In reply to mainlandboy :
Looks great. Adding clear coat is a good idea.
In reply to mainlandboy :
Looks great. Adding clear coat is a good idea.
I spray outside. Base clear, single stage, rustoleum, primer, epoxy, all of it.
I go for 50ft from cars, 25ft from everything else. Never had an overspray problem. My buddy art says im being too paranoid and i don't need that much space, but im not taking chances.
Has anyone tried Rust-oleum "Professional" enamel on a whole car? I used it on a set of wheels and the biggest difference I notice between it and standard Rust-oleum is that it actually dries to touch fairly quickly. It is available in spray cans, by the quart, and by the gallon. I may pick up a quart to play with and try it with and without hardener to see how it sprays/sands/buffs for potential future use on Olaf the Miata.
I've seen a few local guys that were fixing up old tractors that brush/roll on the first coat or two to save paint and mess, and spray can the last coat to try to even out the finish. They turned out pretty presentable.
In th late 90's I sprayed my S10 with an electric gun and thinned out Tremclad, the same as your Rustoleum., in my garage. Because electric, overspray was minimal.
It was white, which is much easier to make look good, but it looked professional, and nobody would believe it was a $20 paint job.
One gallon of gloss white and one of the smallest cans of gloss black. After the first coat of gloss white it was so bright I couldn't look at it. Fortunately I had the small can of gloss black and hoped for the best.
rob_lewis said:Quick hijack/question. For those of you spraying, where are you painting? In a garage? In the driveway? I live in the burbs so my neighbors are close and I'd be afraid of overspray on their cars. My garage is attached, but I thought drop cloths taped from the ceiling might help paint from entering the house.
-Rob
I primered on car in my attached garage. Result was that the wife immediately bought me a detached shop.
I do not delve into spraying cars because of the neighbors. You can smell this stuff down the block and I have a feeling there are regulatory people who would drop by for a chat if you do it on a regular basis.
mainlandboy said:I'm not sure how well a wrap could be done for your $200 budget, but admittedly I haven't priced out all the materials for it.
Here is my rattle can paint job on my project car that I did in my garage. Turned out good enough, but it's definitely not as durable as a real paint job, as it scratches fairly easily. I wonder if adding a layer of clear spray on top of the color coat might help.
Rattle can painting is a real skill. The pressure and volume are constantly changing and the pattern covers such a small area at a time, you must have a magic eye and the patience of a saint.
My congratulations.
You can try a clear coat in a not obvious spot and once fully dry see if it gives you any better adhesion. Easy test is put some shipping tape on it and pull it off.
My guess is it won't. What holds paint on is the bond between the base coat and the finish coat.
wrapping seems like a bad idea if youve never done it before. Im guessing it would get expensive quick, as it just seems difficult to get right the first time. I of course have no 1st hand experience wrapping a car, Im basing this of watching people that are good at it.
A coworker (who invariably will have a disaster when attempting anything) managed to wrap a Miata with minimal disasters. You have to use good vinyl, the Oracal wrap will give you a disaster. But it's pretty forgiving if you use soapy water and some light heat. Just fiddly. And it's thin enough that it will show scabby paint underneath.
Then you have to care for it, which is a different regimen than usual. That Miata was not cared for and now the wrap is destroyed.
Is there a UV additive for single stage projects? "Throw this into a gallon of Rustoleum and it will be much more UV-tough"?
I haven't seriously painted anything bigger than wheels with rattle cans.
I'm gonna agree that for full color change, HF gun paint is probably the best answer.
But, I'll share these inspirations:
The blue here was wrap. Applied by me in my driveway. Specific to my situation, I needed to be able to drive the van every day. I applied a little more blue every evening. I seem to remember that I had $200 in blue Vvivid brand vinyl via Amazon. I waisting some blue in "the learning curve" that probably was $50 more but I budgeted only for the $200 that went down the track. The side graphics were $75 total at a local shop and that included them applying them.
For 2018, the plan was to bring a forest green Q45. I never got there for 2018, but... The paint had a lot of clear coat peel. I wanted to hide that and rust for the event but not necisarrily a long term solution. I was going to go with the application of geometric shapes in vinyl. The goal was to make the car look better in pictures (but you'd notice the trouble up close.) I was drawing inspiration from pictures like these:
This picture is from my color pallet test. Much hunter green would still have been exposed with purple and copper/orange. Might have added a dull camo tan too.
Mr. Peabody said:In th late 90's I sprayed my S10 with an electric gun and thinned out Tremclad, the same as your Rustoleum., in my garage. Because electric, overspray was minimal.
It was white, which is much easier to make look good, but it looked professional, and nobody would believe it was a $20 paint job.
One gallon of gloss white and one of the smallest cans of gloss black. After the first coat of gloss white it was so bright I couldn't look at it. Fortunately I had the small can of gloss black and hoped for the best.
by 'electric gun' do you mean more like this:
or more like this:
I rolled, with thinned Rustoleum, my 924 in my garage during the spring/summer one year. 10 years later it still mostly looks the same and has been sitting outside in the elements (in rain, snow, mold, sun, etc.)
