Paint Recommendations?

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

I'm building a fiberglass composite truck camper and will be ready to start priming and painting the exterior soon.
I'm looking for primer/paint recommendations that will work well over cured epoxy, can be rolled or brushed on, and hold up to normal scratches/impacts of driving on and off road.
I would like to find something in a flat or low-gloss tan color and price is definitely a factor.

Can I just use exterior house paint, or is it not hard enough. I don't really know anything about paint and I've gotten mixed info so far from my internet search.

 

[Peter_n_Margaret]

The best would be fibreglass gel coat.
That is what would have been used if the composite sandwich was coated at time of manufacture. Mine is 18 years old now and has barely a mark on it.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

 

[billiebob]

I'm building a fiberglass composite truck camper and will be ready to start priming and painting the exterior soon.
I'm looking for primer/paint recommendations that will work well over cured epoxy, can be rolled or brushed on, and hold up to normal scratches/impacts of driving on and off road.
I would like to find something in a flat or low-gloss tan color and price is definitely a factor.

Can I just use exterior house paint, or is it not hard enough. I don't really know anything about paint and I've gotten mixed info so far from my internet search.

2 questions. what is your investment $$$ so far and what is your life expectancy for the finish.

My OSB BOX is an $800 investment. The only finish is rolled on Latex Stain. I sand and recoat it every few years. It is 8 years old this spring. It still looks like new. I never thgought it would last this long... or be so cheap.

With an epoxy base ask the epoxy supplier what they recommend and let us know.

 

[NOPEC]

I'm building a fiberglass composite truck camper and will be ready to start priming and painting the exterior soon.
I'm looking for primer/paint recommendations that will work well over cured epoxy, can be rolled or brushed on, and hold up to normal scratches/impacts of driving on and off road.
I would like to find something in a flat or low-gloss tan color and price is definitely a factor.

Can I just use exterior house paint, or is it not hard enough. I don't really know anything about paint and I've gotten mixed info so far from my internet search.

Recently, I rebuilt a fiberglass shelled camper and went through the same quandary when it came time to finish the exterior. I looked hard at all of the marine stuff, both one and two part as well as, the various bed liner products, etc. Like you, I wanted something that wasn't too shiny, easy to use initially and as well, easy to use down the road for retouching and fixing (which for me, eliminated most of the two part products). I had also done considerable new fiberglassing on this project with lots of imperfections due to my lack of experience, so I also was interested in having or creating a bit of texture for the purpose of camouflaging some of my goofs.

I ended up finding a product made by Coronado and marketed through Benjamin Moore (BM) stores with the unfortunate name of "Rust Scat". It is an industrial one part polyurethane enamel available in semi-gloss which can be tinted to the full BM colour spectrum. The folks at BM assured me firstly, that there was no need to prime and secondly, even thought it is billed as a metal paint, I would be delighted with the results on fiberglass. They were correct on both counts. I used a gray for the main colour and black for the trim. Great stuff! This past summer was only the second since painting but so far, it still looks just like the day I put it on.

 

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

Thanks Nopec. that looks like a good recommendation.

billiebob, I haven't really kept track of the expenses, but I think I've spent around $3,000 usd so far and planning on keeping it for many years.
I used a latex exterior house paint on my last camper build. It did the job for 3 years and was still looking ok, but it was kind of soft, so stuff (bugs, small rocks) that hit the front of the camper at speed would stick in the paint and not scrub off as well as they do from a hard automotive paint. I'm not super concerned with aesthetics but it would be nice to look a little less like a sketchy homeless rig and more like a budget RVer

 

[javajoe79]

I use Monstaliner. Lots of colors and it’s a high quality product. Extremely tough and hard to scratch plus the texture looks great imo. Typically you apply it and that’s it. Unless you make heavy contact with something you probably won’t ever have to touch it up

 

[highwest]

I second Monstaliner for its toughness and ability to hide imperfections… if that’s the look you’re comfortable with and they have the color you want (they do have a ton). That Rust Scat does look interesting too.

