That's true. I have been doing some major sanding and cleaning after word. I started in late winter and the paint seams to be holding up fine. It's Krylon Satin paint for outdoor metal funiture. If I had the compressor and spray gun i would go that route for sure. But alas, I have 3 mouths sucking up all my money and my wife says if we don't pay the mortgage the bank will "take the house" Bleh!
I started a thread about this subject a while back. What I found out is that it can be done. Here are the basic steps: 1. thin the paint really pretty thin. 2. paint it on with a fine high dollar paint brush 3. let it dry for a month or so 4. sand 5. repeat over and over until it looks like you spent an hour spraying it. I tried it and quickly gave up on it. Even with a flat paint I was getting all sorts of brush strokes. I'm sure I could have sanded the hell out of it and made it work, but it was just too much work for me. Live and learn.
I tried a brush once but that Mack 00 was taking way to long to lay down paint... I have been in your shoes before but I decided to try my hand at spraying. Here's why I went that route. To gain experience. I figured this wouldn't be the last car I ever painted so I had to start somewhere. A 1985 Ford Ranger is a good a start as any. I figured the first job would not be perfect, and boy was I right. But I learned a bunch from that first try. Better to learn on something I wasn't that attached to so I'd know how to do better when I did shot a car I wanted to keep. Yes, I had my own gun and compressor but I also had at least 5 friends who would have let me use thier's too. I used Rust-O-Leum satin black and it came out OK. Just be sure whatever you use can be removed easily or painted over if you plan on keeping the car. You can do what you want, it's your car but I think you'd gain more in the long run just by taking a chance on yourself and spraying the car. Good luck and don't be worried. It's just a car. You can always fix it.
thanks for the reply tingler. this is what im starting to gather. 1. its gonna take a hell of a lot of work. 2. its gonna take a hell of a lot of time. 3. its gonna save a little bit of money. looks like i'll take up Tyler (ntxcustoms) offer on help spraying it and spend a little more to get it done a lot quicker...
Hey Troy, By now you have received alot of advise, some of it useful! I can tell ya that rolling on enamel with a roller, reducer/thinner, some universal retarder, and a foam roller, is most doable, I do so for a living fifty weeks a year. I also have rolled varnish, which is alot like alkyd enamel in nature, and it flows out great. If ya choose the roller route, be sure and use the small foam ones, and not a nap roller. As for the choice of paint, I'd avoid automotive enamel to keep your investment down to managable levels. Rustolum is available, about everywhere, is easy to use, and will produce the kind of results that your after for this kind of job. If you go the automotive enamel route, I'd avoid the flat clear over colour, and just have flatner mixed into the enamel its self. If , down the road ya wanted to strip this job off to refinish with an automotive enamel, spray-on oven cleaner works well as a cheap-ass paint stripper. Swankey Devils C.C.
thanks again for some good advise pimpin paint. the reasoning i had for dp90 with a flat clear is dp90 is a primer(correct?) and will soak up moisture and fade quickly in the sun. the clear flat is for a sealant and for protection from the sun.
If you use straight primer it will fade because it is UV sensitive. The DP90 and clear will cost you $$$. If you want to save a few bucks go with thinned Rustolium. That's all you need if you want to do it on the cheap and a quart should cover it. It's not a primer so it doesn't hold moisture. I sprayed mine on in the back yard and thinned it about 50/50 and it looks great. Another option is Earl Schieb or Maaco but they usually paint right over the windows... Good luck!
Paint it with flat rustoleum and wipe it down with used motor oil. In the hot sun it smells like a busted transmission. It does look great though. Just don't drive through a rainstorm.
good good. ok looks like i'll go with rusto satin black. its not gloss but also not a primer so it shouldnt hold moisture. didnt realize dp90 would be expensive thats why I was asking. 3034 you talking about satin black or the flat black from rustoleum?
Troy Did u paint the car yet? If so how did it work out? You have my curiosity up big time. Thanks Kermit
just started this post yesterday afternoon... so nope but read all the replies to get some more info. i still have prep work to do before anything so im just trying to do my homework first
i just sanded my car with 80- grit by hand and a da cause the guy before me sucked at what he thought he knew what to do. then i sprayed it with ppg dz3 that i scored for free from a friend. i didn't wanna but then sanded again with 180 and then 320 by hand, sprayed again with the left over primer. this was my first paint(primer) job, but i even impressed my friends with it. it took me longer than i wanted but i didn't get ridiculed at the southwest primer run like i would have if i left it alone. just look to the left for a before pic. and i did it in a driveway in the back alley. haha top that one guys. i used a 25 gallon compressor that i borrowed from the same primer hook up friend and a harbor freight $20 spray gun(christmas present). the only thing i had to pay for was the sandpaper, laquer thinner, tape, and masking paper. low buck job and high end results for a first timer. i understand you don't wanna hear all the old guys telling you to spray it on and stay away from the roller, but you know what when it comes down to it you gotta drive it not me or them. and also at least even if you do roll it on, you can take pride(not sure if i used the right word), and say you did it on your own with not much help from others.
