Painting a Pop-up-Camper
Although “Brook-with-an-E” was already a seasoned traveler with her new family, there was still a few things I wanted to update - mostly all on the outside. First, I wanted to give her a new paint job…get rid of the brown and orange stripes and tie her into the theme of “Brooke” with her blues, greens, and grays.
I actually didn’t mind the design of the original vinyl stripes - it invoked a “brook” feeling with the way it dropped down. So I decided to remove the vinyl and then paint exactly where they were in the blues.
First I used a heat gun to soften the vinyl and then simply pulled it up. Sometimes it broke, but I’d just soften the edge again and then pull up. For the most part, it came up really easily (it just took a long time!). The big TEC stickers took the longest to get up (and one of them was badly broken and baked into the side!).
I gave Brooke With An E a good scrub, using a brush I could attach to my drill and a bucket of soapy water (a special wax and wash designed for RVs). Once that was done, I let the camper dry thoroughly before getting ready for the paint!
After removing the hardware I could, I taped around the lights and the edges and gave the sides and roof a coat or two of exterior paint. I wasn’t a fan of the paint I used - it went on too thin and I had to do several coats, but the color was similar to the original paint so I didn’t stress too much. I just made sure it was exterior and made for metal surfaces. Then it was time to paint the lines.
First, I tried to free hand the lines. I got three quarts of blues (actually just used a paint chip palette and said, “give me one of each!”). I had to get quarts even though I knew I would only need a tiny amount because the “paint samples” that the stores have are actually all interior paints…so I guess I have a lot of blues, now…
Free handing the line was not working. So I decided to implement another trick I saw on the interwebs and see if it would give me the crisp lines… I used the old lines of the previous vinyl as guides and did blue tape along them. The “curvy” areas I knew I would have to free hand. Then, before doing the blue, I painted over the seam of the tape on the blue line side with the cream base coat - THEN painted the blue between my tape lines. When I pulled up the blue tape, I was left with crisp lines! How this works is that any paint that bleeds under the painters tape will be the cream, the same color as the base, and then the blue won’t bleed under the tape because the seam is already sealed with the cream color! Thus, I am left with crisp, blue lines!
The “TravelMate” got a coat of gray paint (and so did the bumper and tongue), and the hardware got shiny, new screws to put it in! I just want to replace the rivets around the edges to give that last bit of shine, and Brooke With An E is all done!
As a bonus, I painted my propane tank too…the cream base as the top, the medium blue on the bottom, and a river in the light blue cascading down. I also purchased a cover for the spare tire - a brook in a forest - and cut out her name in vinyl to stick on the back (instead of painting lines like there was originally). I really love how it turned out - and although it’s a subtle change, it’s nice to have it all refreshed. A white/blue canvas now would be the next step! (But I’ll wait until this brown one really gets bad before updating that!)
