Aluminum Trim Edge Strips

The previous owners had put several sloppy coats of exterior house paint all over the Scotty. This included the aluminum edge strips. I want the edges to be shiny and also need to get to the nails underneath.

I tried a wire brush attachement on the drill, with worked okay, but was super slow and difficult. I then tried paint stripper gel and steel wool, which worked great.





It took 5 or 6 hours to strip all of the paint off of the edges.

Then we went about the business of removing the nails holding the edge strips on. Based on experience that others in the Scotty groups have had, we pried them out by using a pry bar under the edge, then getting screwdriver up under the nail head. We then eased out the nail head and use the cat's paw nail bar to get the nail out. Being very careful not to bend the edge strip or the skin. A lot of the edge wood was rotted and usually the strip would come right up with the nails. In that case, I would pull it out enough to get the flat part of the pry bar under the tip of the nail against the trailer and gently tap the strip with the butt of the screwdriver. This would usually pop the nail head enough to pry it up.

I also had to remove the awning rail on the door side of the trailer. I was surprised to find that it was put on top of the edge strips and that there were two sets of fasteners to remove -- the screws in the rail and then the nails in the edge strip. The strips took about a day to remove.

When we got the strips off, we followed the advice of others to keep them from twisting and getting bent up: I built a simple frame from 8' 1x2s, held together with 2" screws. I laid a strip on the ground and laid the lumber on top of it, screwed it together and then taped the strip to it. Then I put the other strip on top and taped it to them both. Then I put the awning rail on top of that and taped it again. I will probably need to pull them off to clean and straighten them, but I'll worry about that later.