re painting fiber galss and aluminum on mobile

Other than a"light" sanding with 80 or 120 grit and blowing off
dust and wiping down with ie., mineral spirits ( cloth dampened
with naptha, camp stove fuel, which has a high flash point) is
there any other thing that one should do to prepare for acrilic
latex, hardner, reducer paint mix?
I am going to repaint our rv mobile with the hood and
fenders and rear pannel of fiberglass and sides of aluminum.
Thank you for all your asstisance.
Wm. E.J.

If it was stationary you could use a lot of different finishes. For an RV I would stick with automotive finishes. Fiberglass can be primed with any automotive primer but aluminum would take something like Dupont variprime.

(quoted from post at 15:03:35 04/21/19) If it was stationary you could use a lot of different finishes. For an RV I would stick with automotive finishes. Fiberglass can be primed with any automotive primer but aluminum would take something like Dupont variprime.

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False. Etch primers are for metal, not fiberglass.

(quoted from post at 12:36:41 04/21/19) Other than a"light" sanding with 80 or 120 grit and blowing off
dust and wiping down with ie., mineral spirits ( cloth dampened
with naptha, camp stove fuel, which has a high flash point) is
there any other thing that one should do to prepare for acrilic
latex, hardner, reducer paint mix?
I am going to repaint our rv mobile with the hood and
fenders and rear pannel of fiberglass and sides of aluminum.
Thank you for all your asstisance.
Wm. E.J.

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If you are sanding with a grit that rough, you will need to use a primer surfacer to hide the scratches before your painting is done.

If you are not wanting to go to that extreme, I would do my scuff sand with maroon scotchbrite and/or 320 sheets.

Fiberglass is made from polyester with glass fibers. My last position was a shop that painted a substate called rynite for saturn cars. Rynite is a class of fiber glass and the coating of choice was 2K urethane.

for more clarity that I didn't put in . The present colour through out the entire out side of the unit is an off skin tone on all aluminum and fiberglass.
So reading from what has been written //if I lightly pre sand with 6 or 800 grit then I should be able to put a new top coat over the entire unit. Am I understanding what I have read?
This type of refinishing is foreign to me. I have only worked on our Farmall BN which is all steel.

Interesting experience, I used to test the part using a gravel-o-meter. This machine would chuck frozen gravel at
the part. One specific area of the part would fail with the coating chipping off. The part was injection molded
and apparently the glass would cause very fine scratches in this one area. The surface tension of the coating was
such that if would not fill into the valleys of the scratches which greatly reduced the adhesion. Sanding can help
adhesion but under the right circumstance can also hinder it.

(quoted from post at 13:34:45 04/22/19) for more clarity that I didn't put in . The present colour through out the entire out side of the unit is an off skin tone on all aluminum and fiberglass.
So reading from what has been written //if I lightly pre sand with 6 or 800 grit then I should be able to put a new top coat over the entire unit. Am I understanding what I have read?
This type of refinishing is foreign to me. I have only worked on our Farmall BN which is all steel.

Click to expand...

The problem with using sand paper on a project like this is that it will take you a really long time to get all the angles. That is why I recommend the scotchbrite pads -- they can contour to things and not dig in while still giving you a good scuff. I'm imagining your project having quite a lot of structural ridges and grooves in it.

I would not skip out on primer. Enduro Prime, along with any other epoxies I've encountered, is labeled for aluminum, fiberglass, and old finishes. This should be adequate over any surface you have mentioned.

What are you using for paint?