Painting the Interior

Considerable research went into the decision about painting the interior of the Airstream.   My final decision came about after reading internet blogs and actually visiting Airstream owners' vintage trailers to see examples of paint jobs.  My research indicated that I highly desired to have "Zolatone" paint back inside the Airstream.   ( https://www.zolatone.com/finishes/ )
My Airstream was produced at the factory with Zolatone paint.  It is still by far the most durable and attractive finish for my 1959 Airstream.  However, color is a matter of choice.

Recalling the harsh sanding requirements that were needed to clean the fiberglass end caps and aluminum interior wall skins, it was necessary to choose a quality paint to achieve good coverage over the many imperfections.

Here I am sanding the aluminum roof panels.  The Airstream Factory applied Zolatone paint to the entire interior and it was still very durable.  However, the previous owner painted over the Zolatone.  These roof panels needed enough sanding to remove the secondary paints, but I did not want to remove all of the Zolatone.  

This picture shows the brown fiberglass end cap, the beige roof section, and the silver side panels. These side panels behaved differently when sanded.  All of the paint came off during the process, but these awful looking sanding marks were left behind.

Hopefully, the new Zolatone paint will cover many of the sanding imperfections in the final process.

Next, a primer coat was needed to prepare all surfaces to receive the new Zolatone paint.

I chose this Sherwin Williams brand for durability.

After taping the windows and trim I applied the primer using a 1/2 inch nap, 9-inch roller brush.

The application process proceeded very well until painting the end caps.  Since they are very curved it was necessary to revert to cutting in with a brush and using a 3/8 inch nap, 2-inch roller!

The trailer is 28 feet long with an inside dimension of 25 feet.

It took less than two gallons of primer to cover the surfaces.

This particular primer was thick in nature and covered very well, but it obviously did not look like a finish coat of paint.  As there was some primer left over, some surfaces like the entry and baggage doors received a touchup coat.