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Do It Yourself Paint job

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The trick to getting great results is to get a paint with excellent flow characteristics, quality brushes, and applied to a well prepared surface. In another life (1975), I had a wooden boat, that after brush painting, you could see your reflection in and no brush marks. I applied two coats, a heavy cover coat, sanded, then a second, slightly thinner finish coat. The paint was a relatively slow curing marine enamel, unfortunately it did not have good UV protection so I got to do this again every 2-3 years.
 
So here is a question, and this kind of came up on this thread already, but why not just use a Preval spray unit and automotive paint. Same amount, or less, of sanding I'd bet and perhaps a long lasting finish with less risk of conflcit with anything aleady down. Yes/no?



handspray.gif
 
that is an interesting thought. i just got my rolling supplies tonight (rustoleum pro primer for metal, a few grades of wet sanding paper, some penetrol and mineral spirits to thin the paint when I get to that step). Hopefully I'll get time Sunday to put the first and maybe second primer coat on and sand it smooth Monday to fill in small imperfections in the surface. I'll post pics when and if I get there tomorrow.
 
tdskip said:
So here is a question, and this kind of came up on this thread already, but why not just use a Preval spray unit and automotive paint. Same amount, or less, of sanding I'd bet and perhaps a long lasting finish with less risk of conflcit with anything aleady down. Yes/no?



handspray.gif
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It holds a tiny amount, has a lousy spray pattern, and charging it is a pain. You can easily contaminate your paint if you recharge with a typical compressor.

Contrary to some of the strange comments in this thread, paint doesn't magically confict with the substrate because of being applied with a roller, or even a brush. That's a problem with prep, not the brush roller or spray gun.
 
foxtrapper said:
Contrary to some of the strange comments in this thread, paint doesn't magically conflict with the substrate because of being applied with a roller, or even a brush. That's a problem with prep, not the brush roller or spray gun.
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Agreed - but it seemed like getting automotive paint for a roll on application wasn't easy do to. Did I try to solve a problem that doesn't exist? (wouldn't be the first time...)
 
tdskip....my thought on rolling is that it lays down more paint per coat than a spray either can or gun. the way i figure it this gives me a thicker surface to sand down and smooth without sanding through. i agree this is probably more sanding than a properly sprayed coat would require. i guess i'll know soon enough. if i get something i can live with for 5 years I'll be happy....who knows, by then the economy may be better and I may have all the cash in the world to throw at this... (fingers and toes crossed}.
 
When you roll the layers on you will have air bubbles. Cover a body panel ata time then go back over the area with just the weight of the roller to settle all the air bubbles. It will take some time but you will see how the paint flows.
 
brent615 said:
tdskip....my thought on rolling is that it lays down more paint per coat than a spray either can or gun. the way i figure it this gives me a thicker surface to sand down and smooth without sanding through. i agree this is probably more sanding than a properly sprayed coat would require. i guess i'll know soon enough. if i get something i can live with for 5 years I'll be happy....who knows, by then the economy may be better and I may have all the cash in the world to throw at this... (fingers and toes crossed}.
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You need to apply it in thin coats or it will take forever to dry.


KSIS said:
When you roll the layers on you will have air bubbles. Cover a body panel ata time then go back over the area with just the weight of the roller to settle all the air bubbles. It will take some time but you will see how the paint flows.
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If you get the mix right, then most of the bubbles disappear on their own. I tried both a second dry roller and also tipping with a foam brush to remove the rest. From what I understand, the Penetrol will help it flow even better; I didn't know about it when I did mine.
 
KSIS and TRDejaVu....did you guys paint the car while it was assembled or take panels off? I plan to pull the hood and trunk lids because they are easy to get on and off, plus the rear quarter panels and center deck so I can repair minor rust issues and install a NOS center deck. Of course the bumpers, mirrors, trim, lights, grill, etc are coming off also.
 
I left the panels on the car. I use a foam brush for tight areas then the roller for evening it out. If you can, find an old panel to test before you commit.
 
brent615 said:
KSIS and TRDejaVu....did you guys paint the car while it was assembled or take panels off? I plan to pull the hood and trunk lids because they are easy to get on and off, plus the rear quarter panels and center deck so I can repair minor rust issues and install a NOS center deck. Of course the bumpers, mirrors, trim, lights, grill, etc are coming off also.
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My car was a barn find and as I wanted to see what happening in the hidden areas, but not to the point of a frame-off, I took fenders, hood, trunk lid and doors off. As I was rust hunting, I went down to bare metal. I painted most of it in the basement and worked on the tub in the garage when spring came around.
 
