Resealing and painting

[Deleted]

I have made a start on my Golf Calypso poptop. I could see some black stuff extending beyond the edges of all the aluminium mouldings and thought it was black mastic oozing out.
However when I got the J mould off I discovered it is a black rubber seal with bluish grey mastic underneath.
Should replace this with a new rubber strip + sealant or just go with a poly sealant?  I want a sealant that is paint-able but would it not be better to repaint with the moulding off??

I'm pleased to see the front cladding panel is folded over the side panel. I wasn't expecting that either. Life is full of surprises !

[doublechevron]

you'll never get enough compression on teh rubber gasket to get it leak free will you ? An interesting attempt at sealing all the same. You can use white roof and gutter silicon if you want some colour there. If your painting the 'van though, keep silicon well away from it until it's painted.

If you go and have a look at just about any new caravan, they are all "siliconed" from new. all the windows, Jmoulds, flaps, doors etc.... So it's obviously how industry does it. I've just spent a good 5months resealing my caravan. This is how I did it:

ditzygypsy.proboards.com/thread/3241/time-another-project

Everyone tends to seal up there windows and Tru-moulds in the way they personally think is best. Just read around on how other people have done it, pick the one you like best, pick a sealer and go for it    All the work is in the prep, not the sealing itself.

seeya
shane L.

[Deleted]

Thanks for your advice shane. Its great how an old codger can be tinkering away in his shed and get almost instant expert advice! Love this forum
I have read most of the recent threads and had also admired your Old Chesney Repaint. I'm hoping for that sort of result. Nice to do the moulds dark blue. I was thinking of replacing the cream with white. I have resprayed a couple of cars so prob follow your example and spray the Supercheap enamel. You didn't use an etch primer?

[doublechevron]

That's hilarious, nothing I do is expert. I learn everything by stuffing it up a dozen times before I hopefully get it close to right.....

Ok, you have painted cars. Your set, it's exactly like painting cars. Painting caravans is more frustrating than cars as they may have had house paints applied to them that will fry up. I sanded and keyed that old Chesney the best I could. I simply didn't have the time or inclination to take it back to bare aluminium. I have found the Hi-chem epoxy primer sticks like nuts to a blanket. The reason I have such high opinions of that cheap single part primer is back in 2006 I painted the shiny stainless strip on my old Citroen CX with the primer, then coated them with satin black.



Fast forward 10years .... the acrylic laquer I painted the car with is absulutely stuffed ... but those strip still look like new, with no lifting or flaking of the primer. Absolutely amazing!

You will need to check the existing paint on the caravan first. If there is enamel there ..... any paint with a thinners is going to make it fry up (as I'm sure you have experienced when painting cars in the past).

seeya,
Shane L.

[Deleted]

I'm happy to benefit from all your learning experiences.
I sprayed the hull of a small fibreglass yacht once with White Knight polyurethane paving paint.
Glossy, hard wearing, UV resistant and didn't come off after several years in salt water. The White Knight stuff they sell now is water based and I don't think it would be much good for a boat. This van is the original powder coated finish, but very thin with a greenish undercoat by the look of it.

[Deleted]

Where can I get some 1/2" plastic filler strip?  Clarke Rubber doesn't have anything. Local caravan places say its all too long ago. I'l like some new strip in black.

[tim]

It looks a lot like truline insert, although I'm not certain about the 1/2" dimension. Its available in white, grey and black from just about all of the major caravan parts suppliers. I'm not sure about brown though.

A bit of quick googling and these guys list it in brown, at twice the price!

www.bigredcaravanparts.com.au/products/Truline-Mould-Insert-Brown-for-Aluminium-per-m.html


Tim

[Deleted]

Thanks Tim, I wanted black anyway . Might also be known as Millard Series 80 mould & filler at $0.95/m, but probably too big.

www.rvpartsexpress.com.au/mould-insert-for-truline-aluminium.html

[tim]

Bedford, its all the same stuff, it fits into J mould. I bought a nice big roll of it last week and can report that it fits nicely into the J Mould used on the parent's mid-'80s Windsor. I'll try to remember to measure the hardened old bit I have. Its nice and soft and squashy when new, so I reckon it will squeeze down to 1/2" OK.

Tim

[Deleted]

Hope your right Tim
The nice guy at rvpartsexpress is sending me a sample. I can probably cut it down if necessary. Its only about 8.5m total because the top on both sides is covered by sailtrack.