$50 Paint Job?

[Scott & Heather]

At the end of the day, I've seen some amazing roller jobs...if you can afford to spend a week painting-drying-wetsanding between coats and get about 6 coats laid down, from what I've seen, it can look really good. I would love to experiment with adding metallic flake. Someday. But for now, our first coat has gone on really well with no mess, minimal taping, and it's just fun and nearly impossible to mess up. My wife and I are enjoying the time together...in fact, she's bugging me right now asking me if the car is dry enough to start painting again this morning  She loves this stuff. Well...back at it. I'll post some "after" photos.

[artvonne]

  The truth is that the right paint will lay down and smooth itself out on its own, leaving behind its own wet glossy finish, resolving brush strokes, and require very minimal sanding to no sanding at all. As stated above, if the Ford needed any sanding at all, the guy didnt get paid.

  We have all grown up around spray painting, encouraged to believe anything else is second or third class, when in reality a spray job takes a lot more work to come anywhere close to a hand rubbed finish. Spray paint was created to speed up production, not achieve higher quality. And in all honesty, ive seen more awful spray jobs than good ones.

  I did spray paint my Aluminum boat. I bought the paint at Menard's, regular black Rustoleum. Thinned it down so it would spray, acid washed the metal and let er rip. Somehow the automotive industry has everyone convinced a Car needs different paint than a tractor or lawnmower, and you have to pay hundreds of dollars a gallon for it. I put a $12 can of paint on the boat and would defy anyone to tell me I wasted my time or money, it looks pretty good.

  What would be of great interest would be to learn just what kind of paint they used 70 or 80 years ago that you could brush on and not even have to sand. Some of that paint lasted for many decades, so whatever it was it was pretty good stuff.

[bottomacher]

75 years ago it was mostly thinned nitrocellulose lacquer with retarder.

[Oonrahnjay]

  I pad-painted an air-portable Land Rover once with enamel paint and lots of rubbing-down. Got a superb finish, and one which was completely out-of-place on an ex-military vehicle. (snip)

     Yeah, to be truly authentic, you want cheap kharr-kee paint and a mop; paint everything but the windscreen and headlamps.

[Scott & Heather]

  I pad-painted an air-portable Land Rover once with enamel paint and lots of rubbing-down. Got a superb finish, and one which was completely out-of-place on an ex-military vehicle. (snip)

     Yeah, to be truly authentic, you want cheap kharr-kee paint and a mop; paint everything but the windscreen and headlamps.

ahahah!

Well, we're just about ready for our second coat. An old guy just walked by and couldn't believe how good it looked first coat and the fact we were rolling it on. He just shook his head and said "wow, that's looking really good"     Mind you, our first partial coat yesterday was interrupted by a heavy thunderstorm and downpour literally 10 minutes after we stopped painting. This morning I wiped the entire car down, used compressed air to dry inbetween trim, etc, and the paint that got rained on looks perfect. Crazy...

[Oonrahnjay]

  (snip)  our first partial coat yesterday was interrupted by a heavy thunderstorm and downpour literally 10 minutes after we stopped painting. (snip)

     Oh, yeah.  Need a big rainstorm?  Painting a vehicle outside is a much better guarantee than just washing one.  (Seriously, there's a lot of water-base in modern paints; prolly working good for you in this instance.   Might have even done well to be a "cure slower"; you might have a better paint job than if it hadn't rained.)

[chev49]

No one has mentioned that if you go to the recycling place and get the free house paint, the paint cost is 0... 

A brush paint job, with the proper roller and reducers, hardner, etc will make a nice 20 ft paint job.

[Scott & Heather]

  (snip)  our first partial coat yesterday was interrupted by a heavy thunderstorm and downpour literally 10 minutes after we stopped painting. (snip)

     Oh, yeah.  Need a big rainstorm?  Painting a vehicle outside is a much better guarantee than just washing one.  (Seriously, there's a lot of water-base in modern paints; prolly working good for you in this instance.   Might have even done well to be a "cure slower"; you might have a better paint job than if it hadn't rained.)

true dat. But I have gone over it pretty carefully...tried to scrape with the ol' fingernail, and it's holding up surprisingly well. Anyway first coat is really looking much better than I thought it would. can't wait for coat number 6 on Monday

[Rick59-4104]

 I am reading this with interest, I spend a couple of weeks last fall removing the paint from the curved section of my roof just above the windows and the sections around the front and rear marker lights on the 4104.  I was reading about some industrial paints used on water towers last fall, now that warmer weather is getting here (high 70's today  , I need to get back on it. Not really wanting the texture of some of the roof coatings available

  The paint on the sides is in great shape, the center section of the top is good, just need to paint the 3' wide section above the windows. this would be a good place to try something like this. Would be a trade off between time not spent masking/spraying and a little more time wet sanding as I see it. Wet sanding around all those rivets may change my mind, I think I may start with a brush or rolled on primer, sand it and go from there....

Rick

[Scott & Heather]

Rick, We're finding that if you thin the paint out really well (Rustoleum Gloss White) 50/50 mineral spirits and paint (if you use thinner, it might flash off to quick) and roll it on...and roll over your rolled on spots over enough times to eliminate runs/tiny bubbles, it actually has a bit of a nice smooth shiny texture with only minor orange peel. Wet sand between coats and you'll have something that will probably look nice enough you'll want to do your whole bus that way.

[Iceni John]

Scott,
What sort / size / nap of roller are you using?   I'm following your progress with great interest!

John

[pipopak]

I'm going to paint my bus this way in the summer, as I have 3 teenage sons aka infinite supply of free labor.

Usually "teenagers" and "infinite supply of free labor" do not belong in the same phrase.

[Uglydog56]

Well my thought process is, I'm already paying, so I might as well get all the work out of them I can.

[chev49]

short nap, standard roller is what i just used on a trailer, and final roll was really light pressure after correct amount of paint was on the metal. I did use Rustoleum for this, and it is smooth this morning. Doesn't look brushed or rolled at all.

[TomC]

Most yachts are still hand painted.  Course the expensive urethane paints are made for that too.  If you roll the idea is to put the paint on so it will flow.  There are retarders that keep the paint from hardening quite so fast and allow the paint to flow out smoothly.  This is the theory on how new cars are painted now-they use basically no air pressure-more like a blower to politely blow the paint onto the car and allow it to flow out eliminating orange peal.  That's why new cars now have the best paint quality ever-and that most are using base (water base paint) with clear over.  You can slop on any kind of paint, and then using clear over can even make a flat paint look shiny.  Good Luck, TomC