I used the preval sprayer on a well prepared fender spraying Brightside Marine Urethane paint. The paint flows well and dries hard as a rock. The preval units are not rechargeable, to my knowledge, and cost about five bucks each at the hardware store. The only problem with them from my experience is the spray tip is junk so without the flow characteristics of the paint the project would look like heck. I've experimented replacing the preval spray tip with a tip from a can of duplicolor which are sweet. No luck thus far.
 
I got the second coat of primer on just a few minutes ago. Heck the primer on the TEST fender looks better than any part of the car doesurrently so what do I have to lose other than about $80 in materials and some time.

If the sun peaks out i plan to roll the car outside and take a couple of dozen "before" pics (you'll see what I mean by nothing to lose") then tomorrow I'll put the first coat of paint on.

Right now I am thinking 50% paint, 25% penetrol (brush stroak eliminator and paint conditioner) and %25 paint thinner, but I am open to opinions from you guys who have done this before.
 
I completed my test this week on a partial rear fender and a old spare tire lid. The result I got was very very good.
Here is what I did;

Preparation
1. Sanded panels with 320 grit wet 'n dry paper.
2. Washed panels with water and dryed with lint free cloth.
3. Tacked panels with one of those "sticky" cloths from Home Depot.
4. Primed panels with Rust Oleum auto primer (rattle can).
5. Cleaned panels with mineral spirts.
6. Tacked panels again.
7. Mixed paint as follows; 32 oz. paint, 16 oz. odorless mineral spirts, 5 oz. Penetrol. (thinned paint 50% and added 10% Penetrol of the total volumn)

Paint
1. Rolled on 1st coat. Used very light pressure on roller and rolled slow. Air bubbles began to disappear in just a couple of minutes as the paint began to level. Went back over panel (no additional paint on roller) with just the weight of the roller to remove any runs. Let dry for 24 hours.
2. Rolled on 2nd coat. Using same technique. Let dry for 24 hours.
3. Wet sanded with 600 grit wet 'n dry paper lightly, just until the finish was dull.
4. Rinsed with water and dryed with lint free cloth and tacked with "sticky" cloth.
5. Rolled on 3rd coat. Using same technique. Let dry for 24 hours.
6. Rolled on 4th coat. Using same technique. Let dry for 24 hours.
7. Wet sanded with 1000 grit wet 'n dry paper lightly, just until finish was dull. Very little sanding was required up to now as the paint was leveling out without any drips or runs and all the bubbles were going away.
8. Rinsed with water and dryed with lint free cloth and tacked with "sticky" cloth.
9. Rolled on 5th coat. Using same technique. Very good coverage at this point, Let dry for 24 hours.
10. The finish is very glossy and smooth. Wet sanded with 1500 grit wet 'n dry paper lightly, just until finish was dull.
11. Rolled on 6th coat. Using same technique.
12. Let dry for 7 days. (Until next Thursday). At this point the finsh should be cured and hard and I will go over it with "Turtle Wax Polishing Compound" for a final smooth out. It doesn't look like I will need to use a power buffer as the finish is very even and smooth already. My last step will be to apply some good paste wax. There are no roller marks, the finish looks sprayed on, a 1 footer, or less.

During this process the weather here was pretty crappy 40's during the day and below freezing at night. The paint began to dry after 4 or 5 hours and was dry enough to wet sand after 20 - 24 hours.
 
Thanks Larry....very nice summary. Its just 30 degrees today here in Nashville and in my garage so I may wait for the first top coat a day or two.

I'll try your ratios first and see what happens. I have similar sandpaper grits as you used plus some that is even more fine if I need it. When you wet sanded did you put anything in the water? I have heard of people adding a drop or two of Dawn to make the paper glide better. I'm not sure I want to inrtroduce anything into the "mix" like that for fear I may not get a spot rinsed off and have problems.

Do you have any pics?
 
Brent 615

Yes I added a little bit of Dawn dish soap to the water for sanding, it seemed to keep the paper from dragging too much. I used an old Windex pump bottle to apply the water. Kept it pretty wet. Not much sanding was required, however.

I stored the foam roller and plastic tray in zip loc bags in between coats. Changed the roller cover right before the 6th coat.

I will get a couple of photos next week, if I can figure out how to get them posted on here.
 
triumphant2 said:
I will get a couple of photos next week, if I can figure out how to get them posted on here.
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Larry - posting pictures is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The pictures need to be already uploaded to Photobucket or a similar photo sharing site.

Once you have uploaded the picture you will be provided a link that looks something like this - https://photo_sharing_site.com/etc/etc/etc....

Simply copy that link and then type


So it will look something like this when you type it in here

["img]https://photo_sharing_site.com/etc/etc/etc....[/img"] (but lose the " marks)
 
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