First timer build and questions

[dancam]

The answer is, "it depends". If you are grabbing a free edge of canvas and pulling it up in a peeling action, then yes, it might seem like it is easy to pull it up; but if you try to shear the joint by pulling the canvas parallel to the glue joint, or bend the foam and the canvas doesn't delaminate, then you are seeing what should be expected.

When you peeled the canvas up was there a very thin film of foam stuck to the back of it, almost like a peach fuzz? If so that is the foam failing before the glue, and that's all you can expect. The strength of the panels comes from the tensile strength of the canvas in the direction of the threads as stabilized by the foam, not the tensile strength of the glue joint.

Thanks for replying so soon. Its more random small chunks of foam that are sticking to the canvass. Theres a lot of them but its not like a film for sure. Its probably doing what its supposed to now that i look at it again.
I went to a whole bunch of stores just now looking for paint and couldnt find glidden gripper. However i called home and got my wife to look at the rest of the paint and realized i bought 5 gallons of armor coat porch and floor paint acrylic latex satin and 1 gallon of alkyd gloss enamel. Of course i took the alkyed for the test pieces so im hopeful the other 5 gallons will work, but not sure. Ill glue up a test piece or 2 tonight, paint them tomorrow evening and see if they worked saterday or monday before i paint.

Whats the general concensus on the benefit of rolling a thinned layer of tb2 on top of the canvass before paint for added strength? I saw some people had done it here so i did a test piece but the paint softened the glue and melted the foam...does it make it stronger or more mould resistant or waterproof?
Thanks

[GPW]

QUOTE: “ Whats the general concensus on the benefit of rolling a thinned layer of tb2 on top of the canvass before paint for added strength? “
Personally we feel the Paint alone is plenty , and the TB2 may actually interfere with the Paint adhesion .. The “Strength" is in the thickness and material of the canvas... and how you put the trailer together ...

[dancam]

quick question about paint- I searched the forum because im sure its been said but I actually didn't find what im looking for. I may be bad at searching. Anyway, is primer needed under the paint or can you just paint the canvass? I bought 5 gallons of white Armor Coat satin acrylic enamel latex porch and floor paint http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/armor-coat-3-7-l-grey-latex-porch-and-floor-paint-0489706p.html planning to use just it. Tried it but it wasn't as glossy as I wanted. So I went to a whole bunch of paint stores looking for durable high gloss exterior paint. Didn't find much. I settled on Sherwin Williams all surface enamel latex gloss white http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/products/catalog/all_surface_enamel_latex_base/ to go over the armor coat porch paint since its $60/gallon and too expensive to do it all with. but the salesman tells me I need to put primer underneath the porch and floor paint otherwise it will peel off. I'm not so sure since it says you can paint concrete with no primer, but he is the expert right? anyway, should I go 1 coat dulux gripper primer, 1-2 coats porch paint then 2 coats all surface enamel? or skip the primer @$50/gallon?
What do you guys do and what's durable? I need to go 32,000km with this thing next year and don't want peeling paint.

So I haven't had time to update this, I was supposed to have my trailer out of the shop Tuesday but things took way longer than planned. My wife and I worked on it over the long weekend. Friday evening, Saturday, rested Sunday then back at it Monday. I spent 47 hours on it in those 2 1/2 days and she spent 43.5 hours here and we only got the bottom half canvassed. Have to paint it now. I painted the bottom today, gotta paint the rest tomorrow or Friday to get it out of the shop. 3 days with overhead fans on is enough time for tb2 to cure before painting right? Ill post pictures soon, Thanks guys.

[GPW]

Dan, you need to be careful .... Paint store experts want to sell you paint for as much as they can ( it’s their job) and may not know as much as they profess... salesmen , not actual painters ... Over canvas , I doubt deck paint would peel off ... Wood deck , sure ...

Those prices are a bit HIGH eh ??? Shop around ... We had priced certain paints at SW years ago , found much better paint at a small store... SW was Twice as expensive for the same thing .... It’s the name and advertising you’re paying for ...

[dancam]

Dan, you need to be careful .... Paint store experts want to sell you paint for as much as they can ( it’s their job) and may not know as much as they profess... salesmen , not actual painters ... Over canvas , I doubt deck paint would peel off ... Wood deck , sure ...

Those prices are a bit HIGH eh ??? Shop around ... We had priced certain paints at SW years ago , found much better paint at a small store... SW was Twice as expensive for the same thing .... It’s the name and advertising you’re paying for ...

I cant see it coming off either, but i hardly know anything about house paint. I did shop around as much as i could in the short time ive given myself here. Home depot, lowes, rona, canadian tire, walmart, SW, cloverdale, dulux... Just have BM and one other small shop to phone. I have only painted exterior stuff twice, used expensive good stuff and the right primer and its peeled both times. The one was the valspar that lowes sells, the other was the rona paint. Walmart sells cil platinum for $35/gal but it looks like its been on the shelf for 20 years. So all thats left is the fancy paint stores and their all around the $60/gallon range and the sw paint looks better by the specs. I wish i could find cheaper stuff but the valspar and rona stuff i tried before and wasnt happy with is still $40-55/gal... There isnt much exterior paint in a gloss here for sale. A fair bit that goes up to satin or eggshell but not many brands do gloss for some reason.
Im leaning towards using the gripper primer just on the outside of the top of my trailer. Everything thats exposed while im driving. And just do floor paint as the first coat for the rest. But i haven't decided yet. :/

[ghcoe]

Usually exterior paint does not come in gloss. You can find it, but in most cases latex paint is not strong enough to support a gloss finish over time. I used the Lowes Valspar paint and found it to be pretty good for coverage and texture. I got the semi gloss and think it looks pretty good. Plus, I found it gets creamy when it sets in the pan a bit. Makes for applying paint on the underside with a brush a snap compared to other paints I have used. I am thinking of using it to attach the canvas to the interior roof because of this feature.

