Vintage Caravan Magazine Issue 40 | Page 12

polishing the exterior aluminium around the windows and prepping the exterior for paintwork. “This proved to be a lot more laborintensive than I anticipated!” she recalls. “I kept thinking of the karate kid and the scene where he was taught to ‘wax on, wax off!’ I definitely put a lot of elbow grease into the prep work! I used an electric sander in the beginning and then finished by hand with fine sandpaper until it was really smooth. I went on the Internet and searched through various ‘how to’ videos to find the appropriate way to paint the trailer. I decided to use Rustoleum paint after I completed the sanding. (I wasn’t prepared to invest a large amount of cash to have her professionally painted.) I started with a primer and then finished with a gloss white. I then used the same process for the red stripe. I primed it first and then finished it off with a red Rustoleum 2X spray paint. But I couldn’t stop there as it really didn’t feel like it had my personal touch, so the next step was to paint the flowers on one side of the trailer while my daughter completed a painting of a retro style Hawaiian woman sitting by the ocean using oil paint on an aluminum piece for the canvas. I finished it up with two coats of UV protective sealant. Now she felt like my ‘Ruby’! Bright red and beautiful!” 10 | vintagetrailermagazine