once to the shop he got to work sanding the multiple layers of paint that had been applied over the past 50+ years. The paint guy came and tested the paint and sure enough at least one of those layers was lead-paint which meant the sanding just got immensely easier (aka - no more sanding). The guys worked hard smoothing the soft aluminum as best they could, using bondo and pounding out any major dents along the way. The front bottom (around the tongue) and the back bottom proved to be too much to fix, years of hauling her on rocky roads had taken it's toll on the aluminum, and Dusty opted to put diamond plate in these spots when paint was complete.

The extent of the sanding

When I talked to Dusty that night he was so excited at how the primer had turned out. He said the body work looked so much better than he had anticipated and was very anxious to get the base coat of white paint on the next day.

Gray primer... looking better already!

However, the next day he was a bit discouraged. The glossy white paint was showing all the imperfections he thought the body work and sanding had fixed. I reassured him it was a 50 year old trailer and would never be flawless.

White paint

By the time I got home on Wednesday I was so anxious to see the progress... but I had to wait, she was still at the paint shop and hadn't been painted turquoise just yet, he promised me he would bring her home on Saturday as soon as the paint was finished and dry enough he could haul her home. When he came home on Friday his hands looked like those of a mermaid (okay, merman is probably more appropriate, hard working merman at that). At the first sight of his hands I asked "Oh you got her painted, How does she look?" He shrugged, grinned and said "see for yourself" I was so excited he was able to bring her home! And even more excited when I saw the results. One coat down...

Even the propane tanks got in on the fun

ready for the ride home

In the end Dusty was so much happier once he saw her in actual sunlight rather than the reflective, florescent light of the shop. The flaws were not as noticeable and it was the exact result we were hoping for!