Gelcoat flaking

[monacowner]

Greetings, We have issues with gelcoat flaking in various spots. Any advice on how to rectify is appreciated.

[JDCrow]

49 minutes ago, monacowner said:

Greetings, We have issues with gelcoat flaking in various spots. Any advice on how to rectify is appreciated.

Got pics? 

[monacowner]

Sure! Please see attached.

[JDCrow]

Yeah, that is clear coat flaking. 
 

You can pour over many threads here, most will point to the same outcome, repaint.

I’ve see a few YouTube videos with Xcote. Not sure how it will work, but maybe worth pursuing

Please report back anything you decide to do as this is an ongoing discussion with our older coaches 

[jacwjames]

I remember a post by Bob Nodine ~3-4 years ago, he did extensive work repairing the clear coat on his coach.  I tried to find it without success, maybe someone else can.  Bob Doesn't frequent the site much since selling his Diplomat. 

I've had to do some painting on my coach I AM NOT AN EXPERT but I'll try anything once.  In most cases I was able to terminate the painting & clear coat at a color change so it wasn't noticeable.  The only place I didn't do this the difference in clear coat was noticeable, trying to  blend the clear coat is tricky and takes a lot of practice.  I asked the staff at the paint store and the only thing they offered was a can of special clear coat that is suppose to "melt" into the old.  Didn't try that, maybe I should have.   When I get time I will probably repaint the area but not a priority right now. 

[FLynes]

I’m getting the rear of our LaPalma repaired and repainted by the shop that every dealership here uses. The owner told me the only option, when clear coat is peeling is to repaint the color and then clear coat it, or it’s going to look off.

[JDCrow]

3 hours ago, jacwjames said:

I remember a post by Bob Nodine ~3-4 years ago, he did extensive work repairing the clear coat on his coach.  I tried to find it without success, maybe someone else can.  Bob Doesn't frequent the site much since selling his Diplomat. 

I've had to do some painting on my coach I AM NOT AN EXPERT but I'll try anything once.  In most cases I was able to terminate the painting & clear coat at a color change so it wasn't noticeable.  The only place I didn't do this the difference in clear coat was noticeable, trying to  blend the clear coat is tricky and takes a lot of practice.  I asked the staff at the paint store and the only thing they offered was a can of special clear coat that is suppose to "melt" into the old.  Didn't try that, maybe I should have.   When I get time I will probably repaint the area but not a priority right now. 

There are some “cutting” chemicals that most paint manufacturers sell that you put in and thin the clear to do a clear blend. It’s not easy, at all. I did a few when I owned an auto reconditioning shop. Results were always so/so. 

[monacowner]

Still poking around and will share what I find. There doesn't appear to be any "quick fixes"though.

This thread talks about driving your coach to Mexico. I hadn't thought about that. My biggest concern with that idea would be safety.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f44/best-place-to-have-a-front-cap-painted-621050.html

[FLynes]

20 minutes ago, monacowner said:

Still poking around and will share what I find. There doesn't appear to be any "quick fixes"though.

This thread talks about driving your coach to Mexico. I hadn't thought about that. My biggest concern with that idea would be safety.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f44/best-place-to-have-a-front-cap-painted-621050.html

My last position in the Army was Battalion Security Officer…you couldn’t pay me to go to Mexico, after all the State Department reports I read about over the border incidents involving Americans being mugged, robbed, attacked and killed.

[monacowner]

21 minutes ago, FLynes said:

My last position in the Army was Battalion Security Officer…you couldn’t pay me to go to Mexico, after all the State Department reports I read about over the border incidents involving Americans being mugged, robbed, attacked and killed.

Good point! The RV park talks about 24/7 security. My biggest concern would be driving there and back! 😬

[Paul J A]

Talk to the Boat repair shops.

[Just Jim]

I had this issue and thought it would be an easy fix.  Just lightly sand and spray on some new clear coat, right?  I knew it was not going to blend well, but was hoping to stop the peeling.  Long story short.... the paint is really thin.  using 1500 grit, I was in the primer in no time.  So, my easy fix became a repaint... and matching 20 year old paint is a nightmare.   My new motto...  it doesn't look great... but it looks better than it did before.  I am hopefully retiring in a few, so my plan is to repaint the entire coach.  Should be a fun project.  The difficult part is not the painting... it is controlling the environment.  Temperature, humidity, lighting for a vehicle of this size is a challenge. 

[Tom Cherry]

28 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

I had this issue and thought it would be an easy fix.  Just lightly sand and spray on some new clear coat, right?  I knew it was not going to blend well, but was hoping to stop the peeling.  Long story short.... the paint is really thin.  using 1500 grit, I was in the primer in no time.  So, my easy fix became a repaint... and matching 20 year old paint is a nightmare.   My new motto...  it doesn't look great... but it looks better than it did before.  I am hopefully retiring in a few, so my plan is to repaint the entire coach.  Should be a fun project.  The difficult part is not the painting... it is controlling the environment.  Temperature, humidity, lighting for a vehicle of this size is a challenge. 

