Full Vehicle Paint Jobs for West Covina
Complete strip, prep and refinish for coaches, vans, trailers and trucks in a booth that closes on a full length rig.
Short answer. A full repaint strips the vehicle of trim and decals, repairs the substrate, primes and blocks every panel, then sprays base and clear in one continuous booth sequence. OCRV Center paints motorhomes up to 45 feet, vans, trailers and box trucks in shop for West Covina owners.
OCRV Center works in shop at 23281 La Palma Ave in Yorba Linda, about 22 miles and 30 to 45 minutes from West Covina.
Request a quote
Tell us about the vehicle and the damage. Insurance walk ins are welcome.
Symptoms that point to this repair
If you recognize two or more of these, the vehicle is worth putting on a lift before the damage spreads.
Clear failing on three or more separate areas of the vehicle
Faded factory graphics with hard ridges you can feel through the clear
Two or three prior repairs that each read a different shade
Gelcoat chalking across the entire driver side after years of afternoon sun
A color change requested before a resale or a conversion build
Filon sidewalls that look acceptable at fifty feet and terrible at five
Who actually ends up needing a complete repaint
Three groups arrive at a full repaint. The first is the owner of a fifteen to twenty five year old coach whose clear has failed across multiple areas at once. Once the roof cap, the upper sidewalls and the tops of the slide fascias are all going, patching one of them just draws attention to the other two. The second group is the buyer who picked up a sound rig cheap because it looked terrible, and who now wants the appearance to match the mechanical condition.
The third group is doing a color change. Skoolie and bus conversion owners are the obvious case, but we also see cargo vans getting repainted out of a former operator's fleet color, food trucks moving to a new brand identity, and toy haulers going from a dated 2006 tan swoop scheme to a solid modern color. Color changes are more labor than a same color refinish because every door jamb, every compartment lip and every edge the eye can reach has to be shot as well.
There is a fourth case that is less obvious. Vehicles that have had a large structural or fiberglass repair sometimes need a full refinish rather than a blend, because the repaired area spans so much of one side that there is no natural break to end a blend at. A front cap replacement on a Class A is the classic example. Once you are refinishing the cap and both front corners, the cost gap to doing the entire coach narrows.
Stripping versus scuffing: what happens to the old finish
Most repaints do not require chemical stripping. If the existing finish is adhered, the correct approach is mechanical abrasion to a uniform tooth, then primer over the top. That preserves film build history, avoids exposing bare filon or gelcoat to solvent, and is faster and cleaner than stripping.
Stripping becomes necessary when the existing material has lost adhesion. You test that by taping a cross hatch, or more practically by pushing a plastic razor under a failing edge and seeing how far the clear releases. If it peels in sheets, primer laid over the surrounding area will simply ride along on a layer that is already letting go. On coaches with three prior repaints stacked on top of each other, film build alone can be reason enough to take it back down.
On aluminum sided trailers and van bodies we sand rather than strip, because chemical strippers get behind rivets and lap seams and keep working after you think you are done. On steel truck cabs and bumpers we cut rust out to clean metal instead of trying to encapsulate it. Encapsulating rust is a two year repair sold as a ten year one.
The booth sequence on a 40 foot coach
Once prep is signed off, the vehicle rolls into the booth and stays. Primer goes down and gets blocked by hand with long boards, because a 40 foot sidewall shows every wave that a random orbital leaves behind. Guide coat is applied and sanded off so the crew can see where the panel is still low.
Sealer follows. Sealer is what makes a fiberglass cap, an aluminum sidewall and a filon rear wall all read the same under one coat of base. Skipping it is how you get a coach where the cap looks slightly lighter than the body in overcast light. Base goes on next in full length passes with the doors closed, which is the entire reason booth length matters: a sidewall sprayed in two sessions has a lap line in it somewhere.
Multi color schemes then go through a masking cycle for each additional color. Tape lines are laid with fine line tape, backed with masking, and pulled while the material is still fresh enough to lay down rather than tear. Clear goes on last, typically two to three coats depending on whether the plan calls for cut and buff. Then the vehicle cures on a controlled schedule before anyone touches it with a sander.
Color changes and what they cost you later
A color change is not just a different can of paint. Every compartment door jamb, every entry door edge, the inside lip of the fuel and shore power doors, the slide fascia returns and the underside of the roof edge all show the old color the first time someone opens something. Doing those areas properly is what separates a repaint from a paint over.
