Subject: [airstream] RE: Clearcoat coming off
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 18:45:49 -0500
From: per.hamnqvist@airstream.net
Reply-To: airstream@airstream.net

Hi Phil --

| Anyway, just one recommendation, I was told this about bugs on the trailer.
| In the night, after a bug smashes on the trailer (vehicle for that matter),
| dew forms on the bug. Then, during the day, the sun converts the bug guts
| (technical term for bug insides, now outside) and dew into acid. The acid
| then eats the clearcoat or paint. He stressed then need to quickly remove
| bugs every evening before retirering. IT seems to work, they come off very
| easy when fresh.

That is a good suggestion. In my case, however, the problem is not specifically on the front, but can be seen on the back of and on the top. More like the sort of drop formations you get on the hood of your car when it rains during a very hot day and then dries. It leaves these marks on the hood. Most of the time you can get them off. In my case it does not appear as if I can get these off my trailer. I imagine that they are now imperfections in the clearcoat, rather than anything that have touched what is underneath. That is just my guess.

With cars, anyway, most of the time you can reduce the risk of getting what I think I am seeing by properly conditioning your surface. And I suspect that this was not done with my unit before I bought it new. It had probably been sitting on the lot, in the sun, for some extended period of time, without any attempts to clean it. The top of my trailer was dark when I bought it. It is supposed to be white! But that is not the sort of thing that a novice like myself was looking at when I bought it.

Per