<VV> Painting at home: my GMC motorhome painting project (little Corvair)

[NicolCS at aol.com]

Yesterday, we had a thread on "painting it yourself".  I thought I'd  mention 
my current "little" painting project: my GMC motorhome.  This  not-so-little 
breadbox is 26' long and 7' wide and is almost entirely made of  smooth, 
rounded aluminum. The lower body and end-caps are  fiberglass.  It's getting a 
two-tone paint scheme, with the upper  being 2001 Silverado PU "pewter", and the 
lower will be '88 Corvette metallic  black (black with maroon metallic buried 
in the color)   The rough  bodywork took a month, but it's done now and the 
coach is all primed. The  final bodywork is nearly complete.  I painted the roof 
last Monday.   Tomorrow I will final-sand the primer-surfacer, seal the body, 
and paint the  lower two-tone.  I'm using PPG Omni, their standard-grade, 
lower cost paint  which runs $109 a gallon. (About $140 for a sprayable gallon)  
One of the  cool things about Omni single-stage paints is that clear-coating is 
 optional.  If you spray the single stage "MTX" color and it comes out well,  
you're done.  If you aren't happy with the gloss or flow-out (orange peel),  
you can clear-coat directly over the single stage paint, as long as you do it  
within a week.
 
To put it in perspective, a Corvair takes 2 to 3 quarts of color.  The  GMC 
will take 2 1/2 GALLONS of color!  It's like painting four cars at  once.  I 
despise "orange peel" and color-sanding on single-stage metallics  is 
impossible.  The additional time, expense, and effort of clear-coating,  wet-sanding, 
and buffing isn't too exciting so I'm taking the time and effort to  lay the 
paint down well to promote gloss and flow-out.  What this requires  is three 
light coats, applied with minimal time (5 to 10 minutes) between  coats.  I am 
also using a reducer that's designed for warmer temperatures  so that the paint 
stays "wet" longer promoting flow-out and gloss.  I have  to control dust and 
bugs since the paint will be tacky a long time (30 -45  minutes).  
The roof came out very well.  Hopefully, I will get the lower body  painted 
tomorrow and the upper body on Sunday or Monday.  The paint-set and  other 
materials for the whole project was about $700.  If I have to  clearcoat, that 
will add about $150.
Craig N.
65,66,67 2 Motorhomes (!), and assorted other stuff.  Anyone want  to buy a 
freshly painted GMC motorhome?