Born Free Coach Fiberglass Body Oxidation/Loss of Shine

[Dallas Baillio]

Looks like Ed's old motorhome had a trompe-l'oeil awning installed when it was repainted.

[dmews001]

Detlef & Ursula,

If I may be so bold as to ask, what was the cost of the full body paint option on your 2006 26' RSB coach?

Your paint job really does look beautiful. Do you know if the factory did the paint job in house or was it done by an outside vendor selected by the factory?

Bill,

The factory outsourced the painting to CDI (out of 305 Nerem Drive, Forest City, IOWA). Their phone number is 641-585-5900. May be not far from you.

The list price for the full body paint (ours is called "mocha") for a 2007 model year was $9000 at the time. However, we bought ours as a demo with different pricing.

This was in 2006/2007 of course. I'm not sure if BF factory still uses CDI. They may do it in-house now.

-- Detlef

[dmews001]

Detlef, is the white area painted or is it the gelcoat that would have been masked off and not painted. Looks great, BTW.

Ed,

Good question. I was sure the white looked painted, but I double checked the documents which came with our BF26RSB. According to these, the white area is also painted (called "CDI Oxford White" with a code of "BF44093").

Please see my response to Bill Whemme for the company (CDI) who did the paint job on our coach.

--Detlef

[jobrien]

Maybe because of the $9,000 price tag?

[John S.]

That is the cost that they quoted as well when we looked at bornfrees. I will say that it does make the coach handle the elements much better and it looks new still. I think you will get some of it back when you sell it too.

[dsfriday]

Anybody have experience with 303 Aerospace Protectant? Per their websiite, suppose to prevent fiberglass UV degradation. We have a 2008 coach and so far no issue with above. Have been waxing twice a year, once after winter travels and at end of summer, maybe above should be added to the mix.

[thkurtz]

I have been using a product similar to 303 called ProtectAll on our 2002 RSB since 2005. I am from Florida and have the Born Free parked in front of the garage with no protection from the sun. We are traveling 4 to 5 months each year and I try to put the ProtectAll on every 3 to 4 month. It has a UV blocker and carnauba wax. So far the clear coat is holding up fine. We will be leaving in May this year and this is a reminder that I have worked to do. Thanks for the discussion.
Terry Kurtz

[whemme]

Sam,

The detailing outfit out here in west Phoenix that did my coach was EXEL. The outcome looked really good, the resulting shine was better than I could ever get with my extensive elbow greese.

I could not tell what brand products they used for taking the oxidation off or the wax they used because they were applied from generic spray bottles. So I asked and the owner and he said that he did not use brand name products but he mixed up his own from raw chemicals because he said that, especially with the de-oxidation, he could never find a brand name product that worked well so he decided to formulate his own.

Seemed to work OK. He and his son worked together on my coach for about 4 hours and the charge was $15/foot which for my coach totalled $390. I was satisfied with the outcome.

I told the owner that Born Free currently charges about $10,000 for the full body paint option. He pointed out that his firm could be hired to do his detailing work once/year for more than 25 years and not exceed that $10,000 amount.