Our "new" Tiger...

[HMR]

Stripe Removal Continued...

A local RV shop quoted over $1,000 to remove our Tiger's stripes "because it's so labor intensive". It seemed like a straightforward job to us so we decided to do it ourselves... Good grief! It's A LOT of work! $1,000 is starting to seem like a good deal.

We're using the same tools and techniques the pros use but it mostly just takes time and elbow grease.
Slowly but surely we're making progress:

We also called 5 different paint shops for a quote on getting the whole thing repainted. We still don't think we "need" new paint but agree it would be pretty cool to do if the price makes sense. After we get the stripes off, we'll give the Tiger a serious clean/polish/detail before we decide on paint.

 

[HMR]

Stripes? What Stripes?

The stripes put up a lot harder fight than we expected but they eventually succumbed to our barrage of chemicals, abrasives, blazing heat and elbow grease.

Here's our quiver:

(L-R: heat gun, isopropyl alcohol, denatured alcohol, razor blade scraper, "commercial strength" Goof Off, 3M Woodgrain and Stripe Adhesive Remover, 3M Large Area Stripe Removal (LASR) disc)

Notes for anyone attempting a big stripe removal job:
Heat Gun- Must have. Works wonders in areas where other methods don't. Downside is it leaves behind most of the adhesive but it's the quickest way to remove the actual stripe.

Isopropyl Alcohol- Works great for cleaning up small amounts of adhesive in areas where the 3M products would be too messy.

Denatured Alcohol- Doesn't remove adhesive but good to have for general cleanup.

Razor Blade Scraper- Must have. Works well with the heat gun but extreme care must be taken not to scratch paint.

"Commercial Strength" Goof Off- Worthless. Don't bother with it.

3M Woodgrain and Stripe Adhesive Remover- Must have. Don't let the $30 per can price tag scare you- this stuff is worth every cent. Spray it on the thickest adhesive mess, wait a few minutes, scrape lightly with a plastic spatula and it'll leave a clean surface behind.

3M Large Area Stripe Removal (LASR) Disc- We're 50/50 on this one. It works amazingly well on small areas. It removes both the stripe and the adhesive and leaves a clean, smooth surface without the slightest damage to the paint. However, it makes a huge mess ("stripe dust") on a job this size. It also took forever to work on large areas as it doesn't "self clean" very well- the residue is supposed to fling off the wheel but it gets clogged up and makes a mess when used on the wider stripes.

The results:

I'm crisscrossing the country right now for work but hoping to clean off the rest of the adhesive residue this week. Once that's finished we can buff out the paint and make a final decision on whether or not we want to repaint the whole thing. I ordered a color palette from the stripe company today. Should have new stripes custom cut and delivered within a few weeks.

 

[HMR]

A Tiger's gotta breathe...

We're aware of all the arguments against using K&N air filters in dusty environments. However, we've been using them in other "off road" vehicles for over 100K miles without any problems so we decided to put one in the Tiger. It's a quick and easy upgrade that gives a nice little performance increase.

Old:

New:

 

[HMR]

New Tunes...

We liked the "retro" Delco radio in the Tiger. It worked fine and was a good excuse to perform an archeology dig in our garage to find our old cassette tapes.
Unfortunately, it conked out on the way home from the Overland Expo so, lately, we've just been singing to each other for entertainment... :yikes:

We ordered a new Stereo/CD/I-Pod/Space Shuttle Control Panel from Crutchfield.
They provide everything necessary for the install so it only took an hour to go from this:

To this:

:rockon:

 

[kcowyo]

We liked the "retro" Delco radio in the Tiger. It worked fine and was a good excuse to perform an archeology dig in our garage to find our old cassette tapes.

Van Halen "1984" in the Tiger... Yeah! :victory:

.

 

[HMR]

The grubby caulk line at the top of the cab roof will probably clean up easily with Soft Scrub & an old toothbrush before you wash it next time (Tip from a factory tech).

Jim H.

Jim- I'd previously washed the Tiger several times and the dirt didn't budge. I figured I'd have to remove the old, dirty caulk and replace it with new.
Your idea worked perfectly: Soft Scrub and a toothbrush took it right off. Thanks for the great tip!

Before:

After 20-30 seconds of scrubbing:

 

[HMR]

Van Halen "1984" in the Tiger... Yeah! :victory:

.

Oh c'mon KC, at only 33:08 that album is just too short for serious road trips.

:sombrero:

 

[HMR]

Door Holder Thingies...

There are three little door holder thingies on the exterior of the Tiger. They're retractable clips that hold the battery, fuel and refrigerator compartment doors open. It's a very handy invention but after 16 years of exposure, ours looked terrible. All three had rusted to the point that they were staining the paint and would no longer function properly. I found several newer designs over the past few months but none of them "looked" right. It's not a big deal but for some reason it was really bugging me. Anyway, I found the perfect replacements today and it only took 10 minutes to make the Tiger look 10 years newer.

Old:

New:

 

[Ironduff]

Your lower pic is what the current Tigers use. Very handy. I can recall looking at pix on the factory website the first time and wondering what those funny little bumps were for....

Jim H.

 

[ntsqd]

Oh c'mon KC, at only 33:08 that album is just too short for serious road trips.

:sombrero:

Que "Thick as a Brick" after it! That should get you to a significantly different lat/long.

 

[T.Low]

Que "Thick as a Brick" after it! That should get you to a significantly different lat/long.

Ha! I had the same exact thought.:ylsmoke:

 

[mountainsoul]

The results:

Coming along nicely. I kinda like the black on white look. :costumed-smiley-007

 

[HMR]

Paint Update...

I started polishing the paint on a few areas as a test to see if it was even possible to spruce up the old finish. Surprisingly, it's starting to look pretty good- there's still a nice gloss coat hidden below all the oxidation. It's going to take a lot of buffing with polishing compound and wax but we think it'll look great when finished. We've also narrowed down our colors for the new stripes. Hoping to make our final choice and get everything ordered within the next week.

In the meantime, I've been repainting the access doors. Not sure why but the paint on the doors is in much worse shape than the rest of the exterior.

Here's an example:

After sanding, priming and a new coat of paint:

With new stainless steel screws and new "screw cover" in place:

 

[ersatzknarf]

Looking very nice ! Really enjoying following this thread. Thanks !

 

[HMR]

Tiger in the Wild...

Had a fun time looking for a new camping spot this past weekend. My wife spotted a trail on a previous trip and wanted to see if we could find it, again. We couldn't remember where, exactly, it was but knew the general area so we loaded up the Tiger and went exploring. As often happens, we got sidetracked by a completely different trail. The terrain was smooth but sandy with sections steep enough to be impassable without AWD/4x4. It was exactly the type of trail we bought the Tiger for- nothing technical but too tight and just enough "offroad" to be inaccessible by a "normal" RV.

We never did find our intended spot but had a good time getting lost anyway...