I had the process down where I'd get up early for work, roll on a coat and then head off to work. Then I'd get home and roll on another (if it was dry). Occasionally sanding between a few coats. Took maybe a couple of weeks to do.
Some parts were spray painted, but since the Rustoleum colors are the same between the cans and the sprays, I could hit some of the smaller/hard to reach areas with the spray paint.
I need to get it back into the garage and clean it up and put a gloss coat on it because I just used semi-gloss and its a pain to clean. There's a few spots where I didn't prep well enough that needs attention as well.
pres589 (djronnebaum) said:Is there a UV additive for single stage projects? "Throw this into a gallon of Rustoleum and it will be much more UV-tough"?
I haven't seriously painted anything bigger than wheels with rattle cans.
You could use topside paint for boats. That has extra UV protection compared to standard Rustoleum.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
This
In reply to rodknock :
Yeah, I figured boat paint or implement paint would get there.
I'd rather spend my money on a compressor upgrade, because when you're done you have a compressor :)
I'm seriously considering rolling on some paint on my theft recovery Miata (Link). I'm thinking flat black so there won't be any post paint buffing to fix runs and roller marks. f I do that I'll post the results for public ridicule.
One other thought about wrapping the car - primer is hygroscopic. Does the wrap provide enough protection compared to paint? Or would one accidentally create the 2020s version of a 1960s vinyl roof rust encouragement?
In reply to BoxheadTim :
The car stuff has little channels on the bottom to allow for air to escape during the installation process. You also usually have some sort of liquid on the surface when you're installing so you can float the vinyl into place. I've never seen any tendency for the liquid to come through the vinyl, but it does evaporate somehow.
So I'm gonna say it's a vinyl roof situation.
WonkoTheSane said:My rolled on impliment paint job seems to be holding up well.. I should probably wax it before winter... All in cost was around $110 after some fresh sandpaper and two tubes of JB Plastic Weld to fix the front bumper.
I have been keenly interested in doing this. So you just buy old tractor paint, thin it down, and use a roller? And it self levels?
Which nap roller? How many layers? Did you clearcoat? I have also heard about using marine paint. Anyone have experience with that?
frenchyd said:Rattle can painting is a real skill. The pressure and volume are constantly changing and the pattern covers such a small area at a time, you must have a magic eye and the patience of a saint.
My congratulations.
You can try a clear coat in a not obvious spot and once fully dry see if it gives you any better adhesion. Easy test is put some shipping tape on it and pull it off.
My guess is it won't. What holds paint on is the bond between the base coat and the finish coat.
Thanks frenchyd! I sprayed 3 to 4 coats of increasing heaviness to achieve this finish. The tricky part is laying on the last coat as thick as possible just before it starts to cause runs, which takes a bit of practice to know where that point is.
If it helps, we ran a series a little while ago about how to paint your car at home. You can read all three parts here:
I can't speak to wraps other than I've gotten expensive quotes for having others do it. I have, however, both sprayed and rolled cars.
I sprayed the BMW with a Hobo Freight gun. It needs a lot of air. Gun spraying carries a learning curve like any skill. No runs, but did wind up with some orange peel that needed sanding.
The biggest downside to me was the mess. We painted it inside a garage and it gave everything a yellow hue. Yes, plastic spray booth (helps), fan with filter (helps) and wetting down the floor (did nothing). A gallon did that car inside and out. You need a capable compressor, water filter, paint mixing stuff and the ability to not drag the air hose over the car at any time.
For my next BMW value reduction I decided to try the foam roller thing.
I used boat paint. It came off the roller that glossy; no buffing. There is a 'technique' to laying the paint down (using a foam brush to 'tip' the air bubbles out) and you have to get the paint thinned to a milky consistency but then Game On. The sides were easy and came out nice. The top surfaces were more of a struggle and would up with some rough finish here and there, I think because the paint was already curing by the time I overlapped some areas. I wet sanded between coats to give the next bite something to grab onto because when I tried just rolling on the next coat with that high gloss the roller just wanted to slide across the surface. Plus, I did two-tone which doubled all the work because I had to mask it each time. But if you did a single color it wouldn't be that bad. You will, however, have to apply coats 4-6 times to get full coverage. So it is a lot of work vs one day in the spray booth but a) this car looked much better when finished and 2) you get to brag that you painted your car with a roller...and no one will believe you.
I raced that car for a few years and it did chip pretty easily across the front. The shine, however, stayed. I may have waxed it once. Maybe.
Both jobs cost about the same in materials. The yellow car got paint from the local Chinese tool supplier place (Kirker?). The E30 got Interlux Brightside.
In reply to ddavidv :
Are both colors on the BMW topside paint? Did you add a hardner? And what did you thin it with?
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