Here are a couple of pictures of the semi-gloss.

Body painted

DSCF4585.JPG (157.34 KiB) Viewed 1465 times

Roof shine

DSCF4589.JPG (155.21 KiB) Viewed 1465 times

[dancam]

Usually exterior paint does not come in gloss. You can find it, but in most cases latex paint is not strong enough to support a gloss finish over time. I used the Lowes Valspar paint and found it to be pretty good for coverage and texture. I got the semi gloss and think it looks pretty good. Plus, I found it gets creamy when it sets in the pan a bit. Makes for applying paint on the underside with a brush a snap compared to other paints I have used. I am thinking of using it to attach the canvas to the interior roof because of this feature.

Here are a couple of pictures of the semi-gloss.

DSCF4585.JPG

DSCF4589.JPG

Thanks for the reply. I wasnt aware latex had a hard time holding gloss, thats interesting. Thanks for the pictures! The gloss level looks pretty good, but its hard to tell on a phone. How would you compare its gloss to a bright white RV? In the store the gloss paint sample looked fine, but now im wondering if it will be so bright itl hurt your eyes on a sunny day, lol. What do you think? Im not doing anything fancy to the fabric weave to make it smooth and that detracts from the gloss a lot. The valspar here is $40/gallon for the cheaper line and $60/gal for their valspar duramax. I presume you used the cheaper line? Problem for me is they only have 2 gallons in the store of the cheaper stuff and i need 2 for sure, and i dont want to be in a bind if i need more. What kind of paint store gets down to 2 gallons of a brand anyway? Lol.
I flipped my trailer on its side to paint the bottom, but thanks for the tip!

[dancam]

Thats the bottom of my trailer with the satin porch paint.
Definatly not glossy enough. The bottom is ugly 1/2 in baltic birch, canvass glued to it, glue on top of that then 2 coats of floor paint. Ill do rock gaurd on top of that later.


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[SamIAm]

Hi dancam, your build is starting to look good, I like the pop up idea that you have, and am interested to see how it works. I have the same hope of taking my family on a north american adventure sometime.
Not sure if you are still looking for glue. Busybee tools on 184th and 111th ave in Edmonton has Titebond 2 for $40 a gallon. I am there a few times a year and they always seem to have a few gallons up by the till.

[ghcoe]

I used the Valspar Stormcoat. $18.99 gal here. Went on nice, covered well and even being satin is shines pretty good. I would say yes comparable to a new RV look. Gloss may be a bit too bright like you said. Texture does make a difference though so I do not know what your results will be. Good luck.

[dancam]

Hi dancam, your build is starting to look good, I like the pop up idea that you have, and am interested to see how it works. I have the same hope of taking my family on a north american adventure sometime.
Not sure if you are still looking for glue. Busybee tools on 184th and 111th ave in Edmonton has Titebond 2 for $40 a gallon. I am there a few times a year and they always seem to have a few gallons up by the till.

Thanks for that! I never thought of busybee. I got it from windsor plywood in leduc since it was cheaper than windsor in edmonton When its done your welcome to come see it! Or whenever really.

[dancam]

Im going to post a separate build thread probably tomorrow, ill start on it now, but what forum do I post it in? This foamie one or the build Journal one? thanks.

I used the Valspar Stormcoat. $18.99 gal here. Went on nice, covered well and even being satin is shines pretty good. I would say yes comparable to a new RV look. Gloss may be a bit too bright like you said. Texture does make a difference though so I do not know what your results will be. Good luck.

Of course Lowes Canada doesnt sell anything like that... :/ I'm not too impressed with the expensive paint I bought, Its is glossier but the satin floor paint is brighter. The floor paint in direct sun is very bright, the gloss is easy to look at and a bit duller, but inside its easy to see that its glossier. Weird, but Ill post pictures soon, thanks for the help

[ghcoe]

Im going to post a separate build thread probably tomorrow, ill start on it now, but what forum do I post it in? This foamie one or the build Journal one? thanks.

Not sure if you where talking to me or not. My build is in the foamie section under #1. It is in my signature link below. I started it there not really knowing that there was a build section on the main page. I think I like it better that way though.

[dancam]

Im going to post a separate build thread probably tomorrow, ill start on it now, but what forum do I post it in? This foamie one or the build Journal one? thanks.

Not sure if you where talking to me or not. My build is in the foamie section under #1. It is in my signature link below. I started it there not really knowing that there was a build section on the main page. I think I like it better that way though.

Not in particular, just asking anyone. Im new to the forum and not quite sure how its done is all. Thanks for that, i quickly looked at yours and i will have to read the whole thing later this week it looks cool. I got my build so far half written tonight, hopefully get the rest done tomorrow then post it in a forum.

[dancam]

Well I wrote up and posted a build thread of what I have done so far! Its herehttp://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=1180451#p1180451 or here maybe http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=66816&p=1180455#p1180455. I decided to make a separate thread because I personally hate really cluttered build threads on the car forums im usually on. Even here theres build threads with 40 or 50 pages and much of it is questions so its hard to find what you want, but its not as bad. Anyhow, I also decided to post it in the foamie forum rather than the one dedicated to builds. Spent yesterday and today writing it and tomorrow I'm going to roll undercoating onto the underside of my floor. Then I need to start researching solutions to the problems i came across! Then figure out where im going to build the top half, come up with a build plan and get it done in the next 5 weeks... :p