spraying tremclad/rustoleum

so my body work is just about perfect and i bought some gloss black tremclad/rustoleum and acetone and some acrylic enamel hardner. i was inspired by this thread. "mr. Cool explains that he thinned the rustoleuum 15% with acetone. and it was dry to the touch in 1hr. I have a devilbliss Jga 502, and a jga siphon feed and a campbell hausefauld 1.4mm cheap hvlp. not sure which i should use but i am leaning towards the devilbliss just cause thats what he used.

i have some questions.

how much hardner will i have to add?
if someone knows the ratios that would be great.
how long should each coat dry for before the next?
i know if rolling the paint u have to sand between each coat but does that have to be done when spraying it?
how many coats should i spray?
should a clear be sprayed afterwards?

there is a series of youtube vids of a 67 cougar that was sprayed with gloss black rustoleum it looks sweet heres the link to the first vid there is 5 parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DplgYXBbYE

thanks in advance.

EDIT: if anyone know what my gun settings should be at thatd be lots of help

 

along with the questions i asked earlier. what should be painted first? all the jambs or the body?

 

If your bodywork is that good I'd sure as hell not spray it with Rustoleum.
Why not buy a $200 paint "kit" and do it right? Shitty automotive paint is better than good Rustoleum. When it comes time to repaint it will have to be completely stripped.
My 2 cents...........

 

my body work isnt perfect but its good enough this wont be a showcar. Ive already bought the paint and acetone to do the job and ive decided that i wanna try it out. thanks for your input but this is what i am gonna do. i have seen some great results from this paint just need some guidance on the process. thanks

 

Great results or not. The issue here is overall durability of the paint. In a few months to a year, depending on the climate, that paint will start to look bad. You're grown and you can do whatever you want but that paint will not hold up to the elements as well as even the cheapest automotive paint.

 

Take the acetone back and get laquer thinner. It will dry faster. 25-30% thinner depending on the temp outside.
Have fun.

 

Careful on the "laquer thinner" as there are at least 2 formulas floating around now, the original and the new west coast friendly low VOC version. The low VOC version is NOT compatible with synthetic alkyds. Xylene (Xylol) or your basic AE, AU reducers will work fine, PPG OMNI MR18 series used commonly. As for hardeners, thats harder to say as the formulation for AE hardener is slightly different than the SE hardener forumla nowdays. The standard SE ratio was 16:1, some of the early acrylics were that as well, some are 8:1. Anwhere between 8:1 and 16:1 should be fine, the only side effect of using too much ( within reason ) would be free isocynates after the cure. Personally I would go for 16:1 with the hardener, then reduce as needed ( reduction comes from testing and experience, not a label, and is dependent upon YOUR gun, YOUR conditions and YOUR ability ). A typical and crude but effective starting point is reducing until the paint drips once a second from your mixing stick, sounds silly but it gets you darn close with SE. I know others will harp on the fact the the synthetic enamels wont hold up etc etc, and true they do oxidize, that is their failure mode. All paint systems fail, ALL, BC/CC fails due to oxidation of the BC after the clear loses its UV blockers over time, and the clear starts shedding off. Enamels fail by surface oxidation and continual shrinkage, NC and Acrylic Laqs fail much the same. So you can have a finish that looks great for few years without touching it, then fails to the point of having to be completely removed, or you can have a finish that needs yearly compounding and frequent waxing if kept outdoors, and will eventyually need to get re-painted when the topcoat gets thin. Pick your evil. Of course on a vehicle stored inside, they will all outlast the owner.

 

You can thin it with mineral spirits as well, just not the low VOC crap.

 

Do the jams first.

I thinned with mineral spirits. I used Tremclad which was repackaged Rustoleum for the Canadian market ... the can said to thin using mineral spirits. That being said, the "new" paint they are selling now states something like "do not thin" ... I am guessing they want you to buy more spray cans instead of spraying it through a gun. So, I don't really know what should be used for a thinner now (I bought extra cans of the old paint so I won't have to deal with this issue for a while).

I did not use a hardener. It is my understanding that the hardener is simply one part of a two part system (the epoxy and the catalyst for example). It is my understanding that adding a hardener does nothing because the "other part of the system" is not in Rustoleum paint.

If I recall correctly, I mixed my paint 5 parts paint to 1 part mineral spirits.

Find an old hood or a cardboard box and play a bit before you squirt it to get the pattern etc sorted before you hit the car.

How long between coats? I really didn't time it, I just let the paint dry enough that the next coat would not drag the first coat down the side of the fender etc. Kinda just gotta go with your gut on this one.

I did not sand between coats.

I think I did three coats over their red primer.

I did not spray clear. I understand Tremclad/Rustoleum does not hold up to UV rays very well, this has not been an issue with my car due to it being garaged when it is not driven. I have read that spraying a UV resistant clear can be a good idea, but good luck finding a paint shop that will sell you a clear when they hear what you are intending to cover with it.

I didn't want the expense of a clear, or the worry that a clear would react against the base coat.

I think you can now get the paint tinted to your liking ... as long as it is gloss. I created my own flat/matte/semigloss by mixing something like 3 cans of flat black, two cans of flat white and 1 can of dark gloss blue. Don't be afraid to experiment with other colors before you squirt it. You are a brave man trying gloss black.

Interestingly, I had no drying issues whatsoever ... I keep reading about people having this problem but I definitely did not. No idea why.

Good luck

 

I recently painted a bed side with gloss black rustoleum. Took forEVER to dry. even tried japan drier with the mineral spirits and it took forever to dry in a heated dry shop.

a week earlier I used $50 of Nason Implement gloss with their reducer, no hardener. was totally cured after 3 coats overnight, same conditions. And it sprayed very nice. Time = money

 

BTL,
Actually synthetic alkyds ( AKA rustoleum ) do crosslink with isocyanates to become an alkyd urethane. Japan drier is just a metal to help accelerate the natural oxidation of the alkyd material, it does not coss-link it. Actually in the family of coatings, an alkyd urethane and an acrylic urethane are not that far off, the benefit of the AU being the alkyd resins are replaced with more UV resistant acrylic resins, the binders being the same for the most part.