Well, she’s just about done. We’ve spent our last three weekends giving our little Go-Tag-A-Long a much needed paint job. We started first thing each morning and worked until sundown. I haven’t been this tired in years. Finally the fruits of our labor are starting to show!
Here’s a brief list of the changes we’ve made to the exterior (excluding electrical, plumbing, etc.):
- new white spoke wheels and new tires
- removed broken awning, antenna & related hardware
- plugged all empty “holes” with stainless screws
- changed out all unpainted screws with stainless
- had spare tire mounted on rear bumper
- scraped, primed and painted rusty tongue
- new LP canisters, new battery
- new jack and safety chains
- painted body, side stripes
- added new pin striping to trailer and LP’s
- blended in all doors/vents to match body
- replace dented fridge vent on roof (in progress)
- resurface roof (in progress)
Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to show off a few of her better angles.
Our first weekend was spent taking much of the hardware off, getting 31 years of blobs and gunk off of the skin (hence, the bare aluminum polka dots) and giving her a good washing. Then we covered and taped everything that didn’t need to get painted. I proceeded to spray paint the entire trailer with CANS of Rustoleum spray paint.
At first glance we thought the coverage looked great. But if you looked at the trailer at just the right angle, in just the right light… that dreaded splotchy look was apparent!
THAT JUST WON’T DO!
Plan “B” (thank goodness for Utube!)
After hours of desperate research, I decided to use the “Roll and Tip” method. Basically, roll a small area about 3 square feet keeping a wet edge at all times. Then quickly go behind and lightly brush the wet area. The paint is self leveling, so brush marks disappear as the paint dries. Then move on to the next 3 square feet. You have to work fast and no bathroom breaks allowed!
I was very pleased to discover that Rustoleum makes the same exact color in canned paint that they make in spray paint. So I had a perfect match for my sprayed “base coat”.
I did one coat each day (oil based takes 24 hours to dry). Two coats covered well since I already had a matching base coat. Long story short, it exceeded my expectations. I had no drips, and just a few spots where some brush strokes are visible. But I’m probably the only one that would notice them, since I know every square inch on this trailer way too well.
Painting the stripes was next. I just taped them off and brushed them since that surface has a lovely “wood grain” texture.
Weekend #3 was spent on my orange “Brady Bunch” pin stripe!
We actually took her out camping for one night in her original rough condition to find out everything that was wrong 
with her. We got a lot of stares pulling into the park. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies! You can’t judge a book from it’s cover…we knew her potential. Here we are on that first trip last October…beaming with pride.
Enough of that. A picture is worth a thousand words:
The shot on the left shows what we were towing down the highway for 120 miles. I don’t know if that’s funny or scarry.
Refrigerator vent and trim was painted to match body. The fenders were primed and painted to match also.
I spot sprayed all of the screws with rust primer.
This shot shows the scratches on the white body. Also, utilities were rusted and tired. New stain-less steel spray paint for those!
You know you’re in trouble when your “bracket” has to be tied in a knot!
A few more…
Our final touch is to apply the name decal on the rear, right above the spare tire. It should be here tomorrow. We’ve decided to name her after our sweet Brittany Spaniel, Belle, who we lost after 14 years. We figured the name fit well, since Belle had issues with separation anxiety. She followed us around, room by room, hardly every letting us out of her sight. I guess that would qualify her as a little “Tag-A-Long”!
Details of our neighborhood christening celebration for our “Miss Belle” coming up soon!
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