The exterior trim on the outside of our airstream was fine, but the color had faded from the blue stripe and had major silicone marks from years of putting silicone over silicone. Brandon pulled off a few of these pieces for us to work on making them shine like new again. I got to work. We had about 50 feet of trim to work on. We were not sure of what paint to use for metal, so we went to Sherwin Williams. There, experts advised us to use an all-material paint, in both a primer and a color.
When we returned to the trailer, we realized another small problem. The previous paint was chipping and falling off. If we painted over it, we worried that the new paint wouldn’t stick. So, it needed an additional step. Brandon and Dave used a wire wheel on a drill to shave ALL of the trim. This wasn’t fun for them.
Once it was all shaved, I was ready to paint. Now, this may not be a popular opinion, I know that. But, I decided to do it. Because the trim was in bad shape, even the silver part, I decided to paint the entire trim with gray primer. The pieces Brandon pulled off were easy to paint with the primer. I set them up and went to work. The trickiest part was painting the trim pieces Brandon left on the airstream. I had to paint carefully. I also painted the rear lighting housings that had our back up lights and reflectors in them.
When the primer was dry, I pulled out the blue paint. We picked a striking, bright blue color for the trim. This was tedious, and if I’m being honest, I didn’t always paint it straight or well. I used a bunch of different brushes. With it being an oil paint, I also ran into another problem. With some windy, cold days we had, the paint was BLOWING off of the brush and all over the airstream. I needed to stop on those days. Overall, this took me about a week and a half to complete. I will need to do a lot of touch ups in the future!
For the pieces that Brandon had pulled off, once they were dry, he needed to rivet them back onto the airstream. He didn’t exactly enjoy this!
The trim is all back on and looking pretty good. From far away. I still to paint the Airstream letters blue on the inside, but I’ll wait for a less windy day 🙂
Much love,
Lauren
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