Going to help a guy from church paint the bus. One of the shortened version Chevies with aluminum body and fiberglass front end.No body damage, color change to white (no jamb or under hood match being done). I was about to tell him no problem but seeing as I have never painted anything but steel I figured I'd ask the experts here. I can just see me doing it with no special prep (if it is necessary,which I'm guessing it must require to some degree) and then they are driving down the road with paint flaking off because it doesn't have a special component to adhere to or something similar. This is an older bus so nothing fancy just want to make sure it gives them good service if I am going to shoot it for them. Don't worry about sharing no brainer information because I don't do this for a living so you can't hurt my feelings (my experience is painting decent sized steel textile equipment with single stage paint). Just want to help. Any thoughts on paint or etching primers or ..........o No:
Bill, Not that I am aware of but all I have right now is this picture and my friends report of no "dents or dings" Looks to me like there may be a bare spot on the roof in the picture but can't say for sure. What would you recommend if there is a bare spot on either the aluminum or fiberglass? I am hoping there are not any bare spots, and we can concentrate on sanding,masking and shooting it, but not sure about "seal coats" (seal the old paint from the new to prevent problems) necessaryo No:
John, If no bare metal then nothing out of the ordinary for prep, even on the fiberglass. If you do sand through on the aluminum, which you probably will you can touch it up with some zink cromate primer. We use to buy it in a spray can and touch up the rivets and small spots, then spay a little primer over that and it worked fine. The fiberglass requires nothing special, just use your primer on it also. You'll probably be using catalized primer I assume on any repair areas.. Just use a good nonsanding primer sealer prior to painting and paint as you would normally. Any other questions just holler. Bill
Hey, Thanks Bill:TU: Short and sweet and too the point. Just didn't want something to go wrong and have someone saying "You mean you didn't know you needed to do blah blah blah?!!!!" Anyhow yep, have a spray bomb of the zinc spray so looks like we are good to go. Thanks man. John
John, Just make sure that you use a scotch brite around the rivets really well or better yet let your helper do it:TU: not a fun job!! Good luck and remember it's just a school bus. It will look great and probably last as long as they need it:grin: Bill