well im not that young of a guy anymore (27). I just wanted some info from guys that had first hand experience, and got a couple of replies. some good some bad. some from guys just saying basically "if you brush it your dumb" with no real reason behind it. i cant spray in my apt parking lot. thats all there is to it. so going with a brush job seemed like the best option with my resources. so i sought tried and true info on it. it looks like a lot of work and a pain in the ass. but now a couple of local guys have offered to help spray it so i'll go that route.
I used flat. Satin was a little too shiny for me. It depends on your taste. The Rustolium is cheap enough that you can buy both and test them. You can also mix the two for a custom in between look.
i bought fleet color straight single stage enamal i wanted flat but they said this would look simigloss black $50 gallon including reducer. this is paint for big trucks i also got gallon of red for scallops this is for my red bitch s10 daily driver. A good paint supply store should have or be able to get this.
Use a brush in areas a roller can't reach. And use a fine-foam roller with rounded edges to keep lines in the paint to a minimum. Blocksand down any rough (paint)areas on the car, then clean and finally wipe-down the panel/car with thinner, mask off anything within an inch or 2 you don't want accidently painted over, and start rollin'... That's kinda how I did my '64 Chrysler. I'm not lying when I say most friends of mine who see the car thought it was sprayed. At the moment I've only rolled my car once, but I'm thinking of redoing some areas and finally cover it with a layer of clear for added protection. The only thing I screwed up is using 2 types of silver Hammerite-like paint on the roof of the car. Those paints didn't like each other and started acting up. But I've got other plans for the roof now, so I said screw that. The paint is still wet and shiney in this pic; But once dried it's turned into a nice semi-gloss black; Click HERE for some more pics
hey watch it there i am 30 but glad to see you are open to options out there that will allow the rest of the public accept you in the hobby. although apartments are not the most auto enthusiest friendly(thats how i got my newest car), there are a lot of cool guys out there that are sounds like you may have found a few. maybe sweep the shop floor for a bit and help out the painter in prepping the booth to spray other cars if your low on cash. thats my $.02.
nice truck int he other pics. what kind of paint did you use? how long did the job take to dry? how much did you thin out the paint if any? \Thanks for the pics and info
I used regular (house) paint, nothing special. I don't think it will withstand a lot of direct sunlight for any long time though. I would surely put some layers of semiflat clear over the paint. The paint was dry to the touch in about an hour or 2 I recall. I didn't thin the paint, and as a matter of fact, I only used 1 half quart can, which was just enough to cover my car.
I'll risk some scorn and offer limited and very conditional disagreement with what's been said. I was once given title to an old city transit bus (in lieu of actually getting paid for work done), and considered camperizing it. In looking at paintjobs, I saw one bus that had been done, nicely done, with a roller. The owner had done a good deal of surface prep, but felt, reasonably, that a car-show finish would take forever and would be a source of worry thereafter. He had a good eye for the pastel colors and the design he used (done in house paint, BTW). The light, even ripple, which would rightly have rejected as "orange peel" on a car, actually showed well on the huge flat panels of his boxy bus. I am considering this approach for my old flat-sided step-van, for some of the same reasons (it's for work, not show). I am with most of the others here in thinking that a brush paint job would be suitable only for some hippie's old beater. And the roller paintjob would look acceptable ONLY on big, flat-panel vehicles; even the older step-vans, which are curvier than mine, would look bad with the orange-peel from a roller. Is that Chevy truck what you are going to paint? If so, bomb-cans probably are the easy way to go ("easy," but following a lot of tedious surface prep). Get the best results from them by pre-heating each can in a container of hot water while you do a final light wipe-down of the body with a beeswax tack-cloth from a paint or autobody store. Lay on a LIGHT haze of paint and WAIT for it to get tacky before you start adding coats (thinner at first). Oh, blow your clothes off with a driveway blower or what-have-you, and wear a do-rag or something to keep the hairs out of the paint; good luck with the bugs! Final observation: I take in a fair number of car shows, and am always astounded at every single one of these shows for years and years by the number of cars which have had very tricky and highly expensive paintjobs laid over piss-poor bodywork!! Good or great painting NEVER NEVER makes up in any way for low spots and ripples you can see when you bend over and sight down the side of the car. Bad enough when a cut-rate repaint chain store does this kind of thing, but it just blows me away to see how many owners have paid, paid a small fortune, for something I'd be embarrassed to say was mine.
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