We had a former member that ran a shop for “big $$ boat repairs”.  I talked to him a lot offline and issues and such.  I also built boats as a summer job. The Gelcoat is a thin, thin bumpy layer of paint….  Like if you overrolled latex paint and it dried far from flat.  You wax the interior of a fiberglass mold and then spray on the gelcoat…maybe coat it twice on a high dollar rig….Monaco…probably one thin, very thin (Beancounters ruled purchasing and engineering). The Gelcoat is sprayed on  and never actually “cures”.  There is like a latent solvent in it and you need to start laying up the fiberglass ASAP. The polyester resin has a similar component that then chemically bonds with the gelcoat…so, in effect, it is more like having multiple layers (the next fiberglass layer) of your skin. The chemists and such call it crosslinking… That first layer is almost like one layer or thickness of gelcoat and resin….You then layup or put layers of various types and thicknesses of fiberglass cloth impregnated with polyester resin.  The, you “POP” it out.

We would get boats returned with minor structural or maybe “bubbles” between the cross linked gelcoat and the first layer of the fiberglass.

Our paint guy would spend quite a bit of time “fixing” it with resin and gelcoat paints…hand mixed and put on with an artist’s brush.

Large areas or multiple areas of sporadic gelcoat flaking is tough….and my hands on experience plus talking to the former member who had $100K jobs and higher on big craft…plus talking to body shops….it ain’t gonna be easy.  When I saw the original post, my gut said “NEW PAINT JOB”.  If there were crosslinking or the chemical bond failing between the gelcoat and the resin…NOT GOOD.

Corvettes, and i have owned 3, are different.  The body is PAINTED….as a body shop needs to be able to fix and repaint.  When you repair a boat…you then you do it like a Corvette…and for uniformity as well as “final surface appearance”, painting Is the only real solution.

[Gweedo]

Look into  Restore FX,  it's a company that restores clearcoats, not sure if they have them in your area, you'll have to research.  There are videos of some pretty bad clearcoats they made look new.    I too have some spots on the rear and both front and rear caps that need to be repaired.  I will soon be contacting them time permitting, for now I'm safe as mine is stored inside.  

[Tom Cherry]

9 hours ago, Gweedo said:

Look into  Restore FX,  it's a company that restores clearcoats, not sure if they have them in your area, you'll have to research.  There are videos of some pretty bad clearcoats they made look new.    I too have some spots on the rear and both front and rear caps that need to be repaired.  I will soon be contacting them time permitting, for now I'm safe as mine is stored inside.  

Problem is....UNLESS someone painted the MH, we do NOT have any CLEARCOAT on the surface.  The gelcoat is a "paint".  Spray it into a slick (waxed) mold. Then buildup layers of resin impregnated Fiberglass...then pop or pull it out.  The Gelcoat is the outer surface.  A car gets a coating of paint...then the last coating is the clearcoat.  That is NOT how ours is done. YES, the panels or colors are painted on. BUT, the base (white) color is the Gelcoat.  SO, if it the flaking of the Gelcoat...UGLY.  But, if it is in the various dark colors of the strips...or big sections..  YES.  When folks say GELCOAT...I think of the bottom layer of the finish...which came from the mold.

Maybe we need pictures to clarify...I do NOT know, but have watched several MH's being painted...that there is a final layer of clearcoat.  If so, we would not the "Film" or Bra on the front.  

That's my take...

[Georgia Mike]

I have sprayed multiple spots on mine and it’s very tedious work. I buy the Spray Max 2k it’s not as good as from a spray gun but not bad for doing small areas. If you can spray between paint lines it looks much better. You have to sand right where it’s peeling without going into the part that’s already peeled ( easier said than done)  I use 600 on the edges to start then go to 1000 grit to sand the area you want to paint beyond that but not the part that’s already peeled. I then use 1500 or 2000 grit very lightly (just a few passes)  on the peeled area…..all of this is wet sanding I forgot to mention. I then put 4 or 5 light coats on and it turns out pretty good. Darker paint colors turns out much better than lighter paint. Is it as good as a shop would do and last as long? No, but it’s a cheap way to touch up some bad spots. A good place to start or try is the roof line radius, it always starts to peel up there and if you don’t do that great of a job it’s hard to see from down below and good practice.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Georgia Mike

[Ivan K]

Pretty sure Signatures had full-body paint. The pictures look exactly like what I see sometimes, not often, on cars, not a sun burn but a bad process. In time it starts anyplace and there's no stopping it, the clear just doesn't have a grip. IMO, the clear coat was sprayed too late and did not stick to the base properly. Very different from clearcoat that is just fading away and it likely will continue to peel off as one tries to sand the edge down. I had the same kind peeling on daughter's car that was repainted when she got it, bad prep or process. Just my opinion. 

[Lynn Hales]

On 8/1/2023 at 2:18 PM, jacwjames said:

I remember a post by Bob Nodine ~3-4 years ago, he did extensive work repairing the clear coat on his coach.  I tried to find it without success, maybe someone else can.  Bob Doesn't frequent the site much since selling his Diplomat. 