There is a resale consideration too. A factory color with documented paint codes is easier for the next owner to repair. A custom mixed color is not, unless the formula travels with the vehicle. We provide the mixing formula and the variance information for any custom color we spray so a future repair anywhere can be matched without guesswork.
Dark colors on large vehicles carry a practical penalty in this climate. A black or deep navy 40 foot coach parked in the San Gabriel Valley in August runs hotter inside, shows every swirl mark from a bad wash, and holds heat against the sidewall lamination longer. That does not mean do not do it. It means know it before you sign, and plan on a ceramic coating and careful wash technique to keep it looking the way it did on delivery day.
What a repaint will not fix
Paint is a coating. It does not add strength, it does not seal a leak, and it does not stop delamination that is already in progress. If the sidewall has a soft area where the fiberglass has separated from the substrate, that area will bubble under fresh paint the first hot afternoon, and it will look worse than it did before because the new gloss shows every high and low.
The same goes for stress cracks in a fiberglass cap. A crack that runs from a corner of the windshield opening is telling you the cap is flexing, usually because of a structural issue behind it or a fastener that has worked loose. Filling and painting that crack without addressing the movement means it comes back through the new finish, sometimes within months.
Water intrusion is the third one. If a window frame, a roof seam or a marker light is leaking, the wall behind it is delaminating whether you can see it yet or not. We open and inspect before we quote a repaint on any coach with staining, soft spots or a history of leaks, and we will recommend the structural work first even though it means a smaller paint order today.
Living with a new finish through a Southern California summer
For the first two weeks, wash with pH neutral soap and a clean mitt only. No wax, no sealant, no coating for 60 to 90 days while the clear finishes releasing solvent. Sealing early causes dieback, a dull haze that appears weeks after delivery and requires machine polishing to correct.
After the cure window, a ceramic coating is the single best thing you can do for a large vehicle in this climate. It gives you a sacrificial layer against ultraviolet, it makes hard water spotting far less likely to etch, and it cuts wash time substantially on a surface that is measured in hundreds of square feet.
Park thoughtfully. If your storage spot puts the same side of the coach into the afternoon sun for eleven months a year, that side will age first no matter what finish it wears. Rotating the parking direction once or twice a year costs nothing. Keeping sprinklers off the vehicle costs nothing either, and hard water etching is one of the few kinds of damage that a new paint job does not resist any better than an old one.
Questions we get asked
How many labor hours goes into repainting a 38 foot Class A?
Teardown and decal removal alone typically run 20 to 40 hours on a coach that age. Substrate repair varies wildly depending on cap cracks and delamination. Prep, primer and block sanding on a full length sidewall is another large block, and spray time is comparatively short. The published hour band on this page covers everything from a simple single color trailer to a multi color pusher with heavy body work.
Can you change my motorhome from a swoop graphic scheme to a solid color?
Yes, and it is a common request on coaches from the mid 2000s. The old graphics come off, the ghost ridges left in the gelcoat get block sanded flat, and the whole vehicle is primed and sealed so the base color reads uniform. Going from busy graphics to a solid color usually makes an older rig look a decade newer, and it makes future spot repairs far easier.
Do you paint the compartment doors and jambs or just the outer skin?
Both, when the plan is a color change. Compartment door jambs, entry door edges, the lips behind the fuel and shore power doors and the slide fascia returns all get shot, because those are the first places a color change gives itself away. On a same color refinish we shoot the visible faces and edges and leave sound original material in the recesses. The estimate says which approach applies.
Will a repaint hide the wavy spots in my fiberglass sidewall?
Only if we fix them first. Gloss amplifies waviness rather than hiding it, so a high build primer and honest long board block sanding is what flattens a panel, not extra clear. If the waves come from delamination or a failed lamination bond, that has to be repaired structurally before any filler goes on. We assess the sidewall by sounding it before we write the paint plan.
Can I drive the coach home from Yorba Linda the same day it is finished?
Yes. Clear is fully handleable and safe to drive well before you pick up, since we cut, buff and reassemble after cure. The restriction is on washing and sealing, not on driving. Take the 91 west to the 57 north and back out the 60 or the 10 into West Covina the same way you came, and keep it out of automatic car washes for a few weeks.
Ready to get a written estimate
We write estimates at the shop and bill your carrier direct. 30 to 45 minutes from West Covina on the 57 and the 91.