HiLo with New Paint on One Side.

Today was a great day for painting, as the humidity was lower than it has been, and the wind had gone down. The forecast was that we would have 20% chance of showers until next Wednesday, so we attacked it today. As a HiLo top half raises and lowers hydraulically at the touch of a button, we lowered it to a manageable height.

There are different grades of masking tape, priced accordingly. I had already taped off the windows and door with the better blue tape. That is the critical and precise prep taping. It is held at right angles to the sides of the windows and then folded over the front, sometimes even to the point of running it behind the window frame with your fingernail. That way you get a good clean line down the sides of your windows, and don't get paint on the edges of the window frames. The taping is one of the most important jobs, so that it doesn't look "painted".

The top part had already been painted the original goldy color, and as that new paint is more 'tender', I used the best purple tape for that. Tape can pull off the paint under it, if you don't use the right tape. Been There, Done That. Then I used a little slick topped table and got a lot of sheets of newspaper ready with tape on the long edge, for the rest of it. As that gets taped to the first prep tape, I can use the cheap masking tape for that. A few gusts of wind came up , so Ray helped me get the newspaper in place.

As you can see, over the years the trailer had lost some of the original paint and primer, and was all the way to the bare aluminum. Ray had gone all over that with 0000 steel wool to prepare the aluminum for painting. Regular primers don't work with aluminum, so I had bought several spray cans of Zinc Chromate Primer at a marine store. Auto parts stores don't sell it. Ray cleaned the whole area with Denatured Alcohol, we always do that right before we paint, as even a finger print can stop the primer or paint from taking right.

This green primer comes with a spray tip, not like a regular spray can. Then I have a gun attachment for the cans, which makes life easier. That part is all Ray's forte. He sprayed several light coats of primer, there is no waiting between coats. We waited a little bit and he started to spray the white paint. But he had got spoiled with that spray tip, and I managed to find a tip off another can of paint that would fit these paint cans. The one off the primer didn't fit. He sprayed several light coats of the paint, and voila... one side is done.

A good painting day.