Looking for a cheap way to put some color on your ride???

[gerbsinmd]

Heh, heh, with school out we took off on vacation for 2 weeks, so no immediate progress, but I will be back for the 4th of July, so that should be a good day for some painting. I havn't been a complete slug tho, I have been working on the front bumper and upper nose piece for it. I've been fixing tears and cracks in those pieces and getting them ready to paint. After those are done, it on to the rear rubber pieces and flares, while finishing up the paint on the body. Hang in there guys, this is a long term project, but we'll get there. So far I would have to say that it is entirely worth it, if for no other reason, than to get a car 1 color and covered up so that the primer and bare metal doesn't absorb moisture.

[78spyder]

I have a friend who is considering doing something like this. Anyone know how durable this is? It seems like it wiould be interesting to try, but hardly worth it if it turns chalky, faded or chipped in a year or two. Anyone get any feedback to this? The new Hot Rod article makes no mention.

[AusRs]

i imagine that once dry and hard it would be like any other enamel based paint ......good for about 5 or 6 years with no maintenence BUT probably good for 10 or so years with a regular polish ,i would not stress to much on the durability of it ,hardest thing will be IF you are unfortunate to get accident damage ......the bodyshop will hate you LOL

[gerbsinmd]

The guy that started this thread had a car painted with this Rustoleum paint and said that it is very durable, he had his car painted with it for 4 - 5 years and said it looked great the whole time. Big thing is to keep it washed and waxed. It is really very similar to the old Enamel paint used on cars years ago. I think it comes down to how well you take car of it.

[gerbsinmd]

A third thread has been started on the Mopar forum. Here is the link. http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/sho ... art=1&vc=1

I started making progress forward. I'm working out dents that became visible in the glossiness of the paint. They looked horrible in the sunlight but were surprisingly shallow.

[JohnP]

Rustoleum Royal Blue. Roughed up the current paint with Scotch Brite fine pad, and rolled on 3 coats of paint. In really tight areas like drip rails on roof I'm spraying them with spray can.

So far its a learning curve, think my first two coats I put it on to much paint, loading the roller to much. Roof is not bad but on sides there are lots of runs and bubbles. 3rd coat was best, got paint thin enough and did not load roller too much and put it on as a thin coat. I see that this is the key. Really thin coats, that you build up after repeated coats, some areas look really good. But my first coats bubbles and runs will have to be sanded out. Doing that dry, before I put on any further coats. Will probaly loose most of my coverage, but I do not think I'd be able to get them out wet sanding later after additional coats.

If anyone is going to try this I discovered a tip for the bubbles. As you make a pass with the roller, producing bubbles, just lightly blow on them, it makes them pop and level out. Paint is just off roller and wet.
I also keep a second roller at hand, just a bit damp with mineral spirits, to help smooth out any runs with out adding more paint.

I'll post a pic after I make a bit more progress.

[gerbsinmd]

John,

Sounds like you are getting the swing of it!! Yes, it is best to fix the runs and drips asap. Covering with other coats just make it worse.

To be honest with you some of my body works was bad enough that I lost most of my first 2 coats to get sanding marks and other blemishes out. Keep at it and it will come around! On my fenders, which is what I started with I think I almost sanded the first 4 layers completely off, but I was jumping the gun and putting paint down before I was really ready, I just wanted to try it on something.

[JohnP]

After 5-6 coats, its looking pretty good. It be even better if I had the thickness right the first two coats, I did not get all the dried bubbles and runs out when I dry sanded, other wise I'd say it was looking excellent. Amazing how the paint levels and drys smooth. 50/50 mix is working great. Not loading up roller, and putting on thin coats is working well. Pics are a bit dark, but you get the idea of how its looking.

[gerbsinmd]

Way to go JOHN!!!! That is looking good!

[greg72]

Way to go JOHN!!!! That is looking good!

I agree! Nice job!

[JohnP]

Thanks guys!
Since the pictures, I have wet sanded with 600 grit. Then applied 2 more coats. I'm thinking I might put 1 more on. Then I will wet sand this weekend with 1200 or 2000. If it looks good, I'll let sit a week then buff it out.

[gerbsinmd]

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

[JohnP]

I wet sanded and buffed the paint out this weekend.

The wet sanding did not go too well, kept getting a high spot on the paper, Not matter how I folded it. I pushed down harder on my foam sanding block, but felt it was taking too much paint off. So I had some low and high spots, not an even smooth surface.

Decided to buff it the next day, took a lot of effort with my small 6 inch Ryobi orbital polisher, using rubbing compound then polishing compound, then just a polish. A nice smooth shine would come up, but you could see the difference from what was sanded and what was not, Took a lot of pressure to go back and get it buffed out evenly. This little buffer was only 20 bucks, but spins at 4000rpm so I figured it would work, guess a variable speed buffer with a higher rpm would have been better, but I wanted to see if the inexpensive machine would work.

It is amazing how nice the Rustoleum shines up, a very deep gloss.
But, I'm not totally happy with the results. Not this methods fault, mine, as usual I rushed it. From not getting the bubbles out fully on my first two coats and, not sanding to an even surface when I wet sanded, you can see on a couple areas, especially top of fenders it is not smooth and a texture is noticable. You really could not see them on my last few coats, the buffing seemed to make them stand out more. When the bubbles popped, the paint was too thick and did not spread, so I have some dots in the paint.

Don't get me wrong, even with some flaws, it looks pretty good. Maybe a 5 ft paint job? Shine is very nice. Areas I did get smooth buff to a really deep surface.

I'll probably go back and resand, repaint then buff again to fix areas I'm not happy with.

Will try to get a picture and post in a day or two.

[AusRs]

let the paint harden up for a few weeks ,then re wetsand it using lots of soapy water

[JohnP]

Got out of work a bit early yesterday so finished off the back area of the Vega, pics are a bit dark, it got cloudy later in the day. Minor orange peel in roof, and other areas, hard to capture in picture, but think overall it looks ok.

I will let paint harden. If I can get to re-wetsanding I will , but may just leave as is for now, beauty of this method is I can go back any time to re-wet sand, and re-buff, or re-coat with paint if needed. There is no fear of messing up an expensive paint job.