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Restoring GRP panels.


ian81

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After some 12 years the paintwork on our Motorhome panels is in need of some restoration. Looking at some old posts on here I am thinking of using Farécla G3 Advance liquid followed by G10 finishing.

Elbow grease is in short supply so thinking of using a polisher. Talking to Nick Joujou (very helpful) of Farécla highlighted some issues with a relatively low cost 10” polisher. However, the machines that he proposed are not only too expensive but also have a wattage rating above 1000w -I only have access to a 1kva generator to power it!

Has anybody used these products with a polisher and if so what model (and make of pads)?

Also, the decals are quite faded. Is it best to remove them and go decal-less?

Thanks

Ian

 

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Farécla products used to be recommended by Auto-Sleepers (and A-S may still do this for all I know).

 

There’s a good deal of on-line discussion

 

https://tinyurl.com/y3ddhv2p

 

and no compelling reason why Farécla products shouldn’t be similarly effective on your Challenger’s GRP body panels. Plainly the less ‘cutting’ you can get away with the better and you’d need to be sure that what you were polishing was gel-coat not GRP that had been painted (for example, the overcab GRP ‘pod’ of my 2005 Hobby motorhome had been painted to (nearly) match the rest of the vehicle.

 

Can you satisfactorily polish the body panels without removing the faded decals?

 

This on-line entry for a 2008 Challenger Genesis 34

 

http://www.ttcamper.com/index.php?id_product=248&controller=product&id_lang=1

 

carries several exterior photos showing that the motorhome was well bedecked with decals (cab, sides and rear). If you remove the decals and find there’s a significant colour mismatch between the material beneath the decals and the‘weathered GRP that you’ve polished, the result would be unsightly and trying to ‘polish out’ the under-decal colour difference might well not work. Before removing the decals, you might be wise to take photos and measurements of them and explore whether a vehicle sign-writing specialist could make copies.

 

(If I were living in France as you do, I’d be tempted to see if French motorhome dealerships could advise on what they do to revive the bodywork of older Chausson/Challenger models.)

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Thanks Derek ..as ever some good links (better than Google)!!

 

I suspect that replacing decals would be a bit expensive but may look at some new maybe a little bigger. A mindless little b*****r removed a couple of the ones on the back about six years ago and you can still see the marks.So that will be a test bed,

 

Sadly the average motorhome dealer in France, in my experience, is well versed in the Gallic shrug.

 

My main procupation though is with the best power tool to use for the job to cut down on the elbow grease.

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