Cheap paint job

Saturday we'd gotten some weather and my new to me Grand Marquis was covered with buds from a maple tree.  So I pulled the car around back to hose it off and this is the result.   Apparently the EPA pushed for less environmentally bad paint but the manufacturers struggled to make something actually stick.  I've owned more than 50 cars in my life but never just hosed the paint off before.

So how inexpensively can I make the car white again?  Perhaps slightly better than a couple cans of rustoleum but certainly not a concourse competitor.   Educate me please :)

Trunk and hood are easy DIY garage paint projects... the roof will be harder, mostly because of the space (including vertical) required in the 'booth'.  This was a common problem with Fords in that time period, especially white.  I would plan on taking it down to the metal for repaint.

The last time I sprayed anything was a Miata hardtop (red) and the materials cost me ~$400.  That's everything, primer paint, reducer, hardener, sand paper, tape, etc...  That was almost 10 years ago, and I already had the tools.  I don't know if you can even buy single stage paint anymore.  

I would start with an estimate for the three panels at local paint shops.  Those prices will better inform your decisions.

Based on past experiences, I'd stop by tractor supply and drop about $2oo on making it look acceptable again..  But your goals might be more ambitious than mine were.

And I've absolutely had that experience of washing off 91-96 white paint..

I see Chevy trucks and vans from this era with huge strips of paint torn off of them, seems like it's always the white paint too.....

I'd go with your gut and get some Rustoleum and just spray it, but first give it a good key with some scotch brite pads, and get any remaining loose paint off......they have a good self etch primer too.

And BTW, I think the era of "cheap paint job" is long behind us based on the cost of materials anymore. My buddy paid $500 for a gallon of white paint for his car.....plus all the other assorted materials.

Maybe a quick visit to your local Earl Schieb or Maaco?

It's always the white paint but I would find some vinyl and wrap. The hood roof and truck are the easiest to do and its cheap. 

Depends how nice you want it.

Painted ENTIRELY in Tremclad (Rustoleum, Alkyd Enamel) with a foam roller, my good man.  Not even thinned. or color-sanded.

Enough orange peel to cause canker sores, but enough paint to sand out any defects.

I drove it 9 years until I sold it.  And only had to touch it up when the recycler's dropped a crane on the roof.  Bastards.

MiniDave said:

I see Chevy trucks and vans from this era with huge strips of paint torn off of them, seems like it's always the white paint too.....

I have a Chevy van that has that peeling problem , 

Not sure why but the white vans seem to get it the worst , but it could be there are 10x more white vans so you notice them......

I wonder about getting a quart of Rustoleum Applicane Epoxy, thinning a bit with acetone, and rolling that after scrubbing the affected surfaces with a Scotchbrite to clean & smooth things. 

Not sure if places like this exist anymore, but this was a $400 Earl Schieb paint job. I did a lot of prep work myself, removed everything I could, and taped up everything that remained. I drove it to the shop at night because so much trim was removed, I even removed the headlights and tail lights once I got to the shop. All they had to do was spray it. 

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

I wonder about getting a quart of Rustoleum Applicane Epoxy, thinning a bit with acetone, and rolling that after scrubbing the affected surfaces with a Scotchbrite to clean & smooth things. 

This can look decent but you will be sanding and buffing that much area for weeks. The Epoxy paint is indestructible I had a old work truck painted in Expoxy paint and you could hit it with a hammer and nothing would happen. 

wearymicrobe said:

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

I wonder about getting a quart of Rustoleum Applicane Epoxy, thinning a bit with acetone, and rolling that after scrubbing the affected surfaces with a Scotchbrite to clean & smooth things. 

This can look decent but you will be sanding and buffing that much area for weeks. The Epoxy paint is indestructible I had a old work truck painted in Expoxy paint and you could hit it with a hammer and nothing would happen. 

I used the spray paint version for some steel wheels and a rear sway bar on my panther LTD. I agree, really durable stuff. You couldn't even scratch it. 
 

SkinnyG said:

Painted ENTIRELY in Tremclad (Rustoleum, Alkyd Enamel) with a foam roller, my good man.  Not even thinned. or color-sanded.

What  do you need to do if you need to repaint over a Rustoleum "base coat"  in a few years ?

Just wondering if you "paint yourself" into a corner and have a base coat that will not accept  base coat/ clear coat that is common now.

You can always recoat with the same. And I have, as I chased the constant bubbling of rust from crappy bodywork (not all mine).

