Rolling on automotive paint- mineral spirits vs acetone?

So there's been a number of DIY paint jobs that rolled paint onto a car here- and for the most part, the Rustoleum job was generally 50% paint + 50% acetone.

This morning, I was googling rolling on water based automotive paint, and came up with rolling on rustoleum- and all of the top posts were more 50% paint, 50% mineral spirits.....

Just wondering if anyone has done both, and has a comparison.

For now, I'm very much on the acetone side, and I just laid down a good layer of primer yesterday using acetone, and it leveled out really, really well.  And when I put down the paint, I will use acetone, too.

On the different note- has anyone tried to brush on or roll on water based paint?

BTW, the reason this is in off topic- this is for my vintage travel trailer- (there's a not update since december thread- its' come a long way).  Right now I'm painting the original galvenized roof, and later we will be painting the aluminum sides.  Perfection is not even wanted (as it will show off all of the tiny dents) and rolling on is a good choice for what we want to do.

No actual experience other than Naptha and Acetone, but mineral spirits just seem too oily to me. YRMV

No personal experience with water based, i used mineral spirits with oil based, though. I agree I think it would be too oily for water based..

I'd imagine the biggest problem with acetone is the flash time, so don't mix too much up as it'll evaporate out at you're using it..

If it worked with the primer, it'll probably work fine for the top coat?

I've rolled Tremclad (Rustoleum equivalent) on my daily, un-thinned, and un-sanded between coats. 

It's thick, it covers, it hides, but there is a noticeable amount of orange peel if that matters to you.  I've had strangers comment  from "Your painter doesn't know what he's doing" to "Wow, that's not actually that bad" when I tell them it's Tremclad and a roller.

https://www.gwellwood.com/project-cars/the-crusty-chevy/tremclad-and-a-roller/

I did something wrong when I painted a fiberglass kit car with Rustoleam and it took weeks to "cure" 

I think doing it thin with a roller every couple days is the way to make sure its a dry base coat  to put the next coat on....

I just used a big brush.......  do NOT do it that way !

Good Luck 

I have been super happy with the Sherman Williams latex paint I used on SanFord. It rolled on and covered very well. It has adhered to the primer extremely well. It has survived several meetings with the pressure washer over the years witout blasting loose. It is also maintaining its color. 

The semigloss finish did a pretty good job of hiding 60 years of dings. I didn't thin it at all. Most of it covered in 2 coats. 

This is in the middle of a bath after 4 years of sitting out under the trees in my backyard. The top is Kool Seal, the sides are Sherman Williams exterior paint from Lowes. The primer was Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer, also applied with a roller and brush. 

In reply to Toyman01 + Sized and :

Reading your post a second time- I saw that you used KoolSeal on the roof.  Like it?  I saw some concern about using any materials like that on metal, but I do want to use it on my metal roof.   Well, after I paint it.  Rustoleum sticks quite well to metal, so that's what's under the Ko0lseal.

Adding that puts yet another layer of "cooling" on the roof- instead of a 1/4 foam that was original- we put in real insulation in the roof, and then the Koolseal on top of that.  

One of these days, I should update my thread- so much has happened since my last post.

The Koolseal worked surprisingly well at reducing roof temperatures. I painted it on top of Rustoleum's rusty metal primer and it has adhered without any issues. 

In reply to Toyman01 + Sized and :

Cool- good to know!

I've used  Rustoleum Marine Top Side paint with good results.  I rolled in on the roof of my Ford van. The gray primer was starting to show through the original top coat so I decided to paint the roof white to keep the inside cooler. 

I wont get too deep into it, I've rollered a couple of banger rally cars for amusement but in general its near the same effort or LESS to spray a car.   However I have, when spraying a car, mistakenly grabbed mineral spirits to clean up.   I dont know about rustoleum but it is a definite no go with automotive acrylics.   Took me forever to clean up the gummy garbage that created.

In reply to JThw8 :

In terms of putting the paint on the vehicle, arguably, spraying is easier.

But to do that requires that I rebuild my air system- I need a new compressor, dryer, and some more filters.  Which is an expense and work that I could put into rolling the paint.  Which makes it easier.

Thanks for the note about mineral spirits- that's kind of what I suspected.

JThw8 said:

I wont get too deep into it, I've rollered a couple of banger rally cars for amusement but in general its near the same effort or LESS to spray a car.   However I have, when spraying a car, mistakenly grabbed mineral spirits to clean up.   I dont know about rustoleum but it is a definite no go with automotive acrylics.   Took me forever to clean up the gummy garbage that created.

I think it's probably more work to do the actual painting of the car with a roller, but I like the lack of overspray, so I don't need to prep my garage anywhere near as much. 

I did a roller paint job and documented it on my beater.  So far, it's holding up well (but it's only been about 6 months). But I used tractor paint which is oil, not water, based.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/minimum-viable-product-96-miata-bodywork-on-the-ch/178879/page1/

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

Did you try using acetone instead of mineral spirits?  Based on how the primer went down with about 50/50 acetone/paint- I liked that quite a bit, but have nothing to compare it to.

alfadriver said:

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

Did you try using acetone instead of mineral spirits?  Based on how the primer went down with about 50/50 acetone/paint- I liked that quite a bit, but have nothing to compare it to.

 

No, I just went directly to mineral spirits since I was using oil based paints, and after the primer I remembered I wasn't supposed to use thinner with it..  I'm not sure how chemically-close thinner and acetone are, though.

eastsideTim said:

JThw8 said:

I wont get too deep into it, I've rollered a couple of banger rally cars for amusement but in general its near the same effort or LESS to spray a car.   However I have, when spraying a car, mistakenly grabbed mineral spirits to clean up.   I dont know about rustoleum but it is a definite no go with automotive acrylics.   Took me forever to clean up the gummy garbage that created.

I think it's probably more work to do the actual painting of the car with a roller, but I like the lack of overspray, so I don't need to prep my garage anywhere near as much. 

The key to that is to spray outdoors :)  My last 2 painjobs were done out in the wild.  The jeep was in a HF tent structure but the trike was done open air.   Jeep paint shown here is right out of the gun, no buffing.  Since the trike had to get 12 coats of clear wetsanded every 3 coats I wasnt too worried about errant crud.