I've had to do some painting on my coach I AM NOT AN EXPERT but I'll try anything once.  In most cases I was able to terminate the painting & clear coat at a color change so it wasn't noticeable.  The only place I didn't do this the difference in clear coat was noticeable, trying to  blend the clear coat is tricky and takes a lot of practice.  I asked the staff at the paint store and the only thing they offered was a can of special clear coat that is suppose to "melt" into the old.  Didn't try that, maybe I should have.   When I get time I will probably repaint the area but not a priority right now. 

Is this the location from Bob Nodine?   

 

[jacwjames]

22 minutes ago, Lynn Hales said:

Is this the location from Bob Nodine?   

 

Yup, he contributed to this thread but years ago he posted on how he repaired the clear coat on his coach.  Either way he did it right, sanding and painting and doing the clear coat. 

There is not an easy way to fix areas on a coach without spending $$$$$. 

[StellaTariche]

Mike's custom painting redid some clear coat on mine (orange peel). Re-cleared both side of the rig (not the caps - those were already color sanded and great)

Outstanding work. A lot less than anyplace else in US. Two years ago and perfect...

https://patrickpaintgroup.com/mikes-custom-painting/

ignore the passenger side roof radius where I had a disagreement with some trees - working on that this fall :(  

[VinceB]

On 8/4/2023 at 4:42 AM, Just Jim said:

I had this issue and thought it would be an easy fix.  Just lightly sand and spray on some new clear coat, right?  I knew it was not going to blend well, but was hoping to stop the peeling.  Long story short.... the paint is really thin.  using 1500 grit, I was in the primer in no time.  So, my easy fix became a repaint... and matching 20 year old paint is a nightmare.   My new motto...  it doesn't look great... but it looks better than it did before.  I am hopefully retiring in a few, so my plan is to repaint the entire coach.  Should be a fun project.  The difficult part is not the painting... it is controlling the environment.  Temperature, humidity, lighting for a vehicle of this size is a challenge. 

 

x2 on all the above and x1000 on not going to Mexico - a 2-day paint job there will be a case of you got what you paid for.

I just went through this with my coach and decided to repaint it.  Painting just the sections that were bad would make it look spotty. The paint shop took their time and did some nice work. It took them 6 weeks to copy the stripes, repair some dings, mask and prime. Then we had lots of rain so they wouldn't paint until they were happy with the temperature and humidity in the paint booth.

They wouldn't do any paint correction/final buff until the paint had cured for 7 weeks they said otherwise the clear would turn hazy in a few months. So it sounded to me like they were doing their best to do it correctly. 

All told, it took about 6 months for it all to come together. Now the coach looks better than it did from the factory because in 2001 Monaco used decals and only below the belt line was painted. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it was $25,000 a year ago and they've increased their price to $35,000 now for a 36-foot RV.

[StellaTariche]

Wow Vince.  They did a great job on your coach.

Don, If you (1) have access to a +50' paint booth for two months, and (2) three teens who needed jobs as slave labor, and (3) are brave, you can do what we did:

(Scroll down - lots of pics of the repainting process at the link).  Cost of quality materials, slave labor, booth rental was about $15k.)

BTW, color sanding (final paint finishing to a mirror finish) can be done sooner with the right paint, HOWEVER, color sanding 1100 sq ft of paint is NOT fun at all :) 

- John

 

 

[VinceB]

52 minutes ago, StellaTariche said:

Wow Vince.  They did a great job on your coach.

...

 

Thanks.

I forgot to mention that they took all the awnings off and painted them separately and painted the window frames & mirrors.  The ladder came off too and that was a good opportunity to rework the star nuts inside that had rusted and come loose.

There are still a few touch ups that need to be done - hard to imagine that many square feet would have zero defects. It goes back in 2 weeks for the final work and wax.

As far as waiting on the color sanding I believe they were erring on the side of caution because of the many layers and because Imron takes a while to cure in the very wet weather we had this winter in So Cal.

My point of all this is that it is a HUGE amount of work and you need patience, patience, patience to get it to come out right.

[planodp]

Thanks Pat, I look up Restore FX and lucky me found one in Dallas. Send them a message to see if they will work on Class A motorhome.

[Tom Cherry]

On 8/5/2023 at 5:15 PM, StellaTariche said:

Wow Vince.  They did a great job on your coach.

Don, If you (1) have access to a +50' paint booth for two months, and (2) three teens who needed jobs as slave labor, and (3) are brave, you can do what we did:

(Scroll down - lots of pics of the repainting process at the link).  Cost of quality materials, slave labor, booth rental was about $15k.)

BTW, color sanding (final paint finishing to a mirror finish) can be done sooner with the right paint, HOWEVER, color sanding 1100 sq ft of paint is NOT fun at all 🙂

- John

 

 

Did I mention that I worked at our county school bus garage for 2 summers while in HS and was in the paint shop and also had to pressure wash the underside before they would do the service or PM during the summer or repaint it.  I ground, sanded, gouged out dents and then learned a little bondo….and we never “buffed” an entire orange monster….but i sure remember how long it took to sand the rascals…. LOL….