We used the “Rolling Perfection” method with Interlux Perfection on our boat and it looks like a spray job, it’s fantastic, but it gets rock chips going down the highway, so you can definitely skip that one.

 

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

I'll look into Monstaliner.

I emailed Benjamin Moore About there Rust Scat products. The response was that they did not recommend it for epoxy/fiberglass. I asked if they have a product that they do recommend... no response on that yet. Ill let you know if they get back to me with something.

 

[NOPEC]

I'll look into Monstaliner.

I emailed Benjamin Moore About there Rust Scat products. The response was that they did not recommend it for epoxy/fiberglass. I asked if they have a product that they do recommend... no response on that yet. Ill let you know if they get back to me with something.

Interesting, like I said, mine has been just great and I would use it again, definitely. Pop over anytime for a "scratch" test.

 

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

Interesting, like I said, mine has been just great and I would use it again, definitely. Pop over anytime for a "scratch" test.

I'm starting to think that this is one of those things I'm putting way too much thought into ?
Just roll some paint on there and go camping, right ?!

 

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

Benjamin Moore got back to me. They recommended Fresh Start All Purpose Primer 046 and Regal Select Paint. They didn't explain why they thought this would be the best product for my application.

The primer and Paint are both 100% acrylic. Apposed to Rust Scat which is a Polyurethane enamel or monstaliner's "Aliphatic hybrid urethane polymers".
Wouldn't Acrylic be more likely to chip?

My local Ace Hardware caries both. primer=$43/gallon and paint= $73/gallon. so the price seems pretty good and you can choose from any of Benjamin Moors many colors.

 

[NOPEC]

Benjamin Moore got back to me. They recommended Fresh Start All Purpose Primer 046 and Regal Select Paint. They didn't explain why they thought this would be the best product for my application.

The primer and Paint are both 100% acrylic. Apposed to Rust Scat which is a Polyurethane enamel or monstaliner's "Aliphatic hybrid urethane polymers".
Wouldn't Acrylic be more likely to chip?

My local Ace Hardware caries both. primer=$43/gallon and paint= $73/gallon. so the price seems pretty good and you can choose from any of Benjamin Moors many colors.

Good bit of research. I don't think that either Rust Scat or the Acrylic stuff you mentioned would be prone to chipping. I feel that Rust Scat is pretty hard but not brittle, but I don't really know.

Personally, I wasn't interested in water based house paint that I had to prime. I'm just old fashioned I guess but I wanted something that I perceived to be way more durable, thus the more industrial, oil based enamel. (BM's glossy colour pamphlet on Rust Scat showed it being applied to various really rugged outdoor industrial sites which completely sold me !!!)

As I mentioned, my local BM guys were very certain that it would work perfectly for my camper, which it did. (They were quite invested in the project, wanting pictures and updates, gotta love small towns!!)

Polyurethane enamel is a bit more demanding in that you have to ensure that you use multiple thin coats, ensuring generous drying time between coats. My paint guys were adamant about this due to the fact that recoating this paint too early will lead to poor/slow drying of the underlying coat which can be a problem. Once my first coat was dry, I pushed the envelope a bit for the second coat and concocted a well mixed slurry of fumed Silica (for bulk/texture) and Rust Scat which I then applied with a small roller, trying to work as much texture into this coat as possible, all the while keeping it as thin as possible. It worked really well. I gave this coat an extra day of drying before two more additional thin coats. Although nothing like the texture you get with Monstaliner, this was kind of the poor man's version.



What you might consider with your project is get a quart of Black tinted Rust Scat and use it for trim. If you don't like it, you wouldn't be out that much. Just a thought. cheers

 

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

Thanks Nopec. Thats a nice texture you achieved. The Monstaliner's texture is a bit more aggressive than I would ideally want anyway.

 

[ExpoMike]

Keep in mind, Raptorliner/Montraliner (two different brands but the most common) texture is 100% affected by how you spray it. More or less air pressure will give you completely different results. If rolling on, not sure if you can vary the texture, as I typically have not seen that done often.

 

[javajoe79]

Monstaliner texture comes from the roller. I suppose you could roll in on smooth but I would check with them first.