When I went to get repair quotes (for insurance) when the crane hit it, most  of the body shops said they won't touch it since it was Tremclad.  But - is it a 1932 Deusenberg?  Is it a car of significant value? No?  Tremclad.

californiamilleghia said:

SkinnyG said:

Painted ENTIRELY in Tremclad (Rustoleum, Alkyd Enamel) with a foam roller, my good man.  Not even thinned. or color-sanded.

What  do you need to do if you need to repaint over a Rustoleum "base coat"  in a few years ?

Just wondering if you "paint yourself" into a corner and have a base coat that will not accept  base coat/ clear coat that is common now.

By the time you get to where you want a "Cheap" paint job, you are not talking about a car that is going to be around for a long time. Touch ups or re-paints are certainly doable with the same product.

But you are right, if there was any chance the car had to be painted with modern automotive paint in the future, I would not use implement paint.

And I do not get the paint roller fans? Why would you roll  and sand paint over the course of weeks when you can buy a spray gun from HF for like $45?

Because rolling in waaaaaaay less messy than spraying. Overspray goes everywhere, no matter how good your homemade paint booth is. 

The downside to rolling is it takes multiple coats, so it's not a 1 day process. And I wet sanded each coat to provide adhesion for the next one. It winds up being personal preference/what you are most comfortable with. I liked rolling, and would do it again. I sprayed one car, and it was far more nerve-wracking. And everything in the garage got a dusty coat of yellow on it, which sucked.

How do you sand tremclad? I tried to color sand rustoleum and no amount of water made it not gummy and that's after a year of cure time.

NOHOME said:

californiamilleghia said:

SkinnyG said:

Painted ENTIRELY in Tremclad (Rustoleum, Alkyd Enamel) with a foam roller, my good man.  Not even thinned. or color-sanded.

What  do you need to do if you need to repaint over a Rustoleum "base coat"  in a few years ?

Just wondering if you "paint yourself" into a corner and have a base coat that will not accept  base coat/ clear coat that is common now.

By the time you get to where you want a "Cheap" paint job, you are not talking about a car that is going to be around for a long time. Touch ups or re-paints are certainly doable with the same product.

But you are right, if there was any chance the car had to be painted with modern automotive paint in the future, I would not use implement paint.

And I do not get the paint roller fans? Why would you roll  and sand paint over the course of weeks when you can buy a spray gun from HF for like $45?

Also, with a roller job, you can do it a bit at a time without a ton of prep work.  It fit my life perfectly to do that Miata when I had from about 11pm-12am some days to work on it. If I were spraying it, that time wouldn't have got the environment clean enough to start.

buzzboy said:

How do you sand tremclad? I tried to color sand rustoleum and no amount of water made it not gummy and that's after a year of cure time.

No idea on the tremclad, but the tractor paint hardened nicely.

I think we're missing the obvious answer here. You get a can of flat black and either roll or spray it, either will work fine, so the entire top of the car will be flat black and people will be able to tell immediately just what a total badass you really are.

pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:

Not sure if places like this exist anymore, but this was a $400 Earl Schieb paint job. I did a lot of prep work myself, removed everything I could, and taped up everything that remained. I drove it to the shop at night because so much trim was removed, I even removed the headlights and tail lights once I got to the shop. All they had to do was spray it. 

 

I had Earl paint the sides of my 1800 back in 1986 for I think 99.95 out in San Diego after I installed my steel flares. I had everything ready and they where already painted with spray can black enamel (and sanded). The painter had me come in late at night and we masked off the entire sides and he wiped everything down with reducer and primed and painted them with their tan non-metallic paint which was a pretty close match to the Dupont Imron metallic gold on the rest of the car. The painter was excellent and he still charged me the same price as the whole car. I gave him a $50 tip as well.

I guess they are still in business.

Wikipedia.org: Earl Scheib

My theory on Maaco/Earl Scheib is that those guys spray cars all day, every day, using professional equipment, so there's no way I'm going to do a better job than they do in my garage with a HF gun. I think the reason they are cheap is that they cut corners on the prep and masking, so if you do that stuff yourself, you can still get a good result. But I've never actually tested this theory.

My El Camino is a Maaco job from 2006. They did all the prep including a little bit of rust repair. It's held up great since then. 

My friend had a miata done at Maaco when they had a sale. I want to say it was like $275 or something crazy. His only complaint, they didn't tape off the Mazda logo. It was a little orange peely but from 10 feet, perfect.

buzzboy said:

My friend had a miata done at Maaco when they had a sale. I want to say it was like $275 or something crazy. His only complaint, they didn't tape off the Mazda logo. It was a little orange peely but from 10 feet, perfect.

I always said that paint is cheaper than tape !

We brought in  a stripped VW bug to Maaco  with fenders loose and everything we did not want painted was taken off .

The paint was a good ten footer  and much better